Work out your salvation with fear and trembling for it is God, who is at work in you, both to will and to do. Philippians 2:13.
But He answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working.” John 5:17.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God says:
I am at work in you. Work with Me. “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling for it is God, who is at work in you, both to will and to do.” Philippians 2:13. “Now may the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, that is, Jesus our Lord, equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.” Hebrews 13:20-21.
How do you become holy? Work with Me to become holy for I am holy. My servant Peter wrote to you, “Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, set your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written: ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy.’” 1 Peter 1:13-16.
Let us work out your salvation together. Not you alone trying to work it out for Me to please Me as I watch—no, together. Do not even think of it as parts but as partnership. I am not asking you to do it all alone and you should not be asking Me to do it all alone. NOT PARTS BUT PARTNERSHIP. There is a difference.
Let Me pull the load and you walk with Me in perfect harmony. I bore your burdens and took your pains but you died and rose with Me. It is up to you to rejoice with Me in the victory and to stand in it with Me. Your part is to join with Me in My part. Jesus told the questioning Jews that your part in the work is to believe in the One I sent and in His work. You join Me in the partnership by active faith that runs with what I am doing.
I gave Bezalel the wisdom and the skill to do the work of the Tabernacle but what if he had sat at home and refused to come to do the work? I put it in you but you need to work with Me to work it out.
Do all things without grumbling and disputing. Do not just clutter up the ground. There is a difference between doing nothing and doing things together.
Jesus put it this way, “To what then shall I compare the people of this generation, and what are they like? They are like children who sit in the marketplace and call to one another, and say, ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a song of mourning, and you did not weep.’” Luke 7:31-32. The Pharisees just observed My Son but they refused to participate. The ones who followed My Son as His disciples participated.
“Follow me,” Jesus would call. That is partnership with Me. That means we go together. Follow Me in partnership, not just parts, but together in partnership. It is not like I give you a part and leave. No, I am with you. Jesus told Peter, Andrew, James and John who were partners in the fishing business, to leave that and follow Him and He would make them fishers of men. A new partnership was forming with a new purpose with Jesus leading as teacher, partner, mentor, and guide.
But they had to follow and participate in the enterprise. A teacher/student relationship, but the student becomes just like his teacher.
Jesus is your teacher, your shepherd, and your high priest. Your business is to follow Him. Where He is there will His disciple be, doing the works He does. Why? He is with you always. He leads but you must follow. “Follow Me,” means you leave working alone and went to work with Him. And with Him I can show you just what, just when, and just how to do the work of the Kingdom and give you all the grace you need to do it. Do not receive My grace in vain. Prepare yourself for action when your good Shepherd shows up! And He told you He is with you always.
Let Me show you just what that means.
Look back and look up and then look forward and you will understand.
Look at what appeared to be one-man assignments that are actually partnership assignments with Me. Consider Gideon. He was under severe oppression with his nation Israel by the Midianites, but they outnumbered the Israelites and were taking their harvests. I appeared to Gideon and told him the answer to his heart’s desire to be freed from Midianite oppression, “Go in this strength of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian. Have I not sent you?” Judges 6:14. But this caused him some concern because he knew his inability to do that on his own. So he answered Me: “O Lord, how am I to save Israel? Behold, my family is the least in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father’s house.” Judges 6:15. I told him the answer, but at that moment he was unpersuaded, but later he found it to be quite true, I said to him, “I will certainly be with you, and you will defeat Midian as one man.” Judges 6:16. The answer? I will be with you. That is working it out together. My strength, power, and skill and your active participation with Me.
I gave Moses the same answer when he doubted what looked like a one-man assignment to him to do the impossible. I told Moses, “And now, behold, the cry of the sons of Israel has come to Me; furthermore, I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians are oppressing them. And now come, and I will send you to Pharaoh, so that you may bring My people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt.” But Moses said to Me, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?” And My answer? I think you know already, “Assuredly I will be with you.” Exodus 3:9-12. And Moses found out that was all he needed to do an amazing work.
