Our Father’s Work
If you have not had a chance to read our last post, “Conquering Fear,” I encourage you to do so. This message is a continuation of the word that the Lord has been sharing with me about the Father’s work of love in those who belong to Him. Recently, I have had the opportunity to share this truth with others, both online and in person, encouraging them to seek God’s perfect love so they might be revealed as sons and daughters of God, just as Jesus was on the earth. The Holy Spirit has revealed to me a new way of understanding my Father’s ability to do His work in me, strengthening my relationship with Him and with others.
Jesus said in John 14:10, “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works.” If Jesus is our example of how to live on this earth, this truth should apply to us as well. For example, it is not our own work that earns us salvation, but there must be work for us to receive it. This is the work of our Father in us. It is His work of faith to believe, and His work of conviction towards repentance. It is only by His work of perfecting love in us that we can love God with all our heart, mind, and soul, and love others as He loves us. According to Jesus, if we love and follow Him, we will obey His words, and He and the Father will abide in us.
We can only obey His words when He abides in us because this work of obedience is our Father’s work and the Son’s nature, not ours. We participate in it, but it comes from the Spirit of God living in us. This is how Jesus lived in perfect obedience to the Father. It was by the Spirit. The same can be said about our salvation. We can only be saved because of His work of salvation in us, but His work does not stop there. 1 Corinthians 6:17 says, “But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.” Therefore, it is the Father’s Spirit, living in us, with Whom we are one, doing His work in us. This might be difficult for someone to acknowledge if they want to take any glory or recognition for their own life’s work, but this does not change the truth that everything good comes from God because only God is good.
Jesus said numerous times that He and the Father are One, and in John 1:1-5, the creation of all things is attributed to Him. It says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him not even one thing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of mankind. And the Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not grasp it.” Those who are living in darkness cannot grasp this understanding that everything, including all good work, was created by and comes from God.
Philippians 2:12-13 says, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to do for His good pleasure.” In Greek, the original language of the New Testament, the term “work out” is “katergazomai,” meaning to “effectuate.” In legal terms, “effectuate” means to realize or put into force or operation. It does not represent our own efforts, work, or performance, but rather an understanding, realization, and acceptance of a legal mandate that applies to us. We “work out” our salvation in fear and trembling by coming to the realization and acceptance that we are all sinners deserving of death, and that the Father, through His Son, Jesus Christ, works His salvation in us and brings us life. In the phrase, “God who is at work in you,” the Greek word for “work” is “energeo,” and it refers to an internal working that requires participation in the sense of partaking, not self-empowerment.
This internal work is also discussed in Luke 17:20-23 (NKJV), when Jesus, speaking about His second coming, said, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or 'See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.” Then He said to the disciples, “The days will come when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. And they will say to you, ‘Look here!’ or ‘Look there!’ Do not go after them or follow them.” The kingdom of God is created by God in us. It is built on the foundation of His work of perfect love that was manifested in the death and resurrection of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.
When Jesus said, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation,” He was not saying that you cannot see it, but rather that you cannot gain it by simply observing it. The Greek word for “observation” is “parateresis.” This word appears only once in the Bible, in Luke 17:20, and refers to one’s ability to bring about growth through scientific discovery or close observation. The kingdom of God comes naturally as a product of God’s work in us, not simply because we observe and believe. Paul attempts to convey this understanding in Romans 14:17 by comparing it to eating and drinking. He says, “For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” Our growth does not come from our own effort of digesting God, but from the natural works of our Father’s Spirit in us.
We should look to see His work in us, however, evidenced by the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Paul mentioned this fruit in Romans 14:17, and then again, with more detail, in Galatians 5:22, when he tells us that the fruits of the Holy Spirit are “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” How might we recognize the labor or workings of a tree? We can see it in the fruit that it produces. If a tree produces bad fruit, the tree is bad, but if it produces good fruit, the tree is good. Jesus gives us this description in Matthew 7:15-20, telling us how to recognize whether someone has the kingdom of God in them. He says to look at the type of fruit in their lives.
