GENESIS      

"God blessed the day of Rest." (GE 2:3) What did God Say?  "IT WAS VERY GOOD"

REST - And what is it?

Let me begin in the beginning, Genesis. That's the first 'Rest' recorded in history. It is God's rest. Genesis 2:2 says, "And on the 7^th day God ended His work which He had done, And He rested on the 7^th day…."

Take a look in the book of Genesis at God, his character and look for what you can see in reference to His heart's disposition toward his people. I believe that one of the major needs of the church today is to truly 'see God'. What God is like. What He's after! Is he a good God? What about when He opens the ground up and swallows hundreds of people? Ok? That's my point…what do you really think about that? Or do you think about it?

"…It was good" with reference to:

1. Light
2. Dry land, Earth and waters, Sea
3. Plant yielding seed after its kind and the tree yielding fruit after its kind (whose seed was in itself)
4. Two great lights - the greater to rule the day, the smaller to rule the night God set in the Heavens to give light upon Earth and to rule over the day and over the night and to divide between the light and the darkness
5. Great sea-animals, and every living creature that moves; the animal of the Earth after its kind, and cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps on the Earth after their kind
6. Man/woman in God's image (after His kind). Here it says, "VERY GOOD!"
7. God created it all, looked at ALL and said

"Behold"

"IT IS GOOD!"

"And the Heavens and earth were finished, and all the multitude of them." (GE 2:1)

"God blessed the day of Rest." (GE 2:3)

Have you ever thought much about rest? Like - Am I doing it? Should I be doing it more? OR maybe, am I doing it too much? (I believe true rest cannot be done too much.) We have to distinguish between rest and laziness though. I am not talking about being a slacker. To understand the difference take a look at the thesaurus synonyms and note the apparent difference - they are not the same at all. I really believe lots of folks are missing their God intended rest because they confuse 'rest' with 'laziness'.

The tree of life - take a look!

First mentioned in Genesis… but look at some more tree of life examples God gives us to help us work out our own salvation with fear and trembling:

• Rev. 2:7 "He who had an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the 'tree of life', which is in the midst of the Paradise of God."'
• Rev. 22:2,2 "And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the 'tree of life', which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
• Matt. 7:16,17 "You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? Even so every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit."

Genesis 3:22  Then the Lord said, "Behold, the man has become like one of us, to know good and evil. And now lest he put out his hand and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever -…."

When the serpent persuaded Eve to eat from the forbidden tree in the Garden of Eden, that was the end of  'REST' as God intended for us. It's very clear what God wants for us is everlasting life, to eat from the tree of life  and to live with peace and rest, while at the same time provide supplies for mankind in the greatest Canaan Land imaginable. But instead we see what happened to the rest?  We lost it there in the beginning there where God provided the trees of delicious fruit with all those choices, free. No toiling to earn the right to have it. The "Tree of Life' Right there! Available. Free. 

Why is it man seems to always want what he/she is not suppose to have. Why do you suppose those two trees were put in the middle of the garden? Why did God point them out? I believe it was for us, mankind, forever to know our own nature.  So we would learn His heart on the matter. What's He saying?

Here's what His Father-God, Loving-Husband, Friend-heart is after: 

"Eat from the tree of Life" 

That’s what God wanted from the start. He has never changed His mind. As you read through the stories in the Old Testament and see God doing things that seem awful, don't doubt God. Doubt man, mankind! We're the ones who keep

neglecting the 'tree of life'. 

Eating and drinking from the streams of God... from God's sources are our responsibility.

Genesis 17: 1-4; "When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, "I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless. And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly. Then Abram and God talked with him, saying: 'As for Me behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be 'God to you and your descendants after you. Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession, and I will be their God'."

Notice above the name change. Abram's name was changed after God proved him and his nature and character. Also Notice above, the word 'everlasting'. That means forever! That should get us excited since we are the children of Abraham.  As Christians we belong to the seed of Abraham. Galatians 3:29; "And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise."

The root Hebrew word for Canaan is: "Kenaan", meaning humiliation and comes from the root: "kana" meaning, "to bend the knee; hence to humiliate, vanquish: -bring down (low), into subjection, under, humble (self), subdue." (Strong's Concordance)

So as Abraham's seed, we have inherited what? Canaan Land? Humiliation? 