Now consider another “one man” assignment that looked impossible but was not, and you know why now. Joseph was sold into slave traffic by his brothers and yet he prospered and became the single most powerful man of his generation. How? “And the LORD was with Joseph, so he became a successful man.” Genesis 39:2. And again, “The warden of the prison did not supervise anything under Joseph’s authority, because the LORD was with him; and, the LORD made whatever he did prosper.” Genesis 39:23.
Next consider Joshua, again what looked like a “one man” assignment to take a multitude of Israelites into the Promised Land and conquer all its inhabitants. This looked impossible. But what did I tell Joshua? “No one will be able to oppose you all the days of your life. Just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you; I will not desert you nor abandon you.” Joshua 1:5. And again I assured him, “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not be terrified nor dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9.
Do not fear, I am with you. That says it all. That gives you all. If I am with you, who can be against you? No one and nothing, not even a huge army coming against you. I fight for you. Remember the Red Sea and Pharaoh’s army? Remember Jehoshaphat and the three enemy armies?
And when Isaac faced hostility from the Philistines and the men of Gerar, I told him, “I am the God of your father Abraham; do not fear, for I am with you.” Genesis 26:28. And the result? I gave him new territory and new wells for the ones they took, but then the ones they took dried up! So they came to Isaac and said, “We have seen plainly that the Lord has been with you; so we said, ‘An oath must now be taken by us,’ that is, by you and us. So let us make a covenant with you, that you will do us no harm, just as we have not touched you and have done to you nothing but good and have sent you away in peace. You are now the blessed of the Lord.” Genesis 26:28-29.
Just as I was with Abraham, I was with his son, Isaac, and just as I was with Isaac, so I was with his son, Jacob. I assured Jacob, “Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go.” Genesis 28:15. And I did. And Jacob’s response many years later? “God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, Lord, who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your relatives, and I will make you prosper,’ I am unworthy of all the favor and of all the faithfulness, which You have shown to Your servant; for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two companies.” Genesis 32:9-10.
And think of My servant David. He took down Goliath and whole armies. Why? I tell you why, “And the LORD helped David wherever he went.” 2 Samuel 8:6,14. I was with him.
And I have not changed. Go forward many years to a town called Nazareth and you will see how I sent My angel Gabriel to Mary and what did he say to her? “Greetings highly favored one, the LORD is with you.” Luke 1:28. And I gave her the most extraordinary assignment of all, and it was a one-woman assignment. For she brought forth the One who promised to be with you always. Matthew 28:20.
And let us look at one more one-man assignment, My servant Paul, who testified that he had worked harder than all the apostles but yet he said it was not him but the grace I lavished on him, but he let you know he did not receive it in vain but worked with Me to do great things. And when he was having trouble with the Jews in Corinth, I reassured him of victory. I said to him in a vision at night, “Do not be afraid any longer, but go on speaking and do not be silent; for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many people in this city.” And he settled there for a year and six months, teaching My Word among them. Acts 18:9-11.
I love you. I am with you. I will never leave you or forsake you. I am with you wherever you are, wherever you go. And I have an assignment for your life. Actually, more than one. And it is all about building My Kingdom. Remember what I told the people of Israel who had returned from Babylon to rebuild My temple in Jerusalem on divine assignment? “All you people of the land take courage,’ declares the LORD, ‘and work; for I am with you,’ declares the LORD of hosts. ‘As for the promise which I made you when you came out of Egypt, My Spirit is abiding in your midst; do not fear!’ For thus says the LORD of hosts, ‘Once more in a little while, I am going to shake the heavens and the earth, the sea also and the dry land. I will shake all the nations; and they will come with the wealth of all nations, and I will fill this house with glory,’ says the LORD of hosts. ‘The silver is Mine and the gold is Mine,’ declares the LORD of hosts. ‘The latter glory of this house will be greater than the former,’ says the LORD of hosts, ‘and in this place I will give peace,’ declares the LORD of hosts.” Haggai 2:4-9. Not parts but partnership. Let us do life together.