REVIEW
Today, we are continuing our teaching entitled— “Stress Out!”—where we are learning how to get the stress out of our lives and keep it out. And the first thing we learned in this series of teachings is that the things that cause stress in our lives—things like fear, worry, and anxiety—are not to be tolerated. We saw that we have a myriad of Scriptures that teach us to not have anxiety about anything, to not worry, and to fear not. Therefore, what stress really is, is a result of disobedience, because if we would choose to live a care-free life, stress would be a non-factor. Someone will say, “Yeah well, living a life free from all cares doesn’t seem possible. I mean, how can you expect me to do this, pastor!?!” Well, first of all, it is not me who set the bar; this is what thus saith the Lord, not thus saith Trey. Therefore, we saw that with the words that tell us to live this way comes the ability the walk in those words. So, just as Peter walked on that one word from God that said, “Come,” and did what most of this world would call impossible by walking on the water, likewise, you and I can walk on these words that we have from God and walk in supernatural peace and rest. Glory! And these words that we have been looking at in Matthew 11:28-30 hold the same power. So, let’s look at them again: Jesus said, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Now we began last week breaking down Jesus’ words in this passage of Scriptures because I believe there are keys contained in His words that will unlock this stress-free life that we all desire. The first thing we looked at is how the Lord was addressing “all you who labor and are heavy laden.” This is just another way of describing stressed-out folks, isn’t it? So, the Lord is addressing all of us out there who “labor and are heavy laden” with the cares and stresses of this life and inviting us to come to Him. Now we looked at these two types of people in detail—those who “labor” and those who are “heavy laden”—and we found that the word “labor” describes “the feelings of being tired, fatigued, or weary that come as a result of the hard work one is doing.” Therefore, it denotes working hard, laboring, toiling, and the physical and emotional effects that this effort can have on us. And we saw that while this word was primarily used to describe physical labor, the likelihood is Jesus was using it to describe those whom were fatigued, weary, and stressed out in the spiritual sense. In fact, I’ve found that jobs and projects that require a lot of hard work both mentally and emotionally are oftentimes even more exhausting than the hard, physical labor that one can do. Sure, working hard with our hands can make us physically tired, but that soulish stress can leave one feeling even more fatigued than someone who works a very physically demanding job. So, Jesus was including “all who labor”—both from the physical sense of working hard, physically and mentally demanding jobs to those who are feeling the fatigue from other spiritually related things that they have been carrying. Then we saw that even though there is a good kind of “labor” for the Lord, there is also a bad kind. That is because there is a laboring with Him and then there is a laboring for Him, and there is big difference between these two. One can work for the Lord, but it not be Spirit-led or Spirit-empowered—meaning, they can do a lot of good, well-meaning and religious duties, but it not be what the Lord has directed us to do or how He directed us to do it at that specific time. I can assure you that if a believer is becoming stressed out over the good works that they are doing for the Lord then one of two things are true: Either they are doing something that the Lord did not tell them to do or they are doing what He might have told them to do, but in their own strength. How can I be so confident in this, you ask? It is because, as we’ve seen, the Lord’s yoke does not have stress accompanying it. It is really that simple. Then, of course, there is the laboring we do that is not only not with Him but isn’t even for Him. This would be all of those worldly—not necessarily sinful, but just natural things of life that we work so hard at that leads to us getting stressed out. So, even in these normal routines of life, we still ought to include the Holy Spirit, asking Him what His plan is. But we saw that Jesus also invited those who are “heavy laden” to come to Him. And this is not terminology that we might use today. What it means to be “heavy laden” is a burden is placed upon someone to where they are overloaded. And, oh, how this is certainly a cause of stress because if you recall, one of the definitions used for “stress” is to put force or pressure on something to where it might even begin to bend. Well, this is what happens when one becomes overloaded or burdened by something. It will place stress on our souls. Now we saw that this being overburdened would describe people who are overloaded with the cares of this world and also those overburdened by the law and the keeping of religious rules and rites. All of this leads to stress—for when we try to work harder, even in our spiritual lives, we add stress that is unwarranted. You see, many people have the mentality that with anything from our vocation to our spiritual walks that if we just work harder, everything will be better. But that is not necessarily the case: working harder is not always the answer and certainly is not wisdom. Like they say in the business world, we need to learn to work smarter and not just harder. This applies to the kingdom business world too! We need to learn to work smarter for the Lord and not just do more and more. So, we saw last week that those who are in these situations need only do one thing—Come to Him! Yes, Jesus invited everyone who labors and is heavy laden to come to Him to receive rest for their souls. Sounds like living stress-free to me! However, we saw that just because the invitation has been sent, not everyone will respond to the invitation. We looked at Jesus’ Parable of the Great Supper to validate this, and can even see in Revelation 3:20 that the Lord is said to be standing at the door of our heart knocking. Many use this as an evangelistic verse, but the fact is, this is written to a church full of believers—not to unbelievers. So, is it possible that a born-again, Spirit-filled Christian can have the Lord knocking at the door of their hearts and not already living in their hearts? Apparently so. Now that doesn’t mean that they are not saved; it just means that Jesus is not occupying their lives like He desires to. And that is a major point: He obviously desires to or He wouldn’t be standing at the door knocking. Amen? However, He is not going to kick the door down. He will patiently wait until we decide to open the door and invite Him in. This is the beauty of the way He operates! I was reminded of what Pastor Robert had the Lord Jesus tell Him in response to Him coming back with him to show Himself to the world. Jesus said, “I have come to man, now man must come to me.” This means that Jesus already came and made everything available—all things that pertain to life and godliness and every spiritual blessing. Now it is up to us to come to Him and receive everything He died to provide for us. Amen? But my point is that, just like in this Parable of the Great Supper where they all made excuses that were based on their stuff and relationships being more important than the supper they were invited to, this is when the stress enters in. In other words, when those who “labor and are heavy laden” do not “come to” the Lord, they will automatically and unnecessarily live in the stresses of life. We then looked at an example of this found in Luke chapter 10 of Martha & Mary: In this story, we see Martha was distracted with much serving, and how she resented her sister for not helping her. Eventually, she had had it with her sister and decided to interrupt Jesus to get Him to correct Mary. But we saw that Jesus said that this one thing Mary was doing is the good part of our calling. And He went on to say that it is not just a good idea; He said that this one thing is “needed.” This is something that we desperately need to understand—that spending time in God’s presence is an absolute necessity and not just beneficial. So, what He was essentially saying to Martha was— “Martha, Martha, you are troubled and stressed out about too many things. All of these things that you are doing are not what is truly important. Only one thing is necessary, and it is not even all of this serving that you are doing. The one thing that is needed is that you ‘Come unto Me’ and sit at my feet.” Amen. So, we saw that herein lies one of the primary reasons that we live stressed lives: it is because we do not make our personal relationship with God our priority. I am convinced that if we would make the “first thing first” and accept the invitation to “Come to Him,” we would be more at rest in our souls. And the awesome thing about it is this: when we draw near to Him, He draws near to us. Yes, coming to Lord in fellowship and focus is our Christian duty! It is what we are primarily called to do. So, if we fail to make the first thing first, stress will be the by-product—even when it comes to other good, well-meaning things we do for Him. Amen. Therefore, although we ought to strive to live for God and serve Him, we do not need to view what we do for Him as being our most important calling. Our relationship with God is our most important calling! It is our “dyuty” as Christians. Amen. THE REST THAT IS GIVEN VS. THE REST THAT IS FOUND Now, this week, I want you to notice Jesus’ promise to those who come to Him when they are carrying all of these burdens: He said, “And I will give you rest.” So, when we learn to come to Jesus—whether that be us simply turning our attention towards Him or us actually drawing near to Him—He has promised that we will be given “rest.” So, what can we determine if we are not at rest? That we haven’t come to Him like He described in this passage. And I’ll tell you—people don’t like to acknowledge that, but either Jesus is telling the truth here or they are. Which one of these options do you think is true? I, for one, choose to believe Jesus over my own experiences. Amen? But I want you to notice that although Jesus said in verse 28 that He will give us rest when we come to Him, in verse 29, He said that we will “find” rest by taking His yoke ourselves and learning from Him. You see, we must understand that one rest is given and the other is found. Yes, one is experienced when we come to Christ upon making Him our personal Lord and Savior. This is the positional rest we have entered into—and many of us can attest to immediately receiving this rest the moment