Bearing the Gospel Light of Jesus Christ to the entire world
   

In the School of Jesus Christ, Holy Spirit is the Teacher,
the Redeemed Believers all over the world are His Students.
Be ye transformed by the renewing power of Holy Spirit.

On The Seventh Day He Rested

We have learned from the Book of Genesis that God created the universe in six day and on the seventh day He rested. (Genesis 2:2-3) I believe that different people will have different understandings of the word “resting.” However I can assure you that it did not indicate that God had been on vacation somewhere in His own holiday resort. It was not an indication that He has been sleeping since then. We also learned that He blessed the seventh day and made it holy. This is an important indication that we must not lose sight of. It is like God celebrated the completion of creation. We can then ask ourselves a question. Why did He choose to rest on the seventh day? The ready answer that comes to mind concerning this question is that God had completed His work. This is one of the most enormous processes of creation.

Before a manufacturing company can take off, series of groundwork must be laid out. At the planning stage the company must have carried out the feasibility studies of the source of fixed capital and working capital, source raw materials, and must have sought possible market for the company’s products. The company must have established various preliminary budgets. Above all, the company must have an effective quality control system in place in all the key areas of the organization to ensure adequate management. At the commencement of operation in the company, in most cases, the management team works daily to maintain the existing plan and budget of the company. If at all there is any amendment, it must be in line with the existing budget.

Before God took a rest after the indescribable extraordinary and gigantic work of creation, He has put supernatural quality control activities in place to ensure that all things works according to His will. I have used the above example, from the point of view of man to project to the thoughtfulness of our Creator. He created us in His own image, His wisdom is unsearchable. His plans and the execution of His wisdom is beyond human comprehension. These supernatural quality control activities might have included reflecting upon what He had created. Perhaps He reflected upon how He created the galaxies and sojourned them to be moving on its axis around the heavenly body He created for them. Perhaps He reflected on the changes of weather from one part of our planet to the other at different time of the year. For instance He placed the activities of dominionship in the hand of Adam for a purpose. In the process of reflecting, He reviewed and remarked that, “It is not good that the man should be alone. I will make him an help-meet for him.” (Genesis 2:18) Perhaps among other things, He reflected upon and wondered, “What if man or some of the host of angelic beings will come short of His expectations and became rebellious against Him?" The omnipotent God had put appropriate controls in place to handle the situations as it is happening in the spiritual wealth of His wisdom. At the completion of all these He beheld the work of creation, He remarked, “It was very good.” Genesis 1:31 And He took His rest on the seventh day.

The word revelation means a privileged ability to see a deep secret of the wisdom of God that has been in existence before. The prophets were given power to behold splendor of the glory of God. God gave them the privilege and ability to hear and understand His language. They were divinely permitted to reveal part of the mysteries of God's plan that has been  sealed in the work of creation before He rested on the seventh day. Is there any wonder in the prophecy of Isaiah about our Lord Jesus Christ in the book of Isaiah 7:14? About seven hundred and forty-two years BC (Before Christ) this chapter of the book of Isaiah was written. "The Lord himself shall give you a sign" - means you will not be left in the darkness concerning the wonders that God will bring to pass on earth. The wonders started with the prophecy itself. The Prophet did not know the name of the virgin that will bear the pregnancy of Jesus Christ, but God revealed the name of the fruit of her womb to Isaiah. In Isaiah 9:6-7, he continued the deep revelation of the plan of salvation onto mankind. ". . . unto us a child is born," he went further, "unto us a child is given" while prophesying concerning the other names that Jesus Christ will be known by in the whole world seven centuries later.

Each event that happens in any part of the universe is a part of creation that is unfolding itself for the manifestation of its purpose. That is why nothing takes God by surprise. This is why nothing is impossible to Him. Everything is under His control. He has known the end of a certain situation before its beginning, and had placed a control that the situation may yield to His will long before He rested on the seventh day.

When Satan tempted Jesus Christ,  Jesus replied, “it is written.” (Luke 4:3-13) In His response, Christ was not only pointing out the laws of God that man should not break, He also pointed to Satan that his defeat had been decreed and documented in the spiritual realm of the wisdom of God in the beginning before the Creator rested. When Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no man cometh unto the father but by me,” (John 14:6) He was tapping into the deep truth sealed in creation. As the Creator of the whole universe, He has been the "Way," the "Truth" and "Life" of mankind before He was first mentioned in the judgment against Satan as the Seed of the woman that will bruise the head of the serpent. (Genesis 3:15) Our Maker, Jesus Christ, has been the Savior of the world long before He was crucified as the ultimate sacrifice of our salvation.

