LIVING IN HIS REST
(week 37/09)
Olubi Johnson
Hebrews 4:9-11 MKJV: so then there remains a rest to the people of God. (10) For he who has entered into his rest, he also has ceased from his own works, as God did from His. (11) Therefore let us labor to enter into that rest, lest anyone fall after the same example of unbelief.
Matthew 11:28-30 MKJV: Come to Me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. (29) Take My yoke on you and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest to your souls. (30) For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.
Here, the scripture tells us that there is a rest for the people of God and we should labour to enter into it.
What then is this rest?
It is a spiritual condition in which all the satanic distortion and darkness in the soul: will, mind and emotions have been completely overcome and removed.
In the account of the creation in Genesis 1, we see that after God originally created the heavens and the earth, the earth became without form and void because of Satan’s rebellion against God:
Genesis 1:1-2 MKJV: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. (2) And the earth was without form and empty. And darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved on the face of the waters.
Observe that God did not originally create the earth without form and empty, furthermore, the darkness on the face of the waters over the earth tells us that a flood had covered the earth and light had been obscured from the earth leaving it in darkness.
What happened to cause this condition?
Jeremiah 4:23-26 MKJV: I looked on the earth, and, lo, it was without form and void; and the heavens, and they had no light. (24) I looked on the mountains, and, lo, they quaked; and all the hills were shaken. (25) I looked, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens had fled. (26) I looked, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all its cities were broken down before the face of Jehovah, before His fierce anger.
God had brought about the destruction of a civilization: cities, men, birds, fruitful places that was on the earth before the creation recorded in Gen. 1.3-31 and the creation of Adam in Gen. 2.
This civilization that existed on the earth before the recreation from Gen. 1.3 was presided over by Satan, also referred to as Lucifer: ‘Son of the morning’ and the ‘anointed cherub (because he was created as an angel) that covereth’ that provided spiritual covering for the earth:
Ezekiel 28:12-19 MKJV: Son of man, lift up a lament over the king of Tyre, and say to him, So says the Lord Jehovah: You seal the measure, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. (13) You have been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering, the ruby, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the turquoise, and the emerald, and gold. The workmanship of your tambourines and of your flutes was prepared in you in the day that you were created. (14) You were the anointed cherub that covers, and I had put you in the holy height of God where you were; you have walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. (15) You were perfect in your ways from the day that you were created, until iniquity was found in you. (16) By the multitude of your goods they have filled your midst with violence, and you have sinned. So I cast you profaned from the height of God, and I destroy you, O covering cherub, from among the stones of fire. (17) Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; you have spoiled your wisdom because of your brightness. I will cast you to the ground; I will put you before kings, that they may behold you. (18) By the host of your iniquities, by the iniquity of your trade, you have profaned your holy places; so I brought a fire from your midst; it shall devour you, and I will give you for ashes on the earth, before the eyes of all who see you. (19) All who know you among the peoples shall be astonished at you; you shall be terrors, and you will not be forever.
Notice this angel was originally created perfect by God, placed on the earth in the Garden of Eden, he had wisdom, beauty and riches, presiding over a kingdom given to him by God. However, he became proud and so was removed from his exalted position and his kingdom on the earth: the cities, fruitful places, mentioned in Jer. 4.26 above, were destroyed by God’s anger:
Isaiah 14:12-17 MKJV How you are fallen from the heavens, O shining star, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations! (13) For you have said in your heart, I will go up to the heavens, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north. (14) I will go up above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High. (15) Yet you shall be brought down to hell, to the sides of the Pit. (16) Those who see you shall stare and closely watch you, saying, Is this the man who made the earth to tremble; who shook kingdoms; (17) who made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed its cities; who did not open the house for his prisoners?
Furthermore, this rebellion caused a flood (not the flood of Noah: this was before the recreation of Gen. 1.3-31 and the creation of Adam in Gen. 2) and withdrawal of God’s light and that is why we see ‘darkness on the face of waters’ in Gen. 1.2:
2 Peter 3:5-6 MKJV: For this is hidden from them by their willing it, that the heavens were of old, and the earth out of the water, and through water, being held together by the Word of God, (6) through which the world that then was, being flooded by water, perished.
It is this chaos caused by this flood making the earth without form and void, caused by Satanic rebellion, that is removed by God in the creation (and recreation) recorded in Gen. 1.3-31.
When all of the chaos of destruction, flood and darkness had been removed, after six days of creative work, the Bible says God rested:
Genesis 2:1-2 MKJV and the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. (2) And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had made. And He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made.
So, God’s rest is a condition in which all satanic chaos, distortion and darkness have been removed and replaced with a new creation from God.
When a Christian removes all satanic chaos, distortion and darkness: pride, ignorance and greed and fear from his will, mind and emotions and replaces it with the nature and character of God: humility, wisdom and love, from and through his new creation (2 Cor. 5.17) spirit; then that Christian has entered into God’s rest: he has found rest unto his soul.
In this 3rd day from Christ and 7th day from Adam, we are being called by God to enter into and continually live in this rest.
In our article next week, we will see how to do this.
