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confusion, discerning the spirits, doctrine, entering his rest, eternal life, evangelism, experience, fear, freedom, God's guidance, hope, John MacArthur, mind, Old Self, peace, philosophy, Satan, spirit and life, The Great Commission, thought life, worries

“Yours is the day, yours also the night; you have established the heavenly lights and the sun.” (Ps 74:16 ESV)
– Photo by Paul Schuberth
“It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”
After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” (Jn 6:63-69 ESV)
Jesus told His disciples that the word HE had spoken were spirit and life. How could he claim such a thing? And why is that true? How come that over the centuries so many educated people falsely assumed that the words written in the four gospels would automatically have the same spirit and life in them as they originally possessed when our Lord voiced them? I know that my questions are challenging here. However, it is so important to see how easily confusion can arise when we read for example about the Great Commission.
And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” (Mt 28:18-20 ESV)
We know how many different churches and denominations developed since then, institutions that baptize people, teach them what is written in the Bible, and ‘evangelists’ who try to make converts by preaching what is written in the Bible. What is wrong about this idea? Have you ever thought about this? Basically, it is not wrong, however, why do people still believe that the Spirit of God would be hidden in the Bible? Didn’t Jesus tell the Jews,
“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.” (Jn 5:39-40 ESV)?
Brothers and sisters, if we want to experience the power and authority of Christ’s life in the words we speak or write, we do not necessarily need the Bible. What we need is exclusively Christ’s Spirit and Life IN us. Furthermore, if we want to always speak words of spirit and life (we may doubt whether we will ever reach that point), we need to merely do what we see our Father doing. Listening to God’s perfect guidance as to how and when to speak is crucial. We need to perceive when we should remain silent, too, even if this is an offense to others! This requirement also applies to witnessing and to giving our testimony of what we have experienced with God. If God does not nudge or even urge us to do so, if we are not asked “for a reason for the hope that is in” us (cf. 1 Pt 3:15), then we should not rattle away about precious truths God has shared with us.
Dear reader, what God made alive to you and me, whether in the Bible or elsewhere, is not necessarily alive to others when we decide to speak or write about it. Have you ever experienced a big yawn (maybe, only suppressed, but still observable in the faces of those whom you tried to convince of the gospel) and felt ‘rejected’ by those with whom you wanted to share what was important to you? I have, and I was so often frustrated in my first years with Jesus because I would not know about my old nature’s desire to be ‘someone’ who works for God and I did not know about the importance of permanent Spirit guidance, either. But now I know, and therefore there would be no excuse left for me today if I fell back into such embarrassing mistakes which always arise from the flesh and my own reasoning that says, “Maybe, I should share this? Or should I rather say that…?” etc. This ping-pong game of insecurity can be tormenting! However, we can be sure that God is never the author of our mind’s confusion (see 1 Cor 14:33) and of our own indecisiveness. Satan is. And he loves keeping our minds so busy that we cannot focus on God and rather enjoy His peaceful rest. Or in other words, we need to have entered God’s rest so that He can speak and work through us without our old self always getting in the way. Dear reader, please, bear with me, I just found a long excerpt from one of John MacArthur’s older sermons (April 23, 1972) in which he offered a detailed definition of the implications of having entered into God’s rest [emphasis mine].
“First of all, the dictionary defines rest as ceasing from action or motion. Now these are just different definitions of the word rest, the English word. And the word in the Greek or the Hebrew is identically the same definition.
So, first of all rest means to cease from action or motion, you stop doing what you are doing. The action and the motion is over. It means to stop from labor or exertion. Now applying that to God’s rest it means no more self‑effort. No more trying to please God by your feeble, fleshly works. And the moment you enter into God’s rest works cease as a way to please God, they don’t please Him anyway because you can’t do enough works to be perfect. And so, rest then involves cessation from legalistic activity. It is a rest in free grace.