He warns us again in Matthew 7, as He did in Luke 17, not to look for them to say, ‘Look here! Or ‘Look there!’ but instead, to look for the Holy Spirit’s manifested work or labor of good fruit in them. He says, “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor figs from thistles, are they? So, every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits.”
He says that they are wolves clothed in sheep’s clothing. This deceptive appearance is external, attempting to disguise the true nature of their heart, but the inward workings of God cannot be faked and can only be worked in us by the Spirit of God. The true and manifested fruits of the Holy Spirit cannot simply be put on as external clothing because they are not available to everyone. They are only for those who have the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit dwelling within them. These fruits should be visible to others, but they grow from within us by the Spirit so that no man should boast or say that they caused this to occur by their own power, wisdom, or strength.
Jesus again emphasizes the importance of being wary of those who profess His anointing or calling but offer no evidence of the Father’s work in them. In Matthew 24:23-24, Jesus said, “Then if anyone says to you, ‘Behold, here is the Christ,’ or ‘He is over here,’ do not believe him. For false christs and false prophets will arise and will provide great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect.” Claiming we have Christ living in us or that we walk in His special anointing, even performing signs and wonders, is not enough evidence that the kingdom of God is living in us.
It is not always easy to discern these fruits in others or even in ourselves when we rely only on our own ability, knowledge, or wisdom. Discernment comes from God, and when we have His Spirit dwelling in us, we can rely on Him to show us the truth from a lie. The enemy can try to deceive us by externally faking the fruit of the Holy Spirit, but he cannot counterfeit it well enough to fool God. We must allow the Holy Spirit to reveal the difference between these ravenous wolves and the sons and daughters of God by showing us the difference between His true fruit and the enemy’s deceptive work. When we have the true fruit of the Holy Spirit in us, we can more easily recognize it in others. The most vital of these fruits, and often the easiest to discern, is God’s work of love.
Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 13 that if we do not have God’s love at work in us, even if we are operating in signs and wonders, we are nothing. He gives us a detailed description of God’s love in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, “Love is patient, love is kind, it is not jealous; love does not brag, it is not arrogant. It does not act disgracefully, it does not seek its own benefit; it is not provoked, does not keep an account of a wrong suffered, it does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; it keeps every confidence, it believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” We must rely on the Holy Spirit to discern these truths in others, but we should start by asking Him to reveal to us whether we have His love within our own hearts first so that we can more easily recognize it in others and speak this truth to them in love.
If we are not witnessing this work of the Father in us, we might need to ask Him whether He is abiding in us at all. If He is not abiding within us to do His work of love, then how can we say that He is abiding within us to do His work of salvation? Without God dwelling in us, how can we intimately know Him, or how can He intimately know us? How can we say we know Him or have his work of salvation in us when we have no evidence of any other works or fruits of the Father’s Spirit in us, especially His love?
These are the ones in Matthew 7:21-23 who perform works in His name, saying that they believe in Him and even call Him Lord, but His works or fruits are not evident in them; these are the ones who practice lawlessness, as Jesus said. The acts they perform do not originate from His internal work but are merely an external disguise meant to deceive themselves and others. How could they have His internal work of salvation if they refuse His work of love and obedience?
There is no evidence of God’s divine love in them because they choose to love themselves more than God, pursuing their fleshly desires while practicing lawlessness. They seek God’s approval through their acts of power rather than allowing Him to transform them into the image of His Son by growing His nature and character in them. Their belief in Him is not found in their love for Him but rather in their misguided understanding of His will. They call Him Lord because they fear His wrath, but instead of loving Him in obedience, they try to exercise authority and power to gain entrance to His kingdom. These ones resist His work of love and obedience, living their lives as they selfishly desire. They attempt to submit to their understanding of His will without first completely surrendering their hearts so that He might perfect His love in them. They place more value in their service to Him than in His love for them and their love for Him.
