As believers in Christ, we need to bear the sign of resting with God to be filled with Him first, and then working together with God in oneness with Him, even working in and by the One who fills us with Himself.
After God created man, He rested and was refreshed; keeping the Sabbath and entering into the Sabbath rest is an eternal covenant between God and man, and we as believers in Christ should bear a sign that we first enjoy God and are satisfied with Him, and then we work with God, one with Him. Amen!
We as believers in Christ are the most privileged people, for we are called not to work for God or do things for Him but simply enter into His rest and be satisfied with Him.
It’s not work that comes first; the enjoyment of Christ comes first.
On the negative side, we may toil and be burdened, and we can come to the Lord to find rest for our souls in Him and with Him.
On the positive side, even when we don’t toil and do not have a lot of burdens, we can still come to the Lord to enjoy Him.
As we live our daily life, taking care of our daily responsibilities and chores, our soul becomes burdened, for it toils to accomplish this and that, take care of this and that, and achieve this and that.
Many times we get sucked into doing so many things, and at the end of the day, we find ourselves to be so weary, full of burdens, and exhausted after our many toils. Oh, Lord.
The Lord Jesus calls us again and again to come to Him.
He wants us to come to Him as we are, with all our burdens and toils, and He will give us rest.
We should not think that we need to straighten ourselves up and fix our problems before coming to the Lord; rather, we should come to Him as we are.
If our heart was far away from the Lord during the day, if we were distracted by many things, and if we were burdened with so many matters, we should just come to Him as we are.
He wants us to come to Him, learn from Him, and take His yoke upon us.
Our yoke is heavy, harsh, and bitter, but the Lord’s yoke is easy, light, and pleasant.
When we come to the Lord by exercising our spirit to touch Him and to fellowship with Him, we give Him all our burdens and problems, and He gives us rest for our soul.
Our soul is so restless; it cannot rest unless it rests in the Lord and with the Lord.
Our soul needs rest, and the only One in whom we find rest is the Lord Jesus.
May we come to Him and find rest for our soul.
May we come to Him to just enjoy Him, and may we partake of His riches in spirit so that our soul may be at peace, at rest, having full satisfaction.
The peace and rest the Lord gives us are not like the rest and peace in the world, which are not real rest and peace.
He is our peace. He is our rest. He is our supply. We just need to come to Him and enjoy Him!
Enter into the Sabbath Rest with the Lord to Enjoy Rest and Refreshment
Exo. 31:12-17 shows us that the Sabbath follows the charge for the building of the tabernacle.
After the church is built up, we can enter into rest. God wants us, His people, to surely keep His Sabbaths, for this is a sign between Him and us throughout our generations, so that we may know that He’s Jehovah, who sanctifies us.
The children of Isreal were to keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant.
The Sabbath was a sign between God and the children of Israel forever, for in six days Jehovah made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed (vv. 13, 16-17).
After God created man, He was refreshed, and He entered into rest.
Man refreshes God and gives God rest, for man bears God’s image to express God and has God’s dominion to represent God.
Whenever God gains a man, a corporate man, to express Him and represent Him, He rests and is refreshed.
Similarly, when we enter into God’s rest, when we enter into the Sabbath rest with the Lord, we enjoy rest and refreshment.
God wants us to enter into His rest, for man’s first day after being created was a day of rest, not a day of work. God is not after a group of people who can do many works for Him nor is He after some spiritual giants who can fight His battles.
There is the need for work and there is the need for spiritual warfare, but first, there’s the need for man to enter into the Sabbath rest with the Lord to enjoy rest and refreshment with Him.
When we come to the Lord and enjoy Him, when we stop our being and just partake of the Lord’s riches in our time with Him, God is refreshed and He rests.
Man is like a refreshing drink to quench God’s thirst and satisfy Him. He has done everything; He has accomplished everything, and He wants man to simply enter into His rest to enjoy Him and partake of what He is and has done.
