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My Place of Rest
–the Chronicle –Becoming
the Bride
Isa
66:1"Heaven is My throne, And earth is My footstool. Where is the
house that you will build Me? And where is the place of My rest?
NKJV
I must tell you that my heart is
about to burst with the revelation I have found in this piece. I
could have named it so many different things; it says so much.
Ceasing from Labor. The Resting Place. The Comforter. Waiting for
Him. Resting on Him. Abiding In His Presence. Sweet Sleep. I had
jotted down all of these names but none really seemed to feel just
right. Suddenly, Isa 66:1-2 absolutely invaded my spirit. “Where
is the house you will build for Me, where is the place of My rest?”
I immediately knew He wanted it named My Place of Rest.
A few years ago
as we were singing a song from Isa 66:1-2, I began to see a dove
lingering in the sanctuary, it fluttered softly and finally landed
to rest. I could sense that He felt welcome …after all we had been
focusing on creating a peaceful place for His presence. As I felt
Him express His heart, the vision changed from a church sanctuary to
the hearts of His people –each one a permanent dwelling place – a
house that I had built for Him – His place of rest. While we are
calling out for a place of rest, it seems that He is too. See Him,
in the shadows, waiting to be gracious to you.
Isa 30:18
Therefore the LORD will wait, that He may be gracious to you; And
therefore He will be exalted, that He may have mercy on you. For
the LORD is a God of justice; Blessed are all those who wait for
Him. NKJV
What kind of
house are you building for Him? A place of trust and humility …a
contrite heart His desires. The bride appears to be asleep, but her
heart is awake dreaming of her beloved. Song 5:2. He is so close
she can feel His presence. In this place of rest, she is
experientially partaking of His peace in the midst of a tumultuous
world. (John 14:27) As He watches her, He finds great comfort that
she has come to a place of total reliance on Him, she lays her head
on the Rock of her Salvation.
Ps 62:5-6 5 My soul, wait only upon
God and silently submit to Him; for my hope and expectation are
from Him.6 He only is my Rock and my Salvation; He is my Defense
and my Fortress, I shall not be moved. AMP
In my times of
meditation and listening about this piece, the Lord took me in many
directions; the first of which was Andrew Murray’s book, “Waiting On
God”. It is a small devotional which shed a great deal of light and
new insight on waiting. Waiting on God is more of a heart attitude
than an action or lack thereof. Though the piece is named
differently, the book really inspired it. The works part of “faith
without works” seems to overshadow everything else in our walk.
There were so many comments that deeply affected me, they are too
numerous to mention. I will however mention a few so that you can
feel the inspiration that is within the piece. They are not
necessarily in the same order of the book.
- ”Wafting on God,
unceasing and entire dependence upon Him is in heaven and earth,
the only true faith”.
- “These wait upon
thee… (Ps 104:27,28 ASV) Just as much as it was God’s work to
create, it is His work to maintain. As little as man could create
himself, is he left to provide for himself.”
- Learn to say of every
want and every failure and every lack of needful grace, I have
waited too little upon God…”
- “on thee do I wait all
day” Ps 25:5 …on the point of entering an enemy's territory (or
assignment) …answering the question to the cause of delay:
waiting for supplies, waiting for instructions or orders”.
- What do they (the
trees, flowers, and green grass) do to keep the sun shining on
them? They do nothing; they simply bask in the sunshine when it
comes”.
- “In quietness and in
confidence shall be your strength. …Everything that is not God
that excites our fears or stirs our efforts or awakens out hope or
makes us glad hinders us in our perfect waiting on Him”
- When the heart has
learned how entirely powerless it is for one moment to deep itself
or bring forth any good, when it has learned how surely and truly
God will keep it, when it has in despair of itself accepted God’s
promise to do for it the impossible, it learns to rest in God..
I know that
these excerpts will change your view of waiting on Him. Waiting is a
heart attitude. As I created “Dance With Me”, obviously I was doing,
but He viewed it as waiting. My focus was entirely on Him, I saw us
dancing together in purpose.
Wait on God
until Christ is formed in you. Then wait with Him -the Bride and
the Groom until the Father says, “it is time to bring her to My
House for eternity.”
Song 5:2 I
went to sleep, but my heart stayed awake. [I dreamed that I heard]
the voice of my beloved as he knocked [at the door of my mother's
cottage].
Heb 4:1 4:1
THEREFORE, WHILE the promise of entering His rest still holds and is
offered [today], let us be afraid [to distrust it], lest any of you
should think he has come too late and has come short of [reaching]
it. AMP
Heb
4:10-12 10 For he who has once entered [God's] rest also has ceased
from [the weariness and pain] of human labors, just as God rested
from those labors peculiarly His own. [Gen 2:2.] 11 Let us
therefore be zealous and exert ourselves and strive diligently to
enter that 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].12 For the
Word that God speaks is alive and full of power [making it active,
operative, energizing, and effective]; it is sharper than any
two-edged sword, penetrating to the dividing line of the breath of
life (soul) and [the immortal] spirit, and of joints and marrow [of
the deepest parts of our nature], exposing and sifting and analyzing
and judging the very thoughts and purposes of the heart. AMP
Heb 4:11-13
(The Word Discovers Our Condition)11 Let us therefore be diligent to
enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of
disobedience. 12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and
sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of
soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the
thoughts and intents of the heart. 13 And there is no creature
hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes
of Him to whom we must give account. NKJV
Isa 66:1-2
66:1 THUS SAYS the Lord: Heaven is My throne, and the earth is My
footstool. What kind of house would you build for Me? And what
kind can be My resting-place? [Acts 17:24.] 2 For all these things
My hand has made, and so all these things have come into being [by
and for Me], says the Lord. But this is the man to whom I will look
and have regard: he who is humble and of a broken or wounded spirit,
and who trembles at My word and reveres My commands. [John 4:24.]
AMP |
