Rest

This word rest does not mean to sit down and believe for the best, as some would think. This word represents a power given to us by God to interact with Him daily. It’s the power for Him to reveal to us His thoughts, so we can do the works He created for us to do from the beginning.

We are not talking here about running to the Lord only when we are overburdened with the cares of the world. This is a way of life, where we live in a constant awareness of a union and fellowship with God, through the Holy Spirit. It’s absolutely vital we allow the Holy Spirit to search our hearts and show us if, we are really committed to walk in this type of life style with Christ.

In the Greek, the word rest is ana-pausis, ana-pauo meaning, to come to an end, to direct the gaze of your eyes upon, or to take comfort and remain. The prefix of these words start with ana. This gives the connotation that rest creates a desire that gives us an intense and a repetitious hunger after God. It also represents a word or gift distributed by God to every man individually and if it is accepted and sought after, there is no end to its supply or the useful function of its use. It is a gift that if it continually flows through our lives, it will handle and heal every need that we have. It is given to each Christian, but it has to be discovered and become real and personal to each one of us in our experiences with the Holy Spirit. We also must be going through this process at all times with great passion.

Our attitude in receiving this gift, or to function in it or any other, should always be a constant awareness that we need to be learning God’s thoughts and then doing His works. This process must always be taking place in this order. We will be learning God’s ways for eternity. God’s ways and thoughts are higher then ours and we need to discover what a privilege and delight it is for Him to share His life and friendship with us.

In Matthew 11:28-30 Jesus said, “Come to me all you who are labored and heavy burdened and I will cause you to rest. I will ease and refresh your soul. Take my yoke upon you and learn about Me. I am humble in heart and you will find relief and ease for your souls. For My yoke will make you healthy and comfortable. It will not make you feel that I am harsh, hard or forcing you to do anything. My yoke is light and easy to carry.”

We see here that Jesus says, “We have to come to Him to receive this rest.” This word come, does not mean coming to the Lord once in a while when we feel a need for it. This is a command to follow Him. The word come means to seek, come under His leadership, to closely observe and imitate His ways. Now before we define how we are to come. We need to realize that we are coming from a prior condition that we are in and He is directing us to come out from that condition to His way of thinking. Remember the word of God says, “All have sinned and come short of God glory.” Meaning, none of us are living in the total freedom of the abundance that God had given us the day we first got saved. We need His direction so we can continue to live and function in His blessing, favor and abundance.

You will also notice that He says, all can come with no exception. The choice of our coming or not coming is the difference of living a life of great abundance in all areas verses a life of being an ordinary person. This choice of coming on our part must be on a voluntary basis, without a fear of the consequences if we choose not to come. We must now yield ourselves and let God point out those areas in our lives that hinders us from all God has for us. Sometimes the acknowledgments of these things in our lives are painful for us to see. I have met too many Christians over the years that have lived in unresolved issues, with people and all kinds of unforgiveness. They are also caring scars and rejections of all sorts. Some of these hurts have been buried for years in their souls. These things keep us cripples in our every day experiences between God, others and ourselves.

This scripture defines these conditions as we being labored and heavy burdened or loaded down with them. The word burden takes on many applications. It means worry or caring responsibility that God does not want us to carry. It also means ideas we have about God, others and ourselves that are not based on sound Christian doctrine. This happens because, we have not rightly understood or were not taught sound scriptural teachings. Basically, we are unlearned in the ways of God. The word of God defines this condition as us being simple minded. When we experience these burdens, it makes you feel like something or someone you cannot see is driving you. There is a spirit of obligations we carry in our relationship with God and others that at times just wears you out. There is also, if we are honest with our feelings, a questioning of how much God really loves us, because of some of the conditions and trials we are encountering and what we are observing in others.

