As a new believer I found this passage (and a lot of other ones) totally confusing. I was told salvation was “not by works” yet here Paul clearly says work it out. So what’s up with that? I got a better understanding of what this was all about when I saw one thing and learned another.
First I noticed he says work “out” your salvation, not work “for” your salvation. That helped but what really opened up this passage from me was when I discovered that when God speaks of “salvation” He is not just talking about staying out of hell. Salvation includes total, complete deliverance from all our enemies.
Paul is saying, “You are already His children and have been delivered from the future penalty of sin. Now cooperate with the Lord’s work in your life, so you can experience total deliverance from all those things that torment you. God’s salvation does not set us free from hell but leave us to live in hell here on earth-enslaved to our own passions. His salvation is to deliver us from every enemy – bondages, harmful habits, bad attitudes, bitterness, jealousy, unforgiveness, doubt, discouragement, fear, anxiety, stress, sickness, hatred, etc. But that is not instant. That part of our “salvation” is a growing process we “work out” by cooperating with the Lord’s work in our hearts.
I know so many people who just have enough “religion” to make them miserable. They don’t dip a toe into God enough that they can’t enjoy the pleasures of sin but they aren’t submersed in God enough to enjoy the joy that comes from being totally set free as His child. My advice? Get all in or all out. Plunge headlong either into the world so you can enjoy the world for a few short years – or plunge headlong into God so you can enjoy the pleasures of eternity. Trying to walk down the center of the highway gets you hit from both sides.
God has provided salvation from the future PENALTY of sin.
He wants to progressively save us from sin’s present POWER.
And one day He will save us from its PRESENCE forever. (1 John 3:1-3)
A little secret: That day mentioned in 1 John is one I am living for and really looking forward to.
So we do not work for salvation but because we have already been delivered from the penalty of sin we can now cooperate with God’s work in us to see deliverance from sin and its evil tormentors.
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Philippians 2:12-13
Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.
I really enjoyed this post!
I’ve been experiencing this process in profound ways since October 29, 2012.
Some of the wording you spoke in this post lines up with a sleeping vision The Lord gave me some years back tha I named “The River of Life”. God is so good that He allows me to see Him working on bringing all of these sleeping and waking visions that He has and is still giving me!!! I praise Him and thank Him many many times every day for allowing me to see these things.
Another one this post lines up with is a waking vision The Lord gave me last year that I’ve fondly named “Following Jesus”. I really like this one a lot because I could actually see Jesus walking in front of me and He was dressed in beautiful robe 🙂
Since I never got to talk to you again on the since last year when you called and I’ve never got to talk to you in person. And I never sent you the recordings I did make. A few weeks back I decided to buy a URL and start my own blog and start making some smaller recordings, some of which I’m going to include some ppt’s (aka Camtasia produced videos) because some of this stuff really needs some visuals to really be able to visualize them the way I am recounting them. I’m doing this for me more than anything else. PLUS, Scripture (as I recently found out) actually tells us to write them down. 🙂 Who knew, apparently not me… And technically it’s not writing them down, hopefully The Lord will be okay with that 🙂 Especially, since I’m sure He’s well aware I really am not that great at proof reading… 🙂
One of the ones I will be putting up there in one I had of Jana on October 27, 2013. This one actually came to me in two parts. I woke up from the first part and seriously did not like it and kinda blew off and then went back to sleep and had the second part. I told Jana a little about it on November 4th of last year. I really found this one very disturbing to say the least and have been trying to discount it as coming from God the whole time. At the very least at this point it seems as though it is/was a warning dream. As much as I have wanted this to have been some sort of weird bad dream. All I can really say at this point is it is still in progress as I keep seeing the different elements in it first happening spiritually and then actually manifesting. This latest trip y’all took to South America included. And directly precedes the part of real danger.
Please know that since the very moment of waking from the second part I have been praying about this and almost every single day since. I’ve had others praying as well, though I only gave her name to only one person. I’ve also seen The Lord involving others in intercession without them even knowing it. At this point I don’t know what else The Lord would have me do, I talk to Him about this one more than any others. I can only say that this is from God or for somehow it came from the evil one. All I know is I had it and have been seeing it come to pass and according to what I saw the beginning of the danger is the next thing to happen.
Please know that until now I’ve not any real peace about sharing this with y’all and when I did share that little bit with Jana on Nov. 4th was because I felt a real sense of panic but still not sure of the source of the dreams and that was the first part that I recognized as it coming to pass. Please know I truly love you both very very much and you both are always in my thoughts and prayers!!!
Hopefully I will have this one up on my blog site within the next week or two. I will make sure to make this one one of the first ones I put up. When I do I will send you a direct link to it since most if not all of them will be in any sort of navigation menu.
With much much love
and
Always In His Loving Embrace!
Cheryl <
PS.
I meant this comment to be private…