Then the dictionary secondly defines rest as to be free from whatever worries or disturbs you. Some people can’t rest mentally because they’re always bugged by everything. Every little thing just pounds away in their brain and they can never just rest because they’re always hassled by everything. To rest means to be free from whatever hassles you, from whatever disturbs you or creates worries in your mind. It means, in this sense, to be quiet, to be still, to be peaceful, be free from guilt and the things which drive us to neurosis, psychosis etc. And so, bringing that across to God’s rest we would say that to enter God’s rest simply means to be at peace with God. It means to possess the perfect peace that God gives. It means to free from guilt. It means no need to worry about sin because sin is forgiven and we’re at rest all of a sudden, no more anxiety, no more pressure, no more guilt:
peace. So, God’s rest involves cessation of works and it involves a rest in the total forgiveness of God. Thirdly, rest in the dictionary is defined as to lie down, to be settled or to be fixed. No more flux, no more flow, no more shifting around and we can take this again to God’s rest and say that God’s rest is the kind of rest where a man is positionally established in Christ. No more running from philosophy to philosophy, no more being blown about by every wind of doctrine, no more floating over to this and floating over to that, he is established he is rooted, he is grounded, unmovable. That’s rest. Fourthly, rest in the dictionary is to remain confident, to put your trust in something, in other words, you rest in something in the sense of confidence. And to enter God’s rest logically means to enjoy security, no more fear you have absolute trust and absolute confidence in God’s care and charge of your life. Fifthly and lastly the dictionary says that rest means to lean on and to enter into God’s rest means that for the rest of your life and eternally you can rest on God and you can lean on Him and you can be sure that He will never topple over.”
http://www.gty.org/resources/sermons/1609/entering-into-gods-rest
As a side note, having pasted this excerpt by John MacArthur does not mean that I basically share his views, especially on the church. Nonetheless, I know that God can speak through anyone at any time. We only need to discern when God speaks and through whom.
Susanne, It seems my comment about ceasing from our own works and waiting in faith for God to do HIS works through us fits along with this discourse about entering into and abiding in His rest vs. being of the antichrist spirit. To much of today’s church doctrines have been derived from the traditions of men instead of from His personal commands to us as individual and the result is to be tossed about by every wind of doctrine!
https://enteringthepromisedland.wordpress.com/2016/11/18/why-positive-thinking-does-not-work/#comment-15358
Once again you and I are hearing the same voice of the Lord, dear heart.
Michael
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Yes, we do hear the same voice, Michael. This post was already finished yesterday, but for some reason I posted it just now. 😉
Yours in Him,
Susanne 🐱
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Okay, so I was a bit behind on this one. I was the kid in the neighborhood that they put that sign up for “slow children that play.” 😋
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Nooooo, Michael!!!!!
Don’t forget that in the Spirit there is NO time… so we can never be too early or late in eternal life, right? 😉
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Yes, Susanne, it is never too late or too early in life as we abide in His timelessness in heavenly places IN Christ and His love. ❤ I appreciate you.
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Well said, my brother! ❤ Thanks! 🙂
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Thank you for the blog. I would wander if I have ever known the rest of God, according to the information given here on rest. Hebrews, I believe it is, says that there remains a rest for the people of God. I will keep trying to enter it.
Much love,
Pat Orr
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You’re very welcome, dear Pat. I think we have known His rest partly when have sensed His peace. Paraphrasing Michael here, “Entering His rest equals having received the faith of Jesus Christ.” To him who believes, nothing is impossible. May He bring us to that point! Amen.
Much love,
Susanne
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Good to hear from you Susanne, to know you are well.
I’ve come to learn that anytime I feel anxiety, distress, fear, I’ve simply strayed away from my Rock. God is all about the peace that surpasses understanding, about resting in Him and trusting that all will be well. The whole world could be crashing down around you, but you will be safely tucked in His wings, like a little chicken under a hen.
“He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.” Psalms 91:4
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Yes, you are right, Gabrielle. Just lately I detected that it is a habit of the old nature to cling to anxiety, fear, doubts etc (because we are ‘trained’ to do so) while the new creation does not care about all ‘negativity’ in life. It is all the same to the one who has been eventually enabled to only eat from the tree of life and to no longer eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Thanks for sharing this verse. I like it! 🙂
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Dear sis,
There’s a lot of good food for thought in this post!
This topic of entering God’s rest has been on my thoughts very frequently these days. Hebrews 4:11 says in ESV, 11 Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. Other versions say we should “make every effort”, “be diligent” or “labor” to enter that rest.
From the context of the rest of Hebrews, I understand that this “effort” or “hard work” is, first of all, diligence in listening to God, and then believing Him and obeying Him in what He has revealed to us. It is about fighting “the good battle of faith”. A battle of positive hope against the “negative hope” of discouragement, unbelief, doubt.
