Summary of a 6/9/2014 study on REST updated on 12/26/2019

 

 

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I originally did this study of “rest, sleep, and quiet” on 6/9/2014 after waking up this morning after many rough nights of sleep. As I laid in bed half-awake I asked the Lord what I haven’t yet done to help correct this problem. I’ve tried several herbal formulas, stopped sugar, stopped caffeine, stopped diet soda, done lots of acupuncture, got back to exercising, but I’m still having real anxiety in my dreams that often wake me. I just can’t live like this!  It’s wearing on my health and my relationships.  I’m desperate!  As I laid there, I saw the words “Come to Me for Rest.”  It seems I’ve spent a lot of time, energy, and money ‘looking for rest in all the wrong places.’ Or maybe the Lord is the only one who has the answers for my ‘rest problem.’

 

I’m re-reading and updating this study on 12/26/2019 because I’ve felt a lot of restlessness since November 11th (a) and so few remaining students. As I’m biding my time until 12/30/2019 when I start my new job at Sprouts (b), I’ve done a lot of house/yard projects (c), ‘sandbox’ drumming, and organizing/editing of my drum learning/teaching materials/studies, but I feel bored, depressed, and restless as I seek to fill my time with one thing or another. <Notes> a) my last 28 drumming gigs since early September playing in 3 Octoberfest bands, b) the Lord told me “It’s not good for man to be alone”, c) water heater, country-rustic corral to hide my yard tools & supplies, yard trimming & cleanup, and scrubbing floors.

 

What I got from the study below is this:  Rest, repose, stillness, quietness, peace, and joy are grace-gifts of God, because they are the nature of God’s own Spirit. They come from taking a break or ‘mini-vacation’ from our busyness and toil – including work FOR or to please God – and the stress, soreness, frustration, and grief that often come from it, and instead simply “leaning against” the Lord or having trusting-relying-faith that comes from fellowship with Christ. Getting up earlier and staying up later to get more done is futile! All “this flesh profits absolutely nothing” – only “the direct-spoken/heard prophetic rhema words of Christ are Spirit and zoe genuine-life” (a). Only the directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema words of God are “the bread from heaven” (b), “our daily bread” to pray for (c) that we “can zoe genuinely-live on” (d). Jesus alone is our “Sabbath Rest” (e).  <Notes> a) John 6:63, b) John 6:32-33, 41, 50-51, 58, c) Matthew 6:11; Luke 11:3, d) Matthew 4:4 citing Deuteronomy 8:3, e) Hebrews 4:9.

 

Furthermore, when we perserchomai draw near, even eggizo extremely-closely, to the Father through His Son in patiently waiting, watching, listening, still, quiet proseuche conversational-prayer – not just the incessant blabbing monologue of deesis supplication of a list of needs – then “God eggizo draws extremely close to us” (a).  With His presence comes His very nature to freely give us the very things we vainly, futilely strive so hard for to grasp, like the “futile grasping/striving for the wind” (b) – all given to us by the enabling-power of God’s Holy Spirit. <Notes> a) James 4:8, b) Ecclesiastes 1:14, 17; 2:11, 17, 26; 4:4, 6, 16, 5:16, 6:9.

 

When our delight is in the Lord, in routinely surrendering to fellowship with Him, then we also receive the blessings of His nature, and only then does our futile striving cease. The answer to anxiety and restlessness is to periodically STOP moving and/coupled come into God’s presence through perserchomai, eggizo, or proseuche conversational-prayer dialogue along with deesis prayer-supplication monologue to express our needs, especially for HIM. That’s why we are told over and over to “[I strongly urge you to] ongoingly conversationally-pray without ceasing” (a), and to be “[I strongly urge you to] be ongoingly devoted to proseuche conversational-prayer, routinely alertly watching in/by/with this with thanksgiving” (b). Peaceful rest beyond any logical understanding is God’s answer when we do (c).  <Notes> a) 1 Thessalonians 5:17, b) Colossians 4:2, c) Phillipians 4:7.

 

As we COME TO JESUS or RETURN TO JESUS – that is the definition of surrendering repentance – and “take His yoke of learning” from Him directly, then that’s when we will be given-as-a-gift “rest from ALL our works, labor, and related burdens” (a), and finally receive the grace-gift of the Holy Spirit’s (b) [singular] fruit of unconditional-love that also ‘tastes’ like joy and peace (c) that actually is “the kingdom of God coming on earth as it is in heaven” (d). <Notes> a) Matthew 11:28, b) Matthew 7:11; Luke 11:13, c) Galatians 5:22, d) Matthew 6:10; Luke 11:2.

 

See the next BLOGs for more details of this study.

 

Reflection:

 

 

As Christian musicians, what is our music leading people to and why are we playing – something to keep Christians busy with, to make them feel good like a drug or comfort food, to satisfy their religious duty to get thru a worship service, for background noise as they work or drive, to satisfy the pastor’s plan for a service?  Or are we leading them into a deeper personal relationship with Jesus, helping them “Come to Him” for everything they are looking for in life, so their restlessness can finally come to rest in Jesus?  By yoking or meno connecting-to-abide in Jesus, the Vine of zoe genuine-life, then and only then can we “learn directly from Him” – and this doesn’t mean bible study, but by His prophetic rhema words that alone are Spirit and zoe genuine-life.  Everything else is religious “flesh that absolutely profits nothing.” See A 11-21-2021 Vision about Meno abiding.

 

We must learn to “akouo hear-to-understand/know His Voice to be His sheep.”  “IF we draw extremely close to the Lord, THEN He will draw extremely close to us – this is submitting or surrendering ourselves to God.  Then we can resist the devil for him to flee from us.”  Jesus could resist the devil in the wilderness because He was already eating the bread of zoe genuine-life – every prophetic rhema word from the mouth of God.”  We are called to do the same if we want the same results!

 

We must move past deesis supplicating for a laundry list of things as if God were a vending machine and instead chase after God Himself.  He already knows what we need before we ask, so why go on and on about it.  Our real needs are IN the Lord Himself and given to us as a free grace-gift by the means of the Holy Spirit.  We no longer have to spend our lives working, toiling, and straining under the burden of restlessly chasing after things like the godless heathen do, which is as “futile as chasing after the wind to catch it.”  Finally, how will we “learn from Jesus” as “sheep who akouo hear-to-understand His Voice” and “prophetic-rhema words that are alone Spirit and zoe genuine-life” if we don’t really akouo listen-to-understand?  That’s the essence of proseuche conversational-prayer – after all, what intimate relationship is 1-way communication?

 

Prayer:

 

 

Lord, we are ravishingly hungry and parched with thirst for YOU.  We are done chasing the things of this world, supposing that when we catch them, then we will have zoe genuine-life.  What a deception, lie, vanity, and endless futility that has been!  Lord, we relentlessly as a little child, ask, seek, and knock FOR the great grace-gift of the Holy Spirit, knowing that until we are “filled-to-completion with the abundant-fullness of God by the means of the Holy Spirit,” we will still be empty and restless to fill it.  Only You have the prophetic-rhema-words of everlasting zoe genuine-life.  Where else can we go?  We surrender ourselves to You, waiting to akouo hear-to-understand Your Voice so that we may genuinely live.