we called on the name of Jesus and were saved from the burden of sin. However, there remains a rest that we can partake of experientially—and that is when we exchange our weakness for His strength, when we learn to wait on the Lord and draw near to Him in fellowship. But like we saw, this rest for our soul must be found—which indicates that we have to search for it. How do I look for this rest, you might ask? We find it through our fellowship with the Lord—through learning to sit at His feet like Mary did and seeking Him, not seeking it. Yes, we are not going to find peace by seeking for it, but by seeking the Lord Himself. In other words, once we find that secret place in the presence of the Prince of Peace, we will find the peace we desire. You see, oftentimes we gravitate towards doing things in our own strength and we begin to pull that “Martha” that we talked about last week—and that happens even with trying to find peace. This is when we must become more like Mary who learned when to sit at the Master’s feet and draw her strength from Him. Strength comes from fellowship—strength for everything from serving the Lord to simply being calm and quiet. But this rest and freedom from stress only comes through Him, and that is the point we need to take away from this. THE REST THAT REMAINS In fact, all of Psalm 23:2 teaches us this one principle: In it, King David said of His Good Shepherd, “He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters.” First of all, the entire phrase at the beginning of this verse— “Me makes me to lie down”—comes from one Hebrew word, the word rabats. This word literally means “to stretch oneself out or lie stretched out.” Thus, the reason that this word is translated “to couch” in a couple of places. Therefore, this word describes “reclining.” So, we might translate this first half of Psalm 23:2 like so today: “He helps me to take a load off and to rest & relax.” You see, if we are not joyfully serving the Lord, then we are not serving the Lord the way He intended for us to. When we are living the Christian life correctly, we will live a life that is full of rest & relaxation. It is only when we try to live the Christian life in the arm of the flesh that we become stressed-out and lose our peace. Saints, it is not the Lord’s will that any part of our Christian walk feels like “work.” Sure, it is not always pleasant putting the flesh under, and sure, it is not always easy to go through the various trials we fall into. But if everything always seems arduous and an uphill battle, then we are likely missing it in some way. Therefore, to lie down in green pastures describes our Good Shepherd leading us, His sheep, to places of comfort, rest and relaxation—like a spiritual couch or recliner. Amen! Now the next thing David said in Psalm 23:2, essentially teaches us the same thing: “He leads me beside the still waters.” The phrase “beside the still” comes from the Hebrew word menuwchah and describes a “rest or resting place.” It carries the idea of a comfortable, still and quiet place or thing (and in this case, that thing is “water”). So, these “still waters” that David describes here could literally be described as “waters of rest” and for us to be led beside these still waters would describe us being led and guided alongside places of rest—places that are quiet, still and comfortable. Amen. So, again, this is what happens: We come to Jesus in our stress and anxiety and He—our Good Shepherd—leads us into our resting place. In other words, there remains a rest for the people of God—a stream that makes glad the city of our God. It is beside these still waters that we find rest for our souls. In fact, this is actually the same word that was used to describe the Rest of God referred to in Psalm 95:11--the same Rest that the writer(s) of Hebrews describe in Hebrews chapter 4. Now most people associate this rest referred to in both the 95th Psalm and in Hebrews chapter 4 as heaven and us passing through death’s doors to enter into His rest in eternity. And while in all likelihood, we certainly will experience a peace in that day that will by far transcend what we will walk in on the earth today, it is entirely incorrect for us to just roll with the punches of this world and only expect to find rest for our souls when we die. If you recall, we spent a good amount of time in our study of the 23rd Psalm emphasizing the fact that it is not just a funeral psalm. No, it is a life psalm because the language in it indicates that the Lord’s sheep is walking through the valley of the shadow of death, fearing no evil, and that the Lord has prepared this table for us in the presence of our enemies. There are no enemies in heaven! There is nothing to fear there—no valleys of the shadow of death, only mountains of life! Amen? You see, this “Rest” was an obvious reference to Canaan, the Promised Land, and was described as a rest in contrast to their 40-year journey in the wilderness. Canaan had giants in it; heaven won’t. So, the promised land that you and I can possess today is a life of overcoming those giants that oppose us from receiving our inheritance, which certainly includes peace. Now this “wilderness” period was certainly that feeling of no rest—for it involved always moving and striving and never experiencing the peace the Lord has for His people. Well, likewise, there is rest that you I can enter into in this life! That