On the seventh day God rested and was refreshed; man was God’s refreshment because man was created in God’s own image with a spirit so that man could fellowship with God and be God’s companion and counterpart.
If we believers in Christ express God and reign in life, we become God’s refreshment and we give Him rest.
If we drink the river of water of life to such an extent that rivers of living water are flowing out of our innermost being, and if we reign in life over Satan, sin, and death, we become God’s refreshment.
Man is God’s refreshment whenever man fulfils God’s purpose in creating man, that is, when man expresses God and represents Him.
May we be those who, starting from the morning, come to the Lord to enjoy Him and enter into the Sabbath rest with Him to be refreshed and full of rest.
May we drink the river of living water until there are many rivers of water flowing out of our innermost being, and may we allow the Lord to rule and reign in us so that we may reign in life.
When we do this in our experience, we will enter into God’s rest and refreshment, and we will be rest and be refreshed with God and in God.
Lord Jesus, thank You for creating us in Your image and according to Your likeness so that we may rest with You and be refreshed. Amen, Lord, we want to enter into Your Sabbath rest with You and simply enjoy You. We open to You, Lord, and we drink of You as the river of living water. Flow into us and flow out of us as many rivers of living water. Reign in our being. We enthrone You. Rule and reign in us so that we may reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. Hallelujah, we can enjoy God so that we may express Him and represent Him! Amen, Lord, may we start our day by entering into Your rest and being satisfied and refreshed with You. Fill us. Flow into us and flow out of us. Reign in us and cause us to reign in life. Gain Your rest, Your satisfaction, and Your refreshment by gaining Your corporate expression and representation!
Bear the Sign of Resting with God and Enjoying Him First, and then Working together with God
According to the Bible, God’s people need to bear a sign that they first rest with God and enjoy God, and then they work together with God.
There’s a divine principle in God’s word: God first supplies us with enjoyment, and then we work together with Him.
In order for us to be one with God in His work, we must enjoy Him first.
Whether we serve the Lord with our full time or whether we work and still serve the Lord in spirit, we need to first enjoy the Lord. We cannot serve God unless we first rest with God.
First, we need to be those resting with God; then, we can work together with Him.
![And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, even as the Spirit gave to them to speak forth...But others jeered and said, They are full of new wine!..And it shall be in the last days, says God, [that] I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh...Acts 2:4, 13, 17](https://i0.wp.com/www.agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/And-they-were-all-filled-with-the-Holy-Spirit-and-began-to-speak-in-different-tongues-even-as-the-Spirit-gave-to-them-to-speak-forth-683x1024.jpg?resize=400%2C600&ssl=1 "And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, even as the Spirit gave to them to speak forth...But others jeered and said, They are full of new wine!..And it shall be in the last days, says God, [that] I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh...Acts 2:4, 13, 17")
If we don’t know how to have enjoyment with God and how to enjoy God Himself, we shall not know how to work with Him and how to be one with Him in His divine work.
How can we preach the gospel if we do not first enjoy God and are satisfied with Him?
If we are miserable and sad, and we go to speak to others about the Lord, no one will want to speak with us, for they don’t want to be as sad and as miserable as we are.
Just as the children of Israel had to bear the sign of the Sabbath that they belong to God, so we need to bear the sign of resting with God and enjoying God first, and then working together with God, being one with God.
A good example of this is on the day of Pentecost and the disciples being filled with the Holy Spirit in Acts 2.
The Lord Jesus didn’t ask His disciples to first go and preach the gospel and then the Lord will fill them in spirit; rather, He asked them to stay in Jerusalem until they are filled with the Holy Spirit, and then they could go and work together with God.
The disciples didn’t work for six days and then enjoy the Lord on the day of Pentecost; rather, they prayed for ten days, and they were filled with the Holy Spirit, and then they could work together with God.
They were filled with the enjoyment of the heavenly wine, and then they could do a work with God.
The way for us to work together with God is to work in oneness with Him by resting with Him and being satisfied with Him first, and then working together with Him.
