“For it is God Who operates in you both the willing and the working for His good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13). What does this verse tell us God is doing? Does it say that it is God who inspires us from the heavens to will and to do? Is the almighty God reaching down from His throne to stir us up? No! God is operating in us. The Greek word for operate has no precise English equivalent, though the word energize comes from it and somewhat conveys the meaning. The thought in this verse is that God is moving, acting, working, rubbing within us. Our God is continuously working in us. We must think of Him not as far off on the throne but as within, constantly touching, moving, rubbing, and bothering us.
The very next verse says, “Do all things without murmurings and reasonings” (Phil. 2:14). While you are murmuring, God is operating in you. While you are reasoning, He is moving in you. He tells you to stop, but you reply, “In a minute!” Though you will not stop, even when the minute is up, God continues His operating in you. His working within never ceases. This is our God. You may say such a God is too small. The Jews may believe that their God is great and exalted on the throne, but I like having such a small God. He is far more practical and relevant to my everyday situation. One bird in hand is worth a thousand birds in the air! My God is within me, bothering all the time!
“Now the God of peace Who brought up from among the dead our Lord Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of an eternal covenant, equip you in every good work for the doing of His will, doing in us that which is well-pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ, to Whom be the glory forever and ever, Amen” (Heb. 13:20-21). If we were writing such a prayer, we would probably say something like, “May the God of peace equip you to do good works that you may glorify Him”! Why did Paul insert such a long modifier, “Who brought up from among the dead our Lord Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of an eternal covenant”?
The old covenant was enacted by the blood of the sacrifices. The blood opened the door for the new covenant also to come in. The new covenant is to write God’s nature into our being as the law of life, to give us a new spirit, and even to put us into God the Spirit. Whose blood is the blood of an eternal covenant? It is the blood of Christ. This blood ushers in His resurrection. In Christ’s resurrection God comes into us.
How does God equip us? It is not by being in the heavens outside us. He equips us by coming into us. He can come into us through the resurrection of Christ. The resurrection is here through the shedding of His blood. This God, who is brought to us through the resurrection, is now equipping us “through Jesus Christ.” God is not reaching down from the heavens to stir us up. He is “doing in us what is well-pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ.” Our God through Christ in His resurrection has come into us. Now He is “doing” in us still in resurrection through Christ.
“Great is the mystery of godliness, Who was manifested in the flesh, vindicated in the Spirit, seen by angels, preached among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory” (1 Tim. 3:16).
This God has been manifested in the flesh. Such a statement refers not only to Christ but also to the church. The church is a group of men of flesh who manifest God. It is God manifested in corporate flesh. How could God be thus manifested? It is by our taking Him in and being filled with Him.
This is your God and my God. It was Paul’s God. Before his conversion, Paul’s God was far away in the heavens. Now the very God of the apostle is the God that in resurrection through Jesus Christ is making His home in your being, that He might saturate you, even express Himself from within you.
This is the central vision concerning God which Paul presents to us. We have our own natural concepts, however, which are other than this. There are eleven of these which I would like to point out.
Man’s natural concept concerning God is that He is to be worshipped. Man as the creature must pay homage to his almighty Creator. This is a noble idea, but it is somewhat off. God’s heart is not satisfied by those who worship Him in an outward way. His heart’s longing is to have man for His container.
When the Lord Jesus spoke to the sinful Samaritan woman in John 4, she turned the topic of conversation from her sinful living to the worship of God. In the Lord’s conversation with her He indicated that to worship God she must drink of the living water which is God in Christ through the Spirit. The proper worship of God is to drink Him. The more we drink of Him, the more we are worshipping Him. To worship God without taking Him in as our life supply is poor. God cannot be satisfied with that. The external worship of God is simply man’s natural concept.