What is the Rest (Part 1)

Hebrews 4:9-11 (NKJV) ⁹  There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. ¹⁰  For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His. ¹¹  Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience.

As we have been looking at Israel’s journey from bondage in Egypt to destiny in Canaan, we have discovered that this is a type of the journey every believer takes in their Christian walk.  I also believe that it is very relevant in our day for the body of Christ as a whole.  Israel was living in a pivotal time in their history and I think we are as well.  Israel had to complete their journey to Canaan so that the Messiah could be born their.  We must come to our destiny as the Body of Christ so that the Messiah can continue to be preached in the world.

The first thing Israel was required to do as they started on this journey of learning was to learn to follow the leading of the Spirit of God as manifested in the pillar of fire and the pillar of cloud.  This supernatural guide caused them to be where God wanted them to be, when he wanted and for as long as he wanted.  This guide led them all the way to Canaan.  Once there they were to exchange that kind of guidance and the miraculous provision for a land that would sustain.  In their case, God gave them a law to guide them into his will and his way.  However, Hebrews 4 indicates that Israel never entered into the fullness of what God had for them.  Hebrews calls it a rest.  In today’s scripture we find that this rest is still available to the people of God and that someone must enter it. 

This rest has been available for all in the church.  It is a main component of walking in our Godly destiny.  Many have entered it.  More born again believers have not entered the fullness of the rest than have.  Israel had to enter in to a certain level just to physically occupy the land.  However, that is not all there is to it.  Israel constantly failed to walk in God’s ways.  The law was a guide that they could never fully follow.  They were not born again as Jesus taught in John 3.  We on the other hand are.  We can enter into that which Israel could not.  Salvation gives us the ability to enter it but it is our choice whether we do. 

What is this rest?  In Israel’s case it was a place.  Israel was a physical nation called to a spiritual purpose.  We are a Spiritual people called to a spiritual purpose that will affect the physical world.  Our world needs that influence desperately.  We have already seen some aspects of what this rest is.  Verse 10 gives us an important insight.  Like God rested on the seventh day of creation, a characteristic of the rest available to you and me is that we must cease from our own works.  What does that mean.

I think it means two things.  First, we must stop trying to do God’s will in the natural alone.  We will never enter the rest God has for us as long as we depend on natural wisdom, natural means and natural abilities alone.  One of the reasons God had to remove Moses from Egypt and change his entire way of thinking was because he was so qualified in the natural.  All his natural qualifications were irrelevant when it came to leading Israel out of Egypt.  They were useless when what was needed were plagues, Passover and the parting of a sea.  We must understand that, although God will use our natural gifts and abilities, they are not enough for what is needed today.  We must come to a place where we cease from our own works.

Second, we must begin to understand that the priority of our lives must be his works as opposed to ours.  We must find out what he wants from us.  We must focus on his will and his ways not our own.  Paul said it this way.

Colossians 3:1-2 (NKJV) ¹  If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. ²  Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.

The original King James Bible says we should set our affections on things above.  Both words give us a clear picture of what we must do if we will “cease from our own works.”  We must allow the things of God to take a main place in our thinking and we must also focus our affections or desires on those things and not the earthly.  Only then will we cease from our own works.

When we try to do those two things with will power or just natural discipline we find very quickly that we will fail.  There must be something more at work.  We must enter the rest, but what is this rest and how do we get there?  I think we will find an answer in the life of Israel.  God led them to the land of rest with a supernatural guide or influence that they had to be willing to follow.  They could not move if this guide did not move.  If they tried, they would have gotten lost since they were not on the familiar, normal trade routes.  They had no choice once they began but to follow.

In our case it is both the same and different.  Once we are born again, we are in a world that must be navigated in a very different way.  We have a destiny in God.  There is a life for us that is far superior to anything the world can offer.  We must follow the guide God provides if we are going to navigate successfully through the obstacles that face us.  However, our guide is not physical.  There is no pillar of cloud or fire that will lead us to where we need to go.  What we have is what Jesus said he would give us.  Another comforter called the Spirit of Truth that will lead us into everything Jesus wants us to have (John 16:13.)  It is a helper and guide that is not outside of us but inside (1 John 2:27.)  It is the indwelling abiding presence of the Holy Spirit of God.

