“KNOWING, RECEIVING, AND RESTING IN GOD’S PRESENCE!”
By J. Farrell Fisher, June 12-14, 2018
Years ago Thomas Carlyle, in “Cromwell’s Letters and Speeches,” (Vol.5, Pt.10), wrote, “Blessed are the valiant that have lived in the Lord.” When I read his statement, I wondered how much cruel opposition did he face asserting one “lives in the Lord” when most of the church hundreds of years ago and even today “profess” ‘living FOR the Lord’! And there is an eternal difference in “attempting to live for the Lord” and, yes, “living in the Lord”! “Living in the Lord” requires “resting in His death, burial, and resurrection”, while “living for the Lord” is “flesh”, “best effort”, “trying” rather than trusting in what Jesus has done for us!
In “Macbeth”, William Shakespeare wrote: “I had most need of blessing, and ‘AMEN’ stuck in my throat.” Yes, he seemed to realize that the Savior and Lord, did His marvelous work and ministry of “saving grace” through His shed blood, death on the Cross, burial, and resurrection, AND “IT IS FINISHED!” I Repent and Thank Him for His mercy and grace, granting to “trusting hearts” His mercy, His grace, His forgiveness, His abiding Presence, making the repentant heart His eternal home and reigning and ruling through that available residence of ALL HE IS IN HIS RESURRECTED PRESENCE!
Do YOU find it amazing that in Job 19:23-26 that Job wrote these verses? “Oh, that my words were written! Oh, that they were inscribed in a book! That they were engraved on a rock with an iron pen and lead, forever! FOR I KNOW THAT MY REDEEMER lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth; And after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh (Resurrected?) I shall see God.” Glory!
Oh, but there are ‘Pharaohs’ throughout human history! In Exodus 5:1-2 we read: Afterward Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘Let My people go, that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness.’ And Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, nor will I let Israel go.”
Come to John 8:48-59! It’s shocking and amazing to read of the descendants of Abraham, the Jewish ‘natural’ community who had nothing to do with King Jesus, but to see Him rejected by them, crucified, and buried! It’s like ‘modern-day’ citizens of darkness who “still want Jesus crucified and in a grave” – “Nothing about Him for us!” Does that sound familiar around you of voices denying The Lordship of Christ? “Nothing about Him for us!” The Word says:
Then the Jews answered and said to Him, “Do we not say rightly that You are a Samaritan and have a demon?” (INCORRECT!!). Jesus answered, “I do not have a demon; but I honor My Father, and you dishonor Me. And I do not seek My own glory; there is One who seeks and judges. Most assuredly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he shall never see death.”
Then the Jews said to Him, “Now we know that You have a demon! Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and You say, “If anyone keeps My word he shall never taste death.” Are you greater than our father Abraham, who is dead? And the prophets are dead. Who do You make Yourself out to be?”
Jesus answered, “If I honor Myself, My honor is nothing. It is My Father who honors Me, of whom you say that He is your God. Yet you have not known Him, but I know Him. And if I say, ‘I do not know Him,’ I shall be a liar like you; but I do know Him and keep His word. Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.”
Then the Jews said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, “I AM.” Then they took up stones to throw at Him; but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.
Do YOU understand that just as with the unbelieving, religious Jews, that all around the world, yes, even in ‘religious’ communities, there are those ‘professing’ Christ who’ve never been claimed by Him to truly be His children of the true, eternal FAITH that saves, transforms, indwells, and, yes, gives eternal glory to the God of Calvary’s Cross and the empty tomb?
Hear Christ Jesus in Matthew 7:21-23!! “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, BUT he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!”