There are also some who preach that we must only believe in Jesus to be saved, but what does it mean to truly believe? Those who called Him Lord and performed signs and wonders in Matthew 7:21-23 believed in the power of His name, but they did not believe in Him fully to do His complete work in them. They identified Him as Lord because they believed they were saved, but they stopped at allowing His work of love and obedience to be perfected in them. Instead, they practiced lawlessness, showing evidence of bad fruit rather than the good fruits of the Holy Spirit.
These bad fruits or works are described by Paul in Galatians 5:19-21; “Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” These works were evident in the Pharisees as well, which is why Jesus, in John 8:44, says, “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he tells a lie, he speaks from his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of lies.”
Our Father wants to change our fleshly and sinful nature into the nature of God. He wants to do His work in us, revealing His character to the world, so that we might be revealed as sons and daughters of God. This is how Jesus lived. He surrendered His will completely to the Father, allowing the Father to do His perfect work in Jesus. The devil also desires to do his work with those who serve him, and those deeds or works are evidenced in them just as the fruit of the Holy Spirit, like love, is evidenced in the lives of those who have the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit dwelling in them.
There are those today who serve their father the devil, as Jesus said in John 8:44, but also call Jesus Lord, as those in Matthew 7:21-23. There are also those who believe they can do good works according to their own strength, knowledge, and wisdom, because they lack the humility to “give credit where credit is due.” They refuse to acknowledge their absolute dependence on the Father’s Spirit, thereby allowing them to walk humbly in love and obedience to the Lord, according to the Father’s will. It is only by His Spirit that we can do anything good at all.
Many are quick to point out scriptures that tell us we are no longer under the law because of our New Covenant in Jesus Christ, saying we need not concern ourselves with it. They claim it is impossible, as Jesus said in Matthew 5:48, to “be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect.” I agree it is impossible to be perfect or even to obey Him at all without His work of obedience in our lives, but if we do not allow His work of obedience, how can we stop producing bad fruit and only produce good fruit or works of God instead? We need His nature or character in us if we want to obey Him, and this is only sown and grown in us by the Spirit of God.
In Galatians 5:16-18, Paul says, “Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh…if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.” If we walk in the Spirit and are led by the Spirit, we are not under the law because we will not fall to or fulfill the lust of the flesh, which requires the law. This seems clear enough. However, do we need the law if we are not walking in or being led by the Spirit? In other words, do we need the law when we are not following and obeying Him? Isn’t that what it means to be led?
When we are led, it means we allow someone to take us somewhere of their choosing and in the manner they choose. In other words, it is according to God’s will and good pleasure, not ours. We must follow Him and do as we are told in all things. Paul said in Romans 7:7, “What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? Far from it! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the law had not said, “YOU SHALL NOT COVET.” God’s word is the Law, and we need it to point out sin in our hearts, especially when we are sinners who have not yet understood sin. God’s word or law directs us or leads us to Jesus because He is the Word.
If we have the Spirit of God dwelling in us, we can listen to His voice to keep us on the straight and narrow, or in other words, we can allow Him to lead us. However, if we choose to ignore Him or walk in ignorance of His will, God may use His written word or law to redirect our steps so that we can be aligned with our Father’s perfect will once again. We need to understand what the law is to understand what it means to be or not to be “under” it and to understand how God uses it to keep us from the snares of the enemy. As Paul said, “I would not have come to know sin except through the Law.”
There are social laws and natural laws, but they serve different purposes. Man creates social laws to keep sinners from harming one another, but God created natural laws to keep His creation in order, according to His perfect will. God also gave men social laws in the Old Testament to help them live with one another and be accountable to Him as their Creator and King. Natural laws, such as the Laws of Thermodynamics or the Laws of Motion, are innate, created by God and placed into His creation. To fight against these laws is to fight against the natural order of things, or to fight against God.
John 1:1-3 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him not even one thing came into being that has come into being.” Natural laws are included in “all things” because they were created by God. These natural laws, unlike social laws, are unchangeable and foundational to understanding God and His creation.
