Rest

God has been talking a lot about resting in His love. What does it mean to rest in God’s love? What does it look like to step out of our circumstances and into a place of peace and rest in the Father’s heart? This is something I'm learning.

There is a security we have in resting in God’s presence, in His love. When we are so enthralled with who God is, nothing can touch us. Fear no longer has a place. Worry no longer consumes us. When we are so consumed with our Father, we step out of time and into His heart. We can hear His heart beat. We find our identity. We learn who we are, who He is and how we are to respond out of that. He teaches us, moulds us and grows us. He gives us dreams. He comforts us. He restores us.

It is so easy to move out of that place of rest and back into the hectic schedule of our day. We need to stop resisting His love, stand still, and climb into His arms and rest. We can hear His voice so much better when we know how to step out of our circumstances and into His throne room. There is something so sweet, so intimate about a moment where we still our hearts and minds, turn our eyes upward and away from our circumstances and stare into the face of our Father. He smiles over us. He is proud of us. He deeply loves us.

God wanted to make sure Israel understood the importance of rest. Even in the first week of creation, God created a day of rest. He put it into our week for a reason. Later, the Sabbath, the day of rest, was a sign of God’s covenant. Every seventh day, the Israelites were to take a day of rest. It was a sign of the covenant between God and Israel (Ex 31:14-17, Ez 20:20). God wanted them to rest. He took this seriously. He even demonstrated it so we could follow His example (Gen 2:2).

We need to learn how to rest before we can learn how to walk or even run. If we aren’t able to rest, we won’t be very effective. God did not create us to burn out. He did not create us to be stressed out because we have taken on too much and cannot rest. Jesus came so we could have life to the full (Jn 10:10). We can rest in Him (Matt 11:28-30). Our strength is in Him. Our weaknesses are made strong because it is no longer our selves working but Christ in us (2 Co 12:9-10). Christ shines all the more clearly through us because we cannot rely on ourselves at that moment.

There is a story in the Old Testament about Israel in the wilderness (Nu 21:4-9). God sends a plague of fiery snakes and when they bit the Israelites, people died. God had Moses make a bronze serpent and put him on a pole. All they had to do to be saved was to look up at the serpent on the pole. They had to take their eyes off of the snakes biting them and look up. In John 3, Jesus shows himself as the New Testament parallel. “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life” (Jn 3:13-14).

We need to take our eyes off our circumstances, off the snakes biting us, and look to Jesus. We are saved by looking to Jesus and not at our circumstances. We are still in the circumstance, but now we have a different focus. Now we can see into the Father’s eyes. Now we can see into His heart. We have the mind of Christ (1 Co 2 :16). He will instruct us in the way we should go (Isa 48:17).

In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength. Isaiah 30:15

Sitting with the Father

I love to imagine I’m sitting on my Father’s lap when I pray. His arms are wrapped around me, and I can hear his heart beat. I’m safe in His arms. I love it when He talks with me. His voice rumbles in His chest and reverberates in me. He always knows how to calm my heart and ease my mind. He washes me in His peace. He loves to tell me who I am and more about who He is.

 

I want you to rest in my love and breath deep. Come away with me. Let’s spend time together. I want to clean your heart and restore dreams that have been taken or suppressed.

I have work for you to do but it’s not about that. Keep your focus on me not on what you do for me. You don’t need to worry about how it will happen for I will bring it forth in my time. I cause all things to happen in their time (Isa 60:22).

Draw near to me for I have already drawn near to you (Jer 29:10-11, Ac 17: 26-27). You are my precious and beloved daughter who is much loved by her King and Daddy. You have purpose and worth that is far beyond your imagination and understanding.

I’ve given you authority and power to use, not just to hold. I’ve given you words to speak, not just to think (Isa 59:21). I will back up my words with my power.

I am the one who brings joy to your heart. I’ve named you after a quality in myself (My phone name is Joy- Isa 62:2). You have unlimited access to my joy. I want you to be confident in pulling joy from heaven to earth anytime. Joy soothes a disquieted soul. It ceases complaints. It strengthens and brings light.

I am unrestrained and have made you to be the same. Sadness need not hold you. Unrest need not follow you. Fear need not restrain you. My joy, my peace, my love conquer all. Learn to rest in this and you will be dangerous to the enemy.

Above all, you are my daughter. I have great love for you. This love flows through you and  will change the world. My love restores what is broken. It brings peace to your soul and life to your bones. There is such an intensity in my love that it burns all impurities away. I am jealous for you, all of you. I just want to be with you. I love you so dearly.

The Mind of Christ

Have you ever read something in the Bible and wondered if anyone else has discovered what you just read? These last few days I’ve been reading 1 Corinthians 2 and am continually blown away. Paul talks about how he came to the Corinthians not with big, powerful sermons but “in demonstrations of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God” (2:4-5). People didn’t understand this, which is why they crucified Jesus. Then get this. “’What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him’- These things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.” Did you catch that? God reveals to us, through the Holy Spirit, the things that were hidden. We can know the things which God prepared for those who love Him.

Before Jesus came, we were not able to understand or know what God has prepared for those who love Him. The Holy Spirit was not freely given to all men. After Jesus went back into heaven, God sent the Holy Spirit to be with us forever (Jn 14:16, Ac 1-2). One of the Holy Spirit’s names is Helper (Jn 14:26). He teaches us how to be more like Jesus and shows us things previously hidden. “We have the mind of Christ” (1 Cor 2:16). We can know things God has prepared for us. By having a relationship, by spending time with God, talking with Him, we get to know His heart and He gets to know ours. Have you ever thought about that? God wants to know us.

I was at a prayer training and we were talking about identity and worth. Did you know there is a throne in heaven with your name on it? There is a seat at the wedding banquet of the Lamb with your name on it. If you aren’t sitting there, no one is. It is your place and if you aren’t there, we all miss out. There is a uniqueness to the way God created you and if you aren’t there, we all miss out. God created the Church to be a body, and if a toe or arm is missing, we all miss out. You have a place. You are needed. God created you with purpose and He loves you. We can ask Him what our purpose is. We can ask for wisdom and revelation. We have the mind of Christ. We have the Holy Spirit who reveals God’s plan and heart to us. All we have to do is ask.

Dare to ask God what His heart is for you. He is a good and loving Father who loves to spend time with His children.