is those still waters of rest that He leads us beside! That is that spiritual recliner that He makes us to lie down on! All of this is for us now in this life. And sadly, that is where many Christians live—in the wilderness, living from miracle to miracle (which means they are also living in crisis to crisis) and experiencing this striving, working, and arduous lifestyle. There is a better life that that, saints! Yes, I said there is a better life! And that is—living in the blessing of Canaan where we enter into His Rest and throw off all stress! Yes, there remains therefore a rest for the people of God—where we can cease from our works, our striving and busyness. This is the Sabbath that we are called to observe—where we learn to rest in the work of another—namely, the Lord Jesus Christ’s work on the Cross. Its ultimate fulfillment will be when we leave these tents and live in the eternal rest in the Kingdom of God, but there is also a rest to be experienced now. A sabbath if you would. Amen. JESUS, OUR SABBATH And this is why Jesus said for us to come to Him in order to receive His rest—because He is the fulfillment of the Sabbath! Now this leads us into an important biblical principle that was first referred to in the beginning during creation, then was instituted under the Law, and finally was fulfilled in Christ—the Sabbath, which is symbolic of this rest we are talking about today. So, let’s start out by looking at this commandment that God gave His people: In Exodus 20:8-11, God gave them the Ten Commandments and said, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.” In this Scripture, we see how He gave His chosen people the Sabbath by comparing it to when He rested from His work in creation. Now it is important to understand that God did not “rest” in the sense that we think of resting. When we think of resting, we think of recuperating because of fatigue, but this is not what is implied here. God rested on the seventh day, not because He was tired and exhausted. He rested because the work was finished and complete. There was nothing left to do. This word “rest” described more of a cessation of activity, the ending of effort. A good example of what transpired here is an artist who was working to paint a beautiful masterpiece and then when his or her picture was completed, they lean back in their chair observing their completed masterpiece maybe with their brush in the mouth. This image in no way describes an artist laying down his brush because it got too heavy. No, he rested from his work because his work was finished and complete. God had created the heavens and earth and all that is within them and saw that it was all “very good” (Genesis 1:31). It was finished! His work was complete! So, He was attempting to get His people to see that the work of creation had been completed. Therefore, He gave them the Sabbath to illustrate to them that they are to rest in God’s finished work of creation and redemption. So, what is our attitude to be regarding the Sabbath? Are we to keep the Sabbath or not? Well, let’s look over at Colossians chapter two and, in this passage, we will see the true purpose of the Sabbath and how we should be fulfilling it. THE SHADOW OF THE SABBATH Colossians 2:11-15 says, “In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.” So, notice here that things like circumcision (another big point of contention), water baptism, and all the other “handwriting of requirements” (i.e. the commandments of the Law) have been fulfilled in us who are in Him. Amen! Now notice this: Paul goes on to say in Colossians 2:16, “So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths…” In other words, because the law has been fulfilled in us through the finished work of Christ (i.e. “so”), we are to let no one judge us in food or in drink (this is dietary laws of the law), or regarding a festival (all the feast days) or a new moon (some other requirement for the Jews to keep) or SABBATHS. Or what? Or SABBATHS! This implies we are not to let anyone judge us regarding keeping the different Sabbaths because we are now under the perfect law of liberty. But why? Why are we free from keeping the Sabbath today under our new and better covenant? Well, continue reading: In verse 17, Paul goes on to say, “which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.” Do you see this? All of these requirements of the law—the dietary laws, the feasts, and, yes, even the Sabbath—are shadows of things to come! This means that all of these commands the Lord gave them were meant to foreshadow something which was to come, namely, SOMEONE who was to come—and that is Christ! Praise the Lord! Actually, this word “substance” literally means “body.” So why would we continue hugging the shadow of the One we love when we have their body? That would be kind of weird, wouldn’t it? So, what does this teach us? It teaches us that the Sabbath is simply a shadow of Christ and, therefore, Christ is the fulfillment of the Sabbath. Yes, saints, JESUS IS OUR SABBATH REST! IT IS FINISHED Let’s look at another passage where the Lord gave His chosen people a command concerning the Sabbath and we will see this more clearly: Deuteronomy 5:15 says, “And remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.” Notice the word “therefore” in this verse: Being redeemed from Egypt is a type of our salvation, so this is why He commanded them to keep the