As the people of God, we must bear a sign that we are God’s by resting with God, enjoying God, and being filled with God first, and then we can work with the One who fills us; we must first enjoy God and be filled with Him before we can work with Him and for Him.
We must keep the Sabbath spiritually as a covenant that assures God that we will be one with Him first and then work for Him and in oneness with Him.
God’s desire and His will is that we first enter into His rest and satisfaction, and then we can work together with Him and in oneness with Him.
Man’s first day after he was created by God was not a day of labor and work, but a day of rest; man’s first day was God’s seventh day, which was a day of rest.
After God did the work of creating the heavens, the earth, the animals, the plants, and everything related to the earth, and after He created man in His image and gave man dominion over all things, He said, Very good! and then He rested.
God rested and was refreshed after He completed the work of restoration and further creation because He had man with His image to express Him and having His dominion to represent Him; whenever God has a corporate man that expresses Him and represents Him, He is at rest.
We as men created in the image of God need to first rest with God and enjoy Him, and then we can work for Him by being one with Him.
God’s desire is that we would enter into rest and be satisfied with Him; this is why the Lord Jesus called all those who are toiling and are heavy burdened to come to Him and find rest (Matt. 11:28-29).
There now remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God; this rest is our entering into the full enjoyment of the all-inclusive Christ as the reality of the good land.
When we enjoy Christ with God, when we are filled with God, we are in rest and satisfaction, God is happy with us, and He in us can do things and work things.
We can even say that there are three stages of rest: in this age, in the millennium, and in eternity.
In this age Christ is our rest as the heavenly One, the One who rests from His work and sits at the right hand of God in the heavens; He is our rest in our mingled spirit, and we can come to Him with all our toils and burdens, and He will give us rest.
Furthermore, if in this age we are produced as His overcomers, in the next age Christ with His kingdom will be our rest in a fuller way, and we will be His co-kings, sharing and enjoying His rest.
In the new heaven and new earth, Christ as the all-conquering One will be the rest in the fullest way to all God’s redeemed for eternity.
May we enter into His rest and satisfaction today, bearing the sign that we are His by entering into the Sabbath rest, and then may we work with Him and in oneness with Him!
We bear a Sign that we are God’s People by Enjoying Him and being Filled with Him and then Working with Him in Oneness with Him
God has called us to Himself and has chosen us, redeemed us, regenerated us, and brought us into His kingdom; now, as children of God and members of the Body of Christ, we participate in the divine work to build up the church.
This work, typified by the work to build the tabernacle, can be done by the people of God, those who bear a sign to indicate that we are God’s people and that we need Him.
Then, we will be able to work not only for God but also with God by being one with God; He will be our strength to work and our energy to labor.
The more we go on with the Lord and serve Him in the church life, the more we realize that our natural strength is depleted, and sometimes we may even have a physical weakness…and we have less and less physical energy.
But our Lord is energetic, He is full of energy, and as we stop to enjoy Him and be filled with Him, we can work not merely for Him but with Him and in oneness with Him.
We are God’s people, and we should bear a sign that we need Him to be our enjoyment, our strength, our energy, and our everything, so that we may be able to work for Him to honor and glorify Him.
Entering into the Sabbath rest before doing anything for God is a sign that we as God’s people bear that we belong to God.
The Sabbath means that, before we work for God, we need to first enjoy God and be filled with Him. Before we can do anything for God, we need to first be filled with God.
In Acts 2:14 we see how Peter preached the gospel not by his own strength or out of his own zeal but by the infilling God, the infilling Spirit; therefore, Peter had a sign that he was God’s co-worker, and his gospel preaching was an honor and glory to God.
We as God’s people must bear a sign that we rest with God, we enjoy God, and we are filled with God first, and then we work with the very One who fills us; furthermore, we not only work with God or for God, but we also work as those who are one with God.
In speaking to God’s people and even to the unbelievers, we must always seek to bear a sign that we don’t speak out of ourselves or from what we know, but that the Lord is our strength, our energy, and our everything for the ministering of the word (2 Cor. 13:3; Acts 6:4).
When we preach the gospel, speak to the fellow believers, and prophesy in the church meetings, we need to bear a sign that the Lord is our strength, He is our energy, and He is everything to us for ministering the word.
So we need to keep the Sabbath in its reality, realizing that before we work for God, we need to enjoy God and be filled with God, entering into God’s rest and satisfaction, and then we are ready to work for Him and with Him in oneness with Him.
In the world everyone works by themselves and for themselves; they don’t have a sign saying that they belong to God.
Many of these successful people, even though some may declare that they give all the glory to God, they clearly show everyone else that they can do this all by themselves.
But our situation is altogether different; we bear a sign that we first rest with God, we first enjoy God, and we are filled up with God, and then we work with the very One who fills us.
