The Sabbath Rest in God

God said to Moses, "Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, verily my Sabbaths you shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that you may know that I am the LORD that does sanctify (separates/sets apart) you. You shall keep the Sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you: every one that defiles it shall surely be put to death: for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people" (Exodus 31:13-14).

As we read these Scriptures in the Old Testament, let us remember that God gave us a blueprint of the Old Testament as a natural statement for what He is doing in the spiritual realm. We read here in Exodus God establishing a pattern for the Sabbath Day and the people of God to become one.

"Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. And God blessed (spoke good of) the seventh day, set it apart as His own, and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all His work which He had created and done. This is the history of the heavens and of the earth when they were created. In the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens" (Genesis 2:1-4 AMP).

As the Sabbath is the day of God's rest, so also do the people become the "rest" of God; where God dwells. When God created man in His image, He did so as the last and grandeur creation. He then entered His rest finishing His work of creation. Man rested with God on this seventh day. Man was celebrating with God the finished work of creation, yet man had done no work in the creation.

When Jesus hung on the cross and declared "IT IS FINISHED" (John 19:30), He was bringing back to God the unity of the Sabbath day as one. The Sabbath is a sign to signify to us that God the Father has set aside a company of people that believe in the finished work of Jesus Christ to BE the resting place, everlasting habitation, of God to dwell. In the "rest" of God, He will bring blessings, sanctification, and a place of knowing His presence is with you wherever you go. This rest is for the whole man; spirit, soul, and body.

Do you rest in God, and does God rest in you? All that is part of the seventh day of creation becomes part of our lives.

Resting in God is not about what God can do for you. When we realize that resting in God means it is finished and it is all about God, then we also begin to personify that righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit are in that day of rest; the Sabbath of God.

Jesus Christ died on the cross, was buried, and rose from the grave once and for ALL. The veil into the presence of Almighty God was removed. God did not change minimizing His Holiness, but because of the Holiness of the blood of Jesus, we have been redeemed and sanctified to come into His place of rest today while in our natural bodies. We do not have to go through a physical death to be one with God. "As He is, so are we in this world" (1 John 4:17).

What we do have to realize is that just as there was a first Adam, there is also a last (1 Corinthians 15). We each have a responsibility to enter into the rest of God, but it is not about our individual sanctification. There is only one body/bride/church of the Lord Jesus Christ seated with Him today in heavenly places; the Holy of Holies presence of God. The body of Christ is made of many members/cells which each have the DNA inheritance of Almighty God. Each person's responsibility is to be obedient to the mind of Christ; "Jesus Christ is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence" (Col. 1:18).

When the church does not function by the head, Jesus Christ, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, that part of the body will be lacking of the increase of God (Col. 2:19).

"For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink (what you need to sustain your physical body); but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost (the realm of the Spirit of God)" (Romans 14:17).

Resting in God is a place and position that is in this world, but not a part of the world's system. It is illustrated throughout Scripture as a place where eagles fly. Yet most Christians choose to function as chickens (pecking at every little issue); turkeys (gossiping and complaining, but doing nothing); crows (pestering and bullying); hawks (coming in as a thief to steal the joy and peace); and/or buzzards (devouring the dead issues).

Isaiah describes the resting place in God in Chapter 60:

"Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising."

The signs of the times are telling us that a major shift is taking place in the heavens. In every dimension there is a shift taking place; politics, homes, economics, cultures, traditions, churches, religions, people's values and beliefs. When we think God is doing very little, it is because He is doing the greatest, but He is moving at such a speed of light that we can't tangibly connect with until after it is finished.

Example, when we fly in a plane twenty-thousand feet above the earth, we are moving through the atmosphere at a very high speed, but it isn't until we land at our destination that we comprehend that we were moving. The plane must slowdown in order to come in for a landing. When God slows down we are then able to comprehend what He has already completed. In the times of our lives when it seems like we are not moving, getting anything accomplished, is when God is moving the fastest if we are resting in Him.

God does not allow us to experience the change until it is done. If He were to suddenly enter our circumstance, we would perish. God is God and only shares His atmospheric space with His identity. When we get ourselves out of the way, He can BE seen. Much of the change that we go through is to get rid of our old mind and way of thinking to allow the presence and rest in God to be in control of His temple/our spirit, soul, and body.

