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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