JOSEPH WEEK 1

QUIZ:

1.     Who was Abraham’s wife?                                 Sarah

2.     Who was their only child?                                   Isaac

3.     Who did Isaac marry?                                          Rebekah

4.     What was their 2 sons names?                          Essau and Jacob

5.     What was Jacob’s name changed to?              Israel

6.     How many wives did Jacob have?                    Four

7.     How many son’s did Jacob have?                     Twelve

8.     Who was Jacob’s favourite wife?                      Rachael

9.     To which wife was Joseph born?                       Rachael

     ISRAELS FAMILY…

So Joseph was the favourite son of the favourite wife… this leads on into the sermon.

SLIDE JOSEPH

Joseph came into this world thoroughly loved and wanted. He was the son of his Fathers “favourite” wife - Rachael. He was born when his Dad was very old – and he didn’t think he was going to ever have a child with Rachael.

He was one adored little boy. He was doted on and given that famous extravagant gift – the coat of many colours.

Joseph’s story has been described as being from the “pit to the palace” or as him being the “King of Dreams”.

One thing is for sure… his life story was no fairy tale. It was one of betrayal, violence and abandonment. It was one of hard labor and a long term of imprisonment.

Despite all the negatives we will see his character was one of intense focus on God, resolute determination to stay true to God in spite of harsh and unfair circumstances and lastly one of long-term and deep character building in preparation to fulfill a massive God given destiny.

So let’s get into it!

Let’s read Genesis 37:1-10

1Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan.

2This is the account of Jacob’s family line.

Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives, and he brought their father a bad report about them.

3Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made an ornate ^a robe for him. 4When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him.

5Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. 6He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had: 7We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.”

8His brothers said to him, “Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?” And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said.

9Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. “Listen,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.”

10When he told his father as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him and said, “What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?” 11His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.

Significant points

We can pull out some significant points from that scripture.

1.     Joseph was a dibby dobber! Us who know the “old scene” knew there was an untold rule – “you don’t rat your mates out”… I think it is now called “dogging someone out”.

Joseph was unaware of this rule and told his father a bad report about his brothers.

Call him a rat or a dog all you like - It appears as though he didn’t have a lot of loyalty to them.

But you could look at it like this – Joseph had no loyalty to people (brothers or not) doing the wrong thing. At an early age Joseph had his own convictions and he stood by them.

2.     Joseph was a dreamer. He appropriated his faith to believe in something bigger than himself. He had a VISION.

God used dreams to speak His purpose to life in Joseph’s spirit. A VISION or purpose in someone’s life reflects a motivation toward a specific thing. Whatever that person sees in their future is what they will be drawn towards. Joseph had a conviction or a strong belief that this dream really meant something and he was right. He knew that God spoke to him and he was propelled toward that future by declaring that dream out and into the natural.

3.     Because he had a dream his brothers were jealous & his father rebuked him.

His father questions him saying, “What!? Will your mother and I bow down to you too?!” And his brothers were jealous and hated him all the more.

My first question is: Why were they jealous of a “dream”. I mean all it is, is a bunch of pictures in someone’s asleep brain. Why were his brothers threatened and jealous of some movie clip running in his mind while he wasn’t even conscious?

The answer becomes clearer when Jacob ASKS Joseph about him and Rachael bowing down as well. Why would Jacob ASK if this is what Joseph thought was going to happen.

I mean the guy probably just woke up – eating some curds or some biblical type breakfast – and goes… “Far out man, I had a cool dream last night… yeah there were wheat sheaves and…. Yea you guys were there… yum yum **eating breakfast… oh yeah and the moon and the stars bowed down too… mmm weird ay guys.

And he looks up to see his family glaring at him as if he had anointed himself King over the family. He probably realized then that oops… that didn’t come out right!                                                                                                                                       

They all knew Joseph was different. There was just something about him. Jacob asked him if this is what it means and the brothers got jealous because they knew that it meant something significant too.

He had a bright light. His life was illuminating. He mesmerized his parents and there was a God sized plan and purpose for him to achieve.

There was seeds of greatness in Joseph that could not contain because God was growing them in spite of how EVERYBODY felt about it.

So to boil that down to make it simple:

1.     Joseph had strong personal convictions

2.     He had a dream

3.     He had to battle against the dream killers                                                                                                     

We can take these 3 things and apply them to our lives now.

