I posted a 2 Part teaching on May 14 and 15, 2021 entitled “DON’T WORK – REST” that compliments this teaching. It would be worth going back to that one and relating it to this one. I originally wrote that teaching in July of 2012. This teaching was written in August 2015. Well why don’t you post them right away? Because, just like God gives them to me, it’s His timing when they should be released. So I wait and rest in Him.
I’m guessing most of you who are studying this teaching would be familiar with the line “To be, or not to be? That is the question”. Of course it’s from the opening phrase of a soliloquy in the “Nunnery Scene” of William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet. I wonder what ole’ William knew?
Scripture gives the correct answer to this question, but many do not take heed to it because of false teaching, religion and legalism, which directs them to a works or doing mentality. Look what Acts 17:28 says:
28 For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.
Did you notice that it was “our being” not “our doing”? And where is it? It’s in Him. The answer is “to be” by resting in Him. Trying to “do” things to “find the Lord” is futile. First off, He wasn’t lost, you were. Look at the verse before this one. Verse 27 says “That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:”
Right after this verse 27 says that they might seek Him, it says He is not far from anyone of us, because…..Here comes verse 28. “For in Him we live, and move, and have our being”. It is not in performance, rule-keeping, or traditions of men. It is just in being in Him and Him being in us.
There are lots of people who have learned the words in the bible, even memorized them. Then they put together sermons, and articulate those words. Yet the messages delivered have no power or anointing on them to change lives or reveal truth.
The reason is because they have not had an experience of the revelation behind the truth. They have taken the word and massaged it into a message to preach or teach, rather than study the word to gain an experience through relationship with the author. So, they are doing and not being.
Anointing does not come through articulation, it comes through revelation and experience. That’s why I’ve said in the past that there are lots of people who believe the bible is the Word of God, but they do not believe the God in the Word, because they have not had a relational experience.
Bill Johnson said “Never study the Word of God to preach or teach. Study the Word of God to have a deeper relationship with the author”. I may have the quote a bit off, but you get the point. As you study the Word of God, digging for the deeper truths, you will receive revelation, that leads to an experience, that will bring understanding. That results in anointing as you preach and teach.
Remember that old saying – “A man with an opinion has no chance in an argument against a man who has had an experience”? That’s why so many people that are relaying scripture today without an experience are seeing a “dead works” anointing on the messages. They are trying to do rather than just be. That type of “performance” will not produce positive results, because before you can “do”, you must first “BE”.
This quote by Kris Vallotton sums up what I’ve tried to say above. “Articulation without impartation results in people knowing but not being.” You can memorize the entire bible and it will do you no good until you have a true revelation of the person of Jesus Christ.
As an example. Someone could memorize my entire life from birth to death and know everything about me, but never haven met me or spent time with me, they do not KNOW ME. They know all about me, but they don’t know me, because they never had relationship with me.
Paul the Apostle understood this so well. Here’s a man who wrote thirteen books of the New Testament from Romans to Philemon. Some would argue fourteen books by including Hebrews as one of Paul’s writings. I would give no argument to that belief, because it is what Paul called vain disputations. Hebrews is a great book of grace and declaration of who we are.
So, here’s a man who probably walked closer to the Lord and knew him better than anyone at that time. Yet look what he writes in Philippians 3:10 – “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;”
Just look at that. This man, Paul, was so anointed and powerful in his relationship with the Lord, that the handkerchiefs he wore when he preached were taken to the sick and it healed them from the anointing. This man who refused to be ashamed of the gospel, for it was the power of God unto salvation. This man who was shipwrecked, stoned, and beaten for the cause of Christ said “That I may know Him…”
If Paul didn’t know Him, WHO DID? Paul had one goal in mind and he stated that in 1 Corinthians 2:2 – “For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified”. All Paul sought after was Jesus, just Jesus. He didn’t say he wanted to know about Jesus Christ. He said he wanted to know Jesus Christ.
There are lots of people, ministers, pastors, parishioners, etc. who know about Jesus, but how many of them know Jesus. The problem is when you know about Jesus, then you preach and teach about Jesus. That’s not what Peter, Paul, Timothy, Phillip and the others did. THEY PREACHED JESUS (Acts 8:5; Acts 8:35; Acts 9:20; Acts 17:18; 2 Corinthians 1:19; Philippians 1:18).
Now don’t just skip over those referenced scriptures. Take a look at them. See how emphatic these men were that Christ be preached. Not some sermon about Christ, but the actual preaching of Christ and Him crucified.
Getting back to the book of Hebrews. Whoever the writer of the book of Hebrews is, and again there are strong indications it was Paul, that writer knew where the power and anointing is. It is in Christ and entering into His rest. Not works, rule-keeping, or performance. Take a look at Hebrews 4:1-11.
1 God’s promise of entering his rest still stands, so we ought to tremble with fear that some of you might fail to experience it.
Right away, this scripture shows us it is God’s promise of entering His rest, and that promise STILL STANDS. Big warning here. Not a punishment. Not a mandate. Not a command, but a warning that “we ought to tremble with fear that some of you might fail to experience it”. Did you take note that the scripture said fail to experience it and not fail to perform it?
That’s what studying scripture will do is show you the truths lying within the Logos word, so it can bring you Rhema. Just reading these verses will bring you to the end of them with no deeper truth being revealed. Just a sense of accomplishment “that” you read them, but no idea of “what” you read.
2 For this good news—that God has prepared this rest—has been announced to us just as it was to them. But it did them no good because they didn’t share the faith of those who listened to God.
Who prepared this rest? God did, so how can anyone think they can achieve rest in their Christian walk by works. God has already completed and prepared this rest. What is left to do except receive it and enter into it? You see the ones who tried to achieve it. They didn’t share in this rest due to lack of faith. Faith in the truth that it is a gift and not a reward.
3 For only we who believe can enter his rest. As for the others, God said, “In my anger I took an oath: ‘They will never enter my place of rest,’” even though this rest has been ready since he made the world.
Only we who believe CAN enter his rest. The word can means are able. The only way you are able to enter His rest is to believe it is yours and that it “has been ready since He made the world”. It is not something God thought up after He created the world. He provided it before the world was made. Woo Hoo!!
4 We know it is ready because of the place in the Scriptures where it mentions the seventh day: “On the seventh day God rested from all his work.”
God rested from all His work. It was His work and the reason He rested is because all His work was done.
5 But in the other passage God said, “They will never enter my place of rest.”
Notice He said “They” will never enter my place of rest”, He didn’t say we would not. So, who is He talking about? Keep studying.
6 So God’s rest is there for people to enter, but those who first heard this good news failed to enter because they disobeyed God.
Here’s who He is talking about in verse 5. Those who first heard this good news. This is confirmed by the portion of scripture in verse 2 which reads "it did them no good because they didn’t share the faith of those who listened to God."
7 So God set another time for entering his rest, and that time is today. God announced this through David much later in the words already quoted: “Today when you hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts.”
Now here’s more proof that the scripture in verse 5 is not talking about us. It says, “God set another time for entering His rest. What other time? TODAY!! “Today when you hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts.” You are hearing His voice today. It may be me putting these words down on this media, but it is the voice of God, because it is coming right from Holy Spirit inspired scripture and revelation.
We will stop here, but there's so much more on this teaching in part 2. We will start with the Truth that not only do we have a place of rest, but it is a “SPECIAL” rest still waiting for the people of God. Grace and Peace.
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