Let me answer by asking you, Do you think Abraham was humiliated? In the sense of our concepts of humiliation?  God's ways are beyond our understanding.  Abraham was being handed his Canaan Land while in his wilderness rest. Abraham, in his heart received God's promise, God's heart to bless him and his descendants. Humble yourself under the hand of God and you do not get humiliated (humiliation is the world's way of causing sin!).  God's way is humble yourself and He will lift you up.  His heart, God's character is not out to humiliate us - the enemy of our soul knows how to do that.  We must learn that rest and peace brings victory and salvation even in the wilderness as we bow and believe in our good God.  There He will make the ocean a path, the bitter water sweet, the water to flow, and the heavens will open.  As you'll see below, even Jacob, and Joseph in their tight spots received honor and blessing from the heart of God in their wilderness places.  

The humble heart loves to bow low and be laid out before the heart of God.

After Abraham's death the Lord appeared to his son, Isaac;  "Then the Lord appeared to him and said: 'Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land of which I shall tell you. Dwell in this land, and I will be with you and bless you; for to you and your descendants I give all these lands, and I will perform the oath which I swore to Abraham your father. And I will make your descendants multiply as the stars of heaven; I will give to your descendants all these lands; and in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed; because Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws." (Gen. 26:2-5)

Because why?  Because Abraham obeyed God!  Does that mean he perfectly obeyed God?  What do you think?  Wouldn't that make him a perfect man?  Abraham was flesh and blood, made of dirt like us, he was not Jesus. He was  a man with self-nature, but he chose to set his heart 'on obedience',  'on surrender', on 'bowing his knees to God', and 'on living a life of worship and prayer. These were foremost in Abraham. Leading him. Not self-will. We can do that!  Besides we have so much more…more examples to study and follow in the Word and besides we have Jesus who has come in the flesh and revealed to us the way and given to us the Holy Spirit within to help us.

Here's the story: "Now Jacob went out from Beerseheba and went toward Haran. So he came to a certain place and stayed there all night, because the sun had set. And he took one of the stones of that place and put it at his head, and he lay down in that place to sleep. Then he dreamed, and behold a ladder was set up on the earth and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. (That has a familiar ring, have you read the account in John chapter one where Jesus said;

  Nathanael would see the angels of God ascending and descending?) Jesus said Nathanael was a man who had 'NO GUILE', and as a result Nathanael would see heaven open. But the point here in Genesis is Jacob's heart certainly was not free of 'Guile'. Just the opposite! God was giving Jacob an open heaven, but Jacob could not receive the truth of it. He needed more years of acquiring Godly character before he could even begin to see the significance of heaven opened to him.

And behold, the Lord stood above it and said: 'I am the Lord God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac: the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants. Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you."  (See the heart of God in that!)

WOW, can you imagine how you would feel if that happening to you? Here Jacob was running for his life and God shows up in an awesome way, yet how does Jacob respond?

He wants to make a bargain!

"Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, 'Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.' And he was afraid and said, 'How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!' Then Jacob rose early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put at his head, set it up as a pillar, and poured oil on top of it. And he called the name of that place Bethel; but the name of that city had been Luz previously.

Then Jacob made a vow, saying, 'If God will be with me, and keep me in this way that I am going, and give me bread to eat and clothing to put on, so that I come back to my father's house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God. And this stone which I have set as a pillar shall be God's house, and of all that you give me I will surely give a tenth to You'." (verses 16 - 22)

Look at it, God already had just promised to "keep" him!

God just promised him the land! Plus many descendants! Promised they would be blessed! He promised to be with him - to keep him - wherever he goes! He even promised to bring him back! He used his own word to guarantee it! But Jacob's unbelieving heart was looking for a deal. God had already just promised him everything yet Jacob still was wanting to bargain for it all... plus some.  Jacob just didn't get it…he certainly wasn't yet ready to get a name change. God doesn't do that until we're ready for Canaan Land. Until we learn to rest and worship, thank and praise Him and in the wilderness places believe Him and believe 'in Him'.   Faith!  It may sound complicated or too hard if you have not yet learned it... but it's not.  Its a surrendered heart and knowing God can be trusted to take that heart of yours surrendered in His hands and do only the good that will bless you.  Have faith - trust Him with your heart.  Turn your wilderness into a place of flowing rivers and streams that satisfy.

