Entering God's Rest

“Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways. So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.” (Hebrews 3:7-11).

What does it mean to enter God’s rest. We read of the children of Israel failing to enter God’s rest because of unbelief, “So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief” (Hebrews 3:19). God had desired them to enter it and for this reason He rescued them out the land of bondage (Egypt) in order to take them to that rest. But they did not go in because they did not believe.

The story of Exodus is a type of our salvation in Christ. We too were rescued from bondage to sin and death, and God now tells us, as He told them then, to enter into His rest. But lots of Christians are doing anything but resting. In fact the majority of Christians I meet are quite restless. To quote one, “I believe I was more at rest as a lost person”.

What is the problem? The writer of Hebrews tells us that we do not enter God’s rest because we do not believe in what God says. Remember, God’s Word is true NO MATTER WHAT. “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12).

The reason some people don’t believe there is a rest is because the cares of this world choke out our belief in God’s Word (Mat. 13:22). We say, “Rest! Who can rest?” “With my schedule, the kids, the job, the bills!! Who can rest with all of that happening? “Are you kidding me! Who can rest?”

Well, God would not offer his rest if it wasn’t possible to enter it would He? No, I don’t think so. So then how can we enter His rest? First of all let us understand that this rest is not from all those things we mentioned above. You may have a job, kids, bills, trouble, problems, and all those things which represent life here on earth. Entering God’s rest doesn’t mean a life free from these things, Jesus said we WILL have tribulation (John 16:33). NO, GOD’S PEACE IS NOT ESCAPE FROM TRIBULATION, BUT PEACE IN THE MIDST OF TRIBULATION.

It is the peace which is born of FAITH. Faith that takes God at His Word and declares it to be true not matter what!

If you look at the characters of the Bible you will see real people going through real problems. That’s why God had men write about what happened to them so that we could have encouragement in our own circumstances.

“For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope” (Romans 15:4).

We have hope and encouragement because we see that even though they had some very rough times, God brought them through it all. Even though at the time it might have looked bleak, and the long-range outlook wasn’t much better. But they believed that God would bring them through it all and He did.

Of course there were some who didn’t believe and God said, “So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest” (Hebrews 3:11).

God was very stern with them, but that is because He was making an example of them to illustrate a very important fact. That being that faith is the necessary requirement to appropriate God’s rest because, “Without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him” (Hebrews 11:6).

We forget sometimes that God created man for HIS pleasure. “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created” (Revelation 4:11). We tend to think sometimes that God is there for OUR pleasure. God lays on mankind the requirement to be pleasing to Him. The only way we can be pleasing to Him is by “the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). His faith which becomes OURS when we have entered into relationship with Him.

This is where we discover where God’s rest is. It is appropriated by TRUE FAITH. Faith is not just “believing IN God”, even the demons believe that way. No, real faith is BELIEVING GOD. It is knowing what God has said, and considering it to be absolutely true no matter what the circumstances, no matter what the cost. Then just as important we yield over ourselves to God’s truth so that it might take fruit in our life.

You know the story of David, how God helped him when Saul tried to pin him to a wall, and subsequently chased him into the wilderness? Or Daniel in the lions den, how God shut their mouth? Or of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, how God protected them in the fiery furnace? These examples as well as many others show us the faithfulness of God when someone has entered His rest and have placed their faith in Him.

All these people experienced God’s deliverance because they entered God’s rest. They ceased from all struggle and abandoned to Him completely. And it was not a conditional trust. You know that kind that says, “Oh yes I trust God absolutely!” Then under their breath they add, “So long as everything turns out all right!”

Remember Daniel’s response, “If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king” (Daniel 3:17). It was the response of trust, “If God wants to save us He will for He is able. but whether He does or doesn’t we still will not pay homage to your demons!” That’s real faith, which is an unconditional attitude of trust, which Job put as, “ Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him” (Job 13:15). To be sure God will do the very best thing appropriate to our circumstance. But the result is up to Him, we have only to trust and obey.

“For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his” (Hebrews 4 10).

Jesus as our example followed this same pattern of dependence, “Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared; Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him” (Hebrews 5:7-9).

He trusted in His Father’s will and plan for his life, and this is exactly the key for us to enjoy the rest of God. That is a capitulation to God sovereignty. To know that God knows our circumstances, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end” (Jeremiah 29:11). Whether we got where we are by choice or design, God know’s our circumstance and He is working for our ultimate good.

God had rescued Israel from bondage, gave them the Law, and then commanded them to go into and possess the Land (Lev. 20:24). The symbolism is striking. God rescued us from bondage to sin and death by Christ’s death, and by the new birth (the result of His resurrection from the dead), he created us anew whereby now His Laws are written on our hearts (Jer. 31:33), and now He tells us to enter His rest. To Israel their rest was a place (Canaan), but that was not the permanent rest God had planed for His people.“For if Joshua had given them rest, He would not concerning another day have spoken after these things; there doth remain, then, a sabbath rest to the people of God” (Hebrews 4:8-9).

Canaan was a picture of the rest that would one day be given under the New Covenant that Messiah would usher in. Therefore the SABBATH REST is NOT a place or a time, but it:

A STATE OF BEING, ALL DAY, ALL THE TIME.

So the question is not whether there IS a rest, but of whether we will enter it. To enter His rest means we must cease from OUR labors. We can’t have it both ways. The Christian life is not:

Jesus helping me to live HIS life

Not helping me be LIKE Jesus.