At Pentecost the disciples were filled with the enjoyment of the Lord; others said that they were full of new wine (Acts 2:13), but they were filled with the heavenly wine of the Spirit.
Then, Peter and the eleven stood to work together with the Lord (v. 14).
We need to bear this sign today: first enjoy the Lord and rest with Him to be filled with Him, and then labour together with Him by working with Him and in Him.
As we are enjoying the Lord and resting with God first, we’re filled with Him, and we stand with others in the Body to work for the Lord and with the Lord.
With God it is a matter of working and resting; however, with us men, it is a matter of resting and working.
First, we rest; first, we enjoy the Lord; then we work with the Lord by being one with Him.
The Lord Jesus said in John 15 that, if we first abide in Him and allow His word to abide in us, we can bear much fruit, for apart from Him we can do nothing.
Only when we enjoy the Lord and rest with Him are we filled with Him and qualified to work with Him by being one with Him.
As God’s people, we need to bear a sign that we need God to be our strength, energy, and everything so that we may be able to work together with Him for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 15:10, 18).
This honours God and glorifies Him.
When we need God and depend on Him, when we take Him as our strength and energy, we will be able to work together with Him.
We will be able to testify with the apostle Paul that we are what we are by the grace of God, and His grace to us was not in vain but rather, we labour abundantly, yet not us, but the grace of God which is with us. Amen!
The sign we bear today as believers in Christ is that we rest with God, we enjoy God, we’re refreshed with God, and we are filled up with God first.
Amen, first of all, we rest with God, enjoy God, are refreshed with God, and are filled up with God.
Then, we work together with the very One who fills us in oneness with Him!
Our work will be an overflow of life, an overflow of our enjoying Christ and resting with God first.
This is an eternal covenant, an eternal contract, between us and God. This is a sign that we belong to Him.
People in the world who read the Bible may want to fulfil what the Bible says, and they try and strive and do many things; we, however, come to the Lord to enjoy Him and rest with Him, and then we work together with Him and in Him.
We have an eternal contract with God which says: we enjoy God first, then we work together with the very One who fills us, the One we have enjoyed!
Hallelujah, God first supplies us with enjoyment, and then we work together with Him! Amen, Lord, may we bear the sign of enjoying God and resting with God first, and then working with Him by being one with Him! Save us from trying to work for God without enjoying God. Save us from our own efforts, striving, and struggling to please God or do a work for God. May we come to You day by day to enjoy You, rest with You, and be filled with You. May we come to You and open to be filled with You. Amen, Lord, fill us with the heavenly wine until we’re one with You to work together with You and one with You! We need You, Lord, to be our strength and energy! We need You as our everything. Fill us with Yourself so that we may be able to be one with You and work together with You for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ. We want to be those who rest with God, enjoy God, are refreshed with God, and are filled with God first! Amen, Lord, first of all, we want to enjoy You! We want to be refreshed with You! We want to be filled up with You! Fill us, Lord, until we’re fully one with You and work in You and with You, the One who fills us!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Ed Marks in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Exodus, msg. 172 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Laboring on the All-inclusive Christ Typified by the Good land for the Building up of the Church as the Body of Christ, for the Reality and the Manifestation of the Kingdom, and for the Bride to make Herself Ready for the Lord’s Coming (2023 Winter Training), week 6, entitled, Christ as Our Sabbath Rest, Typified by the Good Land of Canaan.
- Similar articles on this topic:
– The Sabbath in relation to the building work of the tabernacle, a portion from, Life-Study of Exodus, Chapter 172.
– How Does God Want Christians to Live? Via, Bibles for America blog.
– God’s rest, a portion from, God’s Plan and God’s Rest, Chapter 1, by Watchman Nee.
– Enjoying Christ with God on the Ground of Oneness, video message via, LSM – the genuine ground of oneness, msg. 5.
– Rest and Be Satisfied in Jesus Christ, via, New Jerusalem blog.
– A Christian’s Attitude toward Reforming Society, via, Shepherding Words.