To me, Hebrews 4:11 is pivotal to how successful we will be in following that guide to the place of rest.  It says that we should labor to enter the rest so that no one will fall through disobedience.  That is and interesting statement.  How will following this inward guide keep us from failing because of disobedience.  The answer is that if we make entering this rest our priority, we simply will not disobey.  Let me quote again a scripture I quoted in the last post.

Galatians 5:14-18 (NKJV) ¹⁴  For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” ¹⁵  But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another! ¹⁶  I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. ¹⁷  For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. ¹⁸  But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

There is a great deal in this section of scripture.  All the law is fulfilled if we can “love our neighbor as we love ourselves.”  Yet he points out that they were “biting and devouring one another.”  This is not going to bring them to a place of destiny and rest.  Verse 16 gives us the solution.  If we could walk in the spirit we would not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.  If we could do that, whatever that is, we would not “bite and devour” one another.  Why not?

There are two forces at work to govern our behavior.  One is the flesh.  I have heard the flesh called the union of the body with the intellect, emotions and will.  When those two things control our behavior it will result in strife, problems and failure.  We will not be at rest.  He says there is a solution.  The flesh and the spirit fight against one another.  Those who are controlled or led by the spirit are not under the law.  They are not trying to overcome their flaws by self effort.  If they “walk in the Spirit, they will not fulfill their lower tendencies.  They will enter a rest.  We will continue this in our next post.  Be sure to look for it.

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The Pillar of Fire and the Pillar of Cloud

Hebrews 4:4-10 (NKJV) ⁴  For He has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all His works”; ⁵  and again in this place: “They shall not enter My rest.” ⁶  Since therefore it remains that some must enter it, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience, ⁷  again He designates a certain day, saying in David, “Today,” after such a long time, as it has been said: “Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts.” ⁸  For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day. ⁹  There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. ¹⁰  For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.

In our last post, we began to look at the journey Israel took from Egypt to the promised land of Canaan.  This was not just a journey from one place to another.  It was a journey from bondage to destiny.  God had promised Israel a homeland.  A homeland requires that there be a nation to occupy it.  The physical location of this homeland was to be strategic at the time the Messiah is born.  It will be at the crossroads of the world.  Israel must learn how to become a nation that is dedicated to God and serves him alone.  They must become a channel through which God can bring the savior of the whole world. 

As I said in our last post, this is not just a journey Israel must take.  It is the journey every believer must take once they receive salvation so they can leave the bondage of sin behind and enter into the destiny that God has for each one of us.  However, as each of us walk the path to Canann, the corporate Body of Christ must also leave behind bondage to the world and rise up in righteousness and the power of God.  This is necessart so each generation of the church can fulfill its call.  We are no different.  We face great challenges and God expects us to overcome them and preach the Gospel in our day.

Israel’s journey began with great power.  They had nothing to do with their release from captivity.  Moses was their deliverer.  That meant he delivered the Word of God to the worldly powers that held them.  It also meant that he became the channel for the power of God that set them free.  They did nothing until the Red Sea.  At the Red Sea they had to take a step of faith as they walked through the waters that brought them to the other side.  Still it was Moses who held the rod that parted the sea, not them.

We begin our journey with a great manifestation of the power of God provided not by our works or even by our faith, but by the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. 

Colossians 2:13-15 (NKJV) ¹³  And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, ¹⁴  having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. ¹⁵  Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.

Just as Israel could not part the Red Sea we could not disarm principalities and powers nor pay the penalty for sin.  Jesus did that.  Just as Israel only needed to walk through the waters to get to the other side, we only need to receive what he did as having been done for us.  We must believe that God raised Jesus from the dead and accept his Lordship over our lives.  If we do those things sincerely, we shall be saved (Romans 10:9-10.)  

Ephesians 2:8 tells us all that Jesus did was through grace.  We did not deserve it.  We did nothing to produce it.  All we need to do is access what Jesus did by faith.  Once they were through the Red Sea, they still did not produce the power that sustained them.  That was all God as he worked and directed them through Moses.  In our day, Jesus is the source of all things. 

