The Desire and Power

 

 

For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.

—Philippians 2:13 (NLT)

 

What a great word!  The Holy Spirit not only gives us the capacity to walk in His power but also puts His desire within us. The Holy Spirit is always drawing us toward God’s will. That pleases Him. But it doesn’t just happen. God puts the desire in us, but we must surrender and cooperate with Him.

 

When we believed in Christ, we were spiritually reborn and sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise (Ephesians 1:13). God poured the finished work of Jesus into our born-again spirits. The same power of God that rose Christ from the dead came to live within us (Romans 8:11).  Our natural minds don't understand what this means in our lives (1 Corinthians 2:14). We have to allow the Holy Spirit to change our understanding of what Christ has given us and who we are as a result (Romans 12:2). Jesus has done His part. It is up to us to know and believe and appropriate by faith what God's grace has given us. Our minds and flesh must choose to yield to the new righteous nature of God that is ours (2 Corinthians 5:21).

                                                                                                 

“Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12, NKJV).

 

Salvation is the gift of God that can only be received by faith in Christ (Ephesians 2:8-9). The Holy Spirit stirs within us the desire to take our salvation to its greatest potential—that is to be more like Christ. Philippians 2:13 reveals there is a divine power that motivates us and is able to achieve God’s purpose within us. This calls for our response— to work out our salvation. We don’t work to be saved. We work to understand what we have received in Christ. When we cease trusting in ourselves and instead trust the power of God working within us, we work out our salvation. 

 

Surrendering to God is work. Cooperating with God is work. And it takes effort to know who we are in Christ. We often learn with fear and trembling because we must let go of who we have always believed we were and step out in faith to grasp the new person we are now in Christ. 

 

“His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue” (2 Peter 1:3, NKJV).

 

God is working within you, my friend, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases Him. Cooperate with the Holy Spirit. There is no joy like knowing Him living in you.

 

 

© 2022 Lynn Lacher

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