The word of God has been completed in its written form in the Bible, but what about our personal experience? Has the word of God been completed in our life? Do we have the central vision of the completing ministry of Paul governing us and restricting us?
In Paul’s writings in the New Testament we see again and again how we cooperate with the Triune God as He operates in us, working in us both the willing and the working according to His good pleasure (Phil. 2:13).
The Triune God is strengthening us through the Spirit into our spirit so that Christ may make His home in our heart through faith (Eph. 3:16-19).
The God of peace perfects us in every good work for the doing of His will, doing in us what is well pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ (Heb. 13:20-21).
In this article we will enjoy these three portions of the word in which we see how Christ is the mystery of God and He lives in us, working in us all the time to accomplish God’s will for His good pleasure.
In our Christian life we need to pray over the Word of God so that it may become our breath of life, our inward strength, our constant supply, and even our reality! Christ as the word can be written on us, deposited into us, inscribed in us, and part of us so that He may be lived out of us!
“That You may be Filled unto All the Fullness of God”
At the conclusion of his amazing prayer in Eph. 3:16-19 Paul says, “That you may be filled unto all the fullness of God.” We need to make this prayer our prayer,
Father, strengthen me with power through Your Spirit into my inner man. Christ, make Your home in my heart that I may be full of strength to apprehend with all the saints what the universal dimensions of Christ are. Fill us unto all the fullness of God!
We need to be strengthened with power – with “dynamo” power – into our inner man. We need to be “blasted out of ourselves” into our spirit with Christ’s resurrection power. As we are strengthened into our spirit and we allow Christ to make His home in our heart, God’s riches are being imparted into our being to make us the fullness of God.
When the riches are in God, they are “God’s riches”; when the riches of God are expressed (especially through the church), they become “God’s fullness”. We need to be so filled with God that we become His fullness, His expression!
Forget about trying to do better, being more humble, conjuring up more love for others, or any other good work – focus on being filled with God to become His fullness!
“It is God who Operates in You Both the Willing and the Working for His Good Pleasure”
In Phil. 2:13 Paul says, “For it is God who operates in you both the willing and the working for His good pleasure.” In the previous verse Paul encouraged us to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling – because it is God who operates in us both the willing and the working!
In the next verse we read, Do all things without murmurings and reasonings (Phil. 2:14). It is easy to murmur and reason in the family life, the church life, the work life, etc. But we should do all things without murmurings and reasonings BECAUSE it is God who operates in us both the willing and the working for His good pleasure.
God is right now moving, acting, working, and operating in our being. He as a living Person is in us, speaking to us all the time, and He “bothers us” a lot. When we want to argue or when we gossip, He moves in us and bothers us, causing us to have an uneasy feeling. Even though we may not stop from what we are doing or saying, God continues to operate in us.
Our God is practical, real, relevant, and inwardly operating all the time. We simply need to learn to open to Him, listen to Him, and be one with Him, and He will operate in us first the willing (to make us willing to do His will) and the working (He does the working) according to His pleasure.
Lord Jesus, we just open to You! Keep operating in us. We love Your inward speaking, bothering, and moving. Be so real to us, and be so practical to us in our daily living. We simply open, Lord, that You may operate in us both the willing and the working. Make us willing. Do the working in us. Accomplish Your good pleasure!
“The God of Peace…Perfect You in Every Good Work…Doing in us that which is well Pleasing in His Sight”
I have never appreciated this portion in Heb. 13:20-21 so much as I do now,
Now the God of peace, He who brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep, in the blood of an eternal covenant, perfect you in every good work for the doing of His will, doing in us that which is well pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ; to Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
Here Paul is speaking about the Lord being in resurrection as the great Shepherd of the sheep, and He is perfecting us in every good work for the doing of His will. Then he says, “doing in us that which is well pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ” – so it’s not that God is outside of us perfecting us and correcting us, but God in Christ is within us doing God’s will. Wow!
Through the new covenant God made with us, the believers, He writes His nature into our being as the law of life (Heb. 8:10). Based on the precious blood of Christ, the blood of the eternal covenant, God is inscribing and writing His laws into our heart, imparting Himself into us as the law of life.
He gives us a new spirit, which we keep new and fresh by exercising our spirit to contact the Lord. He gives us a new heart to love the Lord, which we keep in a fresh love by telling the Lord we love Him all the time. And, as we see in Ezek. 36:26-29, He causes us to walk in His statutes. How wonderful!
It’s not us trying and striving to walk in God’s statutes but it is God who dispenses Himself into us, writes His laws in us, renews our heart and spirit, and then lives in us to fulfill God’s word. Christ is revealed in us (Gal. 1:15-16), we live Christ (Gal. 2:20), and Christ is being formed in us (Gal. 4:19).
Hallelujah, we are being perfected to do God’s will by God doing in us that which is well-pleasing in His sight!
Lord, we praise You for such a wonderful salvation. We want to cooperate with You by working out our own salvation with fear and trembling, because it is You who operate in us! Keep writing Your laws onto our hearts, and renew our spirit within us. May our heart be full of love toward You. Dispense Yourself into us, Lord, and cause us to live Christ and magnify Christ. May Christ be revealed in us, live in us, and be formed in us! Glory to God!
References and Further Reading
- Inspiration: brother Ed Marks’ sharing in this message and portions in, The Completing Ministry of Paul (ch. 12), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, “The Completing Ministry of Paul“, week 2 entitled, The Central Vision.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Oh, this life I treasure so— / Life divine so wonderful! / In me this life’s working—so / Divine, rich and bountiful! / Salvation great and excellent, / And it’s all mine to experience; / Truly, this life is all to me— / All my life is He.
# But to Him who is able / Able to do superabundantly / Above all that we ask or think, / According to the power / Which operates in us, / To Him be the glory in the church / And in Christ Jesus / Unto all the generations.
# I bow my knees unto the Father / That He would grant you / To be strengthened with pow’r through His Spirit / Into the inner man. - Pictures credit: Heb. 13 online here, and Phil. 2 here.
Amen! Christ as a living person lives in us and He keeps speaking to us… He wants to supply us with life continually, but many times we need His bothering and reminding, Turn! Stop! Don't say that! Call on the name of the Lord!
…. and even though many times we don't listen to His bothering, we come afterward and repent to Him… and He continues to speak to us, anoint us, and work in us BOTH the willing and the working!
wow he bother us he bothers us up to the limit that even we don’t stop arguing or gossiping still he operates us amen thanks for ur bothering I loved it.