I hate to be the one to tell you if you’ve never truly “heard Truth”, but, yes, have ‘practiced Christ’, even reaching out to needy people enslaved to the powers of darkness, and, yes, casting out demons, but Jesus said that THAT is no true defining of His disciples! It’s not what “they (“professing disciples” or what “true disciples do” but true Biblical ministry of “WHO HE IS” in defined residence of the repentant heart because of their choice of “death to self” that the Resurrected manifestation of Divine Presence has entered the true tabernacle of a repentant man’s heart and JESUS is free TO BE HIMSELF in a life possessed of His Presence, fully surrendered to, yes, simply being the earthly dwelling of the awesome Christ Jesus – true biblical spiritual ministry is daily taking the sentence of death to yourself, so Christ Jesus may be manifested, unveiled, being Himself in you!
In Colossians 1:24-29 Paul says illuminatingly (!), “I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God which was given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God, the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints.
To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which IS Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present EVERY MAN PERFECT IN CHRIST JESUS.” “Every man perfect in Christ Jesus” is not because of what men choose to do in trying to honor Him by the best of flesh effort, but willfully allowing one’s life in bodily presence where Jesus “knocked”, your door was opened through repentance and faith, and the Resurrected Christ found the repentant, new-born life, the residence where He could be Himself through you, not you trying to be “Christ-like”! America and the world has witnessed enough of ‘cheap imitation’ – they must see Christ Himself in you, allowed to express Himself in and through an available vessel!
Forgiven lives, repentant hearts, truly redeemed minds, men “finished” with themselves, men accepting the eternal Truth of “crucified with Christ”, ‘old man gone’, “new man” birthed by the Holy Spirit with the re-born life willing to be, yes, the structural housing where the Prince of Peace births a ‘Holy Temple’, enabling Him to reach out to a lost world, to spiritually ‘dead’ individuals, and through YOU to exercise His miraculous power to speak Life into the ‘dead’!
But, as in Old Testament times and in New Testament actual historical times and through the ages of human existence up into our ‘modern-world’, what Jeremiah in his prophetic time period saw, one can update it even to today across America and any corner of the world globe. The ‘history’ of modern-men as ‘pretenders’ to revealed Truth is astounding!
Examine Jeremiah 6:10, Verse 13-15, Verses 16-19, Verses 27-30!! Get Ready!! It’s as relevant today as when Jeremiah bravely proclaimed the “Word of the Lord” in his day! Jeremiah 6:10, “To whom shall I speak and give warning, that they may hear? Indeed their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot give heed. Behold, the word of the Lord is a reproach to them; they HAVE NO DELIGHT IN GOD’S WORD.” [Are you aware that there are multitudes of Holy Bibles in ‘professing’ Christians’ homes that are seldom opened, but are only used as a table-decoration? Yet the Lord and His Holy Word says it is “the bread of life”, it is spiritual sustaining milk, and it IS the “spiritual meat” from the mind and heart of God for Christ to use as He works with much in you or little Word in you!]. Why is that?
Jeremiah 6:13-15, “And their houses shall be turned over to others; For I will stretch out My hand against the inhabitants of ‘church property’,” says the Lord. Because from the least of them even to the greatest of them, everyone is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even to the priest, everyone deals falsely. They have also healed the hurt of My people slightly, saying ‘Peace, peace!’ When there is no peace. Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No! They were not ashamed at all; nor did they know how to blush. Therefore they shall fall among those who fall; at the time I will punish them, they shall be cast down,” says the Lord.
Jeremiah 6:16-19, Thus says the Lord: “Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where the good way is, and walk in it; then you will find rest for your souls. But they said, “We will not walk in it.” Also, I set watchmen over you, saying, ‘Listen to the sound of the trumpet!’ (Joel 2), But they said, ‘We will not listen.’
Therefore hear, you nations, and know, O congregation, what is among them. Hear, O earth! Behold, I will certainly bring calamity on this people – the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not heeded My words nor My law, but rejected it.
Jeremiah 6:27-30, “I have set you as an assayer and a fortress among My people, that you may know and test their way. They are all stubborn rebels, walking as slanderers. They are bronze and iron, they are all corrupters; (or an unholy mixture!). The bellows blow fiercely, the lead is consumed by the fire; the smelter refines in vain, for the wicked are drawn off. People will call them rejected silver, because the Lord has rejected them.”
