AHF Study 14: Entering Into The Rest of Redemption (5)
Remember No Condemnation!
The end has come to condemnation for those of us who are in Christ Jesus. Since we’ve identified with Christ Jesus, there’s no room for condemnation. The law of sin and death is not meant for the new creation because we died and rose with Christ, and we ascended to heaven with Christ. We are made to sit with Christ in the heavenly. His victory over his adversaries is our victory. His resurrection is our resurrection, his ascension to the throne is ours as well.
The law of sin and death is not meant for the new creation to operate in, it is meant for the people of the old covenant — men who are spiritually dead. It is living in the realm of senses which is enmity against God. The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus is one commandment which rules the new creation i.e to love one another even as Jesus loved us. This law is to govern the recreated men, it is the spirit of love.
God, Himself is love, and the commandment He gave to the new creation men is to love Him supremely (with all our strength and might) and as well to love the brethren. When we love the Lord we will obey Him, this will also make us love the brethren. This isn’t the natural kind of love, it is the agape love. A love that makes you be pleasing to God. Without the Holy Spirit, you cannot have this kind of love. If God does not do it in you, you cannot have it.
The Reality of the Rest of Redemption
Jesus had finished His redemptive work and is sitting at the right hand of majesty on high. Heb. 1:3;8:1;10:12. Jesus is our High Priest, the seat He is occupying now is at the right hand of God, in the majesty on high. All that Jesus did to atone for sins isn’t for Himself but for us. He entered into His rest, (this is why He is sitting) and those of us who believe enter into the same rest with Him. If there was more work to be done, Christ wouldn’t be sitting as the scriptures above explains. When we enter into that rest, it puts an end struggles and worries. We’ll no longer need to seek for faith or power. You have become one with Him. You have come to realize His working in you. You have come to know you are what He says you are in Him.
The reason we do not rest is that we want to try on our own to do something for ourselves. We do not want to lean on the work that He has done for us. We doubt if what Jesus did is applicable to us as a person. You just need to know that since you identify with His death (you were in Him when He went to the cross, which resulted to God deserting Him on the cross because of your sins), His resurrection, His enthronement ( you are sitted with Him in the heavenly, far above principalities and powers)is all yours as well. Since He has entered into His own rest too, then you should enter into your rest too.
Jesus never worried about anything. He’s not worried about His work on earth. Neither is He worried about His reign on earth, the reason is that He has entered His rest. You must appreciate the work that Jesus did for you and the work that the Holy Spirit is doing in your heart through the word of God.
You must believe what the Lord says concerning your life, this is what brings rest into your life. You know you are a new creation. You know that you've passed from death unto life. You know that you have the very life and nature of the Father in you. You know that as He is in heaven, at the right hand of the Father, so are you down on earth. Though physically you are on earth, but you are made to sit with Christ in the heavenly. You do not need to dream or have a special vision to validate this word. You only have to believe it. Eph. 2:6. God does not tell lies, so you must believe Him.
Christ is up there, while you are down here. You are His representative here. If your Lord and Master isn’t worried, why should you worry or struggle here? Since you have the same life with Him. You know that you are a part of the body, a member of it. You know you were raised together with Him. You know that whatever may come to your life, you are more than conquerors. If you know these things and believe it, then you have entered into your rest of redemption. You don’t need to create rest for yourself. When Jesus said come unto me all ye that labour, I will give you rest… come and learn of me, take my yoke upon you and you'll find rest for your soul. The rest He is talking about is the rest of redemption. Once you discover that rest, it is real, you must enter into it.
Entering into the rest of redemption is a labour that God does in you through a choice man which He has appointed over you. It is a collaborative effort. You have to cooperate with your disciple-maker. You have to be connected with Him as He labours to show you rest in Christ. Once you find that rest, that settles all, you have reached the end of all worries.
One of the marks of a true disciple of Christ is rest. You are now so completely identified with Him, you have become one completely with Him that the Father looks upon you as He looks upon His begotten. This brings peace that surpasses all understanding to fill your whole being. When you enter into the rest of redemption, God doesn’t look at you in terms of who you are but in the person of Christ because it is the righteousness of Christ that covers us. But many of us have been taught legalism — to seek righteousness outside Christ — so when you work and fail and you don’t make it, your worries and struggles continues. But if you enter into His rest, you vacate from Him, then He will do His work. He doesn’t expect you to live the Christian life, He will live His life in you. Yours is to allow Him to do His work in you.
Matthew 11:28(MSG) “walk with me, and work with me…” Christ does not expect us to walk or work alone. Just let Him lead the walk and work, you follow. “learn the unforced rhythm of grace”… this is the rest that Jesus expects you to enter into. “I will not lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you” the law of sin and death was heavy on the old testament, but not so with Jesus.
Philp. 4:6,7. You have no ground to worry or struggle because now you have entered into the rest of redemption. Rather than worrying, you should make your requests known unto God.
