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The Believer's Rest. When is the Sabbath?

7/22/2012

Many Christians will stand firm on their belief of the Sabbath. Some say Saturday.... some say Sunday.... The carnal mind (devil) delights in dividing us. What does Jesus say? When is the Sabbath? When does God want us to rest in Him? The answer is always. In Christ, Sabbath is 24/7. Before Christ died and was resurrected, there was a day....Now, In Christ, there is no certain day or time frame for which God wants us to limit our worship of Him and rest from our works. He desires us to always rest from our works and allow His works to flow through us.

Sabbath comes from the Hebrew root word, shabath, which means to cease, desist, rest: brought to an end.

Psalm 46:10, "Cease striving and know that I am God;"

In Colossians 2:16-18, Paul wrote, "Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day - things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ. Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of the angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind."

Paul continued in verse 23, "There are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence."

It is important to remember that one day in God's time is not the same that we think of one day here on earth. In Genesis 2:2, Moses tells us, God rested on the seventh day. This signifies a period of rest. God was not limited to one day - a 24 hour period - as our calendar is today.

In Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus said, "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."

I picture us carrying a backpack that starts off empty as an infant. As we experience the world, the backpack begins to accumulate items such as stress, worries, discontentment, anger, greed, peer pressure, and the list goes on. I reached a point in my life where I became very weary and the backpack the world gave me to carry became too much of a burden. It was exhausting! Bring your backpack to Jesus and He will give you rest. As we hook into His yoke, there is no backpack to carry and He takes the burden. Amen! :-)

Jesus shows us an example of rest as the author of Hebrews describes in 12:2, "fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."

Jesus sat down at the right hand of the Father because His work was finished.

The reality that we are seated with Him is one for us to remember; we are already seated and have been since the moment we believed.

Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:5-6, that God made us alive together with Christ, and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Amen!

Many people feel that one day they will be able to relax in heaven after they finish trying to be like Jesus on earth.

Please understand brothers and sisters that we are already in heaven and heaven is on earth. It is all through Jesus Christ.

In Philippians 2:13, Paul tells us, "For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure." He started it (the work in us) and He has already finished it! :-)

Let's realize the awesome reality of resting in Jesus. The harvest of abundance will result from His will and His work shining through us while we rest from our works and our will. Amen! :-)

Jesus used the parable of Martha and Mary to teach us about the importance of rest. In Luke 10:38, Jesus said, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her."

Mary was seated at the Lord's feet, listening to His word while Martha was distracted with all her preparations.

It is God's purpose to bring us to the place where we rest totally in the sufficiency of Christ within us in every situation.

The New Testament model of a Christian is not one who dedicates his own work to God. Rather it is the story of God Himself doing the work through a person totally yielded to Him.

Resting in Christ is the sole responsibility of the Christian. Everything else flows out of that.

Like the Israelites after being led through the Red Sea by Moses, we have a choice: We can either enter the Sabbath-rest God called us to - resting totally in the truth of His unconditional love and grace - or stay in the desert. :-)

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I believe! Now what?

7/14/2012

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What does it mean to believe? Is it sufficient to believe that God made us, that Christ saved us? It depends on what you are seeking. Yes, it is enough if all you seek is salvation. If you are seeking more, let's go a little deeper. God has been showing me some interesting revelations about believing.

In 1 Timothy 6:2-3, Paul instructs Timothy, "...because those who partake of the benefit are believers and beloved. Teach and preach these principles."

It is interesting that Paul uses the phrase, "..those who partake of the benefit are believers.."

Peter wrote in 1 Peter 1:21, "who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God."

So what are we to believe?

The grace of God not only sent Jesus to save the world from darkness and sin but to live inside us. Amen! :-)

John writes in 1 John 5:19-20, "We know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life."

Ok. This is good stuff. Since we already know that Jesus is the Son of God and has given us the understanding so that we may know Him (according to John), belief becomes synonymous with trust. We know that God sent Jesus to save the world.

Many Christians spend their lives in disagreement over what to believe and what not to believe. Jesus wants us to trust in Him; to believe in Him. It changes from what do we believe about Jesus, to Him becoming our belief. What do we believe? IN JESUS CHRIST!! Amen!

We trust Jesus with our lives and our will is surrendered to His. We believe in Him, we trust in Him and we experience heaven on earth as a new creation in Him.

