On Keeping the Sabbath: The Holy Day

"Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations for a perpetual covenant..."         ~Exodus 31:16

Shabbat Shalom!  I've been thinking about the Sabbath a lot recently. I've been wondering about just what it means to keep the Sabbath out of reverence for Yahweh.

It's clear that the Sabbath was built to last.  It's referred to by Yahweh as a "perpetual covenant", a lasting ordinance, a statue meant to be kept forever (Ex. 12:14).  The Sabbath is even counted and kept in Heaven (Isaiah 66:23).  And it's meant to be kept by the Children of Israel, the children and heirs to the promise.  Guess what?  You're an heir to the promise (Gal. 3:29).  You're included in spiritual Israel!

"...It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel for ever; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed."      ~Exodus 31:17

The Sabbath is a sign.  It symbolizes rest, completion, fulfillment, contentment.  It symbolizes the creation of a finished work.  It requires trust -- trust enough to deny oneself and look to Yahweh as provider (Lev. 16:31).

The law points us to Messiah (Colossians 2:17), and Messiah gives us His Spirit, allowing us to perfect holiness before God (2nd Cor. 7:1).  The flavor of the Law has more than been changed -- it has been fulfilled (Matthew 5:17).  The law of love perfects us from the inside out.  But how does that play out practically?  What does keeping the Sabbath Day look like, today?  Here's a clue:

And He [Yahshua] said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath."

~Mark 2:27

The Sabbath was instated for our own good. We get the benefit of giving our time to God. We can enjoy everything, and do everything willingly.  Not under compulsion, but willingly (2nd Cor. 9:7)! That's a weighty thing to get a hold of.  Don't feel like doing something?  Then put it off.

"Love God, and do whatever"       ~ St. Augustine

I didn't do a single thing this past Sabbath day that I didn't want to do.  It was very restful; Everything was enjoyable.  Everything was intentionally done, and I thanked my Heavenly Father for it all.  God loves a cheerful giver (2 Cor. 9:7, again), and then He lets us love Him back. Thanks to Him, there was no "work".  I did some chores, yeah, but that didn't count.  Why? Because I gave my time to the Breath that first gave it to me.  I was able to be restfully thankful for it.  He created such bliss for me, for you.

The definition of work's been redefined (Hebrews 4:10). If you enjoy something, it's not work.  If you remain peaceful while doing random stuff, it's not work.  It's lawful to do good on the Sabbath (Matthew 12:12).  And what is good?  Hopefully everything you do! There remains a Sabbath Day;s Rest that transcends observing any particular day of the week...but more on this in the next blog post.

If for no other reason, keeping the Sabbath day to give your physical body some rest is definitely a good idea.  Lots of Christians, out of zeal for the Lord, have gotten burnt out by neglecting their bodies. They're fallen out of "ministry", or worse, even died young. The Sabbath was created for us -- for our health, relaxation, and holy enjoyment!  It's supposed to be restful and fun.

(To reiterate, if you don't feel like doing something, then don't do it!)

Come to God to Learn

We come to God for many reasons.  He is worthy of praise, He is worthy of worship; He is worthy of our time.   We also come to get filled up and recharged; we allow Him to revive us and restore our hope.  In the last week, the Lord began highlighting another reason we come to Him: we come to Him to learn.  

"As for me, this is my covenant with them," says the LORD. "My Spirit, who is on you, will not depart from you, and my words that I have put in your mouth will always be on your lips, on the lips of your children and on the lips of their descendants--from this time on and forever," says the LORD.

Isaiah 59:21

Here the Lord makes a covenant, with us!  I feel this covenant is for all who believe.  And He says that His Spirit will always be on us, and His words will always be on our lips.  He says that He will always teach us--us and our children forever!

So, we come to the the Lord and He imparts to us knowledge--He gives us the spirit of wisdom and revelation (Ephesians 1:17).  He teaches us about Himself and His character. And He also teaches us how to apply His thoughts to this current world.  He gives us divine inspiration.