King David was opened to the divine understanding of Omnipresent God when he wrote in (Psalm 139:1-14) about the manifestation of His divine presence in every situation of his live. Every verse in the passage  points to the fact that God is always in control of his life. This is evidence of the manifestation of the inbuilt supernatural control that God sealed in the work of creation before He took His rest on the seventh day.

PRINCIPLES

We always tend to ask God, “How can you destroy the wicked generation of Noah, destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, and the natural branch - the Israelites – were not spared when they sinned and yet you could not destroy Satan and his fallen angels after their rebellions?” It would be an understatement to say that God is highly principled and needless to say that He is a disciplined Father. Of course these are the attributes of the excellency of His glory. God is operating the principle of the creation of all His creatures and judges according to the principle of His words. II Peter 2:4-9; Jude 6; He told Adam and Eve that the day they eat of the fruit of the tree they shall surely die. In other words, the day they disobeyed or rebelled against His words they would surely die. After Satan lost his position and his abode among the host of Heaven, his strategy was to destroy the brand new man that God created to be in dominion over all the creatures on earth. He capitalized on the inexperience of Eve concerning the wicked activities of evil spirits and approached her with deceit. He caused the first couple to violate the law of God. Unfortunately ignorance is not an excuse in the law. This popular parlance is not only applicable in human law, but also applicable in the spiritual law of God. Of course, God judged them according to the principle of His word.

Do you know that the evil spirits also work according to their own principles? The word ‘principalities’ is an extensional derivative of the word principle. Principalities occupy one of the organizational levels of evil spirits. Perhaps these are the evil spirits that ensure the implementation of evil activities according to their principles of wickedness. Jesus said, “The thief (Satan) cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy :” That is the principle by which they perpetrate their evil activities. And Jesus Christ too, works by principle. He is not doing this to follow the steps of evil spirits, but this is the perfect nature of the Ancient of Days who created all things. Jesus Christ concluded John 10:10, “. . . I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” That was the purpose of His coming to the world to give life to the spiritually dead men and women by laying down His own life. He is coming back again on the principle of His word to judge the work of the wicked.

In case of evil forces, the principle of their creation was different and so is the principle of their judgment. The Bible is not silent about it. The demon that possessed and tormented innocent people had transgressed and sinned. Therefore these evil spirits deserved punishment. Why is it that the only punishment that Jesus Christ could mete against them was to dispossess them and set their victims free? As a human being I would have suggested a better judgment. Outright destruction of the evil spirits would be adequate so as to curb their wicked activities. The powers and principalities, the rulers of darkness and spiritual wickedness in the high places knew what some of us did not know. They knew the principle by which God operates. That is why they came shouting – we know you, thou art the Son of the Most High. (Matthew 8:28-29; Mark 5:6-8; Luke 4:33-34) That is why they challenged Him, “Why are you tormenting us because our time is not up? Because they know, being spirit, they do not die like human beings. Instead, they will be judged in the end according to God’s principle of judgment against the evil spirits. II Peter 2:4 They will be bound and cast into the Hell fire where they will be burned forever. They know what some of us do not know; they know that on the seventh day God rested. But before God rested, He had devised antidote to their perennial wickedness. It our duty as children of God to find this antidote!

THE ARSENAL OF THE RIGHTEOUS

Revelation 12:7-9 We tend to ask ourselves, “Having known the frailty and vulnerability of man how can God cast Satan and his fallen angels into the earth?” To this question our answer is that God is all knowing, His decision could not have been to hurt mankind because He loves us more than we can imagine. Above all, “the secret things belong unto the Lord our God; but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever . . .” (Deutronomy 29:29)

Christ said in Matthew 16:18 ". . . upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Please note, Jesus did not guarantee that the gates of hell would not attack the Church. Each of us represents a block in the building of the body of the Church of Jesus Christ. In order that a block can fit into the plan of the architectural design of a building, it must be shaped according to the desire of the master builder. Some blocks are rectangular in shape while some are round in shape and so on. Some of us are molded by our Master Builder, Jesus Christ to become evangelists, some are shaped to be prayer warriors, some are shaped to be bishops or deacons and yet, others are shaped to be prophets - all for the edification of the body of Christ. (I Corinthians 12:25-28) Each of us, with our different callings and responsibilities in the Lord, are the instrument in the hand of God to point the lost to Christ and to feed the His sheep. As we are working together in unity, focusing on the goal of the Church of Jesus Christ, that all may come to the knowledge of God, we become the primary target of attack of enemy.