What is clear is that entering His rest is not easy, otherwise the author of Hebrews would not have used a word such as “strive”. It’s not easy because the battle of the mind is ongoing. The enemy is a roaring lion who keeps looking for vulnerable souls he can attack with his lies. Our flesh would much rather take shortcuts than going the whole, hard way.
It’s true that when we come to Christ, we do experience glimpses of that perfect rest, times where we can, figuratively speaking, see Him transfigured before our eyes, and we so want to stay in those moments! But then the mountaintop moment passes, and the battles of life continue. Because we have tasted and seen the Lord is good, we continue seeking Him, hoping to experience some moments of that glory…
You often quote a verse in Isaiah 26, which once again is relevant:
You will keep him in perfect peace,
Whose mind is stayed on You,
Because he trusts in You.
Another version says “The steadfast of mind…”
We have sought to “park” our minds in God’s goodness. We aim to remain there, though in our weakness we tend to wander around in all the wrong places. But we keep coming back because deep down we know there’s nowhere else to go! We have sought God in less than perfect ways, but we aim to be perfected even in our pursuit of Him. We aim to have hearts that truly love Him, so that this wonderful promise from Jeremiah 29:13 will be true of us: “You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart”.
May the Lord continue to bless us and show His glorious face to us! 🙂
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Yes, Carina, labouring to enter into His rest is very hard! And it needs a long time to get there. But I think the battle of mind is over when we truly have the mind of Christ which is steadfast by its own (divine) nature.
Amen to your prayer, sister! 🙂
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The online community of Christian writers has been a godsend to me. You and Michael are shining examples.
What has troubled me are the many blogs I encounter by individuals who are truly lost and confused. I try hard, when someone has read one of my posts, to read (and “like”) a post in turn. At times, however, what I come across is so appalling I am at a loss for words. I try to pray for these individuals, but have found it impossible to witness. Of course, the effectiveness of our witness is dependent on the Spirit.
Thank you for addressing this subject, Susanne. You have, as usual, been stellar! 🙂
Lots of love,
A. ❤
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Thank you so much for your very encouraging words, dear Anna! ❤
I am glad you mentioned this problem about trying to like a post on someone’s site who before liked yours, maybe, began to follow your blog, or even liked many of your posts in a short time without reading them before ‘liking’. I sensed that not everyone who comes to my blog was really interested in what I wrote. Sometimes it is often a cry for help when they draw our attention to their blogs. But as you said, a lot of stuff IS very appalling because it is the result of a mix of evil spirits. Whether someone is mentally confused or not, I feel no freedom anymore to give someone a like when I perceive that there were the wrong spirits at work.
You said it so well, Anna, prayer is the only thing that works for me then, too. It is so easy to get captured by these people’s spirits because we feel compassion. I guess you know what I mean here… This compassion is one of my weak points through which Satan, again and again, tries to come in and disturb me. I know a hard line is needed here!
Lots of love, dear Anna! 🙂
Susanne ❤
PS
You have surely seen that WordPress changes the appearance of our emoticons pretty often. Sometimes they look like yellow splashes of colour without any shape, yet the hearts are red. On another day the hearts turn black, but the yellow emoticons are outlined with a black line, which is good. Ha! And today I see these shapeless small spots without a black outline, however, the hearts are black, too. VERY strange! 😛
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Susanne, you and Anna have touched on another issue that is of great concern to me.
I have met many people online who, after a very brief first conversation, have shown me their credentials and pointed to their own ministry. I have found that abruptness very shocking and a warning sign that an antiChrist spirit may be at work. The Holy Spirit seeks to promote Christ, to lift His name. The antiChrist spirit will divert attention to human “ministers”. This leaven can be very subtle or very obvious.
Jesus said many would come in His name claiming to be “the Anointed”. Many are convinced they are anointed, but are sadly deceived.
You know, when I resumed writing of my blog a couple of months ago, the warning I received from the Holy Spirit was “Beware of self-promotion!”. He’s reassured me that He’s more than able to guide the people He wants to bring to what I write at the right time. My part is to humble myself under His mighty hand, to wait on Him, to not measure my success in terms of numbers. I haven’t posted many entries, because as we have previously discussed, we are not to find our worth in what we DO, but in who we ARE in Christ. When I come to His throne on the final day, I don’t want to point out to the many things I did for Him. I just want to bow down and say, I love you! And I only stand because you’ve made me stand! Thanks for your mercy!