THE RESPONSE OF A RESTFUL LIFE IN THE MIDST OF LIFE CIRCUMSTANCES
We cannot be in the world and not face circumstances of life. Jn. 16:33. You are anxious for nothing. A place of rest instead of worry — You commit everything to prayer, supplicate and thank God in anticipation for answers to prayers. You plead your cause with the word of God. You thank God in anticipation by faith, this is what makes you joyous in the waiting.
Jn. 11:41. The Son always lift up His eyes to the Father, so should you if you are a son of God as well. Then He thanked the Father for the previous answers to prayer. Then he supplicated. If Jesus supplicated, who are you not to supplicate. If God hasn’t spoken to Him on a matter, He wouldn’t appear to attend to it, that is why He could supplicate and God would respond to Him.
We must understand the Father. The fact that He has spoken something does not bring final note to it. And you think if you don’t pray it will still come to pass. You must seek God in prayers to bring to pass whatever will bring glory to Him, increase His Kingdom and depopulate hell.
If God speaks, especially through a servant of God, and you declare it, people will be watching and waiting to see what comes out of it. When you speak and things come to pass, it makes you dignified. This was similar to what happened to Elijah with the prophet of Baal. Elijah needed to prove to the Israelites that God is God and not Baal. Elijah didn’t just come to declare it before the people, he was a man who always stood before God 1 Kg. 17:1, Anyone who stands before God will hear the current thing in heaven. 1 Kg.18:36. Elijah didn’t do what He did out of presumption.
If Elijah only stood on the word that God spoke to him in the secret and he had called the meeting, and all the drama that happened in the contest happened, fire wouldn’t have come. Fire did not come automatically for Elijah, he prayed and supplicated. The content of his supplication was to make the people know that the Lord is God.
Jesus never struggled. The saints of old never struggled. There is a rest of redemption for whatever the challenges or trauma you encounter, if you apply these truths to a war that Devil initiates for you to fight against the kingdom of God, it will not work for you. Your supplication does not move God when you are supplicating against His counsel. He will only respond to your supplication if it is going to advance His purpose. Whatever we ask in the Father’s name, He will give it to us.
You know the child is sick, the Doctors have given up that it will lead to death. But you pray for him, with a heart filled with thanksgiving, praising the Father, this is the rest of redemption. If you have entered the rest of redemption, after prayer, supplication and thanksgiving, then you must have rest. Your friends and relatives cannot understand you. They’ll think you are crazy, but you are not, you are only standing with the master because He said He is with you always. It is no longer a Bible passage to you, it has become a reality in you. You know that there is ability to make good, you have prayed and thanked him for answer. The answer is just as sure as the sun is to shine in the morning. You have made the request known to the Father, then you expect the miracle.
When there is worry, care and burden, you cast all your anxieties on Him because He cares for you. You are not interested in the roaring of the adversary nor the questioning of your friends, or the doubt of other people. You know that your expectation is from Him. You have entered into His rest. Anytime Jesus prayed, that settles it. God is real. His word is real.
Philip 4:11,13. In whatever state you are, you are content. This is the response of a restful heart. Your rest of redemption must not be stolen. When you must sleep in the valley, and run to the mountain another time, this must not steal your rest of redemption. The blackmail of the enemy; the assignation of people does not diminish God’s counsel over you. You must rest in whatever state you are.
You have come to a place where circumstances no longer terrify you. Where the word of man is just the word of man to you. Anyone can say what they like, but it doesn’t matter to you. Even a Doctor’s word is based on sense evidence, the word of God lives and abides for the issue of sickness and poverty and they are settled and finished on the cross. You no longer fear them, you know His will and full of His knowledge for you.
It is a wonderful life to be above all circumstances and be the master over all situations in life because the wonderful one is in you. You’re steadfast, immovable and always abounding in the work of the Lord. People may say what you are doing is not the work of God because of what you are going through. There is nothing you are going through now that God doesn’t know about. There is no work He gave you now that He didn’t give you before the trouble emerged. It wouldn’t make sense for you to say because of the trouble you are going through you’d abandon the work of God only to resume after you overcome your trouble. It’d be too late, your portion would have been transferred to another person.
You are always searching, and you become an explorer of the hidden things in Christ as His light lighted the way into them because in him lies all wisdom. Col.2:2–3; Prov.20:27. You begin to search the hidden treasures of Christ. They are not on the surface, it is the work of the Holy Spirit.
There is no room for poverty in your life. Neither spiritual nor physical. Christ became poor that we may be rich. 2 Cor. 9:8. The Father doesn’t have pleasure in our weakness. Poverty and sickness does not fit in God’s service. It takes strong men to serve the Lord. You must be strong in your body, spirit and emotions in order to do what has been appointed for you to do. So, rebuke the devil, the author of our troubles and difficulties.
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