– Satisfied with the rest and enjoyment in Christ, a portion from, Life-Study of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs, Chapter 12, by Witness Lee.
– Morning revival and enjoying God, article via, Conversant Faith.
– God’s Intention to Build Himself in Christ into Us, 1 & 2 Samuel LSM webcast program 27.
– Keeping God’s Sabbath, a portion from, Life-Study of Leviticus, Chapter 59, by Witness Lee.
– Resting with God and Working with Him according to the Principle of the Sabbath, via, Living to Him. - Hymns on this topic:
– In the fresh, tender grass Jesus makes me lie down; / He leads me by waters of rest; / No more struggle and strain; all self-effort is vain; / In the flow I am perfectly blessed. / Jesus called me one day to the Holiest Place, / To live in His presence divine; / Hallelujah, I’ve heard an encouraging word: / “Abide—you’re a branch in the vine.” (Hymns #1191 stanzas 2-3)
– We rest on Thee, our Shield and our Defender; / We go not forth alone against the foe; / Strong in Thy strength, safe in Thy keeping tender. / We rest on Thee, and in Thy Name we go. (Hymns #881 stanza 1)
– “Be all at rest, my soul!” Oh! blessed secret / Of the true life that glorifies thy Lord; / Not always doth the busiest soul best serve Him, / But he who resteth on His faithful word. / “Be all at rest!” for rest is highest service; / To the still heart God doth His secrets tell; / Thus shalt thou learn to wait, and watch, and labor, / Strengthened to bear, since Christ in thee doth dwell. (Hymns #654 stanza 1-2)
About aGodMan
Life-study of Exodus, pp. 1824-1826, by Witness Lee
“You shall surely keep My Sabbaths; for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations as a perpetual covenant (Exo. 31:12-17).
It was when God created all things in heaven and earth including man that He had rest on the seventh day. Man was His refreshment for He had man as His companion. To God, the seventh day was the day of rest and refreshment.
However, to man, the day of rest and refreshment was the first day. God’s divine principle does not ask us to work until we have an enjoyment. For this reason God supplies us with enjoyment. We first need to be filled and enjoy God so that we will know how to be one with Him in His work.
Like the day of Pentecost when the apostles were drunk being filled with the Spirit including Peter after which they preached the gospel and were one with God in His work. God wants man to enjoy first by being filled with Him so that we can work.
God works and man enjoys. With God it is a matter of working and resting; with man, a matter of resting and working.
God’s Plan and God’s Rest, Chapter 1, by Watchman Nee
We as believers in Christ need to bear the sign that we first rest with God and enjoy Him to be satisfied with Him, and then we work together with Him by being one with Him.
He first works and then rests, but we first rest and then we work one with the One who fills us.
Amen Lord! May we daily learn to rest in You by enjoying You, then work with You!
Amen! Lord fill us until we are one with you. Amen
We need to be one with God in His work.
This requires that we enjoy Him.
If we do not know how to enjoy God and be filled with God, we shall not know how to work with Him, how to be one with Him in His work.
Amen brother.
This is why it’s so important to begin our day by enjoying God.
Only after we have been filled with the enjoyment of everything that God is are we able to be one with Him and express something of Him.
We need to be one with God in all our doings.
So, first we rest in God; then, we can be one with Him in working.
Hallelujah for the divine logic!
May we apply the secret of living: to abide and rest in God is our joy.
Amen, brother. Thank you, God, for working in us to enjoy your accomplishment
Praise the Lord! 😃🙌🙋🏽
When God rested on the seventh day after creating heaven and the earth in six days, He was refreshed because He now had man as His companion.
He was no longer alone! Man’s first day was the seventh day, setting forth a divine principle that we need rest and enjoyment, to be refreshed before we can work.
We see this in the apostle Paul who laboured more abundantly than His peers because He had the grace, the enjoyment of God.
Praise the Lord for this revelation!
Before we can work for God for the building up of the church as His Body we must enjoy Him!