God knows that powers and principalities will wage war. He had provided the antidote of their wickedness listed in the book of Ephesians 6:12-18 before He rested in Genesis 2:2 Greater is He that is in us than those in the world. There are three things we must recognize in a battle namely – defense, offence and logistics. The first thing we must bear in mind in battle is - identifying our weaknesses fully well. Satan cannot attack children of God unless they fall into sin. The enemy, Satan, always capitalizes on the sinful tendencies of the children of God to attack us. That is the weakest links that the enemy always pursues to penetrate in the fold of Christians. In other words, if the Children of God do not fall into sin, Satan will find it extremely difficult to penetrate in our fold. Upon this fact the Bible directed us to build our wall of defense. We must turn our weakest link to our mighty wall of defense by turning away from the besetting sins. The Bible takes us from the physical realm we belong to the spiritual realm in order to illustrate and prepare our mind for the mode of spiritual defense expected of us. The passage led us to visualize the picture of a physically fit ancient Roman soldier.

Secondly, knowing our enemy is the first step of our attack. The knowledge of his strength, his weaknesses, and his tactics will determine the type of attack we are to apply. The weakest link of the enemy is the sword of the Spirit - the word of God. The Salvation through Grace was made abundant to us through Jesus Christ who gave us the right and authority to employ this mighty (sacred) weapon against the wiles of our common enemy. Satan may have knowledge of the word of God, but he is devoid of the right and authority to use it as a weapon against the children of God. But we must have adequate knowledge of the word in order to apply the sword of the Spirit. “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge . . .” Hosea 4:6

Another weak link of the enemy is prayer. "At the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the father.” (Philippians 2:10-11) We have what the enemies do not have. We have the name of Jesus Christ. “The name of God is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe.” (Proverbs 18:10) It is simply impossible for Satan to invoke the name of Jesus Christ - the Captain of our battle in prayer because the name is a consuming fire against him. Enemies do not have the name of Jesus Christ. They dare not utter that precious name. They do not have the authority to apply the name to their situations. Jesus Christ died for mankind He did not die for spirits. We can plead the blood of Jesus Christ in prayer over our situations but the enemies cannot stand the precious blood of the Lamb that was slain.

We have the power of agreement. If we execute this power, the enemy will be in instant trouble. We have power to bind and power to loose. We can bind the evil spirits and we can release the ministering angels in the name of Jesus Christ to minister to our needs. (Matthew 18:18-20) The word of God in this Bible passage is not for binding logs of wood, it is for binding spiritual tormentors. It is to tell the evil powers, ‘Enough!’ It is to stop the wicked actions of principalities. It is to tie the wicked hands of the rulers of darkness and spiritual wickedness in high places behind their backs. Let us consider the instruction again. It says, “whatsoever ye shall bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven.” In other words, we have to sentence these evil spirits in our prayers on earth before heaven can ratify and execute the judgment we pronounced on them. It means, on our knees we have to tap into the spiritual realm before the Throne of Grace and cause things to happen according to our desires in the physical realm.

And lastly, our logistic must not be anything short of excellence. “If you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!” (I Corinthians 10:12) We must be at alert. We must be vigilant, because our adversary, Satan, is roaring like a lion seeking whom to devour.

ENTER INTO THE SABBATH OF HIS REST

I will enter His Gate with thanksgiving in my heart
I will enter His Court with praise
I will say this is the day that the Lord has made
I will rejoice for He has made me glad . . .

This chorus is the song of the saved – the believers. It is a song of assurance sung by the children of the Kingdom of God. Noah entered into the rest of God; he was able to tell the story of the destruction of the wicked generation of his time. Lot also entered into the rest of the Lord; he escaped the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. (II Peter 2:5-9) Salvation is the common thread between Lot and Noah. Faith in the Lord and obedience to His commandments were instrumental to their rest in the Lord.

After delivering Israelites from their taskmasters in Egypt and after their miraculous salvation in the Red Sea, God established His Sabbath to fulfill His covenant with the generation of Abraham.(Exodus 31:12-17) To man, this may be a sort of routine thing. You work for six days and rest on the seventh. However, the Sabbath meant so much more to God. He created the universe in six days and rested on the seventh. He blessed the day in which He rested and declared it holy. As is the tradition in the house of our Father, we should observe the Sabbath in holiness and follow all the ordinances of the Law of God. In the age of Patriarchs, it was a law that Sabbath must be kept holy. In the wilderness, God took the holiness of the Sabbath into consideration and asked Israelites to gather twice as much manna on the sixth day in preparation for the Sabbath day. Exodus 16:4-5; 24-30 The Sabbath was so important to God that He commanded that anyone who desecrates it must be put to death. The Israelites are described as the precious people, the royal priesthood and a peculiar people because of the deep relationship that God established with them through their forefathers. Believers who live daily according to God’s word, also share a deep relationship with God.