Many nations will come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the temple of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths." The law will go out from Zion, the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.                                         Micah 4:2

Now, this is a future prophecy yet to be fulfilled, but we can attain to it symbolically even now.  We come to the Lord, and we ascend with Him.  Remember that Jesus ascended, and He was the firstborn of many brethren (Romans 8:29).  We, too, can go up to His mountain!  And that's where we learn.  He will teach us His ways so that we can walk in His paths!  Wow!  

This mountain top is also where we hear God most clearly.  The Law of Liberty dwells here, and so does an atmosphere of clarity.  There's an atmosphere of clarity and praise.  This is where the word of God, the hearing and knowing of His mind, comes in.  God speaks a word so that He can dwell among us (John 1:14).  He teaches us and speaks to us so,  and then we can come down from that high place and encourage other believers to go up for themselves.  

This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: People from nations and cities around the world will travel to Jerusalem. The people of one city will say to the people of another, ‘Come with us to Jerusalem to ask the Lord to bless us. Let’s worship the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. I’m determined to go.’ Many peoples and powerful nations will come to Jerusalem to seek the Lord of Heaven’s Armies and to ask for his blessing.

“This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: In those days ten men from different nations and languages of the world will clutch at the sleeve of one Jew. And they will say, ‘Please let us walk with you, for we have heard that God is with you.’”                  Zechariah 8:20-23

Here is another literal prophecy that is also yet to be fulfilled--yet we can take so much from it symbolically.  If we've been on the mountaintop, if we've been taught by God, if we've heard Him speak to us--then we will draw other people in!  Now, we won't draw everybody in...but those with softened hearts will be drawn in and captivated by what God's done.  People will know that God is with us.  And then they will be motivated to go up and learn from God for themselves!

This is testimony-based evangelism, and this is what God wants us to do.  He wants us to learn and grow based on what we've learned on His mountain!  He wants to tell us great and unsearchable things (Jeremiah 33:3) and provoke others to holy jealousy.  He wants us to gather around Him.

Double Grace and Beyond the Law

For some time now, I've been seeing the number 55 so often--and I'm not talking about speed limit signs!  No, it's mostly been coming up in a time on the clock or in verse numbers in the Word.   55's even been coming up through TV shows and phone numbers.  I've been seeing it pretty regularly.  So I really felt the Lord was unearthing something.  But what does this all mean?

In Christian symbolism, 55 is associated with "double grace".  Praise God!  And that's what it's been recently--His grace has been a major encouragement.  Grace upon grace and mercy upon mercy--that's what the Lord gives us.  The mercy is new every morning (Lamentations 3:23), and the grace allows us to get through the day and persevere.

Now, God gives grace to all without finding fault (James 1:5).  Praise God!  But I feel like grace is not rightly conceptualized by much of the American Church today.  Grace is for gifting, not for sinning.  Let me elaborate--we all sin and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23), and it is indeed grace that allows us to be redeemed from sin.  But more than that, grace is also meant to allow holy gifts to rest in impure vessels.  Grace is meant to have the gifting rest in us!

"And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all."                        Acts 4:33

Great power calls for great grace!  Otherwise, the Lord's power would be too much for us to contain. We have His treasures in jars of clay (2 Corinthians 4:7), and grace is what allows us to experience the gifts nonetheless.  We need the grace to accommodate the gifting.  We need God's grace to operate in power while staying in purity.  (For more on purity and power, see this post.)

If we have double grace, good!  That means we'll need it to attain to the gift of God.  There must be a big gifting, a big mission, and a big mandate ahead of us.  We have all been called to mighty things, and between us and that attainment, there is a reservoir of grace awaiting our use.  And there is some distance between where we are now, and the fullest extent of what God wants us attaining!  We have some catching up to do.  The gift needs to be fanned into flames (2 Timothy 1:6), and our character has to be brought up to a higher standard, also.

And we also have this grace to allow us to fulfill the law.  It's not easy to fulfill the law!  It takes grace.  It takes grace and God's goodness that leads us to repentance.  Now in the Old Testament, the Israelites  had all those things.  But they didn't have within them He who is greater than the sin of the world (1 John 4:4).