Our work is not in and of ourselves; we do not initiate the work for God, we do not carry out the work for God, and we are not the ones who get the glory and praise for the work.
Rather, the work comes from God, He is the source, He is the strength, He is the means, He is the goal, and He gets all the glory. So it is good to tell the Lord,
Lord Jesus, we want to bear a sign that we belong to You by first enjoying You, resting with You, being satisfied with You, and being filled with You. We want to practice being one spirit with You so that our speaking may be Your speaking and our work may be in oneness with You. Amen, Lord, it must be You who speaks in our speaking, and if You are not one with us, we will not speak anything. We would speak only with You and in oneness with You. We depend on You, Lord, and we need You. We come to You, we stop our being, and we just want to enjoy You, be filled with You, and be saturated with You!
We keep the Sabbath by Enjoying God, being Sanctified, and being One with Him in our Living and Work
According to Exo. 31:16, keeping the Sabbath is an eternal agreement, a covenant, that assures God that we will be one with Him by first enjoying Him and being filled with Him and then by working for Him, with Him, and in oneness with Him.
God wants to enter into an eternal covenant with us; He has done everything, He is doing everything, and He is everything to us, and we simply need to enjoy Him, be filled with Him, and allow Him to do everything in us and through us.
It is a serious matter for us to work for the Lord by ourselves without taking Him in and enjoying Him by eating and drinking Him (1 Cor. 12:13; John 6:57).
The Lord Jesus kept the Sabbath in spirit all throughout His life, for He didn’t do His own work but the Father’s work, He didn’t speak His own words but the Father’s words, and He didn’t seek His own glory but the Father’s glory.
He took the Father as His source; He always retreated in the wilderness or on the mountain to pray and be filled with God before He did anything for God.
And all that He did was in oneness with the Father, so the Father was expressed through Him and He was represented through Him also.
Similarly, when Peter spoke on the day of Pentecost, he was inwardly partaking of Jesus, eating Him and drinking Him, so he could speak with power and authority, and the words he spoke were God’s words, piercing into man’s heart and leading them to repentance.
Peter was enjoying the Sabbath rest as he was speaking, and it was the Lord speaking through him as he spoke the word of the Lord.
Today we need to keep the Sabbath and enter into the Sabbath rest, realizing that we are in a covenant with God that assures us that we will be one with Him by first enjoying Him and being filled with Him, and then by working with Him and for Him in oneness with Him!
As we enjoy the Lord and then work with Him, for Him, and by being one with Him, spontaneously we are sanctified, separated unto God from everything that is common and saturated with God to replace everything that is fleshly and natural.
Enjoying the Lord and being filled with Him causes us to be separated unto Him and saturated with Him; whatever is of the flesh and of the old man is slowly being replaced, and we are saturated with God’s element.
However, if in the church life we do things without first enjoying the Lord and without serving Him by being one with Him, this kind of service results in spiritual death and the loss of the fellowship in the Body (Exo. 31:14-15).
Those from God’s people who didn’t keep the Sabbath were to be cut off from among the people of God, losing the fellowship of God’s people.
The believers in Christ who work for God yet without enjoying God and being filled with God cut themselves off from the Body and lose the fellowship and supply in the Body. Oh Lord!
Everything related to God’s dwelling place leads us to one matter – to the Sabbath with its rest and refreshment of the Lord! Amen!
In the church life we are in the tabernacle, and the tabernacle leads us to rest, to the enjoyment of God’s purpose and of what He has done!
Lord Jesus, save us from doing things in the church life without first enjoying the Lord and being one with the Lord! We want to enjoy the sweet flow of life in the Body, and we want that our service would issue in the building up of the Body! May we remain in the covenant with You that assures You that we will be one with You by first enjoying You and being filled with You and then by working for You, with You, and oneness with You! Amen, Lord, may we always take You in and eat and drink of You, so that whatever we do would be out of being filled with You and in oneness with You!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ed Marks for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Exodus, pp. 1827-1828 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Will of God (2020 spring ITERO), week 7, Taking the Lord’s Yoke (the Father’s Will) upon Us and Learning from Him to Find Rest for Our Souls.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Oh, that I now the rest might know, / Believe, and enter in; / Now, Savior, now the power bestow, / And let me cease from sin. / Remove this hardness from my heart, / This unbelief remove; / To me the rest of faith impart, / The Sabbath of Thy love. (Hymns #424)
– In such a fellowship / Thou, Lord, art grace to me; / My heart and spirit gladdened, filled, / I enter rest in Thee. / Lord, I would linger here, / Still seeking after Thee, / Continue in the Word and prayer / Till Thou dost flow thru me. (Hymns #812)
– The overflow of life is work, / The work should be our living! / What we experience e’er should be / The message we are giving. / When living and the work are one, / The work will be effectual; / When message and the life are one, / The word will be successful. (Hymns #910)
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