Jesus Christ told Nicodemus, “Verily, Verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of the water and of the Spirit, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” John 3:3-6The same is required of us in order to enter into His rest. In order to become one of the people of God, you have to come to the Lord in the water of Baptism. As Jesus Christ died on the Cross of Calvary with the heavy load of our sins, so do we die with Him when we are submerged in the water of Baptism. As He resurrected in victory, so do we resurrect when we emerge from the water of baptism and live a new life in Jesus Christ. Your spirit must completely transform and become sensitive to the impulses of the Holy Spirit so that the word of God and His instructions of righteousness will be meaningful to you. It means you are now living each day according to the wisdom of God and not according to your old egocentric and selfish ways.

Jeremiah 6:16 This is what the Lord says, “Stand at the crossroads and look, ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it and you will find rest for your soul.” The good way the Lord points to us in this passage is His righteousness. To walk in the good way is to walk according to the precepts in the word of God. Jesus Christ says, “Come unto me all ye that labor and heavy laden, I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28-29) The open hands of the Lord are waiting to receive you. If you can come to Him in obedience to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, He has assured divine rest for your soul.

In the parable of the Prodigal son, the father had two sons. There was father/son relationship between them, but one of the sons was tagged “prodigal son” because of the reckless life he lived. The life of this child is very interesting to our study because we cannot go anywhere in this world without the constant presence of our Father in Heaven in our lives. Only misery exists outside the presence of God. When the going was good the prodigal son dwelt in the presence of his father and it was well with his soul. When he severed relationship with his father, his life became so miserable and he became neighbors with the swine. The prodigal son tasted what it used to be outside a relationship with his father. He tasted sorrow. He experienced suffering and calamity. The combination of these miseries caused him to reflect upon his life and say in his mind that it would be better for him to dwell in the presence of his father as a slave than spend the rest of his life competing with the swine. He lived up to his resolution. He repented and came back to his father and far from his expectations, his father accepted him back as a son. Room is always available in the Sabbath of His rest for whoever wants to come.

The Psalmist says, “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of Almighty.” In the shelter of the Most High there is divine peace and protection. Salvation and deliverance are there also. Honor and satisfaction also pitch their tents there. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob understood what the rest in the shadow of Almighty God represented. They knew the power of His Might. The same Almighty God revealed Himself to Moses as Jehovah. Moses understood what Jehovah represented in the 40 years of Israelites journey in the wilderness. He led them through the Red Sea on a dry ground and made manna available for them on daily basis. He made water available for them out of the Rock and provided quails for them when they were in need of meat. He kept the covenant of their forefather and led them to the Promised Land. The Lord was the captain of their battles in the wilderness and He delivered enemies into the hands of His children because they dwelled in the Sabbath of His rest. Even if you still find it difficult to decipher this deep secret, you may still understand it from the elaborate point of view of King David in the book of Psalm 91:1-16 If you dwell outside the shelter of the Most High God and your ways are contrary to the holiness and righteousness required that God commanded you will not rest under the shadow of the Almighty.

Reflect on this:
To whom much is given much is required. The Israelites beheld the mightiness of God in their forty-year journey in the wilderness and yet some did not know the way of the Lord and they rebelled against Him. The city of Korazin and Capernaum witnessed most of the miracles of Jesus Christ, yet they did not believe. To these type of people with reprobate hearts that turned away from God, the Lord declared an oath in His anger, “They shall never enter my rest.” Hebrew 3:7-11; Psalm 95:8-11 When you hear His voice calling and behold His hands beckoning you to come to His rest, do not harden your heart. When you enter into the Sabbath of His rest by living each day of your life according to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, it means you have keyed in to God's supernatural plan of creation before He took His rest on the seventh day.  You are eligible to His plan of blessing. His plan to prosper mankind at the beginning will manifest in your life. You will not need to sow like heathens before you reap, because you will be reaping the abundant provision of God. "I will give you the treasures of darkness, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the Lord, the God of Israel, who summons you by name." (Isaiah 45:3) "I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread." (Psalm 37:25) God will stand by you as He did when He was leading the Israelites out of Egypt to the Promised Land. He will be the captain of your battle and He will order your steps. "The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and He delighteth in his way." (Psalm 37:23) After the abundance of His provisions and blessings on earth, an eternity of His rest is also assured. At last, you will be welcomed into the bosom of Abraham.  Whether you live or die it is unto Jesus Christ. The arms of His mercy are still open to receive you into His rest.   Come to His righteous side today without delay.

  
 

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