In Genesis 2 we understand that all of heaven and earth were finished including all the hosts of them. What we experience in God within ourselves was already finished, and we are entering into that finished work. There are things that are already done in each of us, but because it is Spirit in us, this finished work of God is too expansive and moving too fast for our natural comprehension until it slows down, yet it is already completed. When our minds comprehend this knowledge, God is resting because it is already done.

"All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28).

We come into the message of salvation, sanctification, sonship, royalty, bride ship, and oneness only to come to the fullness that it was already within you because it was already done. God is omnipresent. He cannot "end up" somewhere on the other side when we die to be with the Lord because He is Spirit everywhere. He is as much on this side of our lives while in our natural bodies as we think we will receive after our bodies die.

The Sabbath of God that He set aside as a sign is: GOD and Man.

Everything that is within the blessing of us and God is contained in the Sabbath.

The release of all that God contained in that DAY will begin to flourish. "This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it" (Psalm 118:24). "Behold, it is come, and it is done, saith the Lord GOD; this is the day whereof I have spoken" (Ezekiel 39:8).

In Hebrews 4 we read that that God finished the work from the foundation of the world and gave the promise of rest to the people of God, but because of their unbelief, they did not enter into it. "For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, as I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. For he spoke in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works" (Hebrews 4:3-4).

Therefore, the promise still remains. Jesus gave us the ability to enter into the rest of God, the DAY of the Lord while in our natural bodies. "Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart" (Hebrews 4:11-12).

This labor is not working for the Lord, but pressing into His faith to believe that will cause the word of God to, the LIFE of God, to pierce and enter into not only our spirit, but our soul, and body.

There remains a promised rest for the people of God today, yet they have still not entered into it (Heb. 4:9-10). We allow ourselves to dwell on being victims to the issues of this world hardening our hearts to faith and realities we should have in God. We become easy targets to the offenses of the enemy of God keeping ourselves in a bondage to the frustrations of this world. These things do not belong to the people of God.

All this makes a nice sermon, but most believers in Jesus Christ do not believe what God has spoken and finished. This belief is a position to trust in God as Man did BEFORE the fall. Man's first DAY was God's last DAY. Man awakened in this world into a SABBATH. Paul writes, "Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners. Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame. But some man will say, how are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come?" (1Corinthians 15:33-35).

This is usually the limitations we ourselves struggle with trying to figure out how to enter into the rest of God individually instead of as a corporate body. The rest of God is not about the many members, but Christ who is all in all; one body; one man; one church; one SON.

We live today and have our being IN HIM so that HE alone is glorified in our natural bodies. The old man is crucified, and the life we NOW live is by faith in Christ Jesus (Gal. 2:20).

"Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more. Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things are become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation" (2 Corinthians 5:16-18).

When King David was hungry, he went into the place of the high priest and ate the sacred bread, and then he gave it to his men (1 & 11 Samuel). Are you hungry enough for an intimate relationship with God to eat the body and drink the blood of Christ Jesus?

The first Adam is dead. Yet many believers in Christ are having intimacy with Jesus Christ, the WORD, but allowing the mindset of the old Adam to enter into the bedroom intimacy. Many Christians are committing adultery in the marriage chamber of God when they profess that they are a "sinner saved by grace."

"Let a man [thoroughly] examine himself, and [only when he has done] so should he eat (take within him/herself) of the bread (body of the beloved) and drink (the life of the beloved) of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discriminating and recognizing with due appreciation that [it is Christ's] body, eats and drinks a sentence (a verdict of judgment) upon himself (commits adultery with the covenant marriage of God). That [careless and unworthy participation] is the reason many of you are weak and sickly, and quite enough of you have fallen into the sleep of death" (1 Cor. 11:28-30 AMP).

"Jesus said to them, The Sabbath was made on account and for the sake of man, not man for the Sabbath; So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath" (Mark 2:27-28).

"The impotent (has no life producing in him) man answered him, Sir, I have no man (impotent), when the water is troubled (supernatural power of the word of God), to put me (make myself whole) into the pool (the natural place where healing is found): but while I am coming (make an attempt), another stepped down before me. Jesus (the rest of God) saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk. And immediately the man (in the presence of true REST) was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked: and on the same day was the Sabbath" (John 5:7-9).

This is the DAY of THE LORD. Let us rejoice and REST in HIM; the Sabbath of God.