Therefore, when Jesus commands us to love God and others as He loves us, we should understand this as one of God’s natural laws; the Law of Love. It is as natural and unchangeable as the Law of Motion. To be “under” something means to feel its pressure or be weighed down by it. We are not “under” the Law of God as followers of Christ because it is innately and inwardly created in us when we are born again of God’s Spirit. We do not discard it, but rather, we become one with it. When we are born of the Spirit, walk in the Spirit, and are led by the Spirit, we do not need the social laws meant to keep us in order within our society because we are one spirit with God. We are one spirit with His love, and in God there is no sin.
The highest form of authority in the Old Testament was the Law of Moses. These were social laws under the Old Covenant and applied to the children of Israel and anyone who served the One True God. Jesus said in Matthew 5:17, “Do not presume that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill.” Jesus is not against the Law because He is the Law. The children of Israel lived according to the Law of God given to Moses and the spoken words of God through the prophets, but since Jesus fulfilled those laws and all prophecy, we are now held accountable to God through Christ alone. Jesus fulfilled the social laws given to the children of Israel by living a life of perfect obedience to God and His natural Law of Love.
Jesus said in John 13:34-35, “I am giving you a new commandment, that you love one another; just as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all people will know that you are My disciples: if you have love for one another.” We are no longer under the Law of Moses because social laws are not enough to bring freedom from sin. As you might have heard it said before, “You cannot legislate morality,” but as followers of Jesus Christ, we have His Spirit abiding in us, allowing us to be one Spirit with Him and with His natural law, the Law of Love.
Jesus is our King, and any commandment given by a king is law. He has the power and authority to make law by simply speaking it into existence. The Law of God given to Moses was not abolished, as Jesus said, but is included and fulfilled in Jesus' commandments: to love God with all our heart, mind, and soul, and to love others as He loves us. To fulfill means to be inclusive, not dismissive. God’s natural and social laws are meant to point us to Jesus when we are walking in ignorance of His love or simply ignoring His love in how we live.
Paul says if we allow the devil to produce his works or fruit in us, we will not inherit the kingdom of God. Jesus said the kingdom of God lives within those who love and obey Him because God will come to abide in them. He establishes His nature in us, and one aspect of this nature is His natural law. When He inhabits us, we belong to Him and become one spirit with Him. Jesus said that a good tree cannot produce bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot produce good fruit. Those who are walking in the flesh, practicing lawlessness, and producing the works of the devil will be judged by the natural and social laws of God, but those who walk in the Spirit and are led by the Spirit will not be judged by the social laws of God because they will live according to His natural Law of Love.
They will be one spirit with God, held together by His natural love, in the same manner that God naturally holds every part of His creation together. We do not fall “under” God’s natural laws as believers because they are innate in us. Being one spirit with God, they become one with us. When we are abiding in God’s natural law, we are not “under” His social law because there is no need for it. Those who allow the Father to complete His work of perfecting the natural Law of Love in them, not simply stopping at the point of following His social laws and calling Him Lord because they believe this is the road to salvation, will be transformed by His Spirit and adopted as sons and daughters of God.
In the same way, it is the heart surgeon, not the patient, who repairs a damaged heart, but the surgeon will not proceed with surgery until the patient recognizes the seriousness of their situation and the need for the operation. They must also sign a consent form authorizing the surgeon to perform the procedure. We must first recognize that we are sinners and in need of salvation before the Father will perform His work in us. He requires an acknowledgment of our brokenness and our complete surrender before we go under His blade. We must recognize and acknowledge that we can only be saved by His grace and the blood of His Son, Jesus Christ. We must desire to receive His perfect love and to love Him in return. Only then can we receive God's transformative work of salvation.
It is the Father’s work that causes a person’s life to be transformed, not our own. A patient must humbly acknowledge their inability to repair their own dying heart before they can surrender to a surgeon’s intervention, but they must also submit and obey the surgeon’s orders after the surgery to remain in good health. In the same way, when God’s work of salvation is performed in us, we must submit to His will and continue to allow Him to perfect His work of love in us. Paul says in Ephesians 5:8-10, “For you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light (for the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth), trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord.” This is a process of sanctification or the Father’s continued work of righteousness in us, so we might be pleasing to Him.
