LABOURING FOR THE LORD 2
(week 23/11)
Olubi Johnson
In our article last week, we saw that we are not to labour only to be rich, but rather to labour to enter God’s rest: a spiritual condition in which all satanic distortion and corruption has been removed from our souls and bodies; just like God rested after He renovated the earth and created Adam and a new set of plant and animal species to inhabit the renovated earth (Gen. 1:1-31; 2:1-22).
Just like God used the power of the Holy Spirit and the spoken Word to remove the darkness from the earth reversing the ‘without form and void’ condition, so we are to use the power of the Holy Spirit, the blood of Jesus and the Word of God to destroy the works of the devil in our hearts and bodies reversing the sinful condition in them to the perfect condition of the measure of the fullness of Christ.
Genesis 1:2-3 KJV: And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. (3) And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
1John 3:8 KJV: He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.
Romans 8:28-29 KJV: And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. (29) For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Revelation 12:11 KJV: And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.
Hebrews 13:20-21 KJV: Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, (21) Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Ephesians 4:12-15 KJV: For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: (13) Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ: (14) That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; (15) But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:
All the distortion we see in nature: geographic, climatic, physical: men born blind (Jn. 9:1-5) or with one deformity or the other are results of Satan’s work of distortion in the human heart and body through the sin nature.
In Christ, we are to labour, using the blood, the Word and the power of Holy Spirit to destroy the works of the devil.
So we labour using the blood of Jesus (confessing our sins 1 Jn. 1.7-10) and the name of Jesus (Jn. 20:31) to receive life from God:
John 6:27 NKJV: Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him.”
Proverbs 10:16 NKJV: The labor of the righteous leads to life, the wages of the wicked to sin.
We labour in prayer:
Colossians 4:12 NKJV: Epaphras, who is one of you, a bondservant of Christ, greets you, always laboring fervently for you in prayers, that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.
We labour in the Word:
1Timothy 5:17 NKJV: Let the elders who rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the word and doctrine.
Now, with all this spiritual labour as a foundation, when we now labour physically and mentally, we will become rich and will have the spiritual strength to retain our riches:
Acts 20:34 MKJV: Yea, you yourselves know that these hands have ministered to my needs, and to those who were with me.
Proverbs 10:4 AMP: He becomes poor who works with a slack and idle hand, but the hand of the diligent makes rich.
Proverbs 11:16 KJV: A gracious woman retaineth honour: and strong men retain riches.
So, we are to labour spiritually first (Mt. 6:33), as a daily habit, to enter rest and then with this as a foundation, we are also to labour physically in our daily ventures to be rich and we will then have the spiritual strength to retain the riches God gives us.