This scripture goes on to say that, God is trying to give us rest for our soul. It’s our thinking and the way we reason in our mind, that controls our emotions. When we became born again believers in Christ, our spirit became alive and for the first time we became aware of Christ being alive in us. If we are to grow up to be like Christ, we need to do what Paul the Apostle told the Christians in Rome.

Paul begged them that, “in view of all the mercies of God, to make a decisive dedication of their bodies. Giving to God all that they were, with all their strength and being, and set themselves apart and be devoted to God, which was His, desire for them? This is a reasonable request and do it as an attitude of spiritual worship to Him. Do not conform to the worlds why of reasoning by adapting to superficial customs. (Mans ways of dealing with his every day chores and endeavors.) Be changed by having your mind renewed, by having new ideas which brings with it new attitudes of reasoning and understanding. Therefore, with this change going on, it will give you a sure conviction within yourself and a rock sure confidence of knowing your in God’s perfect will. It will also make you realize how loved and especially unique you are to God for yourself alone. “

This process can only be accomplished by the power of God’s grace. We must constantly be made aware that, we receive God’s favor without measuring up and that, there is nothing we can do to get it in our own strength. It only comes by our brokenness and us realizing that we have to seek God because of necessity. Meaning that, we have an intense hunger and thirst in us for His friendship. Only the humble receive God’s grace. The part of this scripture that states in the view of all God’s mercies means, the Holy Spirit has to be the one to show us and give us a continual understanding of how God embraces, acknowledges and tells us how proud He is of us daily. That’s what mercy is all about. This is not something we can take for granted and conjure up in our own mind. Living and functioning in the gift of rest not only shows us His mercy but it gives us the intense hunger we need to keep chasing after God. If we are going to stay open and flowing in this life style, we must abandon ourselves to God and have Him train our spiritual ears to hear His voice. Simply put. We have to go to God to be (schooled by the Holy Spirit daily.)

The next part of this scripture says. “Take my yoke upon you and learn of Me.” The word yoke means a joining of God and man. Well how does this happen? Since we already recognize that, we can’t do this, because we have no power in ourselves to accomplish this task. We have to continually remind ourselves that, when Christ died on the cross and we received Him into our hearts, we were adopted into God’s family, and we received a down payment of our salvation. I said a down payment, meaning a beginning. That is our first encounter of taking on God’s yoke. This word take means to lay hold of, to choose, to accept into a relationship with oneself and to become friendly with by an association.

In the Greek concordance, it says, to be lifted or raised to a higher condition or position.

We had to make a freewill choice to take God’s invitation to become His child.  It didn’t cost us a thing. God loves us unconditionally and He gave us the best love gift He had when He gave us Jesus His first and only Son, to die for us and restore us to a relationship with Him. Therefore, this new life and this new beginning starts when we become a child of God. An example of this is, when we came out of our mother’s womb. We became a living person. We now had to be trained by our parents and matured to become responsible and capable people to live in society. In turn, God our Father has to now train us (through the Holy Spirit,) to learn how to function in the Spirit world with Him. Jesus says, “You need to learn of me.”

The word learn means to gain knowledge or acquire skill and be informed. The Lord said, “We need to learn about Him.” Now here is a key principle of real life in Christ. We know and have been told by hundreds of teachers and preachers to read the bible daily and even I have said this. The word of God was written as a standard or role model for doctrine, correction and instruction so we can correctly live the Christian life. In spite of all this sound scripture and truth, I don’t believe that this is what Jesus was talking about here when He said, “You have to learn about (Me.)”

I believe that there are many of us who just love God and are trying to do all the things we believe we’re suppose to do. This makes us feel that we are accepted by God and our fellow believers. Meaning we live in a comfort zone of mediocrity. This condition comes about because of what we have been told or shown to be the Christian norm.

Nor have we learned the empathy and the love and commitment He has for us by dying on the cross. Not even yet talking about the feeling that He has for us to grow up to really know Him as a living! Living friend!