If we want to be pleasing to the Lord, we must avoid the works of the flesh by walking in and being led by the Spirit, as Paul said in Galatians 5:13, “For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.” Paul says we should replace our desires of the flesh with a focus on serving and loving one another, because that is what it means to be led by and to walk in the Spirit. There is no sin in God’s perfect love because God is love and there is no sin in Him. The natural Law of Love fulfills the social laws given to men, and Jesus said that God abides in those who love and obey Him.
When we oppose social law, there can be consequences, but when we oppose natural laws, there can be catastrophes. Splitting an atom goes against the natural Law of the Strong Nuclear Force holding it together. If you are thinking that there are benefits to splitting an atom, such as nuclear energy, you are partly correct. In the short term, we might benefit, but in the long term, nuclear waste is destructive to our environment, and atomic bombs bring a great amount of death and destruction. The same can be said every time man opposes God's natural laws. The benefits never outweigh the consequences. Opposing God’s natural laws, like love, works the same way. Hebrews 11:25 describes sin as “fleeting pleasures,” but their wages, according to Romans 6:23, are “death.”
1 Corinthians 6:17-19 says, “But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him…or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.” Right before these verses, Paul tells us not to join ourselves to sensual pleasures, or we will become one with them instead of with Christ. When we join ourselves to sin, we become one with it, and this is not glorifying God with our bodies or spirits. If we belong to God and are one spirit with Him, we must learn to please Him by loving Him in obedience because He lives in our bodies, and our bodies no longer belong to us. What is His will, and how can we know it?
The Father’s will is whatever His plans or desires are at any moment in time. For example, it was His will that His Son suffered and died to pay for the sins of mankind because Adam went against His will and ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The Father’s will is the heart of God. It is whatever He wants it to be. It is different for each of us because we were created with a specific plan and purpose, but it is also universal because God has a greater plan and purpose for us as children of God. Ultimately, the Father’s will is whatever will bring Him glory and love.
It is His will for all mankind to believe in Him and be saved, so that He might fulfill His will and good work in us for His pleasure. Regarding the return of Christ to the earth, 2 Peter 3:9 says, “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient towards you, not willing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance.” Ephesians 2:8-10 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” It is not our work, but His workmanship. We are meant to walk in His good works that were already planned and prepared for us because of His good nature living in those who belong to Him. We must simply obey and walk in them.
Some translations of the scripture use the word “predestined” or “ordained” instead of “prepared beforehand.” Paul says in Ephesians 1:3-6, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love, He predestined us to adoption as sons and daughters through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, with which He favored us in the Beloved.” This brings up another point of discussion: the Father’s good work in us regarding our predestination as sons and daughters of God, but again, as Paul said, the Father has blessed us with every spiritual blessing. It is His every good work or spiritual blessing in us through His Son, Jesus Christ, not our own.
This new point concerns the predestination of the Father’s good works and even salvation. Over the past few years, I have heard many people argue about predestination and good works. Some claim that we will do good work and be saved simply because we are predestined to do so. They believe it does not matter how you live your life because if you are meant to be saved, you will be. Others claim that we must choose to follow the Lord because we have free will and God will not impose Himself on anyone. There are even some who claim that unless you are one of the chosen or predestined, you cannot be saved, no matter what you decide. Some Christian doctrines are written almost entirely on the basis of their understanding of predestination.
We have already seen in 2 Peter 3:9 that the Lord wants “all to come to repentance,” and many other verses in the Bible also support this. Jesus, however, says in Matthew 7:13-14, “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is narrow and the way is constricted that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” If the Lord wants us all to come to repentance and we are predestined for the Father’s good works and adoption as sons and daughters of God through Jesus Christ, what does it all mean?
I believe that both are true. The scripture is clear that we are predestined to be sons and daughters of God, and the Father’s good works are prepared for us beforehand so that we might walk in them. Jesus is also clear that only a few find the narrow gate that leads to life, so how can we have it both ways? It has to do with the Book of Life. This book contains the names of all who are allowed into the kingdom of God, or more accurately, according to Jesus, to have the kingdom of God in them. What does the scripture say about this book of life?
