Episode #486 – How to Enter My Rest: The New Covenant

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How to Enter My Rest: The New Covenant
Episode #486
March 27, 2016

With Martha Kilpatrick and hosted by John Enslow
Special Guest: Carole Nelson

This is the continuation of a series of Podcasts started in Episode #483.

(Martha) We should be shaking and praying because that’s the one fear allowed us, the fear that we would live this life thinking we’re doing God’s will, working God’s will instead of letting Jesus do His own life through us. That’s fear. In your life and realize you counted for nothing and was a detriment to the Kingdom and a destruction of God’s purpose. That’s what would happen if you don’t enter the rest. Your works will be burned up, Paul says in Corinthians, like hay, and hay, we know how quick hay burns.
(J) Poof!
(Martha) Poof! And be worthless.
(Carole) And you know, you said a little while ago, you were talking about how some have left Shulamite out of rebellion. Rebellion is a very, it’s a very violent word to me, because it is violent. But rebellion is simply and frighteningly just independence.
(Martha) Yes!
(Carole) And we can call, we think… And I’m talking about myself, ok? Through the years I have thought independence, that word doesn’t have the violent connotation to me that rebellion does. When somebody says to you, “You are in rebellion.” Tell me what your reaction is? You’re going to get mad, probably. If somebody says to you, “You’re independent,” that doesn’t seem… But the reality is that just independence, doing it yourself is absolute rebellion and it is violence against the Kingdom of God and God, Himself.
(Martha) Oooo, Carole. That is big. Umm. Now, the problem with that is, I read Hebrews, 4:1, and on down, and I’m mystified. And I am set in dilemma because I want to do it. You have something to say. I want you to let you…
(J) It just, I’m in Hebrews 4 and it says, “Today if you hear My voice, do not harden your heart.” “Don’t harden your heart to My life. Don’t harden your heart against Me living My life in you.” But He swore – oh, my gosh! When you harden your heart and say, “I’ll do it myself, thank You.” Ooof. It says, “As I swore with an oath in My wrath, they shall not enter My rest.” When you are willfully willful about doing your will – there’s a tongue tie – you will not enter the… He won’t share His life. He’s not going to share His life.
(Martha) No, He’s not. Absolutely not, and we don’t realize it is a violence against God, but His violence toward us…
(J) Oooooo!
(Martha) …is absolutely frightening. That’s what you went to, the sequence of the Spirit here. Do you see it? She got the violence of rebellion. You got the violence of God against rebellion. And it’s worse, by far.
(Carole) And THAT is what puts the fear of God in you.
(J) Right.
(Martha) And Hebrews goes on the tell it. If once you’ve tasted the goodness of God and the things to come, if you depart from that, you are toast. You’re under judgment. And we know how that’s happened, and it’s literal.
(J) But He says, “He swore with an oath in His wrath.” He was not light about it.
(Martha) What verse?
(J) It’s referencing back to something in the Old Testament. I can’t see what it is from this. But that’s 4:3 in the Amplified says, “For we who believed, that is we who personally trust in, confidently relied on God, entered that rest. So we have His inner peace now, because we are confident in our salvation and assured of His power, just as He said, ‘As I swore an oath in My wrath, they shall not enter My rest.”‘ And He said that to the children of Israel when they were willful, they would not do it God’s way. They would do it their own way, and He swore with an oath, “You won’t enter My rest. You won’t come into the Promised Land.” And the Promised Land is His… “Ok, raise your hand,” Carmen says, “Raise your hand. You know the answer.” What’s the Promised Land? Christ. Christ is the Promised Land.
(Martha) Christ, only.
(J) Christ, only. But He swears, (John’s paraphrase) “Ok, you don’t want My will. You don’t want to walk in My will? You don’t want to live My will? You don’t want My life to live your life? Then you won’t enter into My life. You won’t have that rest.” It is rest. It’s strange, and it’s uncomfortable, and it may not make my happy feelings happy, because I may have to go through things. And you prayed for me this morning that have been painful in my life. But it was His will that I would go through them, because He had an eternal purpose to it that I will reap something so great, awesome and…
(Martha) Inconceivably great.
(J) In comparison to some…snap, bing…
(Martha) Fleeting. But it says His works have been completed and prepared and waiting for those who believe from the foundation of the world. It’s complete. All you do is walk into it, allowing Christ to take you over, take over your mind, your heart. That’s what the New Covenant is, and I can’t wait to get on it. He takes over. He will take over if you ‘let’ Him. That’s why ‘let’ is my big word.
(J) ‘Let’ is beautiful. It’s a beautiful word.
(Martha) I think it’s Psalm 46 in the Amplified, “Let be and be still, then you will know I am God.”
(J) Over every situation and circumstance in your life, because “I literally will do it. I will do it. If you let and let Me be, My life will come forth from you and change everything.”
(Martha) Umhmm. Yeah. My life is finished. It is completed, but only in Christ. I can’t, I can’t contribute anything to it. That’s the amazing thing. He doesn’t want my contribution. He wants only my faith in Him – faith – those who believe. “For we have believed.” Those who believed entered the rest. Those who did not believe, God swore, “You will never enter My rest.” He will not share His glory. He will not share the credit. If you aren’t willing to be nothing and let Him be everything, you will miss it. You’ll miss your own self, your own destiny and cause a lot of other people to suffer. Verse 5, Hebrews 4, “And they forfeited their part in it, for in this passage He said, They shall not enter My rest.” Second time. “Seeing then that the promise remains for some to enter that rest, and they failed to appropriate it,” because they didn’t believe. And this is the perfect introduction to where I’m going with the New Covenant. It’s just so exciting. It’s laying a foundation, so you will understand the New Covenant, and the heavens will open over your head. I don’t have to be anything but a child. I do have to be a child, but I don’t have to be anything more than a dependent, ignorant child, and He does everything. And I just have to look to Him. It is so simple. I’ve said to many people, “You make it so hard. I wouldn’t want to be a Christian, because you make it…” And I know how to make it hard too, but it’s easy. It’s the easiest life you could possibly live if you can grasp it and see it by the grace and mercy of God. You have to help to see it. I prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed to see it. I knew that there was something that God had that I didn’t have a revelation for, and I didn’t have it in my life. I didn’t have it in my faith. I could see the words, “Christ in you, the hope of glory,” but I had to really seek it and seek God for it to have any measure, because that’s… And then it says… Here’s what I’m talking about, verse 11. “Therefore, let us be zealous and exert ourselves and strive diligently to enter the rest of God, to know and experience it for ourselves, that no one may fall or perish by the same kind of unbelief and disobedience into which those in the wilderness fell.” The wilderness is a picture of what happens to you if you don’t enter the rest. The only thing you’re to strive for is to know the rest, and I did. Whew! You tell me to fear lest you fail to enter the rest, and I could fear. But the zealous, exertion is, “I want to see it, Lord. I want to understand it. I want to live it. I want to believe. Give me the faith that You’re asking of me.” And then, verse 12, the most amazing thing. Here’s the solution, and I never could put it together. I understand it now. For the word that God speaks, “The Word of God is alive and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, joint and marrow, laying bare the thoughts and intents of the heart.” The Word, the Word of God is what brings you to the rest, so it’s a matter of praying and listening. And the revelation of God is the Word of God that speaks, and it pierces you, and it exposes what is your flesh and what is your spirit, so that you understand the difference. The Word has to penetrate you. And then here we are, verse 14 in Hebrews 4. Here we are at the great, High Priest. What is He praying for? That we will enter the rest. We have a great, High Priest, Who has already ascended and passed through the heavens, Jesus, the of God, let us hold fast our confession of faith in Him.” You are presenting… It’s Him. Our faith is not in the rest, not in the finished work, not in anything but in the person of Christ. That’s our rest. He is our rest. He is the Sabbath. I knew that long before I have understood it. The Sabbath, God calls me to the Sabbath all the time. “Do not carry a burden.” Sheep can’t carry burdens. Jesus carries every burden. He did, with the time with my husband. He carried every burden, solved every dilemma, answered every question, provided everything needed. And there are things that I’ll be happy to tell in heaven.

How to Enter My Rest: The New Covenant – Episode #486 – Shulamite Podcast