1.     Strong personal convictions: What is a conviction?

It is a strongly held belief. It is something that we also call a “Core Value”.

It is important to know what it is that you value and have personal convictions over because these things are the things that drive your life. This is what Joseph found in his relationship with his brothers… his core values did not match his brothers – this is why he was headed in a different direction to them. His life was being driven by his convictions or core values.

The easiest way to determine what your core values are is to ask yourself what makes you, really really angry or really really happy? Has anyone heard the saying, “If you don’t know what you stand for, you’ll fall for anything.”

For me, one of my strongest personal convictions is the pursuit of truth. I love the truth.           

 Now watch how this conviction plays itself out through the core of who I am:

I find that truth is of utmost importance… it makes me so happy when I live in truth… and it makes me so angry when I am lied to or if am being deceitful myself. As well as I get really frustrated when the truth seems just out of my reach. I like knowing what is real and what is fake.

I think that the truth whether it is good or bad, is much better than a lie any day… I don’t like lies at all… so I will surround myself with people who have similar a personal conviction because I can “trust them” because trust and truth are closely related I find that trust is another strong conviction.

I am loyal to people I can trust so loyalty is another conviction I have. I find loyalty to be a very admirable quality to have myself and to enjoy in others. It makes me feel very happy.

In a nutshell: Truth, Trustworthiness and Loyalty are my core values.

Out of my core values I live my life towards and around. I strive towards the truth all the time – hence I preach the Gospel – the ultimate truth… I have developed integrity and trustworthiness so that my people know I am a safe person to become vulnerable to… and my loyalty lies with the truth so if there ever needs to be humility and repentance I find joy in that.

You see how identifying your core values can give you a very strong sense of personal identity, therefore enabling you to see your strengths therefore enabling you to have a very defined vision for your life? You know where you want to be and where you do not want to be. Vision.

This is what Joseph had. A very strong sense of core values and strength of character & vision.

THE STOREHOUSE CHURCH

VISION: plan, purpose, future.

PLAN "To introduce people to Jesus Christ, PURPOSE to help them grow to be more like him, and FUTURE then to reproduce the process in others."

CORE VALUES:

1.     A church that loves God with heart, mind, soul and strength

2.     A church that reaches out to the community and other local churches to provide support and friendship

3.     A church that welcomes absolutely everyone - NO exceptions

4.     A church that teaches you to KNOW God, GROW in God and GO for God

a.     Introducing people to Christ

b.     Biblical Teaching that causes Spiritual Growth ...then...

c.      A sending out or releasing for ministry - Missions field: local/abroad

5.     A church with a focus on impacting the world we live in - "Missions Focus"

SLIDE DO YOU HAVE A DREAM?

2.     He had a dream

We all know of 2 very powerful stories of a black man rising above the nonsense to steer people toward a better way of living – one was Nelson Mandela and the second is Martin Luther King Jnr.  This picture is of Martin Luther King who, in 1963, delivered his famous “I have a dream” speech when he was addressing the oppression of black people in American society.

They marched through the streets singing – “We will overcome” a song to the Lord – the same God as the one we serve. The speech starts off depicting the suffering and torment they go through as slaves. The way they are degraded and treated like animals separated and scorned in white supremace society. It is quite disturbing the events that happened in those days to black people.

Then the speech turns to this:

Let me read a portion of it…

Having a dream of a better future is something we all need to cling to and for me it starts in our mind.

This particular part of Josephs story, I have a lot of experience with… it’s probably why I love this story so much… because I can identify with him and his dreams and how God speaks in dreams.

He uses symbols that were understandable to him and showed him what was to come with these symbols. Joseph knew the difference between what I call a “Processing Dream” and a “God Dream”.

Our brains are like hard drives on a computer. Each day we are awake, we have (what I call) “natural downloads”. These are the things that happen throughout the day. The different conversations you have and the various activities you engage in. Your hard drive stores all the new information and when you sleep at night it “Processes” that information.

While processing that information into its relevant files and hard drive disk locations, your dream mind filters these things through it. You see things and feel things that have affected you during the day (and weeks sometimes) depending on what your “Processing” settings are in your brain.

Processing dreams are different in colour, length and content. When you have had enough of these and what I call “God Dreams” you can easily tell the difference.

