ENCOURAGED STRONGLY TO ENTER INTO GOD'S REST

Posted on: 27 October 2012 By: ucheikpa

Rest is one of the greatest gifts God gave to mankind. Rest is synonymous to peace. Naturally, we
associate rest with sleep. When we are so tied, we think of sleeping and resting. After that, we are
refreshed and energized to move out again. We feel good and happy. This is not God's rest I want to
talk about here. You ask what is God's rest? God 's rest is deep and profound. It supersedes the rest
derived when we are physically tied or sleepy or worn out from each day's labor; when we have
worked so hard. What does it mean God's rest? What does it signify? We shall study the book of
Hebrews 3&4 for this study.

* Meaning of Rest:

The Hebrew word for rest is nuach-to rest, to be quiet. Sometimes, it is synonymous to shabat- to
cease or to rest.

The Greek word for rest is anapausis meaning cessation, refreshment. Christ's rest is not a rest from
work, but in work, not the rest of activity, but of the harmonious working of all the faculties and
affections, of will, heart, imagination, conscience- because each has found in God the ideal sphere of
its satisfaction and development.

(Vines concise dictionary).

The dictionary word for rest:

1 quiet

2 calmness

3 tranquility

4 peacefulness

5 serenity

6 stability

* Hindrances to Entering into God's Rest & What It Means to

Cease from Your Works:

1 Lack of faith in God's word, rejection and unbelief in His word.

2 Lack of knowledge to God's word.

3 Unbelief in departing from the living God.

4 Hardening of heart through the deceitfulness of sin.

5 When we stop depending on our own wisdom, intelligence and manipulation of events in
whatever we do, and rely wholly on the Lord.
6 When we cease from our arrogance to think we are something, and learn to give God the glory in
everything that we do; for without Him, we can do nothing and we are nothing.

7 When we cease to fret and worry and learn to relax and rest-our mind at peace, peaceful and calm
knowing God is in control. His will must be done in our lives. We serve a living God who promised
“never to leave us or forsake us:” “who also said: “no good thing will He deny those who walk
uprightly.” 'Those who trust Him are not put to shame.'

8 It is to accept the “grace” given by God to live the Christian life and principles only through faith. It
is not our righteousness. It is what Jesus did for us on the cross. When we believe it, we become
righteous through faith, not by struggling to be perfect or holy or be good. You can never be holy or
perfect by struggling or trying. You will fail miserably. It is only when you believe God's word through
faith, you enter into God's rest and you cease from your struggles to be perfect; and follow your own
selfwill.

Until you cease from your labor or works, struggles and trying to allow the Holy Spirit to live the
Christian life in you, then the battle to be holy stops. Then your rest comes- you rest while the Holy
Spirit fights for you. You only have to believe this in faith what the word of God says. Relax and give
up your struggles and the the fight to be holy, and the Holy Spirit will give you the power to
overcome, not in your own strength. At that point, you cease from your works, plots and schemes to
exert your own ways. You give way to accept the will of God in your life directed by the Holy Spirit.
Then you listen to Him to direct you in wisdom in your daily life and destiny. Then you begin to relax
and have peace. The Holy Spirit is the Third Person of the Trinity. The Holy Spirit is God living in you
to enable the believer live the christian life. Without the Holy Spirit, we can't do anything and can't
live the Christian life. The Holy Spirit gives you wisdom to understand the Word of God.

* What Is the Spiritual Significance of God's Rest:

The believer is strongly encouraged to enter into God's rest. Hebrew 4: 1-3 says:

“Let us therefore fear; lest a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem
to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached , as well as unto them; but the word
preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. For we which have
believed do enter into His rest.”

What does God's rest signify spiritually? The rest talked about here is deep and profound. It is that
which sums up the end game of our existence on earth, and how we can live in peace and rest,
despite being poor or rich. It is peaceful existence that enhances and enriches your life here on
earth, and when over on earth continues in the hereafter. This is a promise God has given to
humanity. The Scripture reminds us that it is about obedience to God's word. Those who heard it in
the wilderness perished because they did not believe the word of God. They did not have faith in it.
They rejected it through unbelief and lack of faith. They were destroyed in the wilderness and could
not enter into that rest which is the promised land. Many are still perishing today because they will
not accept God's word that will save and heal them. We are warned not to be like this people for
God's word is real. What is God's rest?

