June.22.01: Lftd - “Work Out” What God “Works in” You -- Philippians 2:12–13  "12 Dearest friends, you were always so careful to follow  my instructions when I was with you. And now that I am  away you must be even more careful to put into action  God’s salvation work in your lives, obeying God with deep  reverence and fear. 13 For God is working in you, giving you the desire  to obey him and the power to do what pleases him." ---------------------- “ work out your own salvation for it is God who works in you ” Your will agrees with God, but in your flesh there is a nature that renders you powerless to do what you know you ought to do.  When the Lord initially comes in contact with our conscience,  the first thing our conscience does is awaken our will, and our  will always agrees with God. Yet you say, “But I don’t know if my will is in agreement  with God.” Look to Jesus and you will find that your will and  your conscience are in agreement with Him every time.  What causes you to say “I will not obey” is something less  deep and penetrating than your will. It is perversity or  stubbornness, and they are never in agreement with God.  The most profound thing in a person is his will, not sin. The will is the essential element in God’s creation of human  beings—sin is a perverse nature which entered into people.  In someone who has been born again, the source of the  will is Almighty God. “ for it is God who works in you both  to will and to do for His good pleasure.”  With focused attention and great care, you have to  “work out” what God “works in” you -- not work to accomplish or earn “your own salvation,”  but work it out so you will exhibit the evidence of a life  based with determined, unshakable faith on the complete  and perfect redemption of the Lord.  As you do this, you do not bring an opposing will up against  God’s will—God’s will is your will. Your natural choices will  be in accordance with God’s will, and living this life will be  as natural as breathing. Stubbornness is an unintelligent barrier, refusing enlightenment  and blocking its flow. The only thing to do with this barrier  of stubbornness is to blow it up with “dynamite,” and the  “dynamite” is obedience to the Holy Spirit. Do I believe that Almighty God is the Source of my will?  God not only expects me to do His will, but He is in me to do it. ------------------ -- Matthew 26:41 "Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation;  the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."