An introduction to Chapter 7 of the book “God’s plans for you” by Andrew Murray; once published as “How to work for God”.

by David Leach
(Temecula, Ca)

Notice in this scripture the direct link between “words spoken” and “God’s works”.
John 14:10 (Jesus) ...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.
Jesus says “The words I speak...” “the Father...does the works”. It’s as if He said “The words I speak are the Father’s works”. Can we find support for this elsewhere?

John 6:28-29 "What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?" Jesus answered "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent."

So the work of God is that we believe in Jesus, who is the word of God. So, God’s work, in the first instance, is to believe His word. But after we believe, in our hearts, what do we then do with those words? We speak them, as He leads us to:
2 Cor 4:13 Since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written "I believed and therefore I spoke," we also believe and therefore speak.

Why is God’s work for us to first believe His words and then to speak them? So that He can perform them. For it was and is by these that He creates everything:
Jer 1:12 Then said the Lord to me...I am alert and active, watching over My word to perform it. AMP

So the work of God, or God’s work for us is primarily that we speak His creative words out of our hearts and from our mouths, having first believed them; hence:
1 Pet 4:11 Whoever speaks, is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God...so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ (His word)... NASU
Matt 10:19-20 ...Do not worry about how or what you should speak. For it will be given to you in that hour what you should speak; for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.
Ps 33:6 By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, And all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.

God creates everything by His word, by Jesus Christ. His work for us is that we believe more of His word in our hearts, so that by the unction of His Spirit, the Spirit of faith, we speak those words. So by such words God can re-create other people’s hearts, create Himself in them, and also re-create our circumstances:

Mark 11:23 (Jesus) For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says ...and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. So God’s work for us is to speak His word – hence:
2 Thess 2:16-17 May our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and our God and Father ...comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and (therefore) work (we were created in Christ Jesus for every good word and work - Eph 2:10).

From the book by Andrew Murray “God’s Plans For You”
THE FATHER ABIDING IN ME DOES THE WORK
But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. -John 5:17
Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, He doeth the works.-John 14:10

Jesus Christ became man so that He might show us what a true man is. He became man to show us how God meant to live and work in man. And He became man to show us how we can find purpose in our lives and do our work in God. In words like those above, our Lord opens up the inner mystery of His life and reveals to us the nature and the deepest secret of His working.

He did not come to the world to work instead of the Father. Christ's work was the fruit, the earthly reflection, of the Father working. It was not as if Christ merely saw and copied what the Father willed or did - “the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works." Christ did all His work in the power of the Father who was living and working in Him.

So complete and real was His dependence on the Father that, in explaining it to the Jews, He used such strong expressions as "The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do" (John 5:19) and "I can of mine own self do nothing" (v. 30). What He said -'For without me ye can do nothing" (John 15:5) - is as true of us as it is true of Him. "The Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works."

Jesus Christ became man so that He might show us what true man is, what the true relationship between man and God is, and what the true way of serving God and doing His work is. When we are made new creatures in Christ Jesus (2 Cor. 5:17), the life we receive is the very life that was and is in Christ. It is only by studying His life on earth that we know how we are to live. 'As the Iiving Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me" (John 6:57).

Christ did not consider it a humiliation to be able to do nothing of Himself - to be always and absolutely dependent on the Father. He counted it His highest glory because all His works were the works of the all-glorious God in Him. When will we understand that to wait on God, to bow before Him in perfect helplessness and let Him work everything in us, is our true nobility and the secret of the highest activity?

This alone is the true Christ-life, the true life of every child of God. As this life is understood and maintained, the power for work will grow because the soul is in the attitude in which God can work in us, as the God who "is good unto them that wait for him" (Lam. 3:25). By ignoring or neglecting the great truths, there can be no true work for God.

The explanation of the extensive complaint of so much Christian activity with so little genuine result is that God works in us, yes, but He cannot work fully in us unless we live in absolute dependence on Him. The revival that many are longing and praying for must begin with this: the return of Christian ministers and workers to their true place before God-in Christ.

And, like Christ, we must completely depend and continually wait on God to work in us. I invite all workers, young and old, successful or disappointed, full of hope or full of fear, to come and learn from our Lord Jesus the secret of true work for God. "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." "The Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works."

Divine Fatherhood means that God is all, gives all, and works all. Continually depend on the Father, and receive, moment by moment, all the strength needed for His work. Try to grasp the great truth that because "it is the same God which worketh all in all" (1 Cor. 12:6), your one need is, in deep humility and weakness, to wait for and to trust in His working.

From this, learn that God can work in us only as He dwells in us. "The Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works." Cultivate the holy sense of God's continual nearness and presence, of your being His temple, and of His dwelling in you. Offer yourself for Him to work in you all His good pleasure. You will find that work, instead of being a hindrance, can become your greatest incentive to a life of fellowship and childlike dependence.

At first it may appear as if the waiting for God to work will keep you back from your work. It may indeed-but only to bring the greater blessing, when you have learned the lesson of faith that believes on His working even when you do not feel it. You may have to do your work in weakness and fear and much trembling. You will know the merit of the power is of God and not of yourself. As you know yourself better and God better, you will be content that it should always be His strength made perfect in our weakness (2 Cor. 72:9).

1. "The Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works."There is the same law for the Head and the member, for Christ and the believer. "It is the same God which worketh all in all" (l Cor. 12:6).

2. The Father worked in the Son while He was on earth, and now works through Him in heaven. It is as we believe in the Father's working in Christ that we will do the greater works. (See John I4:10-12.)

3. The indwelling and abiding God works in us. Allow God to live in you, and He will establish your good work.

4. Pray much for grace to say, in the name of Jesus, "The Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works."