Resting in the Results of the Resurrection

Author: Creflo Dollar

Summary

God has a will for our lives; however, just because He has a will for each of us doesn’t mean it will automatically come to pass. Nothing just happens. God’s will is for us to live long, successful lives; however, we will not see His promises manifest in our lives if we do not believe Him.

It was not God’s will for the Israelites to spend 40 years in the wilderness. They could not make progress because they didn’t believe God (Hebrews 3:15-18).

God’s will for our lives is good; however, it will not manifest on its own.

Our faith and belief are required to reach the next level God has for us.
Faith will not work until the will of God is known; the will of God is the Word of God.
Some people think that everything that happens to them—good and bad—is the will of God for their lives.
However, there are things that happen that are not according to God’s will for our lives.
Many Christians miss out on God’s precious promises because they do not believe (Hebrews 4:1, 2, AMP).

Faith will not work until the will of God is known.

For example, it is the will of God for us to be healed and delivered, and to prosper in every area of our lives.
There is also a specific will for each of us, which will not manifest without our faith for it.

The Sabbath

The rest is referring to God’s finished works (Hebrews 4:3-8, AMP).

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. For six days He worked, and on the seventh day He rested (Hebrews 4:4; Genesis 2:2, 3).
Rest in this context means to cease from work because everything is done.
Man was created right before the Sabbath. At that point, God had provided everything mankind would ever need, including the ability to reproduce (Genesis 1:5, 11, 22, Genesis 2:4-8).

There is a rest we can enter into today. Faith and obedience are still required to enter into His rest (Psalm 95:7-11; Hebrews 3:15).

Reasons for the Sabbath

God wants us to rest (or be confident) in the fact that He has done all the work for us.

Resting on the Sabbath is a way of symbolically recognizing that God is our real source, not our own work (Exodus 20:8-11; Colossians 2:16, 17, AMP).
God’s rest describes our relationship with Him—trusting, relying on Him and what He has already done, instead of relying on our own works and abilities.

We now have in Jesus the reality of what the Sabbath symbolizes.

Through Jesus, we can have a relationship with God, and have all our needs met.
When we are resting, we are trusting in what God has done through the Lord Jesus Christ. We have everything we need within our born-again spirits (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Labor to enter into the rest

Our labor is our labor of faith.

Praying, serving, studying the Bible, confessing the Word, and listening to Word-based messages are ways in which we build our faith and walk in obedience.
Our Christian walk should consist of entering into God’s rest instead of trying to work to make Him do something (Hebrews 4:8-11, AMP).