Jacob was earnest for the blessing! He wasn't yet spiritually minded. If you're wanting to bargain with God, saying, or even thinking,  'God do this for me, and I'll do that for you',  then yes you are at a 'devoted' place with God. But you're still calling the shots! You're trying to anyways, you want control.  You have to lay it down.  Surrender!  You are not resting in the Lord! Your spirit, if you're a Christian, is all intertwined with God's Spirit within you.  He did not come in, when you said, "Lord Jesus, come in (He did not come in and take up one area in your heart beside you - you and He are all intertwined together in there!).  Yet like Jacob is HE not in yet in control of your life or the self-nature that rules in you.  So you find yourself bargaining with the Lord.  You find yourself in turmoil, not able to be still and let God be God.  The turmoil without will not have such affect once the turmoil within is killed. We don't need to bargain with God. He is God! He's in control. Not us.  SURRENDER!

What is so awesomely wonderful about this is the honor and privilege of seeing - HIM: 'seeing heaven open' - 'getting to know God more' - 'hearing his voice' - 'seeing his face' 'seeing the angels' - 'BEING WITH HIM - in the heavenlies and seeing the brilliant dazzling splendor of his presence'.  What mattered to Jacob, though?  Answer: Stuff!  Not God's presence. How about to you?  Have you gone through a Bethel experience?  Has God shown you a door opened to the heavens?  Or do you get your eyes off of Christ and onto the material?  All the 'stuff' the world puts in front of you?  Where do you go for your needs and your help? Jacob did not have a clue what a blessing he had been honored with.  Not yet anyway.  God was bringing Jacob to Himself!  He was joining Jacob on earth, God's glory was present and God Himself came to Jacob in His tender, loving-kindness offering to abide together - in the Bethel place - "THE HOUSE OF GOD"   May we learn to say with David, Psalms v____, "Lord, I love your home where the brilliant dazzling splendor of your presence lives.

Maybe you are starting to get the picture, its all about YOU! YOU ARE THE HOUSE OF GOD. He is wanting to abide, communicate, live, shine, and to bring heaven and earth together in and through you. Resurrection power, the lamb of God, OUR HOUSE. Your body, the temple. He loves it! He want to be there. Bethel. God's house bringing heaven and earth and the Glory of God into man. Life everlasting, real LIFE, abundant LIFE, with God and man dwelling in the same house. 

THE LAND OF PROMISE - EMANUEL'S LAND - YOURS and MINE, WHERE JESUS IS THE LAMB OF GOD - HE 'IS' ALL THE GLORY THERE IN THAT PROMISED LAND.

With God's Word, His written and living Word, He is bringing us to the Lamb and to the land of Canaan.- Emanuel's Land.

After Bethel, Jacob moved on to the east and found his relatives. There he lived close to God and was a praying, God-fearing man and saw God blessing him even with supernatural experiences. (Ch. 29 - 31)

Genesis 32: 2-2; "..Jacob went on his way and the angels of God met him. When Jacob saw them, he said, 'This is God's camp'. And he called the name of that place Mahanaim." Once again God's angels come to Jacob. Even though God had been with Jacob and prospered and blessed him, Jacob still was not sure of God's faithfulness to him. He still doubted God and proved it by (v.3-4) sending on ahead "messengers before him to Esau his brother in the land of Seir, the country of Edom. And he commanded them, saying, 'Speak thus to my lord Esau, 'Thus your servant Jacob says: "I have dwelt with Laban and stayed there until now. I have oxen, donkeys, flocks and male and female servants; and I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find favor in your sight." ' "

"Then the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, "We came to your brother, Esau, and he also is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him." (verse 5)

"So Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed; and he divided the people that were with him, and the flocks and herds and camels, into two companies. And he said, 'If Esau comes to the one company and attacks it, then the other company which is left will escape'." (verses 6 - 8)

Jacob had just had an angelic visitation, yet he still feared man, and went about making his own plans first - before looking to God. See where he's at, religious, not spiritual.

His foremost thought was, "What can I do?" Instead of, "God what do you want to do here?" Then he prayed his desperate, fearful prayer for protection, not sounding at all like a man who was just visited by angels.

Then Jacob continues with his own plan of action: "appeasement". "Then you shall say, 'They are your servant Jacob's. It is a present sent to my lord Esau; and behold, he also is behind us.' So he commanded the second the third, and all who followed the droves, saying, 'In this manner you shall speak to Esau when you find him; and also say, 'Behold, your servant Jacob is behind us.' For he said, 'I will appease him with the present that goes before me, and afterward I will see his face; perhaps he will accept me.' " 

Yep, Jacob was not into believing in God, he was totally into appeasement - "the sin of appeasement" is what David Wilkerson calls it. I very much agree, that particular sin can and does ruin lives, churches and families.