Sabbath. He did it with His mighty hand and outstretched arm. Therefore, Jesus brought us out of the kingdom of darkness and we should rest in His finished work. Practically speaking, God gave them one day a week not to work to illustrate to them that they are not their own source. In other words, the Sabbath had an element of trust to it. You had to trust the Lord that He could do more by His mighty hand and outstretched arm in 6 days than you could do by your arm and hand in 7 days. It was to illustrate to them that they are not their own Savior and Provider—God is. So, this is what we need to understand about the seventh day—that when we were made a new creation in Christ that His work in us is complete. Therefore, we are not a work in progress. His work of grace in our spirit is finished! And it was not by our own hands that we are saved—Jesus did the work Himself. This is why Jesus said on the Cross just before He gave up His spirit that “It is finished!” He was saying that the price that needed to be paid for our salvation was complete. He was saying that what He hung on that Cross to accomplish was sufficient. Nothing else needed to be done! The price needful for our redemption had been fully satisfied and we are complete! You see, the word “sabbath” obviously means “rest.” In fact, the words “seven, sabbath, & rest” all come from the same basic word in the Hebrew shabat. And we know the number seven in biblical numerology describes “completion.” Therefore, we see the meaning of the Sabbath: It is that God indeed rested on the seventh day because His work of creation was completed. Amen. So, we being children of God who have been made new creations in Christ Jesus ought to also follow our Heavenly Father’s pattern—know that the work of the new creation (i.e. salvation) has been completed within us and now we are to rest from our works of the flesh that seek to accomplish what has already been accomplished in us through Christ Jesus. Amen. We are complete in Him. The work of salvation has already been accomplished within us, so now we can cease from our works (i.e. works that seek to justify and obtain what can only be received by faith in His grace) as God ceased from His works. We must cease our WORKS of righteousness (which are not good enough) and REST in the work that Christ did to atone for our sins. Therefore, we can rest in all the works that Christ has done for us! He has paid the price and done everything that needs to be done in regards to our salvation! The number seven in Biblical numerology describes “perfection and completion.” Thus, our salvation and the new creation we were made is perfect and complete! There is nothing left undone! God made all things good in the beginning and God has made all the things that are new in us good! When God looked over all that He had made, He said it was very good! Likewise, God looks at His work in us and says it is very good! We have passed inspection! Therefore, the rest is essentially learning to rest in God’s finished work! You see, so many believers never learn to do this. They see Christianity as a religion, based on a bunch of rules and regulations, and if we do all of these things, or rather, simply avoid certain things, then we find ourselves in the good graces of God. But this is not Christianity! Christianity isn’t even a changed life; it’s an exchanged life. It is where we, as Jesus said in Matthew chapter eleven, “take His yoke upon us.” In other words, it is all about Jesus—learning to come to Him, trust in Him, and letting His life be lived through you. It is resting in His finished work on the Cross! Amen! Boy, I can tell you, this alleviates the stress from our lives when we learn that Jesus has done this “very good” work of salvation and it is truly is finished! Now you and I can learn to not only let our salvation rest in Him, but also every other battle of life. Yes, every need, every care, every trial, etc., etc., etc.—all of these are His concern, not ours. So, that resounding truth that we have all likely heard (i.e. the battle is not yours, but God’s), is true in every situation we find ourselves in. Amen. Therefore, this rest is rooted in knowing that the work of salvation is complete—everything from our eternal security to the temporal situations we find ourselves in. All of these battles belong to Lord, and He has already fought them for us. So, us learning to enter into His finished work is a big part of finding rest for our souls. THE WISDOM IN THE SABBATH However, this is not to say that the physical observance of the Sabbath has no benefits: Yes, although we are not bound to legalistically observing a day like the Sabbath anymore, this does not mean that there are no benefits to observing a day of rest every week. Yes, like it is with many things contained in the Mosaic and Levitical laws, there are certain natural benefits to doing certain things that the law tells us. For instance, how many of you know that even though we are freed to eat bacon, crab, porkchops and lobster today, it probably wouldn’t be a good idea to make these things a large part of your diet. Why? Because the world will even tell us that these things are not the healthiest things we can put in our bodies. Likewise, even though we are not bound to observe the Sabbath, that does not mean that there are no benefits to observing a day of rest every week. In fact, we have come to learn