Partnership with God by Mthobisi.

Mark 16:20(NKJV) And they went out and preached everywhere, THE LORD WORKING WITH THEM AND CONFIRMING THE WORD THROUGH THE ACCOMPANYING SIGNS. Amen When we receive the word of God, we believe and confess it and are born again, we also receive with it an unction and a mandate of some sort. Every man who comes in the world has an assignment given to them by God and it is centered around bringing souls to the Kingdom of God and building and strengthening the body of Christ which is the church; however we can only enter into our assignments when we are in Christ. Jesus had an assignment from God, He speaks this way "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work,"(John 4:34). These assignments are not self-determined by man they are preordained by God according to His will and each and every one's assignment is different. For instance Paul and Apollos had different assignments from God, Paul says concerning that "What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only SERVANTS, through whom you came to believe-- AS THE LORD HAS ASSIGNED TO EACH HIS TASK. I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase."(1 Corinthians 3:5-6). We are all called by God in Christ to fulfill that which has preordained for us before time began, Paul says to the Ephesians "we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, WHICH GOD PREPARED BEFOREHAND THAT WE SHOULD WALK IN THEM."(Ephesians 2:10) - these works and assignments we have to accomplish for God were prepared for us beforehand, before we even knew God, and that which God has called us to do can never change, God didn't make a mistake with anything, He didnt give any of u s another ones assignment "for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable."(Romans 11:29). Nonetheless it appears we all have this common assignment and that is to evangelize and spread the gospel throughout the world, we are sent by Christ to go out and spread the message of His love to all men, the word of reconciliation as He sent all His disciples saying "Go ye therefore..."(Matthew 28:19). God has given us all the necessary equipment to fulfill whatever assignments He has given to us, He has given us His Word, spiritual gifts, the anointing, the mantles, His love and all such sufficiency as ministers that we may be effective in accomplishing our assignments. Nonetheless even with all such great resources (if one may say), God doesn't want to watch from a distance as we go about the business He has given us, He wants to be close to us and accompany us throughout the journey; that's when fellowship comes in. The word fellowship we usually associate with communion however it also has a another synonym which is partnership. Paul says "God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. "(1 Corinthians 1:9) - he is talking about both the communion and the partnership among other definitions and that is what we are called into. The opening scripture speaks of how the first disciples went out preaching after being sent by Jesus after His resurrection, and it says "THE LORD WORKING WITH THEM." - now that's really amazing. Jesus had never left them as He said "and surely I am with you ALWAYS, to the very end of the age. "(Matthew 28:20) but its good to note that He was also working with them, in partnership with them; we are all called to that experience.

Remember the Lord had went to heaven and Peter says "heaven must receive [Him] until the times of restoration of all things..."(Acts 3:21), so if He was in heaven how was He also working with them? thank God because Paul says "Now the Lord is the Spirit..."(2 Corinthians 3:17) - so it was the Spirit of God who was working with them, partnering with them to do the work of God, no wonder Paul also says "may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and THE FELLOWSHIP[PARTNERSHIP] OF THE HOLY SPIRIT be with you all."(2 Corinthians 13:14) - glory to God. God has called us to partner with Him in the work that we do for Him, He wants our fellowship with Him to be so rich, to be so continuous, that in whatever we do He is there with us, partnering with us, this was the experience of Jesus, He says "...it is the Father, living in Me, who is doing His work"(John 14:10). We know that He also lives in us all as Paul says "One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and IN YOU ALL."(Ephesians 4:6) and the way He lives in us is through His Spirit, as Jesus even says "for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you."(Matthew 10:20) and since we all have that Spirit than the Father is in us and through partnership with Him, He is able to work in us as He worked in Jesus. Let us understand even though Jesus was God, He made Himself a Man and He received the same Spirit we receive, and even though He had power in Himself as God, He allowed the Holy Spirit to be His source of power, Jesus never did anything without the power and guidance of the Spirit, showing the kind of life we would have to lead in this world after His departure - He was like how any of us who have the Spirit of God should be like today. Jesus drew the success of His assignment from His partnership with the Father. O how great are the words of Jesus when He says "However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come."(John 16:13) - what a Mighty Spirit, now imagine partnering with such a great force of power and wisdom, but the question from Amos still stands "Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?"(Amos 3:3). Men in the Old Testament had some understanding of this partnership, men like David; who once goes to war and defeats the Philistines in a place he called Baal Perazim and the bible says of that event "so they went up to Baal Perazim, and David defeated them there. Then David said, God has broken through my enemies BY MY HAND LIKE a breakthrough of water. Therefore they called the name of that place Baal Perazim."(1 Chronicles 14:11), you see God was working with David to accomplish the defeat of the Philistines and God wants to work with us to defeat the devil and his schemes, that's what Paul wrote to the Ephesians, he says "...TO THE INTENT THAT NOW THE MANIFOLD WISDOM OF GOD MIGHT BE MADE KNOWN BY THE CHURCH TO THE PRINCIPALITIES AND POWERS IN THE HEAVENLY PLACES"(Ephesians 3:10) - his saying God wants to reveal the power of His wisdom to the spiritual powers by the church; that is us. There comes along another man, David's best friend, Jonathan son of Saul, who also shared in the partnership experience and the bible says of him after the great defeat of the Philistines "But the people said to Saul, Shall Jonathan die, who has accomplished this great deliverance in Israel? Certainly not! As the Lord lives, not one hair of his head shall fall to the ground, FOR HE HAS WORKED WITH GOD THIS DAY. So the people rescued Jonathan, and he did not die."(1 Samuel 14:45) - halleluiah. Jonathan had worked with God to bring great victory to Israel. Lets look at another one, who lived earlier than both David and Jonathan, Gideon the mighty man of valor, after he was instructed to go against the Midianites with the company of 300 soldiers, he goes to them just before war and tells them what to do when they get to battle, and one of things he says to them is "When I blow the trumpet, I and all who are with me, then you also blow the trumpets on every side of the whole camp, and

