Series: The Rest of God; The Finished works
Sunday 11th September 2016 – Kobus Swart
(Isa. 66:1-2); John 14:23; (Rev. 13:8-KJV); 3 John 1:2; Heb. 4:12; John 1:1; Rom. 8:6; Rom. 12:2; James 1:21; (Eph.4:23); Eccl. 3:11, 15; (Luke 22:19); Job 38:1-5; Hab. 2:2-3, 14; Hebr. 11:1; Num. 14:21; Hebr. 10:36-39; (John 58:8); Phil. 2:12
The Sabbath is not referring to a 24 hour day, but a people. God is looking for a place to rest. That rest will be a people (Isaiah 66:1-2). Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him (John 14: 23). God wants to make us His place of rest. With God there are no mistakes, there are no errors, and there are no unknowns, only purpose. Everything God starts He finishes including in you and in in me. God does not drop things half way and leave it, that is not God. Jesus was not plan B after the fall of man. The Lamb was slain before the foundation of the world (Rev. 13: 8-KJV).
See the importance of the restored soul of man which is immortal. If God had to withdraw His breath from man, man would instantly go to dust. God created man from the dust of the earth, He breathed into him and man became a living soul. Note the importance of a restored soul: Beloved I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers (3 John 1:2). We have seen that the soul implies your heart, yourself, your emotions; your thinking (your mind); it is all part of your soul – part of you. The soul and the spirit of man are so intertwined that only the Word of God that is living and powerful can divide them (Heb. 4 :12). The soul connects the spirit and the body. When you die the spirit goes back to God who gave it. Your body becomes dust, your soul is immortal. Your soul will go depending on the choices you made in this life, but God made provision by sending His Son that no-one should perish. That is the heart of God.
Your soul acts like a conduit, connecting the spirit with the body. Without the union of your soul with the Spirit of God, the soul becomes a power without control. That has developed in the Eastern world and is known as the psychic world. The soul can either draw from the spirit or from your flesh. The only way that the spirit can rule over the soul is by the Word of God which is living and powerful and able to discern between soul and spirit. Jesus was the Word made flesh. In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God the Word was God (John 1:1). We must not underestimate the power, the identity of a living word. The key to rest is knowing the difference between soul and spirit and by taking the rightful position in the spirit. (Read the whole chapter of Heb. 4). Therefore the mind set on the flesh is death but the mind set on the spirit is life and peace (Rom 8:6). That is why we have to guide our thought life. We are being bombarded with impressions, with information, with junk on the social media and news media and are conditioned. We neglect the Word of God. When your thinking is controlled by the sinful self, there is death, but if it is controlled by the Spirit there is life and peace. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect (Rom. 12:2). We need to be renewed in the spirit of our mind so that we can prove the will of God (Eph. 4:23). Therefore…..in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls (James 1:21).
God has set eternity in the heart of every person. Eternity does not have a beginning or an end. Whatever was is. Whatever will be is (Eccl. 3:11, 15 – Message Bible). The word ‘revelation’ means to uncover, unveil or to reveal. The beginning of the word ‘revelation’ in the English language is the word: ‘Re’, meaning: again, to repeat, to re-do, to remember. The word ‘revelation’ is linked to the word ‘remember’. What did Jesus mean when he explained the communion? He said, “Do this in remembrance of Me” (Luke 22:19). What does that mean to remember Him? God has put eternity in the heart of every man. We actually were there. Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said,… “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell Me, if you [a]have understanding, Who set its measurements? Since you know. Or who stretched the line on it? “On what were its bases sunk? Or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy? (Job 38:1-5). Revelation means to remember. Revelation is not new knowledge. Whatever was is. Let us reach that place where our souls awaken. Be transformed in the spirit of your mind (Eph 4:23). That happens when we allow the living word to penetrate soul and spirit.
I want to awaken, I want to discover, and I want to see by revelation who God originally called me to be. What was in God’s mind when I was created? The Bible says our names were written in the book of life before the foundation of the world. God had a master plan for your life with your name on it. Until we connect with the plan ‘that was’ – we will not live a fulfilled life.
What about DELAYS?
Then the Lord answered me and said, “Record the vision and inscribe it on tablets, That the one who reads it may run. For the vision is yet for the appointed time; It hastens toward the goal and it will not fail. Though it tarries, wait for it; For it will certainly come, it will not delay. Behold, as for the proud one, His soul is not right within him; But the righteous will live by his faith (Habakkuk 2:2-4). Faith is the assurance of things hoped for (Heb. 11:1). But if hope robs us of the present we run the risk of becoming aliens in the land of promise. For most people hope means postponement and procrastination. It may tarry but it will not delay, for the righteous will live by his faith. For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, As the waters cover the sea (Habakkuk 2:14). All the earth will be filled with the glory of the Lord (Numbers 14:21). When God says He will, then He will.
The best attitude: For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised. For yet in a very little while, He who is coming will come, and will not delay. But My righteous one shall live by faith; And if he shrinks back, My soul has no pleasure in him. But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul (Heb. 10:36-39). Yahweh is the ever coming One. We are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul.
Somewhere we have to break through the time barrier!
Jesus said, “Before Abraham was, I AM” (John 8:58). Christ – the timeless I AM, the hope of glory, is living in us! He wants to reveal something to us. He wants us to remember. The Bible says we must have the mind of Christ. The renewal of our minds should go all the way until we are functioning in the mind of Christ. Freedom has been given to us from the foundation of the world, when the lamb was slain. We are actually free.