Rest Through Faith

For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. (Heb 4:8-12)

We enter God’s rest by faith. That is the only work which is not self effort, because we have the faith of God. We thus declare to ourselves: “I have entered His rest.” The striving part comes as a result of our circumstances and soul emotions contesting our confession. So we stand firm in our belief disregarding any outer storms which attempt to make us sway in our inner conviction. This striving will ultimately transform our faith into substance.

The giants the Israelites feared when they stood on the brink of entering their promised land of rest is a type of our soul emotions and our fear of our flesh. We erroneously think that we have to fight those feelings, attractions and desires which raise their head in order to deter us from entering our promised land which is Him in us as us. At the cross He won that crucial battle and cleansed us completely from indwelling sin. There is nothing wrong with our flesh. He is our keeper! Our flesh is His means of manifesting Himself in this temporal realm, that is, “those who have seen me have seen the Father”.

The word of God, Christ, who is joined one spirit to us pierces to the division of soul and spirit so that we are empowered to discern between what are soul emotions and what is our inner spirit knowing. This knowledge and enablement to discern is powerful in rejecting everything which rises against the knowledge of God, who is our rest. Jesus provided this land of rest through the cross. We already have it, and we recognize and possess our heritage through faith, and we boldly enter His rest knowing this is His good will for us.