God Dreams are just that. Something that reflects that you have just encountered God. There are specific tell-tale signs and symbols that God uses to leave His beautiful implant on your God Dreams. There are a combination of factors that you can tell if it was a God Dream or not but this sermon is not so much about this subject. Although I must say, this is one of my special gifting areas that He has taught me over my lifetime.

I am leaving out demonic dreams because they are another subject – and have their own specific details. Not to mention that sometimes a God Dream can resemble a demonic dream… I am sure it is a gift to actually be able to tell the difference.

The difference between people who move through life drifting with whatever tide is flowing and the people who can envision something in their future then start to work toward seeing that thing actually happen - is the people who dream – and work toward that dream.

It is those people who end up saying, “Dreams really do come true.”

Some of us hear God in our dreams at night – but this can also mean when we day dream. When we are in our quite time in our mind, where do we go with it? A dream is the start of a vision and the start of a project if you are like me!

A dream is something that is hard to grasp... something that takes faith to see happen. When we hear someone say, I had a dream – we rarely think that we are gonna see that person start playing out that dream or try to make it come to life but it is the ones who dare who win.

It takes a special gift from God to enable us to interpret our dreams because they are kind of like encrypted. From the moment we have a dream, our work starts. We have to start working out what it means. For many people they don’t even start that process. Therefore the vision goes unattended and left to die.

3.     And this is exactly what these brothers wanted – to kill the dream!

People don’t like dreamers. All sorts of character flaws can pop up in you when you’re in the presence of a dreamer. Jealousy – Covetness – Gossiping – Insecurity – Anger.

It is almost an automatic response in some people when they see someone branching out into the faith realm – to bring that person back down to reality.

Something my Dad always said to me as a kid, “Nicole, you have always got your head in the clouds!” and it was true. I did. I loved it out there!

There will always be people who want to kill your dream, even the people who are the ones you thought would be on your side… like Joseph and his brothers.

It is important to

·        Guard your God Dreams

·        Nurture them

·        Sow your time and energy into them

·        Grow your dream in your secret place in your heart …

…and just like Joseph they will inevitably grow so big that everyone will benefit from them.

Let’s keep reading:

SLIDE GEN 37:12-36 Joseph Sold by His Brothers

12Now his brothers had gone to graze their father’s flocks near Shechem, 13and Israel said to Joseph, “As you know, your brothers are grazing the flocks near Shechem. Come, I am going to send you to them.”

“Very well,” he replied.

14So he said to him, “Go and see if all is well with your brothers and with the flocks, and bring word back to me.” Then he sent him off from the Valley of Hebron.

When Joseph arrived at Shechem, 15a man found him wandering around in the fields and asked him, “What are you looking for?”

16He replied, “I’m looking for my brothers. Can you tell me where they are grazing their flocks?”

17“They have moved on from here,” the man answered. “I heard them say, ‘Let’s go to Dothan.’ ”

So Joseph went after his brothers and found them near Dothan. 18But they saw him in the distance, and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him.

19“Here comes that dreamer!” they said to each other. 20“Come now, let’s kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we’ll see what comes of his dreams.”

21When Reuben heard this, he tried to rescue him from their hands. “Let’s not take his life,” he said. 22“Don’t shed any blood. Throw him into this cistern here in the wilderness, but don’t lay a hand on him.” Reuben said this to rescue him from them and take him back to his father.

23So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe—the ornate robe he was wearing— 24and they took him and threw him into the cistern. The cistern was empty; there was no water in it.

25As they sat down to eat their meal, they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelite’s coming from Gilead. Their camels were loaded with spices, balm and myrrh, and they were on their way to take them down to Egypt.

26Judah said to his brothers, “What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? 27Come, let’s sell him to the Ishmaelite’s and not lay our hands on him; after all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood.” His brothers agreed.

28So when the Midianite merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelite’s, who took him to Egypt.

29When Reuben returned to the cistern and saw that Joseph was not there, he tore his clothes. 30He went back to his brothers and said, “The boy isn’t there! Where can I turn now?”

31Then they got Joseph’s robe, slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in the blood. 32They took the ornate robe back to their father and said, “We found this. Examine it to see whether it is your son’s robe.”

33He recognized it and said, “It is my son’s robe! Some ferocious animal has devoured him. Joseph has surely been torn to pieces.”

