When Does God Do His Best Work in Us?

Why should God do the things He does for us? Is it just because He is gracious? Or that He is loving? These are all true of course, but there is more:

“The Lord your God in your midst, The Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing” (Zephaniah 3:17).

“The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him, in those who hope in His mercy” (Psalm 147:11).

We see here more evidence as to why the Lord chooses to work for the benefit of His children: He rejoices and takes pleasure in us. But several things must be put into context. God is not a genie, and should not be treated as such. We should not call upon Him just to get what we want.

Also, because He is loving and gracious and delights in us, we should not serve with an attitude of entitlement. In other words, we should never say, “Because I’m His child, and He loves me, I deserve this or that.” There are those, unfortunately, in the Christian community, who do live by this ungodly precept. They are blind, misled, and thoroughly deceived. God will give us those things that we need, as long they are in line with His purposes; but we must be careful not to go beyond, by insisting that God give us what we want. This type behavior on our part carries a high price: 

“And He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul” (Psalm 106:15).

The children of Israel desired a king like the other nations that surrounded them, but God told them what would happen if they got one. But because they rejected God’s counsel, He relented and gave them what they wanted — to the detriment of their souls.

God's Work in Our Hearts

Up until now, we have focused on the more material end of His power; i.e., the things that we can receive from the Lord if our hearts are right toward Him. But there is another much more important aspect to His power as it pertains to us. I conclude that the Lord does His best work in the hearts of His people. It cannot be denied that there are times in our lives, for a myriad of reasons, that we need an outpouring of His power to move us along in our walk with Him. Far too many times we attempt, without even realizing it, to undertake the work of the Lord in our own strength. This will take its toll upon us both spiritually and physically. We must never forget the familiar Scripture, which says:

“Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, this is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts” (Zechariah 4:6).

When does God do His best work in the lives of His people? I believe that there are at least three points in our life when can we expect the Lord to powerfully step in and do that which needs to done in us.

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Jonah was running from God’s call. When God gave him the word to go to Nineveh, Jonah rose up and fled nearly three thousand miles in the opposite direction.

“But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD” (Jonah 1:3).

Not only did his decision wreak havoc on the particular voyage he was on, but it also resulted in him being swallowed by a great fish.

You will note that it was the God who prepared the fish; this was no accident. The three days and three nights in the belly of that fish was exactly what God deemed necessary to bring the heart of His servant to a place of surrender. We read in part from Jonah’s prayer from the fish’s belly:

“Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple” (Jonah 2:4).

“Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God’s love for them. But I, with shouts of grateful praise, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good. I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the LORD’” (Jonah 2:8-9).

There is no doubt that Jonah was a man of God, or else he would not have been singled out to do what was needed at that time in Nineveh. With His call came responsibility, but Jonah was unwilling to do this. For disciplinary purposes, God will at times allow the storms and waves of life to takes us out of our comfort zones.

There are yet other times when we need the Lord’s intervention into our lives. In these times, He needs to remove us from the things that would prevent us from receiving the help and healing we need; whether that healing be mental, emotional or spiritual.

“And they bring unto him one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech; and they beseech him to put his hand upon him. And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit, and touched his tongue” (Mark 7:32-33).

“And he cometh to Bethsaida; and they bring a blind man unto him, and besought him to touch him. And he took the blind man by the hand, and led him out of the town; and when he had spit on his eyes, and put his hands upon him, he asked him if he saw ought” (Mark 8:22-23).

In both cases, we see the Lord do something that can only be described as loving; He takes each person aside to deal with them alone. It was not so much that they needed privacy; it was Jesus who needed their undivided attention. God does His best work when He has us where he wants us.

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When we look at the life of Jacob, we see a man whose life was characterized by lies and deception. Though he too was a man of God, he relied heavily upon the flesh. How many times can it be said concerning our own lives, that we unwittingly fall back into our carnal side when approaching the circumstances of life?

After having dealt with his brother deceptively, coupled with his dealings with his father-in-law Laban, it was all seeming to come to a head, when he was told that his brother Esau was approaching with an entourage. Fearing revenge from his brother, and after trying to make appeasement to him with gifts, Jacob sent his family away to safety. We read:

“And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day” (Genesis 32:24).

This self-imposed solitude came as a result Jacob’s inability to rely any further on that which had carried him through much of his life; he had come to the end of himself. Coming to the end of ourselves should not be seen as bad thing. It is through such confrontations that the Lord causes us to come face to face with who we truly are.

Up until this time, there had been a struggle between who he was and who God wanted him to be. We see this spiritual struggle played out physically as God, through the angel, wrestled with Jacob. God wanted something from Jacob: full allegiance. Is that not what he wants from each of us?

We must come to the end of ‘self,’ so that God can do the powerful work He desires in us. As a child of God, are you experiencing that internal struggle of your flesh versus the Spirit? Get alone with God, let down your defenses, let go of your justifications and surrender to the only one who change your identity and begin making you  into the person he wants you to be.

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Much like Jacob, God used solitude in order to work in the life of the prophet Isaiah. This man of God was already active in ministry, but God saw it needful to re-fit Isaiah for a further work in his ministry. To do so, it was necessary for God to bring him to a humble place, to not only get a fresh vision of himself, but more importantly, to get a fresh vision of God.    

“Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts” (Isaiah 6:5).

While it does not state explicitly that Isaiah was alone when he saw this vision, it can be said that like the apostle John on the island of Patmos, he was “in the Spirit on the Lord’s day.”  

This work of humility can sometimes be a difficult thing to bring about in God’s people. It is usually the last line of defense to go down. It is pride, humility’s infernal opposite, that stands between us and forward progress in the Lord. The Lord gives us the opportunity, and desires for us to humble ourselves, which will bless us.

“Humble yourselves in the sight of the LORD, and he shall lift you up” (James 4:10).

Even when it comes to personal and corporate revival, we see humility at the top of God’s requirements:

“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14).

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Is there a level of pride that exists in your own heart, that is rendering you unusable in God’s sight? Don’t get me wrong, God uses the worst of us because He sees us many times as we can be, rather than what we are. Because in truth, none of us have “arrived” — but a lack of humility will shut the door on what we can be and what God can do in us. Let’s ask the Lord to search our hearts for any seeds of pride in our lives.

Our God will do His best work in a heart that is totally yielded to Him. My prayer is, “Lord, do your works of power within me; I give myself to you wholly. Do in me, what has yet to be done due to my own stubbornness, pride, and self-righteousness. I don’t want to run like Jonah, struggle like Jacob, or minister while harboring sinful attitudes; do your best work in me.”

Amen.

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