Blog In Audio:
Greetings,
I believe that God is bringing us into a greater awareness and reality of His manifest presence in our lives. He is not interested in blessing our ways, He is interested in putting His ways in our hearts and minds. When God’s ways are within us, our works will be a testimony of His ways. Being born again in Christ has empowered us to be new creations in Christ. In the first creation, man’s first day was a day of God resting in his life. It was from that place that the next six days could be days of purpose motivated by God’s presence in man. This is the design to fulfill the mandate. Unless we live from God’s presence in our lives, we will strive to find His presence outside of us. Jesus came that we might be new creations in Christ and do the works that have been prepared for us in Christ.
Ephesians 2:4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
The exceeding riches of Christ, and the good works of Christ in our lives, are the result of God resting in our lives and we resting in Him. The Promised Land is not some place outside of us, but an internal knowing of Christ within us were we know the internal testimony of righteousness, peace, and joy of the Holy Spirit in and for all things. This is the place of true rest that empowers us in life to be life to our world. As leaders we must set an example and inspire this truth in those we lead.
Hebrews 4:1 Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. 2 For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. 3 For we who have believed do enter that rest, as He has said: “So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest,’ ” although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. 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.”
It is by believing in Him, that we enter true rest. This is not a believing that He is, but a believing Him as He resides in our hearts and minds in this world. Most people don’t know His rest, because they don’t know Him. They don’t believe Him because they don’t know His presence, His heart, and His purpose of life. Knowing Him only comes by knowing His presence in our lives. Not around us, but inside our hearts. This is the place of true rest. Without knowing His rest within us, we end up pursuing the works of self. When we pursue the works of self, we redefine rest as it should be defined. We define rest as a place of being exhausted and needing recuperation. This is self-focused rest. God’s rest is one of satisfaction, expectation, and purpose filled vision. God rested after He put His likeness and image in the earth – the creation of man. He knew there was hope for every formless, void, and out of order place in the earth because He was resting in His likeness and image in the earth.
God’s rest inspires faith, hope, and love for the task set before us. Knowing God in our lives will inspire faith, a supernatural response that comes by hearing Him in our hearts. It inspires hope, an understanding that expects life and a testimony of life in all things. It inspires love, a willingness to be a giver of life and not a taker of life in all things. God resting in our lives is the source of our true identity, testimony, and purpose in life.
Leaders – see Him resting in your life before you see the task before you. Unless you see Him, you will be distracted by the deception of self-seeking agendas and self-seeking ways. Don’t just be God-seekers, be God-abiders! Let Him abide in you and you abide in Him. By this you will know the unshakeable things of faith, hope, and love! Inspire this in the house of God!
Food For Thought,
Ted J. Hanson
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