34Then Jacob tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and mourned for his son many days. 35All his sons and daughters came to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. “No,” he said, “I will continue to mourn until I join my son in the grave.” So his father wept for him.

36Meanwhile, the Midianites sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard.

So we see here that the dream killers succeeded. They plotted and planed and had a vision that they would get rid of Joseph – and they did.

These brothers where so insecure within themselves (except Reuben) that they actually carried out this murderous plot to dispose of their dreamer brother. They were so angry at Joseph’s core values and vision for his own life that they decided to rip it away from him to teach him a lesson.

These brothers then had to live a long, long time with a lie. The lie that a wild animal had ripped him apart. They all had to watch Jacob and Rachael’s heart break. They had to live in a family that was now torn apart by lies and grief and it was their own fault… all because they hated a dreamer.

Who remembers the description of the Midianites or Ishmaelite’s back in the story of Gideon?

SLIDE JUDGES 6

Judges 6  ² Because the power of the Midianites was so oppressive, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in mountain clefts, caves and strongholds.³ Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples invaded the country. ⁴ They camped on the land and ruined the crops all the way to Gaza and did not spare a living thing for Israel, neither sheep nor cattle nor donkeys. ⁵ They came up with their livestock and their tents like swarms of locusts. It was impossible to count them or their camels; they invaded the land to ravage it.⁶ Midian so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the Lord for help.

This is who the brothers just sold Joseph to. I am sure they sure he was as good as dead with the Ishmaelite’s. I am sure they were happy he was gonna suffer much more than what they were capable of doing to their brother with their own hands. Giving someone over to the Ishmaelite’s was a torturous death sentence. Just what they wanted for that dreamer.

There are two ways of looking at this situation. The positive or the negative. This really is the start of the story of Joseph right here. What we have just read is merely the foundation on what the good part of the story is based on.

·        Joseph had strong convictions different to his brothers… was that enough to earn him a death sentence?

·        Joseph may have had outrages dreams that no one could understand and that made everyone a little insecure about… was that enough reason to wipe him out?

·        Joseph’s own brothers hated him… is that a good enough reason to knock him off?

We would not think that now… and I don’t think that Joseph thought that back then. I don’t think that Joseph could come up with a good enough reason that he deserved what his brothers had done.

I don’t think Joseph ever came up with a good enough reason that would explain why his own brothers decided to eject him from the family and sell him to the Ishmaelite’s.

It wasn’t fair. It was wrong. It was a low act to commit. Joseph had every right to feel rejected, unloved and hated.

He could have been forgiven for getting angry at God because it was God who gave him those dreams that made his brothers so mad.

It wasn’t his fault at all and he was now going to suffer. Things really sucked.

As we go on in this story of Joseph, we will see, in spite all of these negative factors the type of man he became. 

When is it nap time?!

·         What does God expect from us?

·         Does He prefer us to be working hard all the time?

·         Does He like people who are time masters and organised till next year?

·         Does He reward those who seem busy for Him every day of the year?

·         Do you feel His acceptance of you is based on how well you perform in life?

·         When is the time to stop and take a rest?

The best way we can know what He expects is to look at Gods example to us. The first time we see God showing us when to rest is in Genesis 2.

Genesis 2 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. ² And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. ³ So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.

So once He had finished HE RESTED.

And then in the 5th Commandment in Exodus 20: 8–11 He tells them how to rest:

 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. ⁹ Six days you shall labour, and do all your work, ¹⁰ but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. ¹¹ For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

... and another reminder to the Iraelites in:

Deuteronomy 5:12–15 “‘Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the LORD your God commanded you. Six days you shall labour and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant, or your ox or your donkey or any of your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.

So here we see that God has instituted a REST available in Him. He showed us it is available because He experienced it...then He strongly encourages His people to enter into it too by making it a law.

_________________________

Not only does He institute rest as a law but He reminds the how MIGHTY He is and that we should remember that when we are not to lift a finger.

He is kind of saying, "I do not need you to work to get things done around here... I am capable of it myself, remember I parted the sea! Now rest!"

