Lesson 23: Practical by New Life God Works Through Us
"It is God who works in you both to Will and to do." (Philippians 2:13)
 
Think first of the inner, "to Will." This is active determination for what is to be done. Not determination from us alone, but God in us creating our desires — sometimes giving us desire in a certain direction, affecting and molding our Wills, drawing them into the avenues of true action, by His own indwelling. "It is God who works in you to Will." If this is true, then the Will, so created, must necessarily result in the harmony of our Wills with His own.

“It is God who works in you to Will and to do." To WILL touches the springs of action, so the thought of God doing touches the springs of action. It might truthfully be translated "to effectively work." This is not a doing that fails, but a doing that succeeds: not the effort that tries, but the effort which triumphs.

This union of the purified Will, and the energized life, is equal to the accomplishment of the double purpose: "Work out your own salvation," and " be blameless and harmless…". The poor, weak, sin-battered soul rises into the dignity of a new life, confronts the future with hope, and says, "I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. I will make salvation work in my life as I live the life which is blameless, harmless, because it is God which works in me to Will and to do."


What will be the result? All that gives His heart satisfaction. If we shrink from this, we shrink from all the blessedness within the thought. "His good pleasure," the thing that pleases Him. Go back to the story of creation. When God had made the earth, and put man upon it, "God saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good" — God's good pleasure. God was pleased with His own work; He found delight in its perfection. (Genesis 1:31)

To make us what Jesus was, God works within us; and until that is finally accomplished, the heart of God will never be at rest concerning us: not until that moment dawns, which must come for all who put their trust in Him, when the perfect Son of the living God shall present the many sons whom He brings to glory, in the presence of His glory, without blemish in exceeding joy. That is the intended issue; that is the completion; that is the crowning and the joy.

This view of life contained within living Christianity is a declaration of our possibilities. We are equal to this, because God is equal to it. We have nothing which we have not received; but we have received something in our creation which makes us equal to that. Before any being can reach true success, there must be within that being the possibility of reaching it. We are made in the image of the invisible God, with the stamp of Godly possession upon us. Shall we not swing the heart's door widely open that He may come in, to work in us "both to Will and to work, for His good pleasure"?

Question: What are the results of God indwelling us?
Let’s pray: Lord, we need You to work in us. We want to do Your Will, we want Your good pleasure. Thank you. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.