I have also been thinking of John the Baptist. I don’t imagine him going to the sinagogues and walking around the streets of Jerusalem with tracts: “A wilderness voice preaching in the desert, next Friday at 5”. On the contrary, from the few details offered by Scripture I would guess that at the proper time, he went to the wilderness alone and GOD started sending the people. Or that before he opened his mouth, the word had already spread that there was a crazy guy in the desert who ate locusts and wild honey and also dressed funny.
I believe John the Baptist is the opposite of your typical self-promoting minister of today. A great reason to learn from his example!
He must increase, but I must decrease.
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Carina, your example of John the Baptist was truly funny!! Very good! XD
As far as I can see it, about 95% of the bloggers, if not more, are self-promoting, even if they replace their name with Christ’s. And most of the time their writings are about what they do and what they did for God or what God did through them.
I believe if we really love Christ (which we cannot do on our own, either), we will know that nothing which was good ever came out from ourselves (read old selves). Therefore we will be grateful to simply bear His name as a Christian saved by mere grace. Also, I believe that walking with Christ is walking in blessed self-forgetfulness as we stop thinking about the past and what we once did (for Him) as these righteous in The Final Judgment display through the questions they raised,
“Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?” (Mt 25:37-39 ESV)
And He answered,
“Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.” (Mt 25:40 ESV)
No self-service here, only serving those who had received the same spirit they did. This stewardship of the (spiritual) gifts received is true servanthood, I believe.
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Thanks Anna and Susanne,
John the Baptist was an example of a true prophet of the Lord who never promoted himself, but rather lifted up Christ, the Bridegroom of the bride, and when pressed about who he was he only said, “I am a voice of one crying in the wilderness…” He never claimed to be a prophet. Instead of doing things to build up his notoriety, he chose to decrease that Christ could become ALL in all, pointing all men to Him. He also called himself, “the friend of the Bridegroom” who rejoices when he hears the Bridegrooms voice. Unlike so many of today’s so called “prophets” (or others claiming so-called “five fold ministries”) he never claimed the bride or her possessions for himself. His sole reason for existing was to prepare the way for the Bridegroom to come and receive His bride. THIS is why Jesus said of John,
“Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there has not risen a greater than John the Baptist: yet he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” (Matt 11:11, KJ2000)
The secret to greatness in the Kingdom of Heaven is to not seek greatness, but rather to be the least and servant of all.
Michael
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Excellent, Michael! ⭐ Thanks for sharing this!
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Oh, that blessed self-forgetfulness! I’m not quite there yet, so God has had to leave me “on hold” for extended periods of time.
After writing my response and reading yours, God also reminded me of the beginnings of Ezekiel’s ministry. Ezekiel 1, the prophet receives a vision of God. Chapter 2, he is called. Chapter 3, he “eats” God’s words, and God tells him he will have to speak to the rebellious people, but then he is astonished among them for seven days. Then God tells him he’ll be God’s watchman.
But right after that, He tells Ezekiel, “Go, shut yourself inside your house. And you, O son of man, surely they will put ropes on you and bind you with them, so that you cannot go out among them. I will make your tongue cling to the roof of your mouth, so that you shall be mute and not be one to rebuke them, for they are a rebellious house. But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth, and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God.’ He who hears, let him hear; and he who refuses, let him refuse; for they are a rebellious house.
What we see in these first three chapters is a “speak-don’t speak” dynamics. Ezekiel is called to be a prophet, he’s called to speak up, but then God makes him mute! And then in chapter 4, he’s told to speak to the people without words but by his visible physical actions in a way that defies human reasoning.
I have been experiencing something similar. Times of being astonished when I see brothers and sisters not walking in the truth. It gets so appalling that, like Anna has mentioned, you don’t even know what to say. I have been the “mute prophet”, and I tend to take these things to the throne of God rather than confront people directly, because sometimes, when the flesh says, You must say something! you end up saying the wrong thing and people get even more hardened! 😦
But back to God’s rest… I pray and thank God in everything and seek that peace that surpasses understanding. In God’s perfect time, this very unworthy vessel will speak to whoever she gets sent to (and no one else!), and will not say her words but His. The witness of the Holy Spirit warns me it’s not going to be easy and I can experience lots of rejection, because the message I’m receiving is not a warm-and-fuzzy-feeling message.
For the time being, my writing is in slow motion. 😉
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Ezechiel is a great example, Carina! Sounds somewhat familiar to me, too. 😉
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