05/02/24 Christ as Our Sabbath Rest Typified by the Good Land of Canaan (Week 6, Day 4)
Why was the good land a rest? Did the children of Israel rest in the good land? From the very day they entered into it they were fighting constantly. Then why did God call that land the rest, as He did in Deuteronomy 12:9? Superficially speaking, people say that the good land of Canaan was called the rest because the people made their homes in it and settled there.
This thought is rather natural and superficial. The land was a rest because the temple, as God’s Dwelling Place, could be built there (1 Chron. 22:5-15; 28:1—29:30). There, with the temple, God could have His expression and representation. When God is expressed and represented, there is satisfaction for both God and man, and that is the real rest.
Exodus 31:17 says, “It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days Jehovah made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.” This verse indicates that God rested and was refreshed on the seventh day after His six days of work in His creation of heaven and earth, which was consummated in His creation of man (Gen 2:7).
God was refreshed with man
He created him in His image with a spirit so that man could have fellowship with Him. Therefore, man was God’s refreshment. Man was like a refreshing drink to quench God’s thirst and satisfy Him. When God ended His work and began to rest, He was enjoying the company of His favorite creation, man. To God, the seventh day was a day of rest and refreshment. But, to man, God’s companion, the day of rest and refreshment was his first day, a day of enjoyment.
However, after the enjoyment there is a further work. After Adam had been created by God, he entered into the Sabbath, the first day to him, to rest and to enjoy. But after that day he began to work, to till the ground (Gen 2:15). With God, work is first and enjoyment is second. With man, enjoyment is first and work is second. This is the vision of the principle of grace. God did the work and then enjoyed. We enjoy what God has done; then we work.
Not only with creation but also with redemption it is the same. The Lord has accomplished everything for redemption. After the completion of His redemption the Lord enjoyed the result. The Lord worked first and enjoyed later. We, however, enjoy first and work later. Concerning redemption and grace, we have nothing to do. Everything is finished. We simply enter into the Lord’s accomplishment and have our rest.
To receive the gospel is to enter into the work that the Lord has finished. Take it as the Sabbath, as our rest, and enjoy it with the Lord. But after we enjoy it, we have to bear some obligation to work. After our enjoyment we should offer ourselves to the Lord to do His work. This is a divine principle – enjoy God first before we can do His work.
What then is God work for us? God desires that we shall become, not only to become His corporate Dwelling Place, but also to become His corporate Counterpart, His Bride (Gen 2:18; Rev 21:2). By applying the divine principle, we first need to enjoy Him and absorb Him, in what He is, in what He has, and what He has done for us in order to become one with Him in His expression and in His purpose. Then, we can be built up together to become His Temple, as His Dwelling Place, and His Bride, as His Counterpart.
The land of Canaan typifies Christ as the full supply for man’s life, and the holy temple and the holy city upon this land typify the church as the fullness of Christ. The temple and the city are the result of man’s enjoyment of the riches of the land of Canaan. Likewise, the church is the result of our enjoyment of the riches of Christ. By continually enjoying the riches of Christ, as typified by the rich produce of the good land, the church will eventually become the Holy Temple, the Holy City, and the Bride of Christ ~ the New Jerusalem.
Listen to the audio version of this article via,
Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbcysRAjkp4
Rumble:
https://rumble.com/v4staax-we-first-enjoy-god-then-work-together-with-god.html
Exo. 31:13, footnote 1 on “Sabbaths”, Recovery Version Bible
Ameen!!!
Hallelujah for the divine principle in the Lord’s work- the work must be the issue of our enjoyment. We need to bear a sign that God is our God and that we are His people.
As His people we love Him, enjoy Him, trust Him, and that we rest and are satisfied with Him. It is a violation of the divine principle for the Lord to require us to work without having the enjoyment first.
1 Cor 15:10 is in line with this principle. It is not even sufficient to work with or for God.
We need to be one with God in His work.
The way to be one with Him is to receive Him, enjoy Him, experience and constituted and filled with Him.
We rest and are refreshed.