Podcast: Download (10.6MB)
Subscribe: RSS
Podcast (podcast-mp3): Download (7.6MB)
Subscribe: RSS
A Rest for the People of God
Episode #812
6/26/2022
With Martha Kilpatrick and hosted by John Enslow
With special guest: Charles Carrin, Sue Casey
This is a continuation of a series of podcasts started in Episode #811
When laying hands on people they hit the floor because because of the rest of God.
Charles:
I am thinking of the instance of when I took my hard-shell Baptist mother to a Vicki Jameson meeting. I don’t know whether you remember Vicki; wonderful female Bible teacher, minister. Vicki went down the line laying hands on everybody and everybody she laid hands on hit the floor. It was just that abrupt. My mom was what we call predestinarian, hardline old-time Baptist. Her grandfather and great grandfather were preachers and so she was well indoctrinated. She got back to Miami where she lived and told one of her friends what had happened to her. The friend said, “Well, Ruth, what was it like lying there on the floor?” And her explanation was, she said, “I just wanted them to go away and leave me alone.” And sometimes that is the best explanation. We can’t really explain what it is that God is doing to us but we do know the effect. We know that what God is doing is good and desirable.
I would imagine that most of us in this room have had at some point had someone lay hands on us and we dropped to the floor. I would imagine that. That may not be so. Falling is not what we are after. But what happens the reasons people fall is as my mom said, “I couldn’t stand up!” The reason we fall is that the Holy Spirit suddenly flashes so much rest, rest, restfulness into us that it’s just not possible.
Sue:
When you started sharing about love, that’s what Martha has lived before us and drawn us into Christ because she’s loved us through that and to Him. That’s why it’s so precious that you’ve given us an explanation today because that what we have here and it’s just so precious that we’ve had this invitation and opportunity. I’m just overwhelmed about it.
Charles:
Isn’t that wonderful?
Sue:
And it was a rest while I was on the floor.
Charles:
Amen.
Sue:
And I’m getting back into that rest. She’s prayed over me and I’ve been on the floor. I’m grateful for it. It’s not scary at all.
Charles:
Hebrews 4:9-10
There remains, therefore, a rest for the people of God. For he who has entered into God’s rest has ceased from his own labors.
Hear that.
There remains, therefore, a rest for the people of God. He who has entered into God’s rest has ceased from his own labors.
That’s very close to the accurate quotation.
There remains, therefore, a rest for the people of God and we labor…
Get this.
…we labor to enter into that rest.
That’s an enigmatic to say that we have to labor to enter into rest but that’s exactly what the scripture says because before we can enter into God’s rest there are certain responsibilities for us achieve. And one of those responsibilities is to be certain that we quieten down the noise and racked in our own minds. The reason we have to labor to enter into God’s rest is because of the noise and racked in our own minds.
We live in a world of static; there is commotion, there is fear, there is misunderstanding on every side. It doesn’t matter if it’s the church, whether it’s the political, the national, or the international or the stock market, or whatever our focus is fixed on; we need that rest. And you can be as old as me and I’m the oldest in the room, you can be as oldest as me and you still need to enter into God’s rest. And how are you going to get in it? You are going to have to labor to get in it. Well, labor in what way? It simply means there are a few personal battles that we must win.
When Titus, I will introduce you to the topic here, when Titus laid siege to Jerusalem in the year 70…Titus was the Roman general, he was the son of Vespasian who was Emperor. The Jews had been a source of continual annoyance to Rome. Vespasian sent his son Titus “Go take care of the Jews, shut them up once and for all, quieten them down.”
Neither one of those men knew that Jesus Himself in a very calm way had pointed to the stones of the Temple years before and said, “You fellows see these stones?” Some of them were enormous. If you’ve been to Jerusalem you have probably seen those stone. They are as long as this room, high as the ceiling and half as wide as this carpet. They were every one pushed aside. Jesus said, “Not one stone will be left standing upon another.” The disciples couldn’t believe that. Those stones were there forever; they would be there till the end of time according to their opinion. That wasn’t the way at all. They were there temporarily and Jesus knew that. He told them the time is coming when these stones are going to be pushed aside. And that happened.
My reason for bringing that into our topic today is that God Almighty has entrusted to us, believe it or not, the same intensity of power in dealing with our opponent as what those stones were to the Romans and how the Romans dealt with them.
First of all, when they got into the area of Jerusalem, they found the biggest tree they could find and cut it down. They took the section of log and they made a pendulum or a battering ram out of it. I want you to be sure you get this point that when the battering ram, this enormous log, was hung by chains on a scaffold… These battering rams had wheels on them; they were built on the side. They rolled up against the city wall and then a squadron of soldier would pull the chain back and set up a rhythm of thudding the wall. They didn’t break the rhythm. They kept it going.
In the beginning it appeared, of course, that nothing happened because the battering ram would simply bounce off the stone. But they set up a vibration in the rock so small it could not be seen. But the vibration broke what’s called the moment of inertia in the stones. The stone has been sitting there absolutely still, unmoving. It’s still unmoving. The difference is now a vibration has been set up in it which only the stone itself is conscious of because you couldn’t see it with the naked eye; it couldn’t be seen.
The point is the Romans knew that if they continued this minute vibration, they set up in the stone would be begin to pass throughout the whole wall ever so slight that the whole wall would ultimately begin to feel that vibration and as the vibration increase and as their battering ram kept slamming back and forth against the wall that ultimately guess what would happen? That huge stone would move – every so slightly. But it was the system and the rhythm. And here’s what’s important that would eventually destroy the wall and exactly what Jesus said came to pass.
In prayer you and I often times see absolutely nothing happening and we can shrug our shoulders and walk away and say, “Well, that was so much wasted time because God never moved, never spoke, and nothing ever happened.” No, that’s not the case because in the beginning of spiritual warfare from the first blow and announcement is made “You wall are under attack!” Satan knows that when Christians with the word of their mouth, their testimony, their persistence begin their task at the wall; Satan knows that, he knows he’s under attack. When Christians in the persistency of prayer and the operation of faith continue their work and their assignment guess what happens? It ultimately moves.
Hell panics when that first squeak, whatever it is, hell panics when that happens. Christians who do not surrender their cause, who are faithful in their spiritual warfare and their prayer win.
You know that it’s impossible for us to lose. That is a darsome statement. But it is impossible for Christians who apply themselves to the principles Christ taught, it’s impossible for us to lose.
He is the One, the voice by whom the worlds were framed and everything in it; He is the One by whom all natural law was set in place in the beginning when God the Father spoke the word and it was all implemented through the intercession and power of the Son. It was in that way that when we Christians recognize the position of sonship, daughtership, and the position of authority that God has allowed us to occupy, we can’t lose. Now that’s a bold statement but it’s a true statement.
If we are in the will of God, that is paramount, if we are not functioning just in the vanity of our own mind, but if we have the assurance that God Himself approves and is working with us, we will reap into season if we faint not. Amen.
And every one of us in the room have had experiences in the past when we were in that posture to win and probably did not win because we because discouraged and quit the task early or because we never believed in the beginning that it would really work anyway. We have to deal with those kinds of inadequacies in ourselves.
A Rest for the People of God – Episode #812 – Shulamite Podcast
The reason we fall under the power of the Holy Spirit is suddenly He flashes so much rest, restfulness into us that it’s just not possible to stand.