How many modern, Sunday preachers, or week-day “professors of faith” have you witnessed – and your heart is broken, because even the “compromisers”, in their frustration and anger with the Truth-tellers is so gross that they’d just as soon also see the sold-out citizens of the kingdom ‘crucified’!
I’m sure that, at least, you understand what Paul wrote about in 2 Corinthians 11:13-15! He said: “For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great things if his ministers (‘servants’) also transform themselves into ministers (servants’) of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.” (Is that imitation works, pretense works, similar but not the same, as Christ Himself through them!!).
“KNOWING”? In John 14:6-7 Jesus said: “I AM the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.”
Did Job 19:25 jump at your mind and lay hold of your heart? “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and HE SHALL STAND AT LAST ON THE EARTH…”; Crucified, died, buried on the earth, but after 3 days the Father raised Him up from the grave, standing Victorious over sin and death!
Come with me to 1 John 5:9-15! “If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; for this is the witness of God which He testified of His Son. He who believes in (“trusts in, relies upon, adheres to”) in the Son of God has the witness in himself; he who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has given of His Son. And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.
He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life (IN THE HERE AND NOW – NOT IN THE ‘SOMEDAY-PIE-IN_THE_SKY MENTALITY”!!), and that you may continue to believe in (trust in, rely upon, adhere to!) the name of the Son of God.
Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.” THAT’S “KNOWING”!! But, yes, beyond “knowing” is:
“RECEIVING”: In Proverbs 1:2-5 we read: “To know wisdom and instruction, to perceive the words of understanding, TO RECEIVE THE INSTRUCTION OF WISDOM, justice, judgment, and equity; To give prudence to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion – a wise man will hear AND increase learning, and a man of understanding will attain wise counsel.”
Dare I tell you that the man of understanding who attains wise counsel is the true believer “guided and taught” by the Holy Spirit? In John 14:15-18 we read first about receiving scriptural, eternal Truth! Jesus said of the Holy Spirit, “If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give Me another Helper, that He may abide with you forever – the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you AND WILL BE IN YOU. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.”
Notice Verses 25-26 where Jesus also said, “These things I have spoken to you while being present with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.” True for disciples then – true for disciples NOW! “KNOWING”, “RECEIVING”, but what about “RESTING” in the Lord?
“RESTING”? In Matthew 11:28-30 we read: “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.” HAVE YOU TRULY “RESTED IN CHRIST” or still heavily involved in “trying your best”, which He crucified?
The burden of separation from God is gone, even if you’ve ever gotten to that awareness in your heart and mind! The burden of the ‘sinful mind and heart’ is erased by the conviction of the Holy Spirit, the awareness and appropriation of the shed blood of the Lamb of God, the certainty of understanding that it was because of YOUR sin and sin nature that Jesus died on the Cross, and because of the gift of repentance and the grace of mind-understanding of what He did for you at Calvary, and activating the “gift of repentance”, you learn to lean on “Jesus Only”!
I close this message with Hebrews 3:7-15! It says: Therefore, AS THE HOLY SPIRIT SAYS: (Do YOU allow the Holy Spirit to teach you God’s Word?), “Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, in the day of trial in the wilderness, Where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, and saw My works forty years. Therefore I was angry with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart, and they have not known My ways.’ So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest.’
Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today”, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, while it is said: “Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”
Oh, what does the Word then say in Hebrews 3:18-19? “And to whom did God swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey? SO WE SEE that they could not enter in because of unbelief.” At the same time, dare I tell you? Believe I will! “True, redemptive, saving faith is the act, practice, and walk in submissive obedience to the words of King Jesus, yes, His every command!
And, I believe that’s why Paul said: “I take the sentence of death daily that the resurrection life of Christ may be manifested in my mortal flesh.” (1 Corinthians 15:31b) Amen? DO YOU “CHOOSE DEATH DAILY” THAT CHRIST BE REVEALED IN YOU AND THROUGH YOU?