"So He said to him, 'What is your name?' He said, 'Jacob.' And He said, 'Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed.' " (Gen. 32:27,28)

Have we struggled with God and man? If you are in some struggles right now, let this encourage you. God sees our struggling, even with man. He knows what to do about it. If it takes an all night struggle with God, wrestle if you must. The way I see it, its better to stay up all night struggling in prayer, to get an answer, even if the answer is "no". Better to have the answer, than to live in uncertainty and doubt. Don't be so quick to criticize Jacob, until you've stayed up all night in a lonely, secluded place wrestling tenaciously with God for help.

Here's the great part, Jacob actually wrestled with God and prevailed! I think God probably had great pleasure in that wilderness place with Jacob. Not because God likes to fight, but because God knows that the fight leads us to the answer.  So if you're a Jacob, or if you have that Jacob nature, or in a Jacob-wrestling match with Jesus, be proud of your strength, but learn your limitations from God's lesson to us here in Genesis, so you can keep your hip in place.  Better out than in though if that's what it takes to get your name changed.  That is if you need it changed.

"So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: 'For I have seen God face to face , and my life is preserved.' " (Gen. 32:30)

The story about Jacob and Esau has a happy ending, not only did Jacob learn 'total surrender at Jabbok': "But Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept." (Gen.33:4)

Have you gone through a Jabbok experience? Or has God shown you a door opened to the heavens? 

Or do you get your eyes off of Christ and onto material or the world for your help and needs.  At Jabbok the Lord hears our cry and commitment of total surrender and delivers us from our natural man. We are another person altogether - we become more sensitive to the spiritual man within and without. And heaven opens to us and we 'see' things in the spiritual world that the natural eyes cannot see. We hear that which the natural ear cannot hear. We sense and know; we discern and move and shake and loose things in heaven and on earth for God's purposes and His heart's desires. "Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit", says the Lord Almighty. (Zec.4:6) The Hebrew word for 'might' in that verse, 'chayil' Strong's, meaning 'a force. Whether of men, means or other resources; an army, wealth, virtue, valor, strength, company, (great) forces, goods, host, virtuous, worthy…" . Are you getting the picture? It's not by might! Nothing in us, nothing we do… it's all in Him. He has to will it and do it all. 

It really isn't even a situation of our waiting, or being still, our wrestling, or anything else we "Do" other that making ourselves available to Him to "DO". Yes, we do need to get still, quiet ourselves, wait and expect God to help us, but the doing is ALL in his court. Him in us, Him in Heaven, and Him above, below and all around us 

The previous word study, 'chayil' comes from the Hebrew root 'chyl' to twist, whirl, dance, writhe in pain, or fear, to wait, to pervert: bear, (make to) bring forth, grieve, (be)grievous, hope, loook, make, be in pain, be much (sore) pained, rest, shake, shapen, (be) sorrow (ful), stay, tarry, travail (with pain), tremble, trust, wait carefully (patiently), be wounded." Its "NOT BY MIGHT" makes it clear we cannot agonize in prayer and make it happen. "It's not by might!…" , "nor by power", the root word meaning pretty much the same as might. "BUT BY MY SPIRIT" say's God Almighty. The Hebrew for 'Spirit" used here is:

'ruwach', meaning to blow, breathe, to smell or perceive, touch, make of quick understanding, wind, by resemblance breathe, a sensible (or even violent) exhaltation, courage, mind, spirit." Strong's  See it - it's God's mind, or his breath or tought; He can quicken to us what we need in a second's time, He can blow a certain wind by us and we receive from His Spirit. He can touch our body and cause us to know. God's work.  Ours is to desire it, to be available to receive.

Let God to bring you to Peniel - where Jabbok takes place.  What you are, by nature, is brought to light. If you have a Jacob-like nature; nothing generally stops you from accomplishing your plans. But God will not let you go; He will have his way His plans for you - in His time. He has started a good work in you - He will finish it. 

God is always about leading his children to an awareness or to recognize, and expose the their natural strength. Much of the time the thing we are most proud of! God hates pride and is exposing it in all of us by turning His heart-searching light on us. Its killing us; what it revealing is instrumental in our death (not physical), but very real DEATH. "His light expels the darkness" v.__ and we lay at His Feet, as dead. Sounds awefull, but it truly is awesome.

If you hear God's voice saying "Come unto me", then COME. "He will never fail you, nor forsake you." You can trust Him for this dying! Let Him Kill YOU. Then He'll heal and bless your socks right off your feet. He is a friend that sticks closer than a brother.

