Working Through Us

The Bible tells us in 1 Samuel 2:9b “by strength shall no man prevail”. The truth is that we don’t walk with God by our strength, because God does not work with our strength. The strongest man on earth is extremely weak before God. We walk with God by God working through us!

A few years ago, the Lord ministered this word to my spirit. He said “it is not by your strength that we’ll walk with God. God will work through you. He’ll strengthen you that way. It may not be easy, but it is not difficult”. This confirms His word from the scripture in Philippians 2:13

For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill His good purpose.

God is glorified when His power is manifested even in our weakness. This is how He strengthens us. When we feel we’re tired of this race, when challenges seem to overwhelm us, He works in us to have the will and act the way He desires, for our own good. Men who have walked with God for 50, 70, or even 100 years of their lives never did by their own strength. They would have fallen with their legs up without rising again. A man who walked steadily with God for three hundred years in the Bible, Enoch, couldn’t have done that by his strength.  I once had a roommate in secondary school who I had been preaching to. And one day she said to me “see eh Chigo, the truth is, I don’t have the strength to do this born again thing”. I soon realized that this is the problem of many. They see the way some Christians put so much time in praying, studying God’s word, going for church meetings, e.t.c. and they are like “Oh my God, I don’t have the strength for this”. I’ve heard some who said they don’t have the grace yet. It is very wrong to think that those who are on this path have some special strength to do what they do. The moment we bring in our own strength in the walk, we begin to miss the line and the mark. God will not have us glory in our strength so He leaves us weak, that we might depend solely on Him.

However, being weak and depending on God’s strength sounds easy but it’s not. It is also not difficult. The human heart and mind are both naturally proud, stubborn, and like to do what pleases the flesh. God would have to break us for Him to work through us. He has to work on the inside of us in order to work through us. Jesus instructs us to take up our “cross daily and follow” Him (Luke 9:23). Since it’s a daily walk to eternity, He’ll be patient with us everyday. On our part, we must do the things that will help us align with the Holy Spirit. He will not always drag us. It takes our obedience, submission, love for God, etc to accept His will and act on it. So, it is not difficult. Jesus tells us that His “yoke is easy, and His burden is light”. Scripture also admonishes us to draw near to God, and He will draw near to us. All we need do is acknowledge that we need Him everyday and submit to Him.

As we surrender all to Him, and withholding nothing, He gives us the grace to go deeper in Him. If we are able to walk with Him everyday, we’d see that we can achieve 365 days. If we keep on, it keeps counting until we’re no more; because God taken us (Genesis 5:24).