It is God who Operates in us both the Willing and the Working: He Moves by Operating in us

The book of Philippians shows us that God is operating in us; Phil. 2:12-13 speaks of us working out our own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who operates in us both the willing and the working. Hallelujah!

This week in our deeper study on the topic of Living in and with the Divine Trinity, we come to week 5 on the topic of, Living with the Divine Trinity (2) God operating in us. Hallelujah, God is operating in us.

We saw that to live with the Divine Trinity is to have God abide in us so that we can have His presence, His very person, with us for us to enjoy Him.

When we abide in Him, He abides in us; we no longer live by ourselves – we have another person living in us.

We are not a bachelor anymore – we are engaged with the Lord, He is with us, and we are involved with Him, we are even married to Him!

This is a precious matter and very experiential for our Christian life.

Whatever we do, wherever we go, whatever we are engaged in, the Divine Trinity is right there with us; He lives in us and we live in Him, together we share a common living.

In John 14:19 the Lord told us that, even as He lives, we also live; we live because He lives, and our living today is based on His living.

This is very different from the concept of many Christians trying to behave themselves, improve themselves, and be more spiritual persons in themselves; we live because He lives, and because He lives, we live.

And His living in us is not something passive or static, something that we don’t participate in; rather, He is very active, and we need to cooperate with Him.

He operates in us and we cooperate with Him. He is not like a chair or a piece of furniture that abides in a house but doesn’t do anything; He lives in us and operates in us, moves in us.

The Lord lives in us and operates in us day by day, and we live in Him and cooperate with His inner operation.

Hallelujah, on our side we work out our own salvation, and on His side, He operates in us both the willing and the working.

This is an active-passive matter, for it’s not us who do everything neither is He who does everything; rather, we cooperate by initiating and working out our salvation, and He is the One who operates in us the willing and working.

May the Lord open our eyes and adjust our experience and enjoyment of Him based on the holy Word of God so that we may realize and enjoy His moving, His operating, and His active working in us.

May we open to His inner operation in all things, allowing Him to operate in us day by day.

It is God who Operates in us both the Willing and the Working – God Moves by Operating in us!

Phil. 2:13 says, that it is God who operates in us; Paul spoke this word in reference to the matter of his environment.

He was imprisoned, he was suffering there, and he desired that all his situation would turn out to salvation through the believers’ prayer for him and the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

He realized that God operates in him, even as he worked out his own salvation with fear and trembling.

On our side, we need to work out our own salvation; on His side, it is God who operates in us both the willing and the working.

This salvation refers NOT to our eternal salvation, the salvation from God’s judgment and from perdition; this refers to the daily salvation, the constant salvation.

Eternally, we have been saved from perdition and from God’s judgment by faith in Jesus Christ; daily, however, we still need to be salved, even saved much more in His life (Rom. 5:10, 17).

Salvation requires our cooperation, our working. We need to work out our own salvation, and the way we do it is by God operating in us.

It’s not up to us to work out our own salvation, so to speak; yes, He needs us to work it out, but this working out of our own salvation depends on His operation. It is God who operates in us.

This is the gospel, the good news; instead of leaving it up to us to strive, struggle, and work out our own salvation, to please God, God comes in and operates in us both the willing and the working for His good pleasure.

Why does God need to operate? If He is God, He can just call things into being; if He is God, He can speak, and things exist and are put in motion.

When He said, Let there be light, there was light; everything is under His control.

So why does He need to operate in us? Well, God is great and almighty, so He will not overrule our free will; He works and operates in us, but He needs our cooperation.

To operate is to work effectively or act effectively in order to bring out a certain result, a certain effect.

On one hand, He saved us from the eternal perdition and from our sins; on the other hand, we are still daily being saved from ourselves, from our flesh, and from anything that is not of God.

We need to be saved to the point that we can live Christ and we can truly say, For me to live is Christ.

We need to be saved to the point that Christ is magnified through us. God operates in us for this, for us to be saved to the uttermost.

Whatever Christ is to us, is for the operating of God; our God is living, moving, and operating in you and me continuously.

It is like the flow and circulation of blood in our body; it goes on all the time, and it operates in our body to keep our body alive.

It is like the circulation or flow of electricity in a building: it operates all the time, even silently and without much effect outwardly speaking, but it provides electricity to the lights and electrical items that need it.

If the flow of blood within us stops, our life will stop; if the flow of electricity stops in a building, there is no light there.

We need to think of God’s move in this way, realizing that God is not moving primarily in an outward, extraordinary, shouting and jumping kind of a way.

He doesn’t move in a big display or big show way; He moves quietly by operating within us.

We may enter into a building and everything may be quiet, for we can’t hear the flow of electricity; however, electricity flows, and as soon as we turn on the switch, the light comes on.

There is a vigorous operating going on in us, for the Triune God has been installed as the heavenly electricity in us; we may not hear Him, feel Him, or see any mighty works, but He is operating in us.

God has a move on earth, and He moves by His operating (1 Cor. 12:6, 11; 2 Cor. 1:6; 4:12; Eph. 1:19; 3:7, 20; 4:16; Phil. 3:21; Col. 1:29; 2:12; 1 Thes. 2:13).