It is mentioned a few times in scripture, and what the word of God says about it is key to understanding this principle of predestination for good works and salvation. King David spoke prophetically about it in Psalm 69:28 regarding God's enemies. He says, “May they be wiped out of the Book of Life, and may they not be recorded with the righteous.” In Exodus 32:33, the Lord said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against Me, I will wipe him out of My book.” Jesus says in Revelation 3:5, “The one who overcomes will be clothed the same way, in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.” If God erases or blots out our names because of sin or unrighteousness, then we must already be written in it from the beginning with a predestination to walk in His good works and become sons and daughters of God.
In Ephesians 1:5, the Greek word for “predestined” is “proorizo.” This word describes the initial boundaries of a process and is not limited to time but to results. A dog embryo can become a healthy dog or a sick dog, but it cannot become a chicken. Humans can also become children of God or children of the devil, as Jesus told the Pharisees. We are given strict parameters with the opportunity to become adopted children of God who have His good works available to walk in. The choice is up to us. If we choose to follow our Father’s “predestined” and perfect plan for our lives, the kingdom of God awaits us. We cannot enter God’s kingdom when we create or plan according to our will and good pleasure because our fleshly nature is one of sin and unrighteousness. We must allow God’s nature or work to dwell in us, enabling our old, fallen nature to die, so that we might be resurrected into the new life He has planned for those who belong to Him.
This process is God’s work of sanctification in us. 2 Corinthians 3:18 says that we are being transformed into the image of the glory of the Lord, our Father’s Son, Jesus Christ, by the works of His Spirit. Romans 8:29 says, “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.” This process is never-ending while we are here on Earth. To the extent that we are willing to allow our Father to do His work in us, we are being perfected in His love.
Our sanctification, or the perfection of His love in us, begins with the first step of believing in Jesus Christ, but we cannot simply make ourselves believe. Saying we can make ourselves believe is no different than saying we can be perfect and do good work to earn our salvation. The first good work of our Father is to give us the faith to believe in the Son. His gifts are His work, and He wants to do more work in us than only to believe. We should not limit our Father’s ability to transform us by simply calling Him Lord and trying to submit to His will without first allowing Him to begin perfecting His work of love in us.
How can we first love or obey Him to believe if we need Him to live in us to do this? I wrote about this in “Ministering to Our Father,” week 27. I believe it might be helpful to share this process again if you have not read it before. When we first surrender our lives to God, He gives us the grace to repent of our sinful lives and receive His forgiveness. We die to ourselves and are resurrected in a new life in Christ Jesus. We ask the Spirit of God to come and live in us, and He does. Now we are new creatures in Christ, children of God, and we can submit to our Father’s will in love and obey His commandments.
We began our walk of obedience to Him by first believing in the Son. This started our journey of obedience in love. As we love Him with our whole heart, mind, and soul and begin to love others as He loves us, we deepen our understanding of Him and our relationship with Him, and the Father begins His internal work in us. Since He now lives in us, we can choose to speak only our Father's words and do only our Father's work, as Jesus did. We must make this decision every day. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:31, “I die daily.” If we do this, our Father will do His work in us as He did for Jesus.
When we have found our way onto this narrow road, we can walk confidently and without fear because our Father’s perfect love lives in us, and His perfect love casts out all fear. 1 John 4:18 says, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.” We do not have to fear condemnation or falling away because Jesus did not come to condemn us but to save and keep us. John 3:17 says, “For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but so that the world might be saved through Him.” In Jesus, we have access to our Father; in Him, we have perfect love.
I have been asked if I believe that we can “fall away” from the Lord once we begin this walk with Him. I believe this is the wrong question to focus on. It is not a matter of falling away from God, but rather of rejecting Him. The question should be, “Why would we ever want to leave Him once we have found Him?” An even better question would be, “How can we ever become separated from the Spirit of God, if we are one with Him, just as Jesus is One with the Father?” Could Jesus ever “fall away” from the Father? He lived as a man and was tempted in every way known to man, but why would He ever choose the flesh or sin when He knows the love of the Father, being of one mind and one Spirit with Him?
