Php 2:12
Wherefore, my beloved, as ye 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.
Php 2:13 For
it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good
pleasure.
Php 2:14 Do
all things without murmurings and disputings:
Php 2:15 That
ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst
of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the
world;
Php 2:16
Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I
have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain.
Php 2:17 Yea,
and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and
rejoice with you all.
Php 2:18 For
the same cause also do ye joy, and rejoice with me.
We are told God will
work in us to will and to do His good pleasure- and then immediately we are
told - 'DO all things…' We are given an instruction on what to DO, and action
we are to commit, WE have to act. God WILL work in us, but He will NEVER control
us! We can never ask God to work in us
and then believe we are to do nothing. God wants us to 'Do all things…' And when we do ALL the things we do, we are
to do them WITHOUT murmuring or disputing.
Clearly murmuring and disputing is not something God wants us to choose
to do and it's us who makes the choice to murmur or dispute. If we find
ourselves murmuring or disputing then we have to ask ourselves if we are doing
God's will, because it is Not his will that we murmur or dispute.
Eph_1:13 In
whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your
salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy
Spirit of promise
Eph_1:17 That
the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the
spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him
Gal_6:8 For he
that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth
to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.
Gal 5:16 This
I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the
flesh.
Gal 5:17 For
the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and
these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that
ye would.
Gal 5:18 But
if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.
Gal 5:19 Now
the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication,
uncleanness, lasciviousness,
Gal 5:20
Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions,
heresies,
Gal 5:21
Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell
you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such
things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
Gal 5:22 But
the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness,
goodness, faith,
Gal 5:23
Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
Gal 5:24 And
they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and
lusts.
Gal 5:25 If we
live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
Gal 5:26 Let
us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one
another.
'2. The Rule of the
Holy Spirit.
We will recall from
our past discussion how God rules our spirit through the Holy Spirit and how
our spirit rules our body or the entire person through the soul (or will). This
may sound simple, yet the spiritual implication is enormous.
The Holy Spirit
influences our intuition alone to make His will known. Only our spirit does he
fill and nowhere else. Never does He control or fill our soul or body directly.
This point should be carefully underscored. We should not therefore expect God’s
Spirit to think through our mind, feel through our emotion, or decide through
our volition. He makes His will known to our spirit’s intuition in order that
we ourselves may think and feel and act according to His will. It is a grave
blunder to think we must offer our mind to the Holy Spirit to let Him think
through it. The truth is He never uses man’s mind directly instead of man. He
never asks him to offer himself passively to Him. What God wishes is
cooperation with him. He does not work for man, because even His movement in
working for him could be quenched by the believer. He never forces anyone to do
anything.
The divine Spirit
does not directly control man’s body either. If man desires to speak he has to
engage his own mouth—to walk, his own feet—to work, his own hands. The Spirit
of God never interferes
with man’s freedom
of will. Aside from working in man’s spirit (which is God’s new creation), He
does not use any part of man’s body apart from the consent of the latter’s own
volition; nay, even if man is willing, He does not exercise any of his bodily parts
for him.
Man should be his
own master. He must exercise his own body. This is God’s law which He will not
violate. We often say that “the Holy
Spirit rules over man.” By this we mean He works in us to make us obedient to
God. But if we should mean that He directly controls our total being we are in
complete
error. We can
distinguish right here between the work of the Holy Spirit and that of evil
spirits. The Holy Spirit indwells us to witness that we belong to God whereas
evil spirits manipulate people to reduce them to robots.
God’s Spirit asks
for our cooperation; evil spirits seek direct control. Hence it is plain that
our union with God is in the spirit and not in the body or soul. Should we
misunderstand the truth and expect God to move our mind, emotion, volition, and
body directly, we open wide the door to the counterfeit of evil spirits.
While a Christian
should not follow his own thought, feeling or preference, nevertheless after he
has received revelation in his spirit he ought to execute with his mind,
emotion and will this charge
which has come to
his spirit.' Excerpt - 'The Spiritual
Man' By Watchman Nee
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