John 1:1

¹In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

As we study our Bible we find that God exists in three individual persons, which the Church calls the “Trinity,” or the “Three in One.”

There’s God the Father, God the Son (Logos—Word), and God the Holy Spirit.

The Bible goes on to tell us that it was through the Living Word of God (Jesus Christ) that ALL things have been made, in heaven and earth.

Now this is how I interpret and understand how the God Head works: first there is God the Father; and all the plans, visions, and strategies of the God Head originate in Him; and as the Bible says, all things that have been created have been created by the Word of His mouth.

Then there is God the Son, who is Jesus (Yeshua, the Christ—Messiah), who as the Living Word of God, who goes out from the Father in order to implement the creative thoughts, plans, purposes, intent, and instructions of the Father; and then it is God the Holy Spirit who is the Power Source behind it all, and it is His job to make it all happen, and it is He who also holds it all together!

Then God said, “Let Us make man in OUR image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

So then God created man (Adam) in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Genesis 1:26-28

As far as I can tell from scripture, Adam was the epitome of God’s creation (the best); and the first and only of God’s creation to be made after His likeness, and in His image; and then Jesus (Yeshua) turns around, and is Himself born of a virgin, into God’s Creation, and as the only begotten Son of God, He himself becomes a man, a part of His own creation. How cool is that!!!

The Bible then says of Jesus: “Who, being in the very nature God, He did not consider equality with God something to be grasped; but He made Himself nothing, taking on the very nature of a servant, in being made in the likeness of man.” (Phil 2:6-7)

The Bible tells us that even the angels bend over in wonder and amazement at what God is doing here, with His new creation, Adam, who is himself a son of God; and in Romans 8 we are told that all of creation now waits in eager expectation for the “Sons of God” (Adam and his descendants) to be revealed.

The Bible goes on to tell us that subsequent to the fall of man, all of creation has now been subjected to God’s curse; and now waits with eager hope, as it looks forward to the day when it will join with God’s children, these sons and daughters of Adam, in the glorious freedom from death and decay!

For ever since that time, when Adam fell, all of creation has been groaning, even as in the pains of childbirth, right up to the present time.

Now we, as Believers, who are the descendants of Adam, we also groan, even though we have been given the Holy Spirit within us, as a foretaste, or deposit if you will, of the future glory that awaits us; after which our bodies shall also be released from sin, death, and suffering.

So likewise we, as Christians, also wait with eager hope for that day when God will give us our full rights as His adopted children, including the new bodies that He has promised us.

Also as Christians, our labor is that we must enter into God’s rest, and live by faith, because after having been given this hope wherein we are saved, based upon the promises of God’s Word, we now look forward, in hope, for something we don’t yet have; and so we now have to wait patiently and confidently for its fulfillment.

This waiting, or resting, in the promises of God (our resting in Jesus) is what FAITH is all about; and as we are told in Hebrews 11:6, it is not until we have made this absolute trusting and reliance upon God, and in the promises of His Word, a part of our everyday lifestyle, are we actually pleasing to God… and it even says it is IMPOSSIBLE for us to please God until we are living by faith.

Therein is the rub for ALL of us, as this living by faith business is not easy; because it entails our casting the whole of our lives, and all of our circumstances upon nothing more than the promises that we find in God’s Word.

This requires our putting our FAITH, our reliance and trust, upon something for which the Bible calls the substance of our faith, which is our hope; which means we are believing God for things that cannot yet be seen or felt in the natural; but nevertheless must be received as real… as we are looking upon, and speaking of those things that are not, as though they were, as did our Father Abraham!

Our children typically get there with no big problem, and normally by nature they are very trusting; but we, as adults, are a different story, in that, even though we all started out as children, something happened along the way… called life, and things changed.

In order for us now to avail ourselves of this new life in God, and receive and benefit from all His promises, we must first die to ourselves, because that is the only way that we can totally relinquish this kind of absolute trust in God, and be pleasing to Him… and therein is the point of it all!

For we have been created for His pleasure. Selah

Here is how it works:

Matthew 16:24-27

Take Up the Cross and Follow Him
²⁴ Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. ²⁵ For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.

²⁶ For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? ²⁷ For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works.”

Therefore… go forth and do likewise, and have a blessed day! 🙂

Shalom,

Skip Barland

—–Original Message—–
From: DAVID WILKERSON TODAY
Sent: Thursday, May 27, 2010 12:01 AM
To: devotions-en@lists.worldchallenge.org
Subject: GOD’S PROMISED REST