But Jesus came so that we could fulfill.  With the Holy Spirit, we can do more than fulfill the law--we can transcend it.  In a sense, we are above it.  Keep in mind that we do follow the law--that's important.  But now, we have a list of "do's", not a list of "do nots".  Now we can live out the law in an expression of love--a new commandment.  We can embrace the Spirit of the law, not just the letter.  We can have the law of liberty written into our spirits (James 1:25), and we can receive a double portion of grace in getting there.  Hallelujah!

"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another."                                                 John 13:34

Word: Trust Leads to Freedom

Yesterday the Lord spoke to me and said,

"I am taking you to a new level of freedom. Yes, I am giving you liberty and freedom in the Spirit, because I trust you, because you belong to me"

We belong to Him. And when we walk in that, that's why He trusts us! And that's why He gives us life to the fullest where we can be free and liberated from sin. Praise God for freedom. Praise Him for liberty, and praise Him for the law that His Spirit lives by. Praise Him that He gives trust to those whom He first entrusted with His Holy Spirit. And finally, praise God that we belong to Him! He is so intent on showing us that. He is so pleased when we realize all that He's done for us. Every promise in the Word has been given to us. And every word He's given will come to pass.

"And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God's promise to Abraham belongs to you."
Galatians 3:29

A little later yesterday, I went into the garage from outside just in time to hear Christian radio for a minute or so. And They were describing how Jesus reveals His secrets to those He trusts. Although the world does not know or recognize Him, they said, He has taken us in and entrusted us with Himself. He spoke in parables so often, but to His own, He occasionally revealed more.

I was so thankful to hear this little segment of radio...and then it was time for me to head back outside. God's timing was so perfect! It perfectly confirmed the word from earlier that morning -- "...because I trust you..." And I realized that because He trusts me, that's why He's going to be revealing more to me! This is something I've been praying for recently--that God would reveal more unknowable knowledge to me, more prophetic insight, more deep things. And that morning, He had comforted me in saying that He trusted me. After you have the trust, only then can Jesus reveal the secrets. Awesome!

"I will give you hidden treasures, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the LORD, the God of Israel, who summons you by name."
Isaiah 45:3

Snapshot: Liberty in Giving

As I mentioned in our 1st Street Ministry Update, Vanessa and I went back to Grace Church last Sunday.  Grace has been a big part of our walk together, and it was so nice to see friends and mentors again.  When they took up the offering, the Lord showed me that there was liberty in giving.  He actually showed me the statue of liberty, with purses hung around it's upraised arm.  I understood that giving in tithes and offerings is a display of liberty.  It's a testament to it--to our freedom in the Lord. God can be creative sometimes.

"Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it."         Malachi 3:10

Now in general we shouldn't test God.  If there is an area where reckless faith is permissible, though, it's in the area of giving.  God wants us to show Him what He means to us.  He, in turn, wants to show us that our trust will be rewarded.  He wants us to trust that He is able--able to take care of us, protect us, bless us, even reward us.  He can be trusted even to give us liberty and freedom.

"Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty."     2 Corinthians 3:17

If we are in the Spirit, walking in it, living in it, full of it, then we will experience freedom.  Freedom, not to concede to the flesh or to sin (Galatians 5:16), but to give ourselves away.  We can boldly, maybe even recklessly, give ourselves to God.  We can give away our bodies, our careers, our finances, and our families as thanks offerings to God (Psalms 50:23).  We can lay everything up for God to have.

"Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God--this is your true and proper worship"                Romans 12:1

We need to give everything we have to God.  We need to spiritually give it all to Him,  Any area that is not His is in danger of being used by the enemy.  Anything we withhold will get in God's way and to an extent limit how we are used for Him.  Anything we don't hand over will only be a snare for us (Exodus 23:33). There is freedom in sacrifice.  There is freedom in giving.  There is liberty in devoting our possessions to the Lord.