In their day there was something they had to do if they were going to fulfill their destiny in God.  They had to follow the pillar of fire by day and the pillar of cloud by night.  They did not move unless the pillar moved.  They stopped when the pillar stopped.  In this way they were always where God needed them to be when he needed them to be there. 

In our journey from bondage to destiny, we do not have a pillar of cloud or of fire to follow.  However we do have a guiding force in our lives that is just as real though not to our physical eyes.

John 16:13 (NKJV)  However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.

Here Jesus calls this guide the spirit of truth who will “guide you (us) into all truth.  This same John also spoke of the “anointing that abides within.”

1 John 2:27 (NKJV)  But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him.

John is not saying we do not need teachers in general.  He is saying that there is a “spirit of truth” that abides within the believer that will lead and guide him in his journey to destiny. 

Paul adds to this idea in Galatians 5. 

Galatians 5:16 (NKJV)  I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

All of these scriptures are pointing to the same thing.  There is a helper called the Holy Spirit or the Spirit of Truth that is an anointing that abides within us.  He will lead us and guide us on our journey from bondage to destiny.  Hebrews 4 speaks of the same thing as well.  In today’s scripture he ties this directly to Israel’s journey to the promised land. 

God promised Israel a rest in their new homeland.  It was to be a place of supernatural blessing and supernatural living.  If they had truly entered into the rest of faith God wanted for them, I think they would not have been invaded and led into captivity.  However, once the pillars that they followed in the wilderness were gone they did not seem to know how to follow God.  They had the Word of God left by Moses, but they did not understand that it was not just a physical word but a spiritual one as well.  

In Hebrews 4, we find that there was something left undone by Joshua’s generation.  Indeed we find that it was actually reserved for us.  If we will mix the promise of an inward guide with faith, we can enter a new kind of rest.  It is a rest from doing our own works.  It is a rest from trying to serve God our own way.  It is a rest of following God and walking in his presence instead of relying on our ways, our abilities and our wisdom. 

Just as Israel had to be willing to follow the two pillars in the wilderness, we must be willing to follow two pillars in our lives as well.  One is the pillar of the Written word of God, the Bible.  The other is the  active presence of the comforter that dwells and  speaks within us.  He will let us know when to move and where to go.  He will lead us into all truth if we follow him.  The question is, do we know him.  Do we cultivate his voice so we can hear him.  Will we obey him when he guides us.  Or do we simply live life under our own direction, going where we want to go and doing what we want to do.  Only one way leads to destiny.  The other leads to defeat and frustration.  I do not know about you but I want the former, not the latter.

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Israel’s Journey from Bondage to Destiny

Exodus 13:21 (NKJV)  And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so as to go by day and night.

We have been looking at Israel’s encounter at the Red Sea.  I believe this was significant because it was God that led them into the situation.  The Egyptian army was behind them and the Red Sea in front of them.  Whichever way they went, it looked like death.  However, God had a plan.  He was going to destroy the Egyptian army once and for all.

I believe God often does the same thing in our lives.  He leads us into things that look bad, but he has a plan that will defeat our enemy.  I believe this is especially relevant to the church as a whole today.  Things look bad.  I do not think the church is in an especially strong place in the spirit.  Media, culture and some political leaders seem committed to destroying the Bible believing church or at least making it irrelevant.  I believe this is God’s design.  I also believe he has a plan.  I do not know exactly what it is, but I do know that in historical times like these we often see a move of God.  That is what I think is going to happen now.  What that will look like, I do not know, but I know that God is in control!

The Red Sea was only the beginning of Israel’s journey.  There were many things God needed to teach them and develop in their corporate life.  They were nothing more than a group of slaves when they left Egypt.  Although they had a family identity, they were far too large to function that way.  They needed to become a nation.  They needed to grow up into what they had to be to fulfill their destiny in God.  The place of that destiny was Canaan.  Before they got their they would have to become much more than what they were when they left Egypt. 

It is important to note that there were established trade routes through the wilderness from Egypt to Canaan.  When God told them to go to the specific location by the Red Sea, he took them off any of these routes.  That is why Pharaoh thought they were lost.  They were not lost, they were following the specific and personal direction of God. 