that it actually is a good thing for everyone to rest one out of every seven days. Therefore, I would say that this is good principle for each of us to live by in order to live free from stress: have a day each week where we detach, disconnect, and decompress—that is, where we lay down every project, where we turn the phone off, where we don’t even try to problem-solve in our minds; just a day of rest where we put our relationship with the Lord as our priority and we even enjoy some nice recreational things that do not require a lot of physical or mental energy. Amen? I bet if we would make sure to schedule this on a weekly basis, we would live more stress-free lives. Amen? However, like I stated earlier, the one day a week Sabbath is not the only Sabbath instituted under the law; there was also the seventh year Sabbath. And what this teaches me is that there are obviously other periods of rest that are wise to do as well. For example, it’s obvious that annual vacations are good for the soul too, right? Yes, having a week of rest can really help to rest and rejuvenate you. Likewise, I think it is wise to schedule periodic times of rest throughout the year where you can cease from the physical and emotional labor and focus on the spiritual side of our life. We do this as pastors: Because of all of the burdens of the people that we try to help carry, it is easy for a minister to become weary and overburdened. This is when that term “burnout” can occur. So, a wise decision is for those who minister full time is to take a regular “sabbatical”—which is a time period, whether it’s a day, week, month, etc. to disconnect and get refreshed in the presence of God. But I’ll add this one thing: I think if we really wanted to be balanced and enter into His rest consistently, then it’s not only just one day a week or one week a year that we need to strive for; we need a certain period of time every day in order to find rest for our souls. What I mean is, we need that period of time every day to “come to Him,” simply meditating on His Word, praising & worshipping Him, etc., to where that rest is found daily. Which leads me to my next point: What we do during those “sabbaticals” is important too. Reading the Bible is important, praying for others is important, but there is something very specific that you and I can do that actually causes us to enter into His rest. Are you interested in knowing what that is? Speaking in tongues! The Scriptures teach us that this is the rest! In Isaiah 28:11&12, we are given a prophetic glimpse of this benefit of praying in other tongues. In this passage of Scripture, we have what many consider to be the only reference to this particular manifestation of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament. In fact, we know these verses in Isaiah are prophetic of this New Covenant gift because the Apostle Paul made reference to this Scripture in First Corinthians 14:21 when admonishing the Corinthians on the subject of tongues. So, let’s look at these Scriptures in Isaiah chapter 28: In verse 11, Isaiah says, “For with stammering lips and another tongue He will speak to this people…” The Apostle Paul used this particular statement to show how one of the many diversities of tongues is to be a sign for the unbeliever (see First Corinthians 14:21-22), but if you look on to verse 12, I believe the Holy Spirit through Isaiah gives us a result of these “stammering lips and other tongues”… He says, “To whom He said, ‘This is the rest with which you may cause the weary to rest.’ And, ‘This is the refreshing’; yet they would not hear.” Notice in this verse we are told that two of the results of praying in other tongues are that we enter into a rest and that we experience a refreshing. These are two of the specific characteristics of what Paul deemed “edification.” Did you know that when you become weary in well doing and begin to grow faint in your race of faith, that praying in other tongues is a way that you can enter into a supernatural rest? Did you know that when you feel dry and empty in your soul that you can experience a supernatural refreshing through your prayer language? That’s right! You don’t need to run to someone else to pray for you or to the nearest revival service to get a fix. You see, this is what so many believers do: They look for a place where God is moving and drive miles to go get that quick fix from God. But that is only a superficial way of experiencing a personal revival. The best way to experience a personal revival is to get it from the inside/out and not the outside/in! All you need to do to enter into the rest and refreshing of the Holy Spirit is to set aside a period of time, go into your prayer closet and pray in other tongues for an extended period of time. I guarantee you if you do this, your battery will get charged up and you will experience more peace and joy than you were previously experiencing! Church, I’m convinced that if we did these four things: Made sure we scheduled a week or more of rest during the year, made sure we had a day every week where we rested, and made sure we spent a period of time daily in His rest, we would live in this supernatural Sabbath that Jesus said was ours. Especially, when we include praying in other tongues all along the way, every day. May you find your Resting place in Him today and always. Amen.
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