"Do This, Do That" Versus Freedom

He who said to them, "Here is rest, give rest to the weary," And, "Here is repose," but they would not

listen. So the word of the LORD to them will be, "Order on order, order on order, Line on line, line 

on line, A little here, a little there," That they may go and stumble backward, be broken, snared and 

taken captive.              --Isaiah 28:12-13--

The Lord led me here a few days ago....this is an interesting passage.  For me, it was a call to change. God doesn't desire to give us rule after rule; He doesn't want to make us stumble.  He doesn't want to take away all of our freedoms or surround us with impossible regulations (Lamentations 3:5).  As I said in a previous post, God doesn't desire to hand us over to a reprobate mind.  And He doesn't want to cause us to stumble.

But sometimes we need to change and return to God, and He causes us to stumble.  He does this so that we can hit rock bottom, and then turn and be healed!  He does this out of Love.  God Himself may become to us an oppressor if He knows that trials and testing will cause an eventual return.

"If you stay in this land, I will build you up and not tear you down; I will plant you and not uproot you, for I have relented concerning the disaster I have inflicted on you."                 Jeremiah 42:10

God can and does change His mind.  God can and does change the way He interacts with people.  He does this based on our actions.  God wants to give freedom, but He will not give it if the receivers use it for their own glory.  For the worldly minded, God gives rules, regulations, and incessant demands.   This is what Isaiah 28:13 is talking about.  

I witness this in my own life.  When I have strayed from focusing on God, God strays from talking about Himself to me.  Instead, His direction takes a practical, even oppressive, turn.  The Lord may prompt me to do some chores or talk to someone.  He may instruct me in a way that takes away my freedom (Jeremiah 34:17).  What we are to Him, that He will become to us (Psalms 18:26).

If we are not thinking about Him, God will add to the yoke on our shoulders until it becomes to much for us to bear.  He wants us to ask for help!  He wants us to fix our minds on Him.  This is the better way.  If we are loving God, all else will be added to us.  If we are abiding by His Spirit, that's when there is freedom.  That's when there is liberty (2 Corinthians 3:17).  

If we are in the Spirit, then we will be instructed in spiritual things and be pointed towards God.  That is God's desire.  If we are in the Spirit, then we will have freedom to think anything good about God. We will be free to do anything God for God.  We will not be subjected by God to "order upon order", because Jesus in us has already fulfilled all of the law.  Once we are operating in the Kingdom, then can we have other things, too (Matthew 6:33).

We can be free to sing, free to express joy, free to worship God in everything we do.  Why persist in subtle rebellion?  God wants to make us slaves to righteousness (Romans 6:18); He wants to give us a light yoke (Matthew 11:30).  Let's allow God to approve of us, so that He can give us freedom.  Let's show Him that the gifts He's given us are able to shine through and glorify Him alone.

Law of Liberty

"But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing."  James 1:25

A few mornings ago I received a vision where the Lord gave me a spoon, which I then used as a mirror to look into my face.  He brought to mind this verse pretty quickly after that.  Then today, I really did happen to look into a spoon, and immediately was reminded of that vision!

We need to look into the liberty the Lord gives us, and respond by doing God's will.  We need to be blessed in our doing!  We need to look into the perfect look at this law and behold Jesus, and then we need to persevere.  It all starts with focusing on Jesus and the resurrection life that He offers us.

To stay in a state of remembrance, of doing, means we need to intentionally live out our worship.  Worship is a place where we recharge our spiritual batteries and really open ourselves up to the Father's all-consuming love.  Just let Him love you!  Know that it is in yielding to His jealousy that we can persevere in using His freedom for His purposes.  This is important...the freedom that God gives was bought at a price, and it shouldn't be used for selfish desires.  The Holy Spirit wants to use this freedom to magnify Jesus in us and through us.

When in worship today I saw the Lord hand me a small tablet, made of stone.  I believe it had the number '1' on it and some writing.  Immediately I was reminded of Jesus saying, "a new command I give you, that you love one another".  This is the law of liberty, this is the love of the Father giving us freedom to express Himself through us in whatever way He wants.  Old rules and regulations are gone, and in their place is freedom to act out His will!