King David writes about this REST in the 95th Psalm and brings up a good point:

Psalm 95

¹ Come, let us sing to the Lord!
    Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation.
² Let us come to him with thanksgiving.
    Let us sing psalms of praise to him.
³ For the Lord is a great God,
    a great King above all gods.
⁴ He holds in his hands the depths of the earth
    and the mightiest mountains.
⁵ The sea belongs to him, for he made it.
    His hands formed the dry land, too.

⁶ Come, let us worship and bow down.
    Let us kneel before the Lord our maker,
⁷     for he is our God.
We are the people he watches over,
    the flock under his care.

If only you would listen to his voice today!
⁸ The Lord says, “Don’t harden your hearts as Israel did at Meribah,
    as they did at Massah in the wilderness.
⁹ For there your ancestors tested and tried my patience,
    even though they saw everything I did.
¹⁰ For forty years I was angry with them, and I said,
‘They are a people whose hearts turn away from me.
    They refuse to do what I tell them.’
¹¹ So in my anger I took an oath:
    ‘They will never enter my place of rest.’”

1.      So God showed them to rest by doing it Himself.

2.      He instituted it as a law and

3.      He told them that He is capable of organising things while they are resting by reminding them how awesome and powerful He has already been in their lives...

But did they come into the rest that He wanted them to?

Well if they did come into the rest that He wanted them to, why did God take an oath that they would never enter His place of rest?

The heart of the Israelites was the problem. Their hearts were hard and stubborn and they didn't trust God even after all the miracles they saw Him do. They were disobedient.

_________________________________

Moving forward to the New Testament:

The 1st time God said He was finished was on the 7th day after working hard creating the world... and the next time is JOHN 19:30 when we hear God say, that "It is finished" is just before He gave his spirit up and died on the cross....

·         First covenant: God worked hard on Creation and then said, now it I am finished, it is time to rest.

·         Second covenant: God worked hard by being born as a human being and bringing the Gospel to the Earth and going through the agony of self sacrifice and then he stated it was finished.

So when God says I've FINISHED He then means it's time to rest! YES??

I want to point out in Hebrews Chapter 4.

It is a letter to the Hebrew Jews who had converted to Christianity to encourage them to persevere through adversity.

It warns about drifting away from the truth because of difficulties... then it encourages us to know that Jesus understands our suffering and frustration living here on earth.

Then it goes on to talk about the REST that is available to us.

Hebrews Chapter 4:1-16

4 God’s promise of entering his rest still stands, so we ought to tremble with fear that some of you might fail to experience it. ² For this good news—that God has prepared this rest—has been announced to us just as it was to them. But it did them no good because they didn’t share the faith of those who listened to God.^[a] 3 For only we who believe can enter his rest. As for the others, God said,

“In my anger I took an oath:
    ‘They will never enter my place of rest,’”^[b]

even though this rest has been ready since he made the world. ⁴ We know it is ready because of the place in the Scriptures where it mentions the seventh day: “On the seventh day God rested from all his work.”^[c] 5 But in the other passage God said, “They will never enter my place of rest.”^[d]

⁶ So God’s rest is there for people to enter, but those who first heard this good news failed to enter because they disobeyed God. ⁷ So God set another time for entering his rest, and that time is today. God announced this through David much later in the words already quoted:

“Today when you hear his voice,
    don’t harden your hearts.”^[e]

⁸ Now if Joshua had succeeded in giving them this rest, God would not have spoken about another day of rest still to come. ⁹ So there is a special rest^[f] still waiting for the people of God. ¹⁰ For all who have entered into God’s rest have rested from their labours, just as God did after creating the world.

Now pay attention to this bit... see if you find it difficult to understand ...as I did:

¹¹ So let us do our best to enter that rest. But if we disobey God, as the people of Israel did, we will fall.

¹² For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.¹³ Nothing in all creation is hidden from God. Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes, and he is the one to whom we are accountable.

So then since we have a High Priest who has entered Heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe. This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for He faced all the same testings we do, yet He did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive His mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.

I'll leave that with you for a minute while I share something else:

I had a dream the other night:

I dreamt that I was in the "war days". The imagery was in sepia tone so it was beige and brown and appeared very solemn. I was standing in the middle of a city and passing me were these tram type open windowed buses. I could see that each one of these were packed with people while the rest of the people around me were walking around with their heads down with trench coats on.

I decided I wanted to get on one of these trams to see where these people were going. I jumped on the next one that passed by me. I looked carefully at the passengers and each one of them was wounded. They had all been wounded in the war. I was realising that all the people that I had seen on the trams were wounded and we were heading toward the "hospital camp".

