Roger: The rest of the Lord does not mean that everything ceases in our lives in the way of His bringing us forth, the emptying out of self, His nature being established in us. Those are all things God’s doing in us, and they can lead to quite a bit of consternation. Every now and then there’s a confidence we can have in Him.
What does the Scripture say? That He who began a good work in you will complete it unto the day of Christ. I believe that’s the way it goes. He is our promise. He is our covenant. He is everything that we’re looking for and need. I was thinking how at times I could—this may make sense—some of us at times, even with all of our hustle and bustle to know the Lord, for lack of a better word, our hustle and bustle to seek Him and to study and to know Him.
Sometimes, if we’re honest and we look, there’s still a little place in our heart that’s not quite satisfied. Maybe we turn up the gas on the stove to somehow feel that by seeking Him harder. But I don’t think that’s it. There’s a place of rest we can move into in the Lord Jesus that satisfies us right down to the root. It doesn’t mean the dealings go away or anything goes away.
I think that’s been a misconception about His rest—that somehow we just rest and all His… well, that’s not it. Down deep in our spirit, we can have the assurance that we’re in His hands, and again, what He began in us, He is going to complete it. Everything we go through in the middle will begin and finish.
We can rest. Even though He comes forth in us—what does it say—conquering and to conquer, that is not fun. It hurts a lot because there’s something of us that’s getting crucified. And yet, we can know in our hearts the assurance that what He began, He’s going to complete it. His rest—but He’s doing a work in us as well.
I want to be pleasing to Him. I’m not very pleasing to myself, and I don’t feel like I may be very pleasing to others. I tell you, man, that is just something so true. The deeper God goes in our hearts, the more displeasure we have with ourselves. But that’s the good pleasure of Him, to be able to do that in us, and that we can rest in Him.
Because it’s indicative of the Lord going deep in our spirits and in our hearts, and we do rest that this is the work of the Lord. We’ve had a lot of words about coming up higher, moving up into higher places in Christ. How do you do that? And we hear things occasionally—well, our hunger, we hunger after the Lord, we worship Him all the more.
We seek Him all the more, and none of that is adequate, is what I’m getting at—appropriation. That’s certainly a reality in the Lord that we learn to appropriate. There’s not much we can do but have our hearts ache before God, continue on, and to bring us into a higher place in Him. And that’s where this rest business comes in.
Again, we can agonize in our hearts over what we’re yet to be, and we rest and acknowledge that the Lord is doing it. And that’s all there is in these levels that we’ve come to. Our energy ceases, and yet the travail of our heart does not cease. We just begin to rest in Him with an assurance that what He has begun in us, He’s going to complete it.
Rob: One Scripture that I’ve just been pondering quite a bit is in Galatians 2:20: I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So the life I now live in the body, the fleshly frame, I live because of the faithfulness of the Son of God.
Also, I think of the Colossians where my life is hidden with Christ in God, and how many times Paul talks about you have no life in the world—your life is in Christ, and He in you. And he gets upset: why are you responding to things in the world? For you have died. You don’t live here; you live in Him, and He lives in and through you, for you have died.
Ken: I think there’s something of a level of trust in this whole process that we’re talking about. The important thing is the fact that the body of Christ is a functioning group of cells that are contributing to the whole. And so each one of us is involved in this going forward, or coming up into a different level, and we’re all contributing to that.
It’s important that we love one another. We lay aside any concepts or any ideas about each other, other than they’re my brothers, they’re my sisters in the Lord, and I love them with all my heart. And we’re doing this together.
It’s important, I think, this level of trust that we’re reaching in—that is the rest. When you begin to rest, you trust. Trust is a key factor. And where do we find the trust? Why, it’s in the Word. We feed on the Word. We believe the Word. We eat the Word. If the Word’s imparted to our spirit, it’s a key that ignites each one of us, because our connection with the Father in this whole process is the most important part. Where do we get in touch with the Father? In His Word.
Roger: We walk together in this. We’re not just a bunch of individuals with our own interests and focus. We can have those, that’s for sure, wherever God’s leading us personally. But for the big picture, we are one body in Jesus Christ. We must walk together in this revelation.
Rick: We tend to think, “Oh, if I just knew enough, understood more, if I could just have some more knowledge.” But it’s not knowledge; it comes by impartation. If we just sit there in His arms, what’s happening? There’s impartation coming. So in His presence, things are imparted to us. Your mind may not be active at all or able to comprehend it, or your mind may get snippets of it.
So now all of a sudden, “Hey, the Lord showed me this.” That’s because you’re in His presence.
Ken: I know that we’re striving to enter into this rest, but we’re already in it. We’re already in that rest—striving to reach into more. But be encouraged. God has already brought you forth into different levels, different places, different heights.
He’s accomplishing in you what He intended to do, and it is a process. We’re gaining new ground. That’s why He says these are the things you should focus on. I was thinking about that Scripture: Whatsoever things are pure. Keep your eyes on the Lord. Don’t look at what you’re not. Look at what He is.
