Canaan, and the Rest of God
Canaan, and the Rest of God
The Rest of God
Entering God's Rest
Canaan, and the Rest of God
The rest of God is the state of being in which we always know what God's will is, and have the desire, wisdom, and strength to perform it.
We have to fight to enter the rest of God, which is our land of promise. The sins in our flesh and spirit, our adamic nature, and Satan will resist us at every turn.
The Rest of God
So metimes people are tempted to create their own Heaven and earth. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth the way He wants them. The design was completed, all the way through to the coming down of the new earth from the new sky. The life of each one of his elect was written on the pages of a book. Then God rested. All He asks of us is to enter his rest.
My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. (Psalms 139:15,16)
It is not true that every individual lives according to what is written in the book of his or her life. Some are disobedient, preferring their own way to God's way. In this case, God makes an adjustment so his eternal plan will be fulfilled. But when this happens, and it may happen more often than we could wish, there is loss for God, for the individual, and for mankind.
The subject of the Book of Hebrews is the "rest of God." The fourth chapter of Hebrews exhorts us to "make every effort to enter that rest," to cease from our own works. We can perceive that by the phrase "make every effort" we are not speaking of relaxing into a state of passivity but of fighting forward against every obstacle that would attempt to keep us from doing God's perfect will for our life.
As far as God's elect are concerned, those chosen to be conformed to the image of Christ that they may become his brothers, their destiny and role in the Kingdom of God was planned from the beginning of the world. Then God rested. Now the Spirit of God shall bring all this to pass.
Each member of the elect, of the Royal Priesthood, is to endeavor to cooperate with the Spirit of God until he is living every moment in that perfect will of God, the will that is leading him to his foreordained destiny. This is to live by every Word that comes from the mouth of God.
The paragraph above may appear to the reader impossible of fulfillment in his or her life. It is not. It is the only acceptable Christian position. If we make up out mind that we want to live by every Word that comes from the mouth of God, and tell Jesus about it, then that eventually will be true of us.
Is He who created the galaxies of stars unable to fulfill this in you, who are merely a collection of dust?
The work of conforming us to the image of Christ and bringing us into the role in the Kingdom we are to perform for eternity is already established in God's mind. But God has given us a will of our own whereby we can choose to live our own life apart from the Spirit of God, following our own desires and ambitions and the numerous ideas and suggestions that seek to entice us away from abiding in Christ.
Or we can employ our time and strength in striving to find and press into the Spirit of God each moment of each day and night.
It is of the utmost importance that we strive always to do God's will, to seek in this manner to enter God's rest. All things in the creation are working for good for God's elect. When the firstfruits of the elect have been brought to maturity they will be revealed with Christ to the created world. It will be their task, as Christ guides and empowers them, to set the creation free from the bondage of corruption.
During six days, God created all things through to the coming down from the new sky of the heavenly Jerusalem. The destiny and role in the Kingdom of God of each member of the elect was finished during the six days. Then God rested, having completed his work.
The eternal decree was pronounced in the beginning:
Man is to be a son of God.
Man is to be in the image and likeness of God.
Man is to be male and female. It requires male and female to complete the image of God.
Man is to be fruitful and multiply.
Man is to have dominion over all the works of God's hands.
Each part of the eternal decree has an animal fulfillment. Each part of the eternal decree shall have an enormously superior fulfillment in Jesus Christ.
Our task in life is to enter that rest, that finished work of God, that we might attain fully to the destiny and role in God's Kingdom that at the time of the creation has been spoken concerning us as an individual.
In fact, if we are to be able to stand throughout the age of moral horrors that is approaching the United States of America, and to help others to stand, we will have to be dead-living saints. In the dark hour that is ahead, only Christ can work; and He will work through us.
We must be able to testify as the Apostle Paul did, "I am crucified with Christ. I am living, but actually it is Christ who is living in me." This must be our testimony if we are to be among the Lord's firstfruits who will appear with Him and install the Kingdom of God upon the earth.
Therefore, let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it. (Hebrews 4:1—NASB)
Entering God's Rest
God worked for six days. Then He rested. During those six days He created not only the physical creation but also the Kingdom of God, all the way through to the coming down of the new Jerusalem to rest upon the new earth—and beyond. At that time the names of his elect were written in His book. Since this is true, our task in life is to press into that to which we have been predestined. As Paul said, we are to grasp that for which we have been grasped.
My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. (Psalms 139:15,16—NIV)
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. (Romans 8:28-30—NIV)
It seems to me that the passage above implies that mankind is divided into those who have a special calling, an election assigned to them, and those who do not.
There have been many arguments in time past about the possibility of an elect who are predestined to be saved. These arguments are vain, for the following reasons:
First, the elect are not called to be saved but to be brothers of Christ, being conformed to his image. Anyone who chooses to do so can believe in Christ, be baptized in water, and thus be saved.
Second, the Scriptures teach with utmost clarity that there is the Church, the new Jerusalem, the elect, and then nations of saved people who walk in the light of the new Jerusalem. Whoever chooses to do so may receive Jesus Christ as the Lord of his or her life, and be saved.
Third, being predestined and called does not mean we are going to attain to our high calling no matter how we live. It is entirely possible for us to lose our crown of life and righteousness. The Scriptures teach this fact also with utmost clarity.
Since any believer can validate the above three facts by searching the Scriptures, I would like to pass on to the present burden: entering the rest of God.
Therefore, let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it. (Hebrews 4:1—NASB)
The rest of God is the state of being in which we always know what God's will is, and have the desire, wisdom, and strength to perform it.
It is surprising that the writer of the Book of Hebrews should scold the believers as though they were baby Christians. The fact is, they were advanced in doctrine and in experience further than most of us.
Look what they considered to be the elementary aspects of salvation:
Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, instruction about cleansing rites, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. (Hebrews 6:1,2)
What do most of us know about the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment? In place of the doctrine of the resurrection we have a silly, unscriptural "rapture."
Next Part And as to experience: