This is a little longer, but worth the read. ☺
Wow, God wants SO MUCH for us to enter His rest. I really believe we’re going to start hearing more about His rest as He pours out His love, mercy, and grace on mankind.
Yes, Father, it pleased you to do it this way! “My Father has entrusted everything to me (Jesus). No one truly knows the Son except the Father, and no one truly knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
Matthew 11:26-29
A few months ago, it was like the Holy Spirit told me, “How do you spell challenges? V-I-C-T-O-R-Y.”
There was a man in Eugene, Oregon named John Sedberry. We’ve never met him. He now lives just down the road from us in Alpine, California. John had been so beat down in life that he never thought he’d get on top of things. I’ve heard him talk (one of the most incredible testimonies anyone could ever hear) and it was amazing how down he was. In fact, his wife was so disgusted and sick of living with him that she didn’t even want to do his laundry any more. John had lost all hope.
While living in Oregon, Ann and I had come to the point where we’d lost all hope. It was a totally empty feeling that can only be understood by those who’ve had the same life experience. I remember hearing one of John Sedberry’s testimony tapes and being able to completely relate to him as a man. Today, John is a successful business man. His life has totally changed and he gives all the glory to God because he knows he’d be a loser forever without God’s intervention in his life.
Jesus: “Mark, will you receive me? Will you really let Me set you free? Or will you cling to, and be consumed by, your bondage, your pride, by your religious Christianity?”
At one time or another, Jesus asks the above of each one of us.
And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet.
Matthew 10:14
Satan is a liar and he loves religious people from all church backgrounds.
Wow, at one time, I had no idea that religious people (like I was) abhor Jesus as much as they do. Let me try to explain…☺
Not that many years ago, I really thought I was a loser. I had almost nothing but “loser” thoughts all day and night long – unless you’ve been that deep in the enemy’s lies, you can’t possibly know what I’m talking about. In fact, Jesus is still working on me in that area of my life to set me free indeed by His truth. Satan will gnaw on us until his lies become so familiar to us that even going to church can’t change us – that’s because most people in church aren’t free (Dr. Neil Anderson). In fact, we won’t let Jesus into us enough to take the chance of being set free. We’ll resist His every attempt. That’s when we truly become religious Christians. We do enough Christian things to make us, and others, think we’re Christians. We exist in a spiritually defeating and decaying life while doing enough religious things to fool ourselves and others. We have too much religious pride to keep us from really opening up our lives to Jesus and we never get set free.
Maybe you have a lot of pride and even compassion and passion about “caring” about people. I did. Then, Jesus began to show me caring was His job and that I desperately needed to transfer all of my care to Him or it would eventually consume me. And this is just one of the many liberating works Jesus knew I needed performed in my life.
God began to show me that a lot of the people I was caring about didn’t really want Jesus – He even gave me a vivid vision of what He was trying to show me that I share below. These people wanted to stay the way they were. Wow, that was an eye opener. But then, even in Jesus’ day, He told His disciples they needed to wipe the dust off their feet concerning anyone they shared the truth (Jesus) with who didn’t “really” want it. For whatever reason, these people preferred their bondage – the lies they’d lived with for so long that had become such a part of who they were; the lies had become familiar spirits and had so infiltrated them that they didn’t want to change not realizing that it is the devil’s lies in them persuading them not to change. How do I know this? Because this is exactly how I was.
Jesus showed me this vision in the middle 80s. I was working at our church and walking down the hall when I saw this. It all happened in just a few seconds. Here it is: Jesus showed me that Ann and I were running with Him through a mine and battle field. Ann was holding onto one of His hands and I was on the other side of Jesus holding onto His other hand. He told me that we must hold onto His hands to reach our destination since He was the only One Who knew how to get there without getting wounded by Satan only to end up in one of the fox holes throughout the battle ground with wounded people in them. When I looked down at one of the fox holes, Jesus told me to keep my eyes on where we were headed (the enemy’s weapons depot to blow it up) and to not get distracted by the people in the fox holes. He said the people in the fox holes were there to trip me up (He said the enemy was using them to hold us back) so that I would not reach the goal Jesus had for Ann and me. I asked Him who the people in the fox holes were. What He said shocked me. He said they were “Religious Christians” who didn’t really want Him. They wanted their religious life instead. They didn’t really want to be set free. Wow.
Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.
Ephesians 3:17-19
Whatever lies the devil has you thinking the cost will be for giving Jesus your whole life, give your life to Christ and destroy the devil’s lies. Let Jesus take all of you in exchange for all of Who He is. You will never be the same. You’ll have the adventure of your life. You’ll be more free than you ever thought possible because our finite flesh cannot possibly comprehend the length, height, or depth of our supernatural, Almighty God. And, the freedom (Jesus) just keeps coming. We promise.
Keep your hand in Jesus’ hand. Keep running in the Spirit. No matter the challenge, go on to complete V-I-C-T-O-R-Y!
Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 3:12-14
God bless,
Mark and Ann