“For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.” Philippians 2:13
In Paul’s letter to the believers in Ephesus, he makes it clear that his objective in writing is to bring them to a knowledge of God and His ways, so that Christ may not only dwell in the heart by faith, but that the eternal purposes of God will be realized in every member of the body of Christ. Ultimately by doing so, God’s glory would be revealed, and remembered and declared, throughout eternity. This he confirms when he uses the short phrase, “…world without end.” (3:21) That which is key to everything in the believer’s life, with regard to knowing Christ, following Him, and glorifying Him, is the power and strength which He imparts by the Spirit. This Paul also he make clear when he writes: “Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the POWER that worketh in us.” (3:20) This power is that which is communicated by the Spirit of God, the same Spirit of Pentecost, when the church was born, and all spiritual blessing in Christ became his inheritance, having been “completed” in Christ at the moment of the new birth. The seal of the Spirit, the very “earnest” of the Spirit, is the testifying proof that the believer has been placed into Christ, there to live in union with Him, by Him, and for Him. However, though the believer is accepted in the Beloved, having peace with God, and having been crucified with Him, buried, and raised up with Him, now seated in heavenly places in Him, it does not become one’s possession, and life, in the present moment until it is received, believed, and laid hold of for God to manifest it in the life. This is why God IS constantly at work in the believer to bring him to “will” and to “do” of God’s pleasure. Ultimately, and very practically so, every work in the heart is brought about by the power of God working in the life. All is “according to the power that worketh in us.” But how is the knowledge of the power of God, and the receiving of it, to be a consistent experience in the life?
When the woman with the issue of blood in Jesus’ day reached out her hand to touch the hem of His garment, we find a woman who was not only at the end of her own resources to find healing, but was so moved that she would stoop as low as she could, not to be seen of men, but simply to touch the very lowest part of Jesus’s apparel. She had the faith to receive the power of God, for she knew she did not possess any of her own. Her only solution was the mercy of God in answer to prayer and faith.
When Bartimaeus, the blind beggar, in the midst of a crowd of people who were not giving him the attention to his cries, there was one who heard his words: “Jesus, Thou son of David, have mercy on me.” (Mr. 10:47,48) Here is a very simple man, whose world is small, and dark, but who had heard of Christ. The more he learned of Him, the more he became persuaded that He was the Christ. So convinced was he that, regardless of the crowd who would silence him, he would cry out louder, until Jesus heard the cry of his heart, beyond that of his lips. Like countless examples of those who came to Christ, forsaking all to do so, humbling themselves in the sight of God and man, this man Bartimaeus was a candidate to receive the power of God to be healed. His whole hope and expectation was in this Christ, this Messiah, whom he was believing. The power is given to the powerless, for Christ pours His power into strengthless souls.” The believer who would know this power must be one who seeks Christ to receive it fully.
Dear Father, Fill us with humility. In Jesus’; name, Amen.