The journey should have been about 600 miles.  Average walking speed of 3 miles per hour would have gotten them to Canaan in about 6 weeks.  The actual journey took 40 years.  I believe it could have been much shorter if the generation that left Egypt as slaves could have cooperated with the transformation God wanted to do in them.  They could not.  It was necessary that the slave generation die in the wilderness so that the new “nation” identity could immerge. 

The 40 year period has a symbolic significance as well.  It represents transformation, learning and spiritual growth.  That is exactly what God was doing in them.  I believe he wanted the first Generation to be able to go into the promised land.  He gave them time to grow and the opportunity to go in.  According to some accounts it was one year from the time of their deliverance from Egypt to the first scouting expedition into Canaan.  Ten of the twelve spies said, “We cannot take the land.  The people are too great and the cities too strong.”  This led to thirty-nine more years of wandering in the wilderness. 

A whole generation missed out on what God wanted to do in their lives.  They saw God move for them many times.  God supernaturally provided for them with the Manna from heaven.  He provided water from a rock that followed them.  Their shoes and clothes never wore out for the whole wilderness journey.  They won battles against enemies.  Nevertheless, they never entered the land that God had promised to give them. 

To us it may seem that this period of miraculous provision was the highest form of living in God’s best.  It was not.  His will was for them to occupy a land that flowed with milk and honey.  He wanted them to grow and mature to the point where miracle provision would be replaced with provision born from a supernatural life.  The land of Canaan was to be an example of God’s blessing to the World.  They never got to their destiny because they would not grow up.

As I have gone over this period in Israel’s history, it is clear that it is not just an historical journey taken by one group of people.  It is also a spiritual journey that every believer takes in their own walk with Christ.  God does not save us for the wilderness alone.  He has something more important for us.  He saves us for our “Canaan”, not so much a promised land, but a land of promises.  Many Christians never get there.  Others get their partially but never fully enter and occupy what God has for them.  Some do, but I think far too few. 

This has important significance for each individual believer.  God has something better for you than simply getting by.  Your relationship with Jesus is not a religious practice that has a place in your life.  It is meant to be the central thing.  It should dominate your lifestyle, your experiences and your thinking.  It should determine how you see the world and respond to it.  The promises of God are yes and amen according to 2 Corinthians 1:20.  Those promises should become the channel for the provision of every need of life. 

Matthew 6:31-33 (NKJV) ³¹  Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³²  For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. ³³  But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

When necessary, God will provide through miraculous means.  However, that is the exception not the rule.  God wants to provide for you through the process of your relationship to him as you live in his presence.  That is the highest dimension of living in the power of God.  There is a reason for that.  When we constantly need miracles for provision, that means we must be focused on our own lives.  When we grow up into spiritual adulthood, we can fight battles for others.  We can become a channel for the miraculous to touch them while we simply rest in the provision and power of God in life.

That was the will of God for Israel in Canaan.  They were supposed to come to a place of rest in him so that they could be an example and blessing to the whole world.  The ultimate manifestation of this would be the Messiah.  I believe it could have been much more, but Israel never did fully walk into their destiny.  This was inevitable for them because they did not have the same relationship nor the same covenant that we do.  We can enter what God wanted for them, but we must be willing to give Jesus the proper place in our lives. We must let him do in us what he needs to so we can become what he wants us to be, and walk in the fullness of our individual and corporate destiny.

This is important for you and me.  It is also important for the world because of the time in which we live.  The church will never be the force for God in the world that it needs to be if we, as the Church of Jesus Christ, do not rise up and take our place in the story God is writing for us.  I believe we can learn from Israel’s journey in the wilderness.  We can learn what to do and what not to do.  We can follow them to the promised land and cross over the Jordan with them.  We must, however, do what they never fully did.  We must enter the rest of destiny as we walk according to his direction and his promise. 

The first step for Israel was to abandon the normal route they could have taken through life, and be willing to follow the Spirit of God as he led them with a pillar of fire by day and cloud by night.  This is what we are going to look at as we continue with them from bondage to destiny.

For Audio Messages Visit: https://anchor.fm/bill-kiefer or search Practical Wisdom from the Word of God or Bill Kiefer on Spotify or where you listen to podcasts.