free will? absolutely.

Question: Does a person have the ability in and of themself to choose what they want? Answer: Yes.

"...we always choose according to our greatest desire--we always choose the option that we most prefer. This makes every choice determined (it is determined that I will choose the option that I find most preferable), yet free (since we are not being forced to choose, but are choosing what we want to) Our choices are free and truly our choices because we think through the situation for ourselves and come to the conclusion about which choice is best through our own thought processes."
- Matt Perman

The question shouldn't be, "Does a person have the ability in and of themself to choose what they want?", but "What do they WANT?" Before we are given the new birth, we don't desire God. We may desire the benefits of knowing God, i.e. peace, contentment, joy, etc..., but not God Himself (Rom 3:11). Post re-birth, we have our will changed by God, so that afterwards, we want Him freely. He becomes irresistable.

"Man is nothing: he hath a free will to go to hell, but none to go to heaven, till God worketh in him to will and to do his good pleasure"
- George Whitefield

"Free will carried many a soul to hell, but never a soul to heaven"
- C.H. Spurgeon