Believing leads to receiving, trusting leads to experiencing the rest He desires us to enter.

The only way to understand the Kingdom, to know it and enjoy it is to realize the truth that already exists.

Think of believing as being two-dimensional like a contract or a paper and trusting as being three-dimensional like jumping into a pool of water and being completely consumed by the water.

We have been entered into the greatest union possible by the blood of the Lamb; to be one with Christ. A revelation of the new creation describes the spiritual union that transforms us from the inside out.

The Spirit guided me to Matthew 7:7, Jesus said, "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened."

I have often been puzzled by what this means as people ask for things all the time and it is not given to them.

The Spirit revealed it to me like this, "Ask Me for Me and you will receive Me; seek Me and you will find Me; knock on My door and the Kingdom of heaven will be opened to you."

Paul talked about putting on the new self in Colossians 3. Verse 1: "Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth."

We hear the truth of the finished work of Jesus. We choose to believe that we are saved by grace and not of any works of our own (Ephesians 2:8). We acknowledge that Jesus is united with us as a new creation in Him (2 Corinthians 5:17). We receive Him and His will. We knock and the Kingdom of heaven is opened to us while we are still on earth. We spend our lives resting in His will and His works will flow through us as an abundant harvest is produced. This is a manifestation of who we already are. Believing does not make us anything, it releases the truth of who we already are. It is all Him! Awesome! :-)

Thank you, Jesus!

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Can believers go in and out of fellowship with God?

7/1/2012

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In Romans 8:35-39, Paul tells us there is nothing able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus.

The lie that a believer can go in and out of fellowship is being taught at the university level on down to the church level. It is not scriptural to have such a belief. It is a lie from the enemy. Here is why.

Fellowship refers to oneness, a unity with one another. With this concept of fellowship applied to a believer in Christ, it is impossible to be separated from someone who lives in you.

The author of Hebrews writes in Hebrews 13:5, "Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, "I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,"

In 1 John 1:7, John writes, "But if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin." If you practice the truth by realizing that you are walking in the light of His grace at every moment, you will know by first-hand experience what it means to live in fellowship together with your Father and what it means to continuously be kept completely cleansed from all sin by the blood of Jesus.

You are in fellowship with God all the time. Your perception of that may change (like it did for the prodigal son), but remember: your feelings are not the
standard of truth. The promises of God in Scripture are the truth. When we understand the truth, it causes us to want to live a lifestyle that glorifies Him. Our "wanter" is changed as we are transformed by the renewal of the mind as a new creation. Amen! :-)

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God wants to give you what you need. A Truth or a lie?

7/1/2012

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Are we really lacking anything at the moment? As believers in Him, the truth is we don't lack anything. We have everything we need inside us in Jesus Christ.

The very nature of our flesh is to be insecure and fearful. The more we focus on things of the flesh, the more we will see deficits in ourselves. We will find ourselves asking God to give us those things that we think we lack.

The idea that we don't have all that we need at this very moment is an illusion. It is a deception created by our natural minds, causing us to feel as though God has not freely given us all we need. The truth is there is nothing left for God to give us.

People find themselves in an endless pursuit for something more because they don't realize that they already have what they need because of Christ.

As we examine the verse above (Ephesians 1:3), Paul describes clearly that as believers we are indeed in Christ, and at this very moment, we have everything we need. Some may be thinking that this verse is only referring to spiritual blessings and not the rest of life. It is this kind of dualistic thinking that is a curse to modern man. It implies that two worlds exist - one spiritual and the other natural - and they never intersect. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Your life in Christ is played out on the stage of this physical world. Because of His indwelling life, you don't lack anything. Not one thing! You have all you need in Him right now and eternally. In 2 Peter 1:2-3, the apostle affirms the same. Please note that these have already been given to us. Only because of what He has done on our behalf, we have received the abundance from God the Father. In Christ, nothing is left out. We are made complete and perfect, holy and righteous saints.

We need to stop asking God to give us something and instead start accessing the benefits of what we already have in Him.

What do we need? Strength? That's Him. Power? That's Him, too. Peace? Him again. Wisdom? Yes. Do you see where this is going? :-)

Paul writes in Colossians 2:9, "In Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, in Him you have been made complete." As we recognize this truth, let's stop asking and start thanking Him for all He has given us. And most importantly, let's start living as though it's true.

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