When we see ourselves at Peniel we are feeling so guilty we do not want to live.  When we pass over Jabbok, Truth about ourselves brings us to:

Learning to walk in 'My Yoke is easy, and my burden is light'. Not instantly, but there is extremely quick growth after Jabbok. We are no longer choosing the hard way, doing own thing according to our own thoughts, or self-will. We are now taking up Jesus' yoke and learning what is true, easy and light. AS we rest in Him He measures out to each of us His burden. He measures out all that comes to us and he does all things perfectly. Accepting this burden - from His hand - allows us to be calm and quiet, meek and humble, gentle and joyful, and full of life. The tree of life is feeding us real meat, from heaven! Heaven is open and we are seeing, and seeing and seeing. Our heart is set like flint on seeing more and more. Our eyes in our hearts are the guides for all life. We now know wholeness and fullness of joy. Our body may have a few cracks, or not, but whatever the limp, we go it joyfully with thanks and praise. From a true heart that has rid itself of 'guile'.

ITS LIKE STARTING ALL OVER. 

BECOME AS A CHILD.

Once we finally realized God is not after making us suffer, making things hard, or even giving us work to do that was always far above our abilities, we find ourselves at a loss. What does He Want? What should I do? How should I think? It is like starting all over in our Christian walk, although we may have been on the road already for 30 years it is as though we've just begun. In a since, we have. 

We are no longer resting in the thought that its OK if everything is so 'hard'. God is just stretching me again. He's forever stretching! I don't think so. God says, "His yoke is easy and his burden is light."______  

HIS HEART's answer to us: "Come". "Rest". "Wait". "Be still". "Do nothing". "Listen-Up".

Here's the hardest thing He'll ever tell us to do. "Do nothing!"

THAT IS HARD! TRULY, IMPOSSIBLE!

Seriously, it will make us so disquieted inwardly, in turmoil and there will be no peace. All we think is, "What should I be doing." God keeps saying. "Be still" "Wait" "Do nothing".

We may spend years of much agonizing, fasting, prayer and wrestling with God over this total character change. And change our thinking , our attitude, way of living and not only walking with God, but with everyone else - this does not happen - until God helps. God showed me Christ in Gethsemane. Even though there's absolutely no comparison of Christ's suffering, to what God was asking me to do, for me it was the answer to entering into His 'Rest'. God may call you to your own private Gethsemane. Christ agonized in prayer; he had to suffer the cross and all that went with it. He did that for you and me. 

Still, after so much time, as we agonize over not being able to die to our ways, to really just let go, and allow God to take care of us, and as we "work and strive" so hard to 'Enter Into" His rest and peace and we work to simply accept what He is saying. He presented, or like a movie He showed me, a door open into the heavens - on the other side of the door there was rest, there was a different foundation, it was not earthly. He said, "You have to get off of this ground, go through the door to resurrection ground. Its spiritual ground.  Maybe God will help or show you some other way, or give you a different spiritual experience, like angels walking up and down a ladder going into heaven, with God right there.  Maybe you will be taken up to heaven and seated with Christ. God is in the business of doing stuff like that. He did back in the Old Testament days, and He hasn't changed, He's still doing it. Just remember that if you have a spiritual experience with God, it's spiritual, not religious. Do not try to receive it in your devout self. Only spiritual receiving of it makes it any good 'in us'.  Things of the Spirit Must Be Received In the Spirit.  Ask God to help, He will help you receive it spiritually.  What ever the Spirit of God, Holy Spirit, wants to give!  Holy Spirit will also give the power to receive.  Do not try, but trust Him to do it.  Not man, Holy Spirit - Gives of the Spirit. We have 'to will' to receive,  and then do it - receive - that's our part, Let our Spirit receive.  Say to God, I will to let You have You're way in me. Live in tune with God in us, not knowledge; not what we think or feel, but what God thinks, and what God wills.

STOPPED HERE

"HIS GENTLE NUDGE"

We need to realize that nothing in 'rest and peace' is possible, outside of God. The Spirit nature is not just words or not just in the heavenlies, but in reality in life's experiences - now. God brings us over and over to the end of our strength because He knows we must be convinced of "I Cannot!" before we'll give up and let God truly be Lord. Then we arrive at "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." We must be willing to first let God work out His salvation in us, His will, His victory so then we "do what we ought."

