Willing and Working His Good Pleasure

 Bible Verses

Phil. 2:13  For it is God who operates in you both the 

willing and the working for His good pleasure.

Rom. 8:6  For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the 

mind set on the spirit is life and peace.

         Words of Ministry 
In verse 13 Paul says that God operates in us "both the
willing and the working for His good pleasure." Where within
us does this willing take place? It must be in our will. This
indicates that God's operation begins from our spirit and
spreads into our mind, emotion, and will. We have pointed out
that the grace of Christ is with our spirit. However, God's
operating to will in us involves not only our spirit but also
our will. Therefore, God's operation must spread from our
spirit into our will.

As God operates the willing within us, He carries out His
working. This corresponds to Romans 8, where we see that God
works not only in our spirit, but also in our mind and
eventually in our physical body (vv. 6, 11). We will in our
will, and we work in our body. The Triune God operates in us
from our spirit, through our will, and then into our physical
body.
God's operating is for His good pleasure. His good pleasure
is the heart's desire of His will (Eph. 1:5) that we may
reach the climax of His supreme salvation. Every living being
has a good pleasure. This is especially true of God. For this
reason, Paul speaks of God's good pleasure. The good pleasure
of a mother can be observed in the way she loves her child.
Using this as an illustration of God's good pleasure, we may
say that God's good pleasure is to love us in a way that
makes Him happy. God's working in us is to enable us to reach
the climax of His supreme salvation. Praise Him that we are
now in God's good pleasure! As He operates in us, we
cooperate with Him by obeying Him.