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Selected Messages Book 1
Cooperation With God
Man is to cooperate with God, employing every power according
to his God-given ability. He is not to be ignorant as to what are right
practices in eating and drinking, and in all the habits of life. The Lord
designs that His human agents shall act as rational, accountable beings
in every respect....
We cannot afford to neglect one ray of light God has given. To
be sluggish in our practice of those things which require diligence is
to commit sin. The human agent is to cooperate with God, and keep
under those passions which should be in subjection. To do this he must
be unwearied in his prayers to God, ever obtaining grace to control his
spirit, temper, and actions. Through the imparted grace of Christ, he
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may be enabled to overcome. To be an overcomer means more than
many suppose it means.
The Spirit of God will answer the cry of every penitent heart; for
repentance is the gift of God, and an evidence that Christ is drawing
the soul to Himself. We can no more repent of sin without Christ, than
we can be pardoned without Christ, and yet it is a humiliation to man
with his human passion and pride to go to Jesus straightway, believing
and trusting Him for everything which he needs....
Let no man present the idea that man has little or nothing to do in
the great work of overcoming; for God does nothing for man without
his cooperation. Neither say that after you have done all you can on
your part, Jesus will help you. Christ has said, “Without me ye can do
nothing” (
John 15:5
). From first to last man is to be a laborer together
with God. Unless the Holy Spirit works upon the human heart, at
every step we shall stumble and fall. Man’s efforts alone are nothing
but worthlessness; but cooperation with Christ means a victory. Of
ourselves we have no power to repent of sin. Unless we accept divine
aid we cannot take the first step toward the Saviour. He says, “I am
Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end” (
Revelation 21:6
) in the
salvation of every soul.
But though Christ is everything, we are to inspire every man to
unwearied diligence. We are to strive, wrestle, agonize, watch, pray,
lest we shall be overcome by the wily foe. For the power and grace
with which we can do this comes from God, and all the while we are
to trust in Him, who is able to save to the uttermost all who come unto