God's working in us is heart work. We need to yield our hearts up, place them in his hands and take joy inwardly in the fact that He is God and that He really cares, and that He can be trusted completely with our fragile hearts. There is absolutely nothing that is worth anything at all, which is ever accomplished in this life without the first act being God's working in our hearts. God is simply bringing us to the place where we 'see ourselves' and get disgusted enough to pray, "God, I cannot, please work this in me to will and to do." In our hearts we literally need for God to place the willingness, inwardly. Our heart's condition is the obstacle that keeps us from 'entering in'. We have to first learn and continue to believe (cling to, rely on, trust in): "What God Commands, God Performs." God is the one who performs - we must come into Him so He accomplish through us to do His 'good' pleasure.

Failure to allow God to 'work in us' concludes always with failure in our life, and failure in obedience to God. The ONLY TRUE SUCCESS we have is when it results from and originates in the heart of God and follows by implementation in obedience, through Him. God will keep confident expectation in us - gently nudging us - until we gain our rightful place of rest - then only then is there true success.

Once we allow Him to melt, mold, and make us pliable then we are ready inwardly to make the decision to step across the threshold of faith and begin the outward action of reaching higher and higher by faith for 'more' and 'more' of God.

Maybe, like many, you have known for years that the word grants us this rest and peace, and have been trying to give up struggling. After trying and failing over and over, telling yourself time and again, 'It's not try but trust, it's not do but done, our God has won the victory, through His precious son. (Corrie Ten Boom). Yet once again you find yourself failing consistently to enter into God's rest. When turmoil comes the Jacob nature seizes our mind and emotions, rather than heading 'right to God' for the help and answers that are needed. What I'm trying to do is persuade you to see something that will put an end to that.

What is this rest? I'm not talking about the rest meant in our initial born again, experience. We come to Christ for salvation and our eternal destiny is decided as He comes in and we then do rest in our salvation. There is another rest. It goes so much higher, so much deeper, and so much closer to Him. This rest depends on our taking up the cross for ourselves, on our attitude of self-denial, and upon our obedience to Christ.

We have to 'truly' get yoked up with Jesus! When we learn to let him be yoked to us in practice then the yoke becomes 'His Yoke'. We walk in rest in Him because we can truly say, "Lord, this is well-pleasing in your sight." First we need to see that it is true. This releases our struggling over what ever may be our appointed lot in life. We are yoked with the meek and lowly Lamb of God; thus we accept whatever comes from God's hand. Once we believe God's hand is in it, we can rest trusting Him to be faithful, kind, gently and loving.

Jesus said, "Take my yoke upon you, and learn me; for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest unto you souls." _________ The reasons Christ gives here for His own rest in His soul is: 'meek' and 'lowly'. When we receive this, we are on the road to abundant life in Christ. Walking with Christ and following Him as He walked with God while in the flesh on this earth.

Meekness. It does not have even the slightest shred of hardness in it. This is the most powerful witness for God. If you really want to effect people for Christ, learn Christ's meekness. Jesus is not out to irritate people. He is an attraction to people. He is very tender and His heart will never refuse anyone nor think of Himself, first or better.

There are so many hurting souls, who have been treated harshly, have been reviled, and condemned all their lives. They need a witness! They need someone who is so tenderhearted and gentle. That gentleness and tenderness leads to Jesus and Jesus' rest. It will touch their hearts so that they believe and receive this softness in heart and life. A new life of kindness within and without is the result. What a blessing! No words can express the joy and freshness that comes from this Christ likeness being manifested in this world.

Jesus said, 'lowly in heart' consequences: we shall find rest. What He's talking about is the opposite of proud in heart. Someone may be very meek yet proud and this person will have very little peace within. This can hold one back from receiving Christ's peace and rest for years. A proud person can be so determined to do it, to struggle on and on believing, "I can do it", "I can enter into His rest." For years! Trying and trying to accomplish what Christ alone can do; He simply wants to give it. Proud people are not meek and lowly in heart they must be brought low numerous times. It is really a sad, hard, road to travel. They learn they must be lowly, so they try to act lowly, try to take the low position, do lowly tasks, and bow low often. The trouble is, their 'lowly heart' is really only brain knowledge (the tree of knowledge of good and evil), their heart is still proud. Those whose hearts are truly lowly 'see' this outward act of lowliness in others and recognize it as an act. Yet the proud person does not see. God shines His light on the darkness and the proud heart is devastated. After that we are no longer proud. In fact we detest it and can now truly follow Christ in such a way that not only are we victorious in peace and rest within and without but also experiencing 'life in Christ' like we've never imagined. True, in our natural man, pride is still there and very much alive, the thing that gets killed is our natural man, we become lost in God. He's alive in us. We are no longer living, but Christ is living in us._________

So often we resist what Christ wants to do in our lives. His yoke is easy, yet we accuse Him of making it hard. We say no to Him and wrestle with Him without realizing what we are doing. We should determine to do as Jacob did, I believe Jacob was tired of struggling he had it out with God, wrestled all night and the fight was over.