The scripture goes on to say that, we have to learn what Jesus said about Himself. He said, “He was humble of heart.” What did He mean? How was Jesus humble?

Philippians 2:5 States, “Let this same attitude and purpose and humble mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus. Let Him be your example in humility. Who being in the form of God (Meaning He possessed the fullness and all the attributes and characteristics which makes God all that He is.) He did not think this equality He had with God was something to be eagerly grasped or to be held on to. However, he stripped Himself or made Himself to have no reputation and took on the form, attributes, and characteristics of a Servant. He did this by becoming a human being. After He appeared so people could see Him in the flesh, He further humbled Himself and carried His obedience to the extreme by dying on the cross. Because He stooped so low, God has highly exalted Him and has given Him a name above every name.”

When I first became aware of this scripture, it boggled my mind. What or who is this God or person, who stepped out of heaven and who shows us His awesome power of having no beginning and no end. Who brought the world and life into existence by His spoken word? Spoke to Moses in a burning bush. Parted the Red Sea to save the Israelite people. Walked in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve as a whirlwind and a roar, weaving His Spirit in their fleshly bodies. Had mercy and kindness for Adam and Eve, when they had to leave the Garden, and made coats to cover their nakedness. Threw Satan out of heaven because of his sin of pride. Led the children of Israel in the wilderness with a fire by night and a cloud by day. Had fire come down from heaven to destroy the altar prepared by the prophet Elijah. Created the plagues on Egypt so pharaoh had to let His people go. Destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah for their wicked ways. Gave Moses the Ten Commandments on mount Sinai. Stood in the fiery furnace with Shadrach, Meshack and Abednego and protected them from the flames, to the point that their garments didn’t even smell of smoke. Ascended on Jesus as a dove and as John the Baptist was baptizing Him, he heard a voice from heaven say “this is my Son in whom I delight in.” I could go on and on.

The point being, He is the sovereign God over all and there is to be no other Gods before Him. He is the absolute and all that life is and will ever be! Amen. That’s why we see the description of the twenty-four elders in the Book Of Revelation described as falling down in worship to Him. Now unless we have a spiritual awareness of what I have said, I don’t know how we will understand what Jesus had to give up to become a man and why He did this.

In 1John1-3 John the Apostle said, “I am writing about the word of life, who existed from the beginning and we have heard and seen Him with our own eyes. We have not only seen Him but we have touched Him with our hands. This life being because of His countenance, He expressed the sovereigness of God Himself. This was revealed to us and we knew that we were beholding eternal life. I am telling you this so that you can have the same relationship with Him as we have. The distinguishing mark of all Christians is that, we have fellowship with the God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ.”

Now having an idea of the position Jesus had from the begging of time. Let’s look at some of the servant hood positions He went through and how He humbled Himself in His actions as He interacted with us. In John chapter 13, we have the encounter that after the apostles and Jesus got through with dinner; Jesus took a towel and began to wash the Apostles feet. When He came to wash Peter’s feet, he complained and said to Jesus, I should be washing your feet. You can’t wash my feet. Jesus went on to say that unless you allow Me to wash your feet, you cannot continue to walk with Me as your companion. When Peter heard this, because of his desire to walk with the Lord, He was taken aback and said, if that’s the case please wash my hands and head also.

We see Jesus the night before He is to be crucified, in the Garden of Gethsemane going to pray to His Heavenly Father for strength in His coming ordeal. He asked the Apostles to come with Him to pray and support Him in this hour of anguish, as He wrestled with doing God’s will by being crucified on the cross for our sins. It says that, He was sweating blood because, His mental and physical torment was so great. In addition, it says an angel came to Him and strengthened Him and the struggle was lifted and He was encouraged. When He went back to see the Apostles, they were all asleep and He said to them, “Couldn’t you support Me for a while in my hour of need?” Right after this, the mob came to get Him being led by Judas, who kissed Him to show them who it was he was betraying. The Apostles said “Lord we will defend you and strike them with a sword, and one of them cut off the ear of the high priest.” Jesus said, “No let them take Me and He healed the man’s ear.”