1 The rest God is talking about is not rest from your daily work or physically exhausted when you
have worked hard. It is that profound peace that God gives to those who love and obey Him
regardless of circumstances. It is peace that involves the whole faculty as the Bible Dictionary
stipulates. It is a profound peace that does not affect whether you are rich or poor, intelligent or
unintelligent, black or white. It is a rest that heals and makes you whole. Rest and peace are
synonymous. I will use both words here. It is a rest that calms your fears and gives you a sense of
stability to face the future with confidence, regardless of what is happening around you.

2 It is a kind of peace that allows you to be in a state of rest at all times – trials or joyful times
because you are trusting the Lord. “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stead on
thee: because he trusted on thee. Trust ye in the Lord forever, for in the Lord JEHOVER is everlasting
strength.” Isaiah 26:3&4. Not only being at rest, but also renewed in your inner life because God
says: “my grace is sufficient for you.” Even when extremely tied, the Holy Spirit gives you strength-”I
can do all things through Christ who gives me the strength.” Somehow, you find the grace to do the
impossible in your life.

3 It is a life style that enables the believer not rattled by any circumstances of life. You know all
things are working for good to those who love the Lord. The believer lives by faith and the just shall
live by faith. The Scripture says: “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord.” Psalm 37:23

4 This rest is the opposite of "akatastatos"- meaning unstable and restless in Greek. It is someone
always scheming, plotting; very unstable and restless to do their own thing in their own wisdom, for
their own glory. God is not glorified in their lives. They boast about who they are and what they have
achieved, forgetting without God, they will be nothing. The one trusting the Lord has peace knowing
God is control. He or she is in a state of rest and tranquility knowing 'no weapon formed against
them shall prosper and 'He in them the Holy Spirit- the Third Person of the Trinity is greater than the
evil one.'

5 Remember rest and peace are interchangeable in this blog. Let me illustrate the kind of rest or
peace I am talking about here. Madam Guyon, author of “Her Sole Crime Was That Of Loving God,”
was a French godly and rich woman unjustly imprisoned by the Catholic Church in the 17th century.
They deprived her of everything -material possession and she suffered so much. Despite all these,
she was still at peace and joyful- her mind and body at rest. This is what she said in her prison cell:

“I shall not speak of that long persecution, which had made so much noise, for series of ten years
imprisonments, in all sorts of prisons, and of a banishment almost as long , and not yet ended
through crosses, calumnies, imaginable sorts of sufferings. While I was prisoner at Vincenes and
Monssieur De La Reine examined me.. I passed my time in great peace, content to pass the rest of
my life there, if such were the will of God. I sang songs of joy, which the maid who served me
learned by heart, as fast as I made them. We together sang thy praises, O my God. The stones of my
prison looked in my eyes like rubies. I esteemed them more than all the gaudy brilliancies of a vain
world. My heart was full of that joy which Thou givest to them who love Thee in the midst of there
greatest crosses.” This kind of peace or rest does not emanate on bases of material opulence, or
fame, or political ingenuity, or intellectual acumen, or other things that exalt humans. This kind of
peace and rest can only come from a supernatural and divine God, who only can give this kind of rest
through obedience to His word and love for Him through faith.

* Encouraged Strongly to Enter into God's Rest:

The rest the believer is encouraged to seek is that peace and tranquility that enables you to enjoy
the labors of your life. It is that life style that allows you to love and obey God as you strive
materially here on earth. The Scripture asks: 'What shall it profit a man to gain the whole world, and
lose his soul? What shall a man or woman give in exchange to their soul?'

So while you are still living, seek this rest that God promised through faith. Why?
1 God promised that to the believer and is one of the greatest of the “Riches of God's Grace,” rest or
peace.' Without peace and rest in your life, you can't achieve anything, and your mind will remain
restless and unstable; despite your material opulence. You will always feel there is something
missing in your life. St Augustine said: "God has made us unto Himself, and our hearts are restless
until they find their rest in God." That is when we have this rest. Not until then.