say, THE SWORD OF THE LORD AND OF GIDEON!(Judges 7:18) - powerful, the sword of the Lord and of Gideon; God was working with Gideon to defeat the Midianites. The experience of partnership with God is too great and I've come to realize that there is not a man who have ever partnered with God and failed, in whatever it is he does . We need to start being like Moses who said to God "See, You say to me, Bring up this people. BUT YOU HAVE NOT LET ME KNOW WHOM YOU WILL SEND WITH ME. Yet You have said, I know you by name, and you have also found grace in My sight. "(Exodus 33:12) - Moses' assignment was to deliver the children of Israel from Egypt, lead them through the wilderness and bring them to the promise land of rest and he knew that the only way he could achieve that successfully was to have someone go with him - this is not Joshua his assistant, it is the Presence of God Himself and so he says "if Your PRESENCE does not go with us, do not bring us up from here. For how then will it be known that Your people and I have found grace in Your sight, EXCEPT YOU GO WITH US? So we shall be separate, Your people and I, from all the people who are upon the face of the earth.(Exodus 33:15) - Moses was indicating that the very Presence of God is equal with Him, which makes sense - if a person's presence is felt even though that person himself might be absent, his presence represents him. The amount of fellowship with God which connects with the level by which one has surrendered to God will somehow determine the amount of partnership one will have with God, all I can say is that God is longing for every ounce of fellowship with us, He wants to occupy every section of fellowship, Amos says "Surely the Lord God does nothing, unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets."(Amos 3:7) - imagine this partnership, the Holy Spirit ministered to me that its as though the prophets are shareholder's in God's Kingdom and before anything is done by the kingdom of God, the Spirit delivers a presentation of what is about to be done and awaits the shareholders comments and sometimes input. The Most High God not doing anything unless He first reveals it to the prophets?, (taking this in), it means each and everything that God has done, someone somewhere in the world having the Spirit had seen it. Anyway (laughs) "...Even so no one knows the things of God EXCEPT THE SPIRIT OF GOD."(1 Corinthians 2:11) and then he says "NOW WE HAVE RECEIVED, not the spirit of the world, BUT THE SPIRIT WHO IS FROM GOD..."(1 Corinthians 2:12) - I am fully convinced that there is no gift that a man can ask for after his salvation than the Holy Spirit. Unfortunately a person can have a gift and not open it and make something of it, its the same with the Holy Spirit - some of us haven't decided yet whether the Holy Spirit is a Person or a power, whether you really can have fellowship with Him or not, is He Jesus? is He a dove, does He still talk, make a decision to find out, that's the least one can do but Jesus was justified when He said "Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?"(Luke 12:26). Lets get into partnership with God, I mean if He can partner with us to accomplish His work, He can also partner with us in our school work, jobs and other endeavors, Paul says "We then, AS WORKERS TOGETHER WITH HIM also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain."(2 Corinthians 6:1) and also "for we are Gods FELLOW WORKERS; you are Gods field, you are Gods building. "(1 Corinthians 3:6) partnership is awaiting us. God Bless You.