This shows me how much we have to learn about being humble and putting ourselves in the hands of God to fulfill His will. We’re either not humbling and seeking God in prayer as we should or we are running around being religious, spouting are distaste’s and putting judgment and giving our opinion acting like fools, not understanding God’s purposes and His ways. There is so much for us to learn from Him, so we can become the people He always wanted us to be.

Hebrews 5:7 tells us, “In the days that Jesus lived in the flesh on this earth. He offered up definite and special petitions for the things that He not only wanted, but also needed and He begged earnestly with strong crying and tears to His Heavenly Father who always was able to save Him from death, and God heard Him because of His reverence toward God. (His desire to walk in total obedience to His will). He shrank from the horrors of being separated and being out of the presence of His Heavenly Father. He was God’s Son and He actively sought after and learned obedience through the things that He suffered.” We have to have the same passion that Jesus had if we’re going to learn about Him and His servant hood.

There is much more to say on this subject because, we’re talking about the life of Jesus, the man who is the Christ, the God man.

The book of Hebrews tells us that, “Jesus is our High Priest or mediator between us and God the Father.” In Hebrews 4:15-16 it says, “ we have a High Priest who is able to sympathize and has a fellow feeling with our weaknesses and infirmities and understands our temptations, because when He was human, He was also tempted like us and it said He had the strength to not sin or miss God’s perfect will.” If we understand this type of humility, it will show us how to fearlessly and bodily draw near to God and we will be able to receive His mercy on those areas of our lives, which He wants to change in us.

When we allow humility to have its perfect way, we become meek meaning, submissive and compliant in our relationship with the Lord. In Matthew 5:5 Jesus said, “Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.” In my studies over the years, I read a meaning of meekness that means a lot to me. It helps me to see if my attitude is alert and active in understanding God’s ways. It goes like this.

The meek man is not a human mouse afflicted with a sense of his own inferiority. Rather, he may be in his moral life as bold as a lion and as strong as Samson; but he has stopped being fooled by himself. He has accepted God’s estimate of his life. He knows he is weak and helpless as God has declared him to be, but even if this sounds absurd, he knows at the same time, he has great worth in God’s sight and that he is more important than the angels. Hanging out with God daily will create this type of spirit within you.

As you can see, taking the gift of rest is taking on the life of Jesus the Christ Himself. His yoke is us taking on the same needs and weak vulnerability to human situations and emotions that He had when he was in the flesh. This He encountered in His endeavor to fulfill His Heavenly Father’s will for His life. This was part of the servant hood qualities He took on to become a human being. It is necessary and normal for us to feel threatened, when we encounter situations and peer pressure of all types. It keeps us dependent on God’s strength to over come these pressures.

Paul the Apostle in 11 Corinthians 12:7-10 had this encounter in his growing pains while being perfected in his walk with the Lord. He said, “To keep me from being puffed up or prideful and being over concerned about keeping my reputation. There was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger from Satan that kept me from becoming prideful. Three times, I called on the name of the Lord to set me free from this condition. God’s answer to me was my grace, favor, and mercy are enough for you, and it will give you all the power you need, to handle your failures and short comings that you will encounter, and you will be able to bear up with it as a man. My strength and power is made perfect, and is more effective, when you are in a weakened condition” When Paul understood what God was saying, he said, “I am now more encouraged and can take heart in my infirmities, insults, persecutions and distresses, for when I am weak in (human strength) then I am (truly) strong in (divine strength.)”

It’s only with us having a passion and abandoning our lives to Him that will allow this attitude in Jesus to become a reality in us. God help us to surrender to His ways of living the Christian life and learn how to give Him our yokes that, so many of us have carried around for days and years. His yoke is light and easy to carry because He Lived and Carried it and, He is still Caring for us right now.