9.1 Co-Operation With God Does Not Mean Automatic Working

from

Chapter 9: The Volition and Spirit of Man

from War On the Saints
by Jesse Penn-Lewis

Scriptures Referenced in This Section:
          (Follow the Scripture links if you want to study the Scriptures for yourself.)
Lk. 5:13 π Jn. 5:17 π Jn. 5:19 π Jn. 6:38 π Jn. 14:12 π Gal. 2:20 π Phlp. 1:19 π Col. 1:29

When Paul said, "His working, which worketh in me mightily" ( Col. 1:29 ), he first said, "I labour according to" His working. The "I labour" did not mean that hands and feet and mind worked automatically in response to a Divine energizing, as the engine works in response to the steam, but at the back of the "I labour" was the full action of Paul's will, saying "I choose to labour," and "as I labour, God's power and energy energizes me in the acting," so that it is "I who live and move and work," and "yet not I, but Christ - the 'Spirit of Christ' in me." (See Gal. 2:20 ; Phlp. 1:19; top )

It was so in the Greater than Paul, Who said, "I came not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me," ( Jn. 6:38 ) "The Son can do nothing of Himself," ( Jn. 5:19 ) and yet He said also, "My Father worketh hitherto and I work." ( Jn. 5:17 ) "The works that I do shall ye do also!" ( Jn. 14:12 ) He had a separate will, but He came not to do His own will, but the will of the Father, and He was doing the Father's will when He said to the one who sought His healing power, "I WILL, be thou clean!" ( Lk. 5:13; top )

Thus it should be in the life of the believer. Granted the essential union of his will with the will of God, and the energizing power of the Holy Spirit, by his own deliberate choice of harmony with that Holy Will, the believer is actively to use his will in ruling himself in spirit, soul and body. God dwelling in his spirit co-working with him through his exercised volition.


[9.0] 9. The Volition and Spirit of Man
π
[9.2] God Governs the Renewed Man By His Co-Acting Will
9: The Volition and Spirit of Man - Table of Contents
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