Faith and Cooperation

[Allan Walker]

FAITH AND COOPERATION​

…continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. (Philippians 2:12‑13, NIV)​

Faith opens the way for an understanding of how God is working within us and why. We thereby gain the ability to cooperate with what he is doing.

We are taught that we “may participate in the divine nature".

Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.(2 Peter 1:4, NIV)
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We are then told to cooperate with God as he works the qualities of his nature into our character.

For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. (2 Peter 1:5‑7, NIV)​

God is working to “transform us into his image” (2 Corinthians 3:18). This is a process of change which can, at times, be painful. We have to leave behind something that we have known and enter spiritual territory we have not experienced before.

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. (James 1:2‑3, NIV)​

Faith can be described as the willingness to take that step into the unknown, trusting in our Shepherd to lead us to the place he has prepared for us.

By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. (Hebrews 11:8, NIV)​

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[Carl Emerson]

Faith can be described as the willingness to take that step into the unknown, trusting in our Shepherd to lead us to the place he has prepared for us.

By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. (Hebrews 11:8, NIV)​

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The key is that he was first called.

Faith comes from Hearing the Word of Christ.

We hear His personal Word to us and then follow in obedience.

 

[christinemurphy]

True that Human cooperation is an evolutionary mystery. People tend to cooperate frequently with genetically unrelated strangers even when reputation gains.

 

[mlepfitjw]

2 Corinthians 3:

2You yourselves are our letter, inscribed on our hearts, known and read by everyone.

3It is clear that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

 

[Allan Walker]

The key is that he was first called.
Faith comes from Hearing the Word of Christ.
We hear His personal Word to us and then follow in obedience.

True. But the Lord at times calls us to go into situations that we would have otherwise avoided.

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