Partnering with God

When God wants to accomplish something on the earth, He looks for people with whom He can partner. When He created the earth, He placed mankind in charge of it (see Genesis 1:26-28). This is His established order for our world, and the framework in which He works.

God is sovereign—He is the supreme authority over all things—but He has chosen to work on this earth through men and women.

I would describe the partnership between God and man like this: we can’t do it without God, but He won’t do it without us. We are not to be independent of God, thinking that we can accomplish His will without Him. Jesus put it this way: “Without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).

God on the other hand does not “need” us, but He chooses not to work on earth apart from us. His plans include you and me. They factor in the obedience of His people, walking in partnership with Him.

Moses: An Example of Partnership

Throughout the Bible we see many examples of God bringing people into partnership with Himself to see His will and purposes accomplished on earth. One great example of this is Moses:

And the Lord said: “I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites. Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to Me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”
-Exodus 3:7-10

Notice the progression here: “I have come down to deliver them…therefore, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people out of Egypt.” God was going to deliver the children of Israel, but it was not going to happen without Moses.

Moses was quite reluctant to accept this commission; and who could blame him? When he asked God how he could possibly accomplish this task, God simply said, “I will certainly be with you” (verse 12). Moses couldn’t do it without God, but God wouldn’t do it without Moses. They would fulfill this mission in partnership.

This is how God accomplishes His will on earth. He finds yielded vessels who will surrender to Him and partner with Him to see His kingdom come. We have the privilege of laboring with God to see His purposes accomplished.

As we abide in Christ and yield to the Holy Spirit, He works through us to make Himself known in this broken world!