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Believing in His Sovereignty Brings Rest

      “For we which have believed do enter into rest,” it says in Hebrews 4:3.  Believed exactly what, for there are many things to believe in the holy scriptures?  Believed that Yahweh is behind everything—that He has designed everything, that He created it all and is in total complete control, that He is sovereign and completely in charge and rules in man’s every waking hour—that He is all-pervasive and that it is all in His hands—everything—every “good” thing and every “evil thing.”

     We enter into His rest when we believe that He is doing it all for His own reproduction’s sake.  His works were finished from the foundation of the world so we enter into rest when we cease from our own works—when we stop trying to inject our will into the everyday scenes of the play we call “our life,” but He calls the play “My Plan and Purpose.”

     “Although the works were finished….”  He set it all in motion; who are we to find fault with what He has already done and established?  He is the wise master-builder who with great painstaking planning and fore-sight has created and set in motion a pre-determined outcome.  He is sovereign, and our part in all of this is to just realize that He is in control and get into the flow of what He has already set in motion and, consequently, is doing here on earth.

     When  we  believe,  really  believe  that  He  is  in  every action and incident of our own lives and in the lives of our fellow human beings, then this does give us great rest—rest from trying to manufacture responses and actions in others the way we want them to act.  We would cease to expend energy in being the mastermind of other people’s lives, although through good intentions.  We would finally realize that their Creator is the architect of their lives.  We try to take God’s place when we strive to get people to do what we want them to do.  That is the hardest work on this earth—trying to get other people to do what you want them to do.  This type of striving, or rather strife, is brought on by not believing that God is in charge of every one of His created beings.

     By us trying to micromanage things and change every-body on our own strength, we try to take God’s place.  And with this striving going on, no rest can take place.  When the Savior said that they were going to the other side of the lake, He rested in the fact that they would wind up on the other side in due time.  In fact, He rested so comfortably that He fell asleep in the boat and was not the least bit concerned when a storm threatened their very lives.  The disciples woke Him up and cried, “Don’t you care that we are perishing?”

     And He responded, “Why are you so fearful?  How is it that you have no faith?”  Fear came to them when they did not believe in His word when He said that they were going to the other side of the lake.  They did not believe that He was in control of the situation.  In fact, they questioned His care and love of them in what was to them a dire circumstance.  They were relying on their own abilities to micromanage the situation, and they were full of fear and strife, and this was giving them no rest. 

     And so He said to the sea, “Peace, be still.  And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.”  A great calm and rest came to their minds and hearts when they experienced that He was in control, even of the very elements of nature. Mark 4:35-41.

Works Finished from the Foundation of World

     This is a great mystery: Even as it is written already in our genes what we physically are to become, even so Yahweh has in His original works of creation set forth the end from the beginning.  I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure. Isaiah 46:9-10.  It is written in everyone’s “spiritual genes” just what we are to become, even that which He wants us to serve as while here on this earth.   For we all are His “servants.”  He uses us to either become His spiritual manifested children, or He uses us in the big picture to help bring His children to perfection.  Either way, we are all serving His purpose and design for His created beings in the environment He has fashioned for them to operate in.  I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I  have purposed it, I will also do it.