Micah 5:2 tells us that His goings forth are from the days of eternity, from ancient times; He flows from eternity, He is moving from eternity, and He moves into time, in the person of His Son.

He moved through the incarnation of Christ, through His death and resurrection, and now He moves in us. God moves by operating in us.

His move is not so much about space; His move is for Him to enter into man, move in man, and flow in and through man.

God has moved, is moving, and will move; He moves as the Spirit in us, and God moves by His operating in us.

He has moved in you and me; He has not yet arrived at the destination, so He is still moving, still speaking, still operating.

He wants to move one more inch into our heart, into our being, until the day when He reaches the destination – when we become exactly like Him to be the New Jerusalem.

His moving and operating in us is related to the Spirit, Christ’s death, God’s power, and the members of His body. He operates in us and we also operate in our measure.

May we open to His operating in us, and may we cooperate with His move!

Hallelujah, our God is living, moving, and operating in us! Thank You, Lord, for coming into us to be the inner operating Triune God. We open to Your move in us today; operate in us both the willing and the working according to Your good pleasure. Lord, we want to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who operates in us both the willing and working according to His good pleasure! We just open to You, again and again, dear Lord; operate in us so that You may move more into our being, make Your home deeper in our heart, and expand in our inner being. Amen, Lord Jesus, we want to cooperate with Your inner operating in our being!

Whether we See it or Feel it, God is Operating in us – God’s Operating in us is a Miraculous Normality

D.L. Moody once said that the greatest miracle in the universe is regeneration; it is true, for through regeneration we are born to be sons of God.

It is amazing that we human beings can have the divine life and nature of God!

In addition to our human life we have another life – the divine life.

However, though we have the divine life in us, though God as the Spirit lives in us, we may not feel it – we may not have much manifestation of this life within us.

Yes, there are things happening here and there, and we do feel the Lord’s speaking and moving in us, but it is not supernatural or miraculous – it is so normal, so quiet, and so hidden.

Sometimes we Christians may seem to be just like the unbelievers; even more, some unbelievers are even better outwardly than us. We may still lose our temper, but they are so calm and self-restrained. Oh, Lord.

We may wonder at times what’s the difference between us and the unbelievers.

We need to realize that we as believers in Christ are sons of God – we have been regenerated with the life of God, and we’re in the process of being transformed, while the people in the world are not regenerated, and there is no hope for them unless they repent and receive the Lord.

We need to realize that, whether we see it or feel it, God is operating in us – He is moving, living, and operating in our inner being.

God’s operating in us is a miraculous normality – it is miraculous, yet it is so normal.

Sometimes we may look at ourselves and we may think we’re no different from those around us, but we are: we have God’s life and nature in us, and God is operating in us.

We may feel that our workmates or classmates are better than us, for they may be so kind and diligent, while we may be not so smart and we lose our temper.

However, our being worse than others or better than them is something outward; what matters is what the Lord is doing in our being.

Jacob was a terrible person outwardly, but he was chosen by God and God was operating in him, with the result that he was on the line of life to become a person that blessed others.

We may not be that good outwardly now, and our situation and condition may not be that promising, but God is operating in us.

Without God’s operation, how can we live Christ?

How can we take Christ as our pattern, our goal, our power, and our secret without God operating in us?

Christ is the excellent One; He is our pattern, the One who was crucified for us, who became a slave for us.

He is the exalted One, the One who was given a name higher than any name in heaven and on earth.

Now He is in us to operate in us both the willing and the working for His good pleasure.

Many Christians know God as a living God; He is real to them because they pray for a job and He gives them a job. Because He answers their prayer, they think He is so real.

But mot many realize that God is operating in us, in the depts of our being. He is not only operating in the heaven: He is operating in you and in me.

We need to know God not only as the living One but also as the One who operates in us; His operation in us is a miraculous normality.

God operates not only in the heavens and in the environment around us; He also operates in the innermost parts of our being.

If we have spiritual discernment we will see that all the things in the book of Philippians related to God’s operating in us are great. May we see God’s operation in us and open to it.

Lord Jesus, thank You for coming into us as the living, moving, and operating Triune God. Hallelujah, whether we feel this or not, whether we see this or not, the Triune God operates in our being! Thank You, Lord, for being only the living God who answers our prayers but also the indwelling God who operates in us! We open to this living flow, the flow of the Triune God in our being. Hallelujah, our God is living, moving, and operating in us! What miraculous normality to have God operating in us day by day! Amen, Lord, we look not to our condition or situation: we look to You, the One who continuously operates in us!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother James Lee, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1988, vol. 1, “Living in and with the Divine Trinity,” ch. 12, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Living In and With the Divine Trinity (2021 Thanksgiving Day Conference), week 5, entitled, Living with the Divine Trinity (2) God Operating in us.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – He’s pledged to save us to the full, / His life is operating; / He’s doing everything for us / ’Tis all for our perfecting; / Our life’s a failure at its best, / Only His life can stand the test: / His life brings full salvation! (Hymns #1130)
  – It is God, it is God, / It is God who operates in you, / It is God, it is God, / It is God who operates in you / Both the willing and the working for His good pleasure. (Scripture song)
  – Power divine wrought in us is the source so great; / Power divine is in us now to operate. / Hence will spring everything for our life within / And for godliness without, expressing Him. (Hymns #1121)