2 This rest also means you don't labor anymore to please God. The Holy Spirit enables you and gives
you power to live for the Lord the life He requires from the believer, or those who are seeking
desperately to love and obey Him.

3 Why should you seek this rest? This is because the word of God is true and real and powerful-
described as “two edged sword , piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of
joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” There is no pretense
about God's word. “The word of God stands forever.” The word of God warns God is watching and
recording what we are doing, both in secret and in public. Other thing in life will fade off. The
Scripture says: “For all that is in this world; the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of
life, is not of the father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away and the lust thereof: but he
that doeth the will of God abideth forever. 1 John 2:16&17 These material things of life will pass
away someday, but God's word remains forever. God's word is the truth, and those who don't have
God's rest through faith, or believe the word of God will not inherit eternal life. It is irrelevant
whether we believe this or not. Our intellectual argument someday will not matter.

4 We are warned to pursue God, truth and His word because these are the greatest realities in life.
“Neither is there any creature not manifest in His sight, but all things are naked and open unto the
eyes of whom with him we have to do.” Hebrews 4:13 God sees everything we do and nobody is
hidden before God. We have to be careful how we live because God will bring us to judgment and
accountability someday. "The eyes of the Lord run to and fro beholding the wickedness of men."
God is watching us and will reward evil and wickedness someday.

5 We are encouraged not to allow the struggles of life to deprive us of the rich knowledge of God.
God understands our struggles, it doesn't matter what those struggles are: you don't have a job, you
don't have a child, you are sick and dying, your children are not doing well, you have no money to
raise them or educate them, your only child is dead, etc. God understands and has promised never
to leave you or forsake you. Hebrews 13:5 The Scriptures encourages us with these words:

“For we have not an high Priest which cannot be torched with the feeling of our infirmities. But was
in all point tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of
grace, that we may obtain mercy , and find grace to help in times of need.”

God says don't allow the struggles of life to rob you of a greater glory of living with me someday.
Though the struggles of life are sometimes menacing, fierce and daunting, He will never forsake the
believe who puts his or her trust in the Lord. The Lord understands your struggles because he has
being there. He encourages us to come to Him in times of confusion and complexities of life. His
compassion and grace will enable you rise above the circumstances of life. This is true and I can
attest to God's grace, faithfulness and deep compassion. God is real. He says come to me boldly, not
in fear. He is your father, friend and everything.

* Final Rest:

There is also our final rest when our labors are ended in this life for the people of God. Then we go
back to God and are ushered into His presence for our final rest. Revelation 21:4 says:
“And God shall wipe all tears from their eyes and they shall be no more death; neither sorrow nor
crying; neither shall there be anymore pain; for the former things are passed away.”

The greatest possession we shall seek in our entire lives is “God's Rest which is synonymous to
Peace. Look at our world and how restless, fearful and unstable it is. It is the result of lack of this rest
or peace. We have leaders who profess all kinds of faith: Moslim faith, Christianity, Judaism, etc, but
their lives don't show it at all. They plunge their people and subjects into wars and fail to pursue
progressive ideas to lift their nations up. They pursue greedy and arrogant ways that have destroyed
their nations and many nations. Should these leaders seek the way of God's rest and peace, our
world will be more of a peaceful place- whether it is Western Nations or Third world Nations.

It is not about guns and bombs that will save nations of the world, but about obedience and love to
God's word; putting faith in it to understand God's rest so you can understand it and pass it to
others; practicing compassion like Jesus and helping the poor; It is the way of prayer- coming to the
throne of grace to ask God for mercy for our nation and the world: not the way of wars and bombs,
that will save this world. Let us seek sincerely to understand God's rest and implement it in our lives.
Our lives will be more joyful if we do.

When We Possess God's Rest:

It eases the pain we bear daily because we enter into God's rest

It refreshes and relaxes our minds and bodies

We are able to lay down in peace, instead of torn by inner struggles

We are able to operate our lives in peace and achieve our vision and goals

Our minds are calm and restful, not rattled by anything

because

We have God's rest

We have God's peace

Rev. Uche Ikpa