Few of us know the reality of the rest mentioned in Hebrews 4:1: “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.”
When Jesus had finished His work, He sat down at “the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Hebrews 1:3).
Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens. (Hebrews 8:1)
But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God. (Hebrews 10:12)
He had finished His work.
His work was wrought for us, not for Himself.
He entered into His rest.
And in Hebrews 4:3: “For we which have believed do enter into rest.”
And in Hebrews 4:11, “Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief [or ‘unpersuadableness’].”
That is the rest of faith. It is the end of worry and struggle.
You no longer seek for faith or power.
You have become one with Him.
You have come to appreciate the work that He did for you, and the work that the Holy Spirit, through the Word, has done in you.
You have come to know that you are what He says you are in Him.
You know that you are a new creation.
You know that you have 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 now at the right hand of the Father, you are down here on earth.
You know that you are a part of the body, a member of it.
You know that you were raised together with Him.
You know that no matter what may come to your life, you are more than a conqueror.
These are facts that you know.
You now enter into His rest, the rest that He purchased for you.
You have reached the end of the worry route.
You are now so completely identified with Him, so utterly one with Him, that the Father looks upon you as He looks upon His first begotten, and because of that, peace that “passeth all understanding” fills your very being.
You remember Philippians 4:6–7. We ought to become thorough masters of that Scripture, and that Scripture should become our master. Notice what it says: “Be careful [anxious] for nothing.” You see, you are in a place of rest. “But in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.”
Why are you full of thanksgiving? Why is your heart filled with peace and rest? Why are you so joyful? Because you know that whatsoever you ask the Father in Jesus’s name He will give it you. Even to Israel, He said, “Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not” (Jeremiah 33:3).
You are not under the law; you are a Son. You are an heir; you are a member of the body, and He has invited you to come boldly to the throne of grace, and you have accustomed yourself to standing in His presence.
So now you are not anxious; you have believed.
I know the child is sick. The doctors have given him up to die, but you prayed for him.
Your heart is filled with thanksgiving, and you are praising the Father.
Your relatives and loved ones can’t understand you.
They whisper that mother is beside herself.
You are not; you are beside the Master. The “Lo, I am with you always” (Matthew 28:20) is a reality to you.
You have entered into your rest.
You know that no word from God is void of fulfillment, and that in every word there is ability to make good.
You have prayed and you thank Him for the answer. The answer is just as sure as the sun is to shine in the morning. You have made your requests known unto the Father and now the miracle happens. The peace of God which passeth all understanding has taken possession of your heart and your thoughts in Christ Jesus. You haven’t a thought of worry or care. You haven’t a burden.
First Peter 5:7 illustrates this perfectly: “Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.”
You are not interested in the roaring of the adversary nor the questioning of your friends or the doubts of other people. You know that your expectation is from Him. You rest on His Word. You have entered into His rest.
When Jesus prayed, that settled it. There was no more talk about it. The answer had to come.
“Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you” (John 16:23).
That settles it.
You asked, didn’t you? Well, the answer is on the way. You are careful for nothing now.
You know that you and the Father are working together. They can’t fence you in with circumstances.
Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. (Philippians 4:11–13)
You see, you have come into the place where circumstances no longer terrify, where the word of man is but the word of man to you.
The word of a doctor is only the word based on sense evidence.
The Word of God liveth and abideth.
The Word of God is speaking to you.
To you, the Word and God are one.
You haven’t learned to separate Jesus from His words.
“The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63). That is, they deal with your spirit nature and they give life and victory and peace and rest to your soul.
You are resting in the Word.
Once you rested in the word of man, but you found that there was no rest for you.
Now you are resting in His rest.
You see, it is the end of the fear of Satan for he has been defeated.
It is the end of the fear of sickness, for by His stripes you are healed.
It is the end of lack; you fear it no longer. “Your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things” (Matthew 6:32).
Want and fear have stopped being as far as you are concerned. You never think of your weakness, for Jesus has become your ability.
The greater One is living in you.
