The Weapon of Rest

Yesterday, the Lord gave me a word for a person involving "rest". The word dealt with the Lord's command and design that we enter into rest one day each week.

There are all kinds of benefits to rest that we as 21st century Americans choose to overlook. We use our time off to catch up on the tasks and jobs, shopping and chores that we cannot squeeze into our normal week. We later reward ourselves with some form of entertainment but can any of us say that we have rested in a long time? Even on vacation we often drive ourselves to "have fun" and finish that time of rest more tired than when we started. As Christians, we have run rough shod over the Fourth Commandment as much as the others--and I am no exception!

Later that same afternoon, I was listening to a talk by a missionary to Africa. The missionary mentioned that "rest" was a powerful weapon of God's Holy Spirit. She went on to tell of the victories that were won as great men and women of God "rested" in Him. God moves when we rest in Him.

When the same theme shows up several times on the same day I listen. I have never thought of rest as a spiritual weapon but it actually is. That is one reason why the writer of Hebrews admonishes us to "enter into God's rest". Naomi wanted Ruth to find a husband so that she (Ruth) could have rest in her life (i.e. provision, protection, and love).

This then led me to consider the things that drive me from rest. Fear drives us from rest. There is that driving sense that we must be doing something in order to fix our lives. Doing often provides the anesthesia to the low grade pain that is always there that we have grown accustomed to.

When we rest in God, we shut down our lives (the operative word being "our"). We sit before God and we sit with God! We re-create. It is not just a command for our well being (literally, our well being) but it is the foundation of a powerful weapon against hell.

I find it interesting that the Jewish concept of day is evening first and then morning, versus our Greek concept of the day beginning at sun rise. When day begins at evening, it means that we first rest and then out of that rest we work. Evening then morning.

Finally, as I write this, I write this as condemned as you probably feel reading it. I have no idea where I can squeeze rest into my weekly schedule. All I can think of are the multitudinous chores that will pile up if I rest one day each week. However, let's not give up. Let's ask the Holy Spirit to help us. He seems to be bringing this concept (or "brick") to the forefront, and so let's see what He can do to help moves us into the direction of "entering into God's rest".

When introducing a new discipline into your spiritual life, it is often wise to begin small and work up from there. At the beginning, the Holy Spirit may encourage you to take a few hours a week to simply rest. But let Him start with something. Offer Him something and know that every time you "rest", you are lobbing a grenade at hell.

Blessings,
Father Scott +

You May Not Cross The Blood Line

In The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkein, there is a scene where a Balrog (an ancient and menacing creature that lived under the mountain where their journey had taken them) is chasing the Fellowship and its leader-protector, Gandalf.

Gandalf tells the others to go ahead as he takes his stand on a narrow stone bridge. As he turns, he raises his staff and shouts to the Balrog, "You shall not pass! I am a servant of the ancient fire of Arnon!"

It is a powerful moment in the book and movie. Two powers stand against one another face to face. This illustrates how spiritual warfare and prayer operates. Two powers face off, yet one power is clearly stronger than the other. "You shall not pass because we are servants of the Ancient God-the Ancient of Days!"

As I prayed for those who were sick this week, I turned to the Scriptures. I found myself reflecting again on the first Passover night. Moses had instructed God's people to smear the thresholds of their homes with the blood of the Lamb. The Hebrews were told to stay inside and under no circumstances cross the blood line or their lives would be in peril.

That evening not a dog barked nor a cat whimpered. There was deathly silence through the land until the wails of the Egyptians grew as their first born were found lifeless in their beds.
God's people, however, were untouched. The powerful Angel of Death could only go so far. Even though it held great power and authority, it could under no circumstances cross the blood line.

This became my prayer this week for those touched by sickness. Much like Gandalf staring down the Balrog, it is our duty as servants of the Ancient of Days to declare and pronounce that sickness may not pass. It may get close, but it is not allowed to pass the blood line. When you gave your life to Christ and embraced the all powerful work of the cross it was not just to get us into Eternity. The blood of the Eternal Passover Lamb became the bloodline that could never be crossed by evil, no matter how ancient nor how deadly.

Cover your home and business and loved ones with the blood of Christ and command the enemy to get back. He is not allowed to cross the blood line.

Blessings,
Father Scott +

Waiting for the other shoe to drop

Yesterday I was telling a person how blessed I felt and yet how I was waiting for "the other shoe to drop". Even as it came out of my mouth I knew that what I had said was toxic thinking that needed to be washed and renewed by God's Word.

Again, later that evening, I was talking with someone else and again that toxic phrase popped of my mouth. It didn't sit well with me, yet I couldn't wrap my mind around why.

This morning as I listened to a teaching, the preacher began to prophecy blessings over the congregation and had listeners renounce doubt and unbelief. As soon as it came out of his mouth I knew that "waiting for the other shoe to drop" was actually a stronghold of unbelief. It was a fortress of doubt! It was a citadel of superstition. Plain and simple? It was sin. Is that the way God wants us to go about life--waiting for the other shoe to drop? How victorious is that? Wouldn't He rather His children live from blessing to blessing?

Once I realized what I had been saying (and believing), I began to repent and renounce unbelief and doubt in Jesus' Name. Doubt and unbelief are toxic to the spirit. They usher defeat into our lives. They dominate faith with fear. That is why doubt and apprehension not only need to be confessed but renounced.

With this said, I believe that the Body of Christ lives with the low grade fever of doubt and unbelief in the form of "waiting for the other shoe to drop". It is time to be set free. Just as Jesus took the hand of Peter's mother in law and her fever departed, so ask Jesus to do the same for you. Be gone "other shoe" in Jesus' Name.

Blessings,
Father Scott +