I haven't been to code talkers school but I think you are agreeing that not all works are contrary to grace, and that the article is unclear at best.
‘To keep me from being conceited. . . there was given me a thorn in the flesh. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me: My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ (2 Corinthians 12:7-10)
"Paul pictures himself in a weak condition. It was far from an innocuous kind of weakness. He designates it with a strong metaphor-a thorn in the flesh. Originally, his language is even stronger. He says: "a stake for the flesh." His weakness is imposed on him, against his will. Scholars conjecture as to the exact nature of this problem. Some believe it took the form of a painful soreness of the eyes. Others refer to his experience when he visited Galatia. He had a bodily ailment there, which was disgusting to look at (Galatians 4:12-14). Whatever the source of Paul's weakness, it was disastrous. The imagery of his language portrays a man trying to get on with his life; do his work; meet his responsibilities, while impaled on a wooden stake."
"Understandably, he prayed to be delivered from this affliction, and God told him "My grace is sufficient for you. My strength is perfected in weakness." In other words: "Paul, my working in your life, will most readily take place in the least impressive aspects of your personality. In fact, your handicap, and your humiliation, is a foil for the might of my grace. From a natural, and reasonable standpoint, Paul's thorn in the flesh was hindering him in his work. But from the perspective of grace, it was making him more useful."
"The power of the gospel is in God's grace-his freely-bestowed kindness. When men and women rely on their skills, their gifts, their strengths, their competence, it is not grace. It is something else."
"When the human agent has reached the... end of its rope---then grace comes into its own."