God's yoke represents what He wants to walk along side us and accomplish in our lives. Many times His yoke seems hard to us and we pull in another direction, not realizing the yoke was meant not only for our own blessing but healing in some area of our body or our life where we have been hurt. Much of the time we forget about the yoke and do not recognize the pulling or the tugging on our necks; so we do not realize what He's after. When we yield and say, "Yes, Lord", our eyes begin to open and we see many wonderful purposes in the yoke He has chosen for - the work He wants to do. So the next time you do not want to bear the yoke which God had chosen don't try to escape, but surrender, don't pull against it but allow God's purposes to be accomplished knowing that "God is for you"_________ Surrendering to God is much more pleasant than wrestling with Him.

If you do not go His way once you have committed to that, you will feel discouraged and have no peace. If His cross seems heavy, if the yoke seems hard to bear, do what Corrie Ten Boom said, "Don't wrestle, just nestle."

Submit to the circumstances knowing He is by your side, He will hold your hand, trust Him, He knows what's best for you. Take God's portion, what He's handing you as your best opportunity to learn Christlikeness. To have the nature of Christ is our prize. What a prize!

The deepest rest comes when we accept the yoke He gives. He's been trying to put it on us for years, yielding and being yoked with Jesus bears the most powerful, beautiful testimonies in a Christian life. This yielding will involve denying self. Self has to get ruined before we can allow this. There is great blessings and joy for those who learn to die to self and say yes to the meek and lowly nature of Jesus and to learn Christ's nature, inwardly and outwardly. It results in our entrance into our Canaan Land.

The hardest reality for many to learn Christ's nature is that of being emptied. We must learn that Christ emptied Himself. Look at Christ - Christ, naturally, is God - yet He took on the form of a servant. To be emptied, for Christ, was a total harnessing of His infinite God nature and accepting his humanity and limitations. He not only gave up His rights as God, but also took the attitude of a bondservant. What does that mean to us? Have we emptied self? If we are having trouble understanding what it means, there is a good possibility it hasn't happened yet. Or at least enough that it is to the degree that's strong enough for you to understand, the 'you' part of you, needs to be ruined! Become one with Him. You get ruined. No longer you but Him in you is the goal. It’s a life-long process, but if wee allow the Jacob in us to be dealt with we shall become as brilliant, dazzling, splendor in the midst of thick darkness in the world. That's what God is rooting for, for us. Yes, God is for us!________

If you feel confident this is not your need, a final deathblow - you may be mistaken! You may think, I have already taken on a new nature since I got saved. That's not what this is 'all' about. It's about entering your intended rest.

Like Jacob, many people still have the holding on to a part of ourselves that God is trying to get us to let go of. Jacob was very clever, he decided to appease Esau. (verse 20), Jacob said, "I will appease him…." Jacob (and us, if we're guilty), was not allowing the Lord to 'BE LORD' in all areas of his life. Appeasement can be a terrible sin and can cause us to miss God. I have seen pastors making decisions for their church and choosing to appease angry people, rather than trusting them to the Lord…that ends in death. All sin does. It does not bring life to appease when God is saying or wanting something else; we are directly going against God what He is trying to accomplish. Jacob failed to see what God was after, even though he walked with God and had had supernatural experiences, he was not in tune with the heart of God, with God's purposes in it all. We do the same many times because we get our eyes off of God, or His purposes, or most important His heart's cry, His desires.

Like Jacob most of us have a problem with our own thinking and contriving. God's grace does not alter the flesh. Jacob had visions and promises from God that would cause one to surely trust God. Yet we find him still scheming. God wants to get the 'scheme' out of us and have us praying and trusting in Him Alone. We are always, like Jacob, too proud and fearful to trust God alone; thinking we have to help. What God wants is 'trust', believe, and obey and let Him look after the results.