I asked the man next to me what had happened to him, and he pulled his shirt up to show me many sticks stabbed into his lung area. I was shocked and wondered how they were going to fix that.

We arrived at the hospital camp and it was literally a sea of camp beds with patients laying wounded on them. I was overwhelmed.

Then I saw they were taking one at a time into the "theatre" for their operation. I watched several go in wounded and come out healed. So I decided to go in and see how the doctors were healing these severely injured soldiers.

I walked in and watched a man that was wheeled in, be propped up and the doctor took an instrument and split him in two perfect halves. One side here the other side there.

The man was awake and the doctor asked him where it was hurting him. The man replied, "in my lungs... I can't breathe properly." So the doctor started doing something to his lung... and He went out healed.

The next man was wheeled in, and the doctor went to split him in two, but the man vomited at the sight of the splitting instrument. He was afraid of the pain. The doctor said, "This will not hurt as much as you think and you will be healed after."

I went and held the man's hand and comforted him as he was being split open.

________________________________

I wondered why in the last verse in Hebrews says, "So let us do our best to enter that rest. But if we disobey God, as the people of Israel did, we will fall."

And then went on to talk about Gods word as being sharper than any double edged sword - dividing us so precisely that it exposes our innermost thoughts and desires."

Going on to encourage us not to feel isolated and alone because, "Jesus understands our weaknesses so we should come to His throne to find mercy and grace."

·         What does NOT entering His rest have to do with US being DISOBEDIENT?

·         If we are the ones who are beat up and wounded in this war, why are we the ones who God wants to divide with His sword?

·         Why are we the ones who need to approach the High Priest to receive Grace for "our weaknesses"?

_____________________________________

I think I have some insight from my dream:

We are in a war. I have been in a war.

The Drug War and I can tell you from experience that it closely resembles the life of a TRUE Christian...

1.      It is tiring.

2.      It is relentless.

3.      It wears you down.

4.      It is violent.

5.      You get wounded - severely - sometimes.

_______________________________

The Bible tells us we are to FIGHT in this spiritual war - but it also tells us to enter into His rest or we are being DISOBEDIENT.

·         How hard does He want to make this for us?

·         In the midst of a relentless, tiring and violent spiritual war we are being disobedient if we are not resting?

It is so ironic I have a hard time getting my head around it!

How can I do them both at the same time? FIGHT & REST?

Ok so maybe I have missed something. Maybe He is saying I need to fight for 6 days and rest on the 7th - like take every Sunday off...

But if we compare the 2 scriptures instructing rest it clearly shows:

1.      When was the rest available to the Old Testament Christians?

a.      Gen 2 The Seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work.

2.      When is the rest available to the New Testament Christians?

a.      Heb 4:⁷ So God set another time for entering his rest, and that time is today.

NOT only on the 7th day of the week but TODAY. That means EVERYDAY.

The author of Hebrews makes a statement that we cannot misconstrue. He said, the day for entering that rest is today. TODAY.

Not "pick a day" and make that your rest day (although that is good too...) but in context of entering into Gods rest... it is ENTER INTO HIS REST EVERYDAY.

He was not talking about that particular day he was sitting at the table scribing on the papyrus! He wrote TODAY because he meant TODAY as in EVERYDAY IS THE DAY FROM THAT DAY FORWARD!

So YES. We do have to learn how to work and rest at the same time. Great.

Just when I thought it was nap time!

If God said we can have it then it must be possible because He does not lie.

Now the thing is figuring out if we are resting while we are fighting...

 What does entering that rest look like to us in this day and age?

Personally I learned that the world does not slow down just because I am exhausted.

I believe God has hidden things that provide us rest inside His creation and we need to seek them out. God in His amazing creation has provided relief for us and all we have to do is find it. I think all of our senses are meant  to experience the rest of God and there are things we do that can seek out the source of REST God wants for us.

This is why I have bought this prop in. The Bed. God has designed our body to require a minimum of 8 hours sleep... personally I need more like 10 or 11 hours... though that's tough cookies for me! But we all find rest in a comfortable bed.

Flowers...What about the saying, "Take time to smell the roses"... God gave us beautiful flowers to enjoy. The sight of a beautiful flower and the scent of a flower can be very soothing. You can find rest in flowers.

