It is God who works in you

It is God who works in you:

Beloved,

After the message last week on the works that faith produces, I feel the need to throw more light on how this works out. I want to avoid anyone falling into that miry clay of relying on our own strength to produce the righteousness that God desires. So I am reposting this week an article I wrote last year that I feel excellently brings the balance we need.~Chim

Ezekiel 2: 1-2 ~ ‘He said to me, “Son of man, stand up on your feet and I will speak to you.” As he spoke, the Spirit came into me and raised me to my feet, and I heard him speaking to me.’

Our walk with God is not supposed to be sustained by our own strength but by his workings in us.

In the verses above God asks the prophet Ezekiel to stand up so he can speak to him. God was demanding something of the prophet. But notice what follows. ‘As he (God) spoke, the Spirit (God’s) came into me (the prophet) and raised me to my feet’. It was the very thing that God had asked him to do that God was giving him his Spirit to do in him.

What we see here is a principle that runs through all of Scripture: Whatever God demands of us, he also sends grace to see it done in us. This is what the apostle meant us to understand in Philippians 2:13 when he said; “For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose”.

God’s ‘good purpose’ is his will for our life and the reason for all the demands he makes on us. But you ask; ‘How shall I be able to get the ‘want-to’ and the ‘ability to do’ required to meet these demands’? The Bible replies: ‘It is God who works in you’.

When we understand this we will no longer find any of his demands too hard or grievous instead we will believe that he has given us the grace to obey and begin to respond to him accordingly. We will no longer look at a requirement of God and think ‘Ah, you don’t know me. That’s not a thing I could ever do! It is not like my personality’. No it is not a matter of what you can or cannot do. It is not a matter of your temperament or past experience. It is God who works in you.

I want you to notice here also in Ezekiel’s example, the means by which God puts into us the power to do what he demands. The Bible says ‘As he spoke, the Spirit came into me’ – it was as God’s word came to Ezekiel that the Spirit of God also entered him to accomplish what was demanded.

Whenever God wants to work in us, he sends us his word. With every light we receive of God’s word comes also the grace of God into us to do what the light we received demands. This is a lesson I learnt a long time ago. Such that I do not wait to feel capable of doing what God has demanded. I begin to step towards it because I believe that I have received grace to do it from the very act of gazing into the glorious law of liberty (the Word of God). This is why we must keep gazing into the Word for that is the means by which God works on us.

And notice that I speak of grace coming with every light he gives us. It is not just a case of hearing or reading the written word of God, we must seek to receive God’s light on every word. And the way to get God’s light is to come with hungry and receptive hearts every time we come to his Word. No one ever comes thus and goes away without light. And with every light comes the power to obey. This is real Christianity. Not our trying to do something for God, but God working in us as we yield to him.

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Comments? Questions? etc. If these messages have been helpful or unclear it would encourage us to hear from you, please write to chim_ibidun@hotmail.com
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PLEASE are you born again? It is not enough to believe in the existence of God, to go to church, or be interested in spiritual things. Jesus said “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). Jesus died to deliver you from sin so that you can come to God. (John 3:16) If you ask him to forgive you and give you a new heart he will. (Acts 2:38; Romans 10:9-11).Try it. I’d love to hear from you @ chim_ibidun@hotmail.com
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Chim’sWRITE are regular articles on Christian living and cross-cultural missions from Chimezie Onyebilanma a cross-cultural missionary with Calvary Ministries (CAPRO). CAPRO is an indigenous African non-denominational cross-cultural  mission agency involved in reaching the remaining unreached peoples in 22 countries of Africa and the Middle East as of present. CAPRO is involved in missions mobilization, training, and research as well as church-planting and mercy ministries (literacy, rural development, primary health-care, relief and rehabilitation). CAPRO is a faith mission, both the ministry and its missionaries depend on God’s provision through the giving of his people. None of its missionaries are salaried. All gifts are used as designated.

Surface Address: CAPRO MISSIONS SA, Durban, 47 Sutherland Rd, Waterfall, 3610, Durban, P.O.Box 207, Hillcrest, 3650, South Africa.Tel: +2731 766 2336; +27 794737208 (cell)

To learn more about the ministry of Chimezie Onyebilanma and how you can partner with us please emailchim_ibidun@hotmail.com

To learn more about the cross-cultural missionary work of CAPRO visit www.capromissions.org.za

Do you know that your monthly gifts to support a missionary can make a big difference? To learn more about supporting missionaries please visit www.adopt-a-missionary.org    or enquire at chim_ibidun@hotmail.com

COPYRIGHT — It is required that permission be obtained from chim_ibidun@hotmail.com before these materials can be re-published on a website or in hard copy. However permission is granted to freely redistribute these materials via email, provided that such redistribution acknowledges the source and includes this phrase: “For a free subscription to Chimezie Onyebilanma’s weekly Chim’sWRITE, send a blank email to ChimWRITE-subscribe@yahoogroups.com “