Could we choose to “fall away” or reject God’s love and salvation after having tasted of it? God requires our free will to be surrendered to Him to receive our adoption as sons and daughters of God, but it is true that He will not force His will or work of salvation upon us. Jesus had a choice, and He chose the Father’s will over His own. We must do the same. If we find ourselves choosing to return to our old lives of practicing lawlessness and serving our father the devil, while rejecting oneness with the Spirit of God and His love, I would suggest asking the Father whether we were ever truly one spirit with Him.
I have heard many believers use Scripture to defend their position that once you have believed in Jesus, you cannot lose your salvation. Hebrews 6:4-6 says, “For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame.” This scripture obviously tells us that we can “fall away” even after having “tasted” or been “partakers” in God’s love, but Jesus said in John 6:44, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.”
To reject God’s love once it has been experienced and received, one would need a hardening of the heart. While this hardened heart exists, it is “impossible” to repent or receive forgiveness. If someone still feels the conviction of the Holy Spirit, however, their heart is not completely hardened. They are still being drawn by the Father to the Son, as Jesus said. This is the difference between having no chance of restoration, as Hebrews 6 says, and being able to return, as the Prodigal Son did in the parable Jesus taught. If someone desires to return to their old life after believing they have received salvation, perhaps they were never fully one spirit with God, even if they believed they were. Perhaps they were only “tasters” or “partakers” of God’s love. It is “impossible” for them to return while they choose to live with a hardened heart, but the Holy Spirit can bring brokenness to their heart, and then restoration is quite possible.
If someone has truly become one in fullness with God, as Jesus is One in fullness with the Father, separating themselves from the Spirit of God dwelling within them would require something almost as unnatural as splitting an atom. Remember the Law of Love? If we are one with God’s natural Law of Love as new spiritual beings in Christ, it would require a force greater than the force holding us together to be separated from Him. This is more than simply having a hard heart. Our hearts cannot be hardened if we have the Father’s heart fully living in us, because His heart cannot be hardened against those who truly love Him.
Our victory in this love for God can only be found in Jesus Christ. Take a minute and read Romans 8:26-39. This is the moment where Paul explains this “impossible” separation for those who are one Spirit with Christ. At the end of this passage in verses 38-39, Paul says, “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, not angels, nor principalities, not things present, not things to come, nor powers, nor height, not depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” If Hebrews 6 says we can “fall away” but Romans 8 says we can never be separated from His love, there must be a place where this “impossible” separation exists. I believe it is when we are truly one spirit with God and His natural Law of Love.
This completeness of unity or oneness with the Spirit of God is spoken of in Ephesians 4:13. It says, “Until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.” When we are one with the fullness of the Spirit of Christ, I do not believe we will ever “fall away” or reject Him. This is the same relationship the Son has with the Father, and when we allow our Father to do His complete work in us, we become transformed and conformed into His sons and daughters, becoming coheirs with Jesus. Until we are fully unified with Him, we can suffer a hardening of our hearts by allowing our flesh to lead us rather than being led by the Spirit, but that is not our Father’s endgame for us.
If we decide to reject our adoption and live contrary to the Son’s word, however, we no longer have access to our Father’s perfect love; instead, we have God’s judgment. In John 14:24, Jesus said, “The one who does not love Me does not follow My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.” Our Father sent Jesus into the world to share our Father’s plan for His children. If we do not listen to our Father’s words spoken through the Son and obey Him, we will suffer God’s judgment on the last day. The Son is the manifested work of our Father’s love here on Earth, and if we listen to the Son and obey Him, we can receive our Father’s love in us.
However, we must first surrender our lives to Him completely, so that our submission comes from our love for Him rather than fear alone. Saying “no” to Him at any time or for any reason shows our distrust and unbelief in His love and goodness towards us. Complete surrender requires humility and brokenness, as we discussed earlier. When the Spirit of God brings conviction of our sin, we must choose to surrender to His work of salvation and allow Him to lead us by His Spirit, walking in the good works He predestined for us as sons and daughters of God. The Lord allowed me to experience this transformation, to some extent, the other day, teaching me to walk in the good work of His humility and love.