But the ceasing of living my life so He can LIVE HIS through me. This “death to the self life” is the secret of entering into rest. As long as we allow the old self, the adamic nature to live there will be NO rest. Adam cannot enter rest. God’s rest is meant for HIS people. Adam cannot enter, but CHRIST can, and of us who have been born again have exited the race of Adam and entered the NEW RACE humanity under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

Again, rest is not the absence of trials and tribulations, but rest in the midst of them. We can rest because we have the promise of God that HE IS WORKING IN US TO DO AND TO WILL OF HIS GOOD PLEASURE (Php. 2:13).

All the time,

every time,

in every way,

everyday!

REMEMBER We stand in a victory ALREADY WON! Not fight in a battle already lost!

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God's Plan

"For whom he foreknew, he also foreordained to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren:" Romans 8:29, ASV.

Christ didn’t come to die in order to just buy us a ticket out of hell and into Heaven, although that is thankfully true. But He came to do much, much more.

But Christ came to fulfill a purpose that God had from the “foundations of the earth”, where He decreed that all that come to Christ by faith would therefore be conformed to his image.

The beginning of this of course is the cross of Jesus Christ. That’s where he “took away the sins of the world” (John 1:29). It is the beginning point of our salvation, but it’s not the ending point.

"For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, shall we be saved by his life;" Romans 5:10, ASV.

God had both a redemptive and regenerative purpose in sending his Son. You can’t have without the other but don’t confused one for the other. The first is a moment, sealed in time. The second is also a moment, but also at the same time a process. One occurred at the cross where the sinless Son of God became sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2Cor. 5:21).

But while the cross makes us fit for Heaven – the being reconciled to God – “becoming the righteousness of God in Him – is an ongoing process whereby He conforms us into the image of His Son.

The Greek word from which we translate “conform” is “summorphos”, which is where we derive the word “Morph”. The idea that the word conveys however is a “designed morph” more than just a haphazard one, like a Butterfly morphing from a caterpillar. It’ a natural morphing.

This isn’t a superficial morphing – external only. No, this is from the inside out. As Jesus told us in Mark 7:23, that man has a "heart" problem..."For from within, out of the heart of men, evil thoughts proceed, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, covetings, wickednesses, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, railing, pride, foolishness:" Mark 7:21, 22, ASV.

Jesus didn't come to get bad men into Heaven. But to make man functional on God's terms of reference on earth on the way to Heaven.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ isn’t just about a change of destination, but a change of character. God isn’t interested in making us showroom mantel pieces that he can show off to the kosmos. He is committed, and to this end Christ died, that Christ may be the first born of many brethren, so that we may be "Like Him" (1John 3:2)

By His death we are reconciled - our sins completely washed away. Then by His resurrection from the dead He imparts his very Life to us to begin teaching our minds (Rom. 12:2), thus controlling our emotions, which in turn direct our will.

The result is a life which has no possible explaination except God Himself.
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Storms

"And the same day, when the even was come, he saith unto them, Let us pass over unto the other side. And when they had sent away the multitude, they took him even as he was in the ship. And there were also with him other little ships. And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full. And he was in the _hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish? And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith? And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?"(Mark 4:35-41, KJV).

Has the Lord told you that you’re going to the other side? Has he given you a vision? If he has, you can be sure that on the way there will be storms. Count on it.

Storms do have a purpose to them. In this example in the gospel of Mark the storm was used to teach the disciples a lesson about faith. The Lord had told them Let us go to the other side yet on the way a terrible storm arose and water began to fill the boat.

Isn’t this exactly what happens with us? We just get the vision from God of what he wants us to do, and immediately a storm arises. Our reaction may be , “Maybe I had no vision at all” Perhaps He doesn’t want me to go in that direction.
But we forget that just because God gives you a vision, does not mean that you are immediately prepared for the call. There are many examples of this in the Scripture.

Paul the Apostle was called on the road to Damascus, but it was years _before he was ready for the call. He had not experienced the storms that would prepare him. Moses was another example, he knew the call, but it was 40 years before he could begin to fulfill it. He had not enough storms.

I live in Florida, and during the last hurricane season I heard a very interesting thing about them. Hurricanes for all the damage they do, actually do a lot for the environment. That’s right, they clean it up like a giant washing machine. They blow away dead top soil and clean away dead vegetation, so that from the removal of decay, new life may spring.

It is through the storms of life that God is a lot of the time cleaning away the dead soil and vegetation of our lives, so that the New Life of Christ within us may shine! So in light of this we can look at storms in one of two ways. As either as a hindrance or a help.

To the disciples on this night, the storm was no doubt a hindrance. The _Lord had said lets go to the other side, but here was this storm hindering the _way. So much were they focused on the storm that they though the end had come, “Master, carest not that we perish?”. But just as soon as they spoke, He _spoke to the storm, “Peace be still”.

We usually view a storm as a hindrance when our own plans and designs _are in effect. Sure we had a vision, but then we take the ball and run ahead of the Lord. Then when a storm comes, we scream, “Master! Carest not that we perish? How could this happen to ME, just when I was starting to make headway?

I have found that this is usually a good time to reevaluate the call. Not for its authenticity, but for my availability to God in it. In other words search my heart. Waiting on the Lord is one of the hardest virtues of a Child of God to learn. But it is a virtue worthy of cultivation.

But if after searching our hearts we know that he has said, Let us go to the other side, then lets view the storm as something that God is using to cleanse us for effective use. Then we the storms come, and they will, though they may not be pleasant, we will endure for the sake of the call.

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