“For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.” Philippians 2:13
How does God work in us? How do we know that it is Him? In the verse just preceding the one which speaks of Him working in us to WILL and to DO of His good pleasure, Paul writes concerning obedience, and a “working out” of one’s salvation with fear and trembling. What is he speaking of? From the writings of James the Apostle, we discover very clearly that “faith without works is dead.” He says this because faith always has feet on the ground, there being an application of all knowledge of God. As truth is not mine until it becomes me, so faith without the expression of it in obedience, is just a concept, an idea. God gives faith to appropriate Jesus Christ for every need, for He is the answer to every need. But faith involves the will, and the accomplishing of the will of God. So, how does God work in us to bring us to faithful obedience, and the doing of the will of God?
God begins with the revelation of need to the heart, and the corresponding revelation that He is the only one that can meet that need. The need is revealed in the unveiling of the will of God, with regard to what we think, say, or do. The answer comes in the revelation of Christ when He is sought and found. It must always to be remembered that Christ is the goal of all endeavor, every pursuit. He is the objective, to know Him, not just intellectually, but to know the reality of His blessed life, His power working in and through us.
When the second temple was to be built after the period of the deportation mentioned in the book of Jeremiah, the Lord made it very clear that His will was that it was to time to build. This was imperative, as the reestablishment of worship was primary. Opposition, and the loss of the vision, resulted in the work on the temple ceasing. It would be by the preaching of Haggai and Zechariah, that the vision was restored, the will of God being brought to the forefront of the people’s consideration. God would “stir up” the people to commit themselves to again be engaged in the building of the temple. It would be by the moving of the Spirit that this would occur. God worked in them by the conviction that He gave them, and a certain fear of God to not neglect that which was before them.
In addition to the restoration of the vision of the will of God, there must be also the revival of the vision of the holiness of God also. If the individual believer is to rise up in obedient faith from anything less than the work God has given him, then he must see his responsibility to God. Paul wrote to the Philippian believers that they were to work out their salvation “with fear and trembling.” Is this matter of “trembling” considered as a part of our relationship with God? It should be if we are slack to possess the land that God has given us, to conquer, or embrace the service He has called us to accomplish. The privilege of the believer being in Christ is beyond words to express, the debt of love owed to Christ in calculable. What will we say to Him, when before Him one day we have no answer for lost opportunities, and aimless pursuits, wasting of time and resources, especially since by the revelation of our union with Him, He has sealed us for eternity?
God worked in Samson to will and to do of His good pleasure after he had sinned. God worked in Joseph after he had suffered so much by the separation from his family and people. God worked in Peter who, realizing his lack of love for Christ, denied him three times. God did not give up on any of these believers.
Dear Father, Stir us up today. In Jesus’ name, Amen.