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THE MINISTRY OF HIS REST

For the LORD says,” Matt 11:28-12:1
28 Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
30 For my yoke are easy, and my burden is light.
KJV
     
In the hubbub of this world I feel the Lord saying that we MUST COME APART WITH HIM, or we will come apart.  

Isa 30:15-16
15 for thus saith the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel; in returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and ye would not.
16 but ye said, no; for we will flee upon horses; therefore, shall ye flee: and, we will ride upon the swift; therefore, shall they that pursue you be swift.
KJV

I have very often heard this scripture quoted out of context, specifically, that is; ‘in returning and rest shall we be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength’.

I found it interesting when I went in to the concordance, the word return, means exactly that.   The word rest is implied quietness, and the word quietness meaning to be still. To me we will find our salvation (deliverance, victory), and when we wait on GOD, (quietness) we will find our strength. He is not just telling us to sit in a corner, or lay down, quietly, with no activity.  It implies trusting Him in a greater way in our situations.

I flipped over to Isaiah 32: Isa 32:17
17 And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance forever.
KJV

Righteousness means, right standing with God, Peace there means; favor, prosperity, quietness, peace, rest means stillness. To me these two scriptures are clearly related.  
Many of us make out own problems, and hinder our own deliverance, by stepping out to make something happen, when we don’t get an immediate answer, and take matters into our own hands.

The second part of Isaiah 30:15 and verse 16 says that the LORD was offering deliverance and salvation through returning and rest, and the people did not want it.  They fretted, worried and took matters into their own hands.  Ever been there?
We don’t trust God enough or know HIS nature well enough to trust Him with our own hearts desires (which by the way HE put there), and we take matters into our own hands.

Hence failure follows us, our enemies over take us, and then we blame it on Him or ourselves, or others.

Do we get to the place of righteousness then if we suffer from unbelief that drives us to; take things into our own hands? 

The bible says without faith it is impossible to please GOD;
Heb 11:6
6 but 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.
KJV

Human nature tells us that we need to be a part of our own solutions.  I have not been able to find that in the Word, other than us being obedient and worshipful sons of GOD.

In 2 Chronicles 2, the direction to Jehoshaphat was to put praise singers on the front line…As the singers began the LORD set the ambushments against Israel’s enemies, and they destroyed themselves.  It took them three says to collect the spoil.

In Exodus 14;
Ex 14:13-14
13 And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will shew to you today: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen today, ye shall see them again no more forever.
14 The LORD shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.
KJV

Is it not the faith of God via the Holy Spirit that woos us to salvation?

So what I feel the message here is that in order to get to the rest of GOD, a place of prosperity and favor, and those undisturbed places place of rest, and secure dwellings, the place of confidence and assurance, we need to take up His Yoke, which is light.  We need to shed the yokes of this world.  We need to daily seek Him for the day’s agenda. We need to stand still and place fix our thoughts on HIM.  We need to be Mary’s not Martha’s.  

In 1992 HE brought me to a place of what I would call ‘extreme bridling”. Otherwise known as the ‘short leash’.

I felt the Spirit of the Lord calling me to ask HIM specific daily directions for daily tasks that were rote to me.  People that new would laugh at me, telling me, “God gave us brains and He expects we would use them, and not bother Him”.  I retorted and told them that I was being taken to a new level in my walk that required radical obedience, and that the brain I had was indeed from Him, however He wanted to know if I would surrender it to HIS PLANS, PURPOSES and AGENDAS.   I was more than willing.  I had come to a place of extreme failure.  What I was doing had not worked?! I was at the place of what did I have to lose, my way has not worked to date. I believe for me that these failures were used by the Lord trying to give me course corrections, I needed.  Fortunately for me, I got His memo.

As I began this walk I found a place of favor, provision and joy that I had never experienced before.  I found the miraculous, I found a depth of HIS voice I had never experienced, I found joy, rest, and a new level of the anointing. I found the secret place of Psalm 91, the intimate knowledge of His love.

HE wanted to know if HE could trust me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was about being set apart to Him, it is about Holiness!   About walking the walk which is a finer line that I could have ever imagined. Was I willing to trust Him, before He released the “icing on the cake’. He wanted to know if He was really Lord of my life.  It was the most awesome discovery, and year of my life!

How many of us profess Jesus is Lord of our lives, is He really?  Can we stand still and wait for Him to come?  How many of us have been suffering with Ishmael’s because of impatience?  How many of us curse God, and give up because He has not met our time frame? He is not limited to our time or calendar.  How many of us have drifted from Him, call ourselves Christians, and still expect all the benefits of the promises?  Yes, it He is a covenant God, but is it not us that have broken covenant?

He is blowing a new trumpet, and the sound is a TRUMPET CALL TO HOLINESS.  But HE does not want us to stress, HE wants us to rest, and not strive, we are the ones that have rejected it.

We think we can leap tall buildings with a single bound, truth is;
Jeremiah 12:5
5 "If you have raced with men on foot
And they have worn you out,
How can you compete with horses?
NIV

Unbelief and faithlessness will keep us from entering into His Rest.  

We are all at an appointed in time when we cannot afford any more natural results, we need the supernatural!  We won’t see it until we enter into His rest.  We need to get into the attitude of rest and until we get into that place we will not have His revelation knowledge of His character and love, and plans for our life.  There may be too much “static” on our line, for Him to get through to us.  I will end with His Word; it is pretty straight forward! Do not tarry enter into His rest today!

Heb 4:1-5:1
4:1 therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us are careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. 2 For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith.  3 Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said,

"So I declared on oath in my anger,
'They shall never enter my rest.'"

And yet his work has been finished since the creation of the world. 4 For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in these words: "And on the seventh day God rested from all his work."  5 And again in the passage above he says, "They shall never enter my rest."

6 It still remains that some will enter that rest, and those who formerly had the gospel preached to them did not go in, because of their disobedience. 7 Therefore God again set a certain day, calling it today, when a long time later he spoke through David, as was said before:

"Today, if you hear his voice,
Do not harden your hearts."  

8 for if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. 9 There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; 10 for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. 11 Let us; therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience.

12 For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. 13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. 15 for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are-yet were without sin. 16 Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need”. NIV

Josephine M. Ayers
Flames of Fire Ministries

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