It is the end of ignorance. You have studied the Pauline revelation until it has become a part of your knowledge, of your very life.
Colossians 1:9 should be a part of your life. It says:
We also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.
Can you see the breadth of that?
You know His will. You are filled with exact “knowledge” of the Father’s will in all your life.
You are filled with wisdom to use the knowledge that you have gained in your study of the Word. That wisdom has enabled you to walk worthy unto the Lord in all pleasing.
You have reached the place where you are bearing fruit in every good work.
It is the fruit of righteousness. You have become skilled in the Word of righteousness.
You know your rights and privileges before the throne, and you have faith’s fearlessness to enter the Father’s presence—anytime, anywhere—and make your requests known.
You lounge around in the throne room visiting with the Father and Jesus.
You are more familiar with your Father and Jesus than you are with those with whom you have associated for years.
I hear your heart whisper, “I know Him in whom I have believed.” Now you walk worthy of the Lord and you are pleasing Him. You have become a Father-pleaser, as Jesus was. “I do always those things that please [the Father],” saith the Master (John 8:29).
You are increasing, as you study the Word, in that exact knowledge of the Father.
It is a wonderful life you are living because the Wonder One is in you.
The Wonder One is your Teacher.
But hear Colossians 1:11: “Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power.”
This has given you steadfastness.
Where other people are breaking down and going to pieces, you are steadfast; you are immovable. You are always abounding in the work of the Lord.
You are strengthened for long-suffering.
People can’t understand how you put up with things.
You whisper to them, “All things work together for good to me, because I am in His will (see Romans 8:28), and the very circumstances that rob you of your rest, increase my rest. The very opposition that destroyed your faith, builds mine; and you can’t understand why I am filled with joy unspeakable and full of glory. He and I are laboring together. I am a partaker of His faith. I breathe in His very life.”
There was a steadfastness and a quietness about Jesus that has stopped being a wonder to me.
It has become my very joy for I have entered into it, and I am increasing continually in this exact knowledge of my rights and privileges in Christ.
This is the reason that I am “giving thanks unto the Father,” who has given me the ability to enjoy my share of “the inheritance of the saints in light.” (See Colossians 1:12.)
You see, I not only enjoy it but I am able to tell others and give them a hunger after it, and then I am able to show them the secret of entering into it.
You remember Colossians 2:2, don’t you? “That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding.”
“The full assurance”—that is wonderful, isn’t it?
That makes you think of verses 9–10: “For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him.”
He made me that way. I couldn’t do it.
He took me over and He built His fullness, His completeness into me.
Now I am rejoicing in “the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ” (verse 2).
Now hear this third verse: “In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”
Now I am going to take you back to Proverbs 20:27: “The spirit of man is the candle of the LORD, searching all the inward parts of the belly.”
All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge and love and grace are hidden treasure chambers of Christ. He lighted up my spirit as a lamp and I went down into the hidden treasure chambers of Christ, and I found the riches of His grace.
I became an explorer of the hidden things in Christ, and His light lighted the way into them.
Now I become a possessor of these riches. They are mine and I live in the fullness of my riches in Christ.
See, they belong to us. There is no place for poverty in Him.
The Father never made a weak Christian. He has no pleasure in our weakness.
Some of us have thought that all the trials that come to us are God-sent. They are not.
The Father doesn’t need the devil to purify and beautify His own.
No, these trials and difficulties are all Satan-inspired, and God has given us ability to know this now, and so we are taking our place and rebuking the author of our troubles and commanding him to leave us alone.
We have found a strange, sweet quietness in the heart of love. You see, we have entered into our rest.
There is no “unpersuadableness” in our hearts.
No matter how big the thing, how difficult to human reasoning, how many times sense knowledge rejects it, I am persuaded by the very living Word that He is able to lead me into all the riches of the finished work of Christ, and because I know this, I have yielded my spirit to the lordship of love.
I have allowed the Word to dwell in me richly, and I have come to know the reality of these mighty truths of redemption.