I had arrived at a men’s group encounter at a nearby park and decided to park my truck in an area that would be relatively safe from being hit accidentally. My best efforts were in vain, however, and the side-view mirror on the driver’s side of my truck was ripped off by a passing vehicle. The driver then struck another parked vehicle near me, and when the owner of the second vehicle approached the guilty party, they fled. I was called over to my truck by the witness, who gave me a description of the events as they had unfolded. While we were standing there talking, the man who had been driving the vehicle that had hit us walked up towards us. He had parked farther away but returned to attend a barbecue hosted by his group.
At first, I felt a bit of frustration with the man, but I quickly felt peace come over me and a love for him, much like the love I described in our last message titled “Conquering Fear.” I knew it was the Lord, so I started praying for the Spirit to lead me as I walked in the Father’s good work of peace and love. I shook the man’s hand, and then we looked over the damage that he had done to my truck. He seemed quite remorseful and even offered to pay for any damages, but the Lord told me to show him mercy and kindness instead.
I told him, “Thank you for the offer, but God gave me this truck. He will fix it for me.” He appeared shocked and in disbelief that I would let him off the hook with no more than a “God bless you.” Even the men I was with were shocked. They were confused about why I would allow this man to go without being held accountable for his actions. I was able to share with them what the Lord was telling me, and I believe the Lord used this moment to plant a seed in them, as well as the man who hit my truck.
When I got home, I was excited to share with my wife how I had responded to what the Lord was telling me. As I shared the story with her, I found myself becoming even more pleased by my choices and how I had handled the situation. At one point, my wife said something that sounded like she was taking some of the guilt off the man I had forgiven. I began to feel the frustration again, the same frustration I had felt when I was first notified of the injustice against me. I could not understand why I was feeling this way, especially since I was so pleased with my behavior only moments ago.
I decided to go on a run to clear my head and spend some time alone with the Lord. As I was running, the Lord spoke to me, “Who were you pleased with, Beau?” I knew instantly where this was going. I answered Him indirectly, trying to avoid the correction that I knew was coming, “I was so excited to listen to you and obey you, Lord.” I knew that was not what He had asked me, so I quickly continued, “I was pleased with myself, Lord.” He didn’t need to say anything else for me to understand what He was telling me.
I was pleased that the Father had allowed me to be tested and that I had passed the test, or so I thought. I often ask the Lord if I am pleasing Him with the way I am living because I love Him so dearly, and I only want to bring Him glory. However, I still sometimes seek His pleasure or approval for the work of my life rather than for how He completes His works in me. I heard Him tell me, “I had more to do in that moment, and you stopped me because you became so pleased in yourself that you had passed the test.” He went on to share with me all He had planned to do in that moment, and all I could do was run silently and listen.
I asked Him to forgive me, and when I got home, I told my wife how the Lord had corrected me, allowing me to learn, yet again, that it is my Father’s work in me, not my own, so that I might boast in Him rather than in my own abilities. He gave me another opportunity to walk in His good work regarding this event when someone else asked me why I had allowed this injustice to go unpunished. I allowed the Father to respond through me, acknowledging His mercy and grace and testifying to His love and forgiveness. This time, I took no pleasure in my words or actions because I recognized it was His words and His love that were being shared with this individual. The seed was fully planted this time, and I trust the Holy Spirit to tend to it and grow it in them.
There must be evidence of work for us to receive salvation, but those works are our Father’s in us, not our own. If we do not see His works in us, we should come to Him in brokenness and humility, asking Him to have His will worked in us as it is in heaven. God’s plan is to do His work of faith, hope, and love in us, so He might use us to glorify Himself on the earth as Jesus did when He walked among us. As Paul said in 1 Corinthians 13, the greatest of these works is love. It is only through His perfect love that we can be saved. It is only by the work of His Spirit that we can be transformed and conformed into the revealed sons and daughters of God on the earth.