After many years of being under God's discipline we still have our own nature. A serious problem comes along and we thinking ourselves equal to the situation, summons our wits together to come up with an answer. We become very skilled at our own thinking and planning to the point that we 'believe in our won plans' and trust them. Yet we'll pray and look to God at the same time. We look to God and then make very elaborate preparations. God wants to take us all through a bloody preparation room. The blood is His! Preparing us is His work. Bringing us through is also up to Him. All of God's purposes are bound up with "life". Ours are not. The reason we need to know this is because when we determine to go on with God and truly die to self, the devil will attack and try to stop us every way he can. Of course! Because when its all over with there's one more 'totally surrendered to God' person he cannot get to. Remember the old hymn, "The Blood will never lose it's power"? That's what we need to deal with the enemy - it will never lose its power, depend on that and the "life" of Christ will be manifest. Here's a memory help lots of school children use to remember how to spell, lets use it to help 'surrender' our life totally:

"Some children learn to spell desert by remembering that the one 's' stands for 'sand', while the 'dessert' with strawberry shortcake has two s's. To quote Wade Cook, "The way to make a dessert out of your desert is by adding an 's', which stands for 'surrender'."

At Jabbok we are at a place where we are an extremely desperate, Holy Spirit filled, God-fearing person who is in a most difficult situation and coming to God with 'all our strength'. Like Jacob, we wrestle with 'all' our strength. What we don't realize is that it is God! God has come to us - to wrestle - to bring about total surrender. God's purpose is to force us down until we are unable to move, so that we yield. Many of us though are much like Jacob; we possess tremendous natural strength. We can still do it ourselves! God defeats us again and again - we repent, yield - then get up and 'try again'. Here's our problem! We think we then do better, try harder, pray harder, fast longer. We quote scripture and are very religious, yet not 'in Him' - 'in His Spirit'. Not allowing Him to have control.

This no longer is a matter of God's discipling. This is not disciplining; this is a wrestling, a fundamental touch from God to empty our natural strength. Here we are weakened so that we cannot rise. One way or another God conquers us so that He can bless us. If we will not yield - that touch - will completely weaken our natural strength - of nature. Each of us have 'an area' in which work needs to be done - our strong point dislocated - each of us have a crisis to experience - thigh out of joint type.

Why is it that God comes to wrestle, to dislocate our strong point? Because it brings us to a place where we 'truly' are dependent on God. When God puts our strong point out of place we feel unglued, utterly helpless. He does this because He wants us to truly learn to depend on Him, to hold Him closest. To help us learn that to truly prevail in life we need to 'know I have no strength, no faith, nothing. Yet, I believe! We learn the almighty power of 'when we are weakest, we are strongest.' For us to prevail is God's heart; to surrender, beaten, at God's feet is His way to show us ourselves, so that we shall prevail. We must keep our eyes fixed on "Him" not experiences. If we do, there will have the experiences that make that new nature and make us aware of resurrection ground. We are ashamed of what we have boasted in. We quit pretending when God turns His light on us. We see what we are by nature, we recognize that except for His power and grace that "is what we are", and except for His keeping power, that is "what we will be". The only thing that can help us now is God's touch.

That touch that put Jacob's thigh out becomes the true owner of transformation. God works in us then because we are crippled, we are lacking in confidence, weak, things are inconvenient, we move more slowly, hesitatingly, we cannot do things like we use to. Our hearts desires are changed, our motive is "What does God want?' We are given newness, not perfection, but a passing over from our strength to God's and seeing it in the light of experience. Then we begin to grow from that newness.

After Jabbok, chapter 35, Jacob was sent to Bethel to dwell. At Bethel God's work is completed because nothing touches man's heart like Bethel. God's work starts here and is finished here. Bethel is God's house, the place where divine power is manifested through the body of Christ. Here at Bethel we dare not bring anything that is not "OF GOD". Bethel stands for cleanness and purity. God speaks from His heart to each of us something like this: "I am Almighty, I have brought you all here together to complete and to affirm my might in you, my body." There becomes a strong 'bonding' first with God, then with His body. In this place we learn to walk very gently with God. He shows us His gentleness, His tenderness and Humility and we learn to listen to the still small voice of the Holy Spirit's gentle constraints. God's heart's desire is to have us all move on to experience the "God of Bethel". The house, the people, the vessel, side-by-side and corresponding, a powerful witness!

The place you are passing over (Jabbok means to pass over), to come into is 'rest'. Prevail at Jabbok and enter into God's Rest. The Lord will accept your commitment to surrender all and give you a totally NEW NATURE! You say, "He already has." If that's true you can truly say, "I am living in God's best that He has in mind for me; His heart, His portion, my place of blessing. I live in the 'rest' and 'peace' that God intended for me."