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Resolute Faith

To whom was God speaking when He took an oath that they would never enter His rest? Wasn't it the people who disobeyed Him? (Hebrews 3:18 NLT)

We have no right to go to the unsaved and bid them come to Christ and find rest until and unless we ourselves know that rest. Our testimony and our ministry is jeopardized, weakened, limited and discredited if we are not ourselves in rest; and this is the object of the enemy's activity in this matter to discredit us by taking from us that very birthright of our union with Him Who is never perturbed, never anxious, never in doubt as to the issue, the One Who reigns. You see, rest is the practical outworking of our belief that He is Lord, and the very Lordship of Christ is struck at by the unrest of the people of God....

Do not think that it is necessarily such-and-such things that account for our condition. These may be contributing factors, they may be very testing, may bear upon us very heavily. Physical matters yes, they do press, they do make the situation exceedingly difficult, they do make a difference. Circumstances in which we have to live our lives, they do make a lot of difference, they make the situation exceedingly difficult. We say, "If only the Lord would deal with this physical matter or these circumstances or this something else! It is all due to that, that is the cause of it, the reason for it." That is our way of reasoning, but it is not the Lord's thought at all. The thing is deeper down than that, and it is simply a matter of believing God; resolute faith, confidence in God. The Lord is trying to get us out of our variable and varying soul-life where we are at the mercy of all our feelings, thoughts and reasonings and all that kind of thing, into a realm where, in spirit, we are steadfast. That is the point upon which it is all fixed in the Psalm. "Their heart was not steadfast with Him" (Psa. 78:37), and around that the whole of their forty years is gathered. The key to this is spiritual; tested by every other line, every other means, it is a spiritual matter ultimately. To be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inward man (Eph. 3:16) is the answer to it all.

He will quiet you with His love.

The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; but because the Lord loves you. § We love Him because He first loved us. § You … He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight.

In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. § God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” § Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. § His Son, … who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.

Zeph. 3:17;  Deut. 7:7,8;  1 John 4:19;  Col. 1:21,22;  1 John 4:10;  Rom. 5:8;  Matt. 3:17;  John 10:17;  Heb. 1:2,3

A new and living way.

Cain went out from the presence of the Lord. § Your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you. § Pursue … holiness, without which no one will see the Lord.

I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. § Our Savior Jesus Christ … has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.

The way into the Holiest of All was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was still standing. § He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation. § The veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.

Narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it. § You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Heb. 10:20;  Gen. 4:16;  Isa. 59:2;  Heb. 12:14;  John 14:6;  2 Tim. 1:10;  Heb. 9:8;  Eph. 2:14;  Matt. 27:51;  Matt. 7:14; Ps. 16:11

Circumstantial Evidence

If any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God on this behalf" (1 Pet. 4:16).

Often the lapidary will polish the jewel with its own dust. Just so our Father makes use of the weak and beggarly element of our nature to produce the mirror-like lustre in which His image is finally reflected for all to see. "They shall be Mine. . . in that day when I make up My jewels" (Malachi 3:17).

"Those who know the Lord best are those who have gone the deepest way. Those who go the deep way of trial do so because God puts the premium upon their knowledge of Him. They are the people who are shut up to God. But this knowledge is firstly, constitutional: that is, it is to constitute a certain kind of person and character; and secondly it is vocational: it does not end with the person concerned, but is the essence of service, in time and eternity. God is very practical, and requires that things in His service are never merely theoretical but real and true to life." -T. A-S.

"Our path ought to be the mold, the opportunity, for the expression and virtue of Christ's life. Saints seek to use Him rather in order to get through their circumstances, instead of seeing in the circumstances the mold in which they are to be taught the strength and power of the Lord Jesus. May we grow in Him, knowing Him, not only as helping us through circumstances, but using the circumstances which He puts us through as opportunities for enlarging our souls in Himself."

"But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings, that, when His glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy" (1 Pet. 4:13).

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