New Covenant Rest

In the culture around us "Rest" is not celebrated but seen as avoiding or being lazy.  This is not true of all cultures but especially the American culture values what you "do" more than "being".  I even get tired hearing about some friends vacation plans where they are constantly on the go and there is no "down time".  Yet in stark contrast to all the striving, anxiety, and restlessness there comes Hebrews 4 which talks about a Sabbath rest which is not a day but a state of being through the finished work of Christ.  This is the place we can truly rest because we have been brought into union "in Christ" therefore we share the favor, relationship, and love that the Father has for Jesus.  Jesus said He was going to prepare a place for us.   This grace is far beyond forgiveness, which is incredible mercy.  We cannot conceive of it by only looking from an earthly perspective, we need to experience Heaven to really begin to taste of the Father's great love for us.  I am continuing this journey into the Father's Arms where I can rest in His unconditional love for me, I have found this means exposing many of my anxieties and insecurities.  I believe in Father's love for me He is exposing the roots of these love deficits so He can pour in His healing love.  The command in Scripture is to "...be filled with the Spirit." which means continually, what blocks this is agreements with lies, unbelief, and sin.  Father is lovingly squeezing all of this out so I can be more deeply filled with His Spirit, the New Covenant is all about the Spirit who reveals to us personally what Jesus has done on our behalf.  I believe that true rest does not come from "down time" but from experiencing the secure place in your Abba's arms.  I was given Hebrews 4 as a promise by God for me, I believe over the last few years His Spirit has been working in me to remove anxieties, insecurities, and worries.  Considering some of the instability in my background continuing in faith till promise is manifest in me may take some time.  I love the instant transformation but honestly can't say I have seen that too much in people's lives or my own.  It often seems like a slow building of brick by brick of Promise ("in Christ"), til I come to a point where I can really agree with a Promise in my heart.  I believe true rest is for those who have come to a place of revelation that they know they are a beloved son or daughter secure in their Father's love.  I can say I know this at a head level but the Holy Spirit continues to bring revelation and move me into this place of rest.  I pray that you would invite the Holy Spirit to do a work in your life to bring you into a place of rest, there are things that God will only entrust to sons and daughters.

In Father's Rest,
Bret

What do you want?

This is the question so often asked by Jesus (in different forms).  This is a strange question because religion would not come up with that question for fear of what a person might answer that religion may not be able to deliver.  Religion would seek to tell you what you are looking for and then tell you what you really want.  The reason I bring this up is that at this point in my life, I am 42 years old, I sense my Father asking me the same question.  I had not given this question much attention because first I didn't know if there was an answer and it seems a rather brash question.  Desire is what drives all of us but you have to look closely to understand what truly drives a person.  For the first time in my life I admitted before God and others that I don't really know, I could have given those nice Christian-ease answers (like do the will of God, serve the Lord, or even have Christ be my life).  There would be some truth in these answers but it would not come out of Christ united with me at the deepest part of my being and it would not allow the question to do it's probing work on my heart.  I believe there are some questions that have the ability to dig beyond the skin, even beyond the tissues and reach down into the very bones of our being.  When Jesus would ask this question, it was as if He was reaching into the person's very heart and inviting them to reveal a once hidden place within them.  It seems to me that desire and faith are intertwined.  Jesus would so often say after a healing or a deliverance that their faith had made them well, this is strange because their faith was not very religious or proper but more like raw desire that collided with God/Man Jesus.  Often in religious circles desire is sought to be controlled, squelched, or even killed in the name of being godly.  Desire is messy and often does not fit into the neat boxes we have designed to organize and control life.  Yet Jesus not only welcomes desire but even stirs it up through His probing questions which bring the person's hunger to the forefront.  As I asked a person if they really wanted the affair they were in or to be loved, accepted, cherished, and filled.  I could see that desire had led them into the affair but would eventually be destructive but the desire itself was not bad just the way of getting it filled.  This gives new meaning to the verse, "we like sheep have all gone astray."  It is not circumstances that have led us astray but our desire married to the Lie that we are self-sufficient and independent of God.  We, in the Body of Christ, seem to bemoan people's selfishness and lack of fervor for the Lord but are we somehow missing how to tap into people's desire as Jesus did and then offer Christ flowing through us in power as the solution.  I believe that people have been drawn away by counterfeit affections, not that there desire is bad in the first place.  I believe we could embrace people more lovingly if we learn how to tap into people's deep desires instead of constantly sending them the message that they must control their desire because it is bad.  Maybe its true that God wants to fill our deepest desires, longings, and dreams.  I seem to be too practical or just plain worldly because I gauge my desire according to the resources I possess, this really puts fences around desire.  God even seems to throw gasoline on the fire when in Ephesians 3 the Holy Spirit says through Paul, "...is able to [carry out His purpose and] do superabundantly, far over and above all that we [dare] ask or think [infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes, or dreams]"  That is a lot of gasoline!!!

In Christ who invites us to desire,
Bret

Are you hungry?

The theme of the 6th chapter of John is hunger, food, and Jesus Himself as food.  What was the Father up to through Jesus in this point in His ministry and life?  The miracles, signs, and wonders were not about a show, God was revealing who He was and is.  Jesus in John 6:48 declares, " I am the bread of life" and then invites everyone to eat of His flesh and drink of His blood.  This is clearly not another religion that gives you the rules to follower, when the founder invites you to eat Him.  Jesus often used metaphors and spoke in parables to illustrate a deep spiritual truths.  I was struck by the passage in 2 Peter 1:3-4 where we are told that by receiving the promises of God we will participate in the divine nature and escape the lust in the world.  So could it be that we can eat of Jesus by receiving His revealed promises purchased through His finished work.  In 2 Corinthians 1:20 tells us that all the promises find there "yes" in Christ Jesus and then they are waiting for our "Amen" which means "so be it".   Agreement with heaven means this promise of God will manifest in us through the work of the Holy Spirit what God has said.  How many of us as believers, not only know what the promises of God are but also believe by faith that they will be manifest in us.  There are times when the presence of the Holy Spirit is so thick, the atmosphere of faith is strong, and the hunger of the people of God is present that you come away getting filled by God.  There are other religious environments where the manifest presence of the Spirit is absent and there is not expectation of God but only man; these are not filling but draining.  It is amazing to me the way God seeks to reveal who He is, all the Jews would be familiar with the taking of the Covenant meal but when Jesus said that He was the meal they were disturbed.  The Jewish people of the day saw Jesus through the lens of who they thought he might be, rather than seeing Him through the truth God was revealing.  A tough reality is that we will never see Jesus for who He really is without the revelation by Holy Spirit.  This is why through Jesus 3 year ministry He was constantly revealing who He was and the Father, yet so many misinterpreted who He was or were unwilling to change their paradigm to let Him in.  What promises has the Holy Spirit brought before you through His highlighter pen.  That is one dimension of the Holy Spirit's role to act as a highlighter for the work of Jesus to us.

A Child of Promise,
Bret