Music ...I know music was very important to me before I was a Christian... but who sees that the worlds music is very draining. It stimulates all the wrong senses... our flesh. But music that glorifies God and speaks LIFE into your soul is very refreshing. You can find rest in music.

Food ... I love food. It can be very nice to sit around with friends and enjoy good food. I like watching the foodie programs on to see the cool creations they come up with. Food is a source of nourishment but also pleasure and rest.

Church... we can find rest in coming together and supporting each other as a group. We have good intentions for each person and we can help and support each other when we are tired. We find rest in church relationships.

The Word... The Word of God is very powerful. It is likened to water and bread and we know we need food and water to sustain our physical body. But we also need the Word of God to sustain our spiritual person. We are not just flesh and blood but we are a SPIRIT and if you starve the SPIRIT you are abusing yourself.  I would say the eating the Word is probably the most important place we will find REST.

Our minds can become weary. The world has a way of yelling at us. It yells at us about our social status, intellect, appearance, worthiness, abilities.

We can become overwhelmed with what needs to be done and how fashionable we look and if we meet the "standard" and are intelligent enough ... do we fit the mould and be everything we are required by the world to be to measure up and be acceptable.

I believe this - above all - is what God is talking about for us to now REST from.

Striving to be acceptable and ok without Him. That we start to find our lives IN Him only.

If we just accepted we are completely forgiven, loved and accepted NOW ... would that provide some relief from all our worry and strife?

What happens if we do not enter His rest EVERYDAY in this Spiritual War we live in?

We become so wounded that we need intensive care:

1.      We get depressed.

2.      We start to feel tired all the time.

3.      We get offended.

4.      We get irritated.

5.      We make bad decisions.

6.      Our faith becomes weak.

7.      Our defences go down

8.      We start believing the lies the enemy tells us.

9.      We can quite quickly become severely wounded Christians.

Just like all the trams that were taking soldiers to the hospital, we can become Christians that require SPIRITUAL INTENSIVE CARE.

And this is where I believe I can marry the last few verses in Hebrews together...

 "Be careful to enter into His rest or we will fall - and then - because Gods word is so sharp it can split us into two revealing our innermost parts - and then - but don't be afraid to come to His throne for Grace and mercy."

_______________________________

There is only 2 ways wounded Christians go...

1. To God.

2. Away from God.

Just like the guy in my dream, who went willingly to the DR and took the "splitting" and then told DR where he was hurting and then let DR do a work in him...

·         Some of us may find it easy to go to God in repentance and ask for healing

·         Some of us may find it easy to communicate with God

·         We might enjoy letting God do a work in us because we have a high level of trust in Him no matter what it ends up revealing about our true nature.

·         Some of us have a very clear understanding of who God is and who we are IN God

But for others, like the guy in my dream who vomited at the sight of the dividing instrument and who needed me to hold his hand while he endured it...

·         It is too painful to come to Him

·         For some wounded Christians they convince themselves that God must have had something to do with inflicting all the pain on them

·         They may believe a lie about Gods love being conditional or judgmental upon them

·         That whatever weakness that is revealed by God doing a work, is just too hard to acknowledge and come to terms with.

·         They see it as another blow to their ability to do things right.

·         I mean who wants to know the real truth about themselves... sometimes it hurts.

_______________________

I hope you don't mind, but if anyone comes to me needing intensive care now I will be praying that His word will penetrate you dividing you up into little pieces and healing you from the inside out.

But know that if you are afraid of the sword, I will sit with you and hold your hand while God does the surgery!

_______________________

Unfortunately all of this has a sad conclusion...

Only the people who know God and have accepted Jesus have the opportunity to enter His rest even though it is very hard to figure out how to do because it has everything to do with our PRIDE and EGO ...

but also

The rest (of the world or people without faith in Jesus) are forbidden.

And that is A LOT of people walking around in torment with no hope of real REST unless they are introduced to Jesus and accept Him.

Let's pray: Father, we thank you that you want us to rest. We want to rest too. Sometimes it is hard for us to find that rest in the midst of this war we are in. I pray that you teach each one of us where to find that rest in you. Divide us and lay us bare in front of you and heal us. We love you and want to be obedient to you.

In Jesus name, Amen