Revelation Hour (29th May, 2021)
Topic: Possessing the Fear for the Most Holy Rest
Ministering: Pastor Emeka Egwuchukwu
The demands of God in this season are particular and precise because He is after something. God wants to archive a conversation (a lifestyle) in our company. It would have been a demand on a generation, but not everyone will be able to offer or bring that which God desires. It was recorded in the scripture that David did the will of God in his generation because not everybody was able to hit that mark of God's expectation for that generation. The same thing happened with Abraham: not everyone believed God in his time but he believed God and it was counted unto him as righteousness (Romans 4:3).
God is never partial; He reveals Himself to those who fear Him in every generation. Noah also hit the mark in his generation; he found grace in the sight of God (Genesis. 6:8). His generation was even a fearful one because it was a generation of the sons of God, and there was a conversation God was expecting to see on earth in that generation, but nobody was able to give it to Him except Noah. It was therefore recorded of him that he was a preacher of righteousness (2 Peter 2:5). Noah’s generation was a generation of just men; those who could walk with God and those who could stick to righteousness (Genesis. 6:9).
We sometimes read these accounts with indifference, but the same thing is expected of us; there is that which God is expecting from our generation. There is a mark God expects our company to hit and record in the realm of the spirit. Church history made us understand that we would not be the first company to journey this way. It may be an uncharted territory for us but not for some who have gone ahead of us. Many others have been taken through this kind of path and they journeyed with some level of light but got stuck at some point and were unable to go further.
God has indeed shown us mercy in our time, and this must be translated into us meeting God's requirement. We must not take lightly the mercy that God is showing to us, and by the grace of God, we will hit that mark. We should not have the notion that this has not been done by anybody, because there are men who have passed this road before. The early church had requirements expected of them to meet in every season. The book of Revelation also reveals to us the marks set for them to meet. So, we have witnesses of men that finished and succeeded because they got to the mark.
Some people who do not have the revelation we have, and might have done the first work and last works, and may not even know it but heaven will record it for them. This is because they have been given commandments which they did. The essence of commandments is for a work to be done.
Hebrews 4:1
“Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.”
The Hebrew Church had done milk at the time the epistle was written to them; they were a church already feasting on the meat of the word. They were a church of Christ in the order of charity. From Hebrews 4:1, it is clear that there is something that needs to be done to have an entrance. The work that was left for them specifically is a work that would open up the door for a promise to enter into rest. They have journeyed to a point where they have become a people of God (Hebrews 4:9).
2 Corinthians 6:16-18
“And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. [17] Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you. [18] And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.”
These people have journeyed to a point where “there remaineth a rest to the people of God” (Hebrews 4:9). They were close to the point where they would be given rest because this rest is promised to a people. Aaron, the high priest, is “a people” because he entered into a kind of rest or sabbath that is not open to the children of Israel. They had to graduate from being children of Israel to Israel first. When you have become Israel, then you would have to be separated further. It is in priesthood that they separate people. One person can be a people of God. That might not be grammatically correct but it is spiritually correct. Aaron as one man was a people. When God was looking at him, He was seeing the whole nation of Israel. So when he stood, God was seeing His people.
One thing that is key to this rest is fear. The fear being spoken does not mean to be afraid; it was not said in the form of being careful like many would think. It is a commandment that carries the weight of exaltation. This fear can only be explained by scriptures, not the dictionary.
Job 28:28
“And unto man he said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.”
Proverbs 1:7
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.”
Job chapter 28 verse 28 is the scriptural definition of fear. Wisdom is the fear of the Lord. It has instructions in it. When you see a man who has the fear of the Lord, you see a man who has come into wisdom and knowledge. We need wisdom and knowledge for entrance to be granted to us. This wisdom is not the sensual, natural, or concocted wisdom fashioned by men for themselves; it is not being wise in oneself. Wisdom is a Person. Knowledge is also a Person.
Deuteronomy 4:6
''Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.''
Everything about the children of Israel revolves around the tabernacle and this made nations of the earth say of them, ''What a people whose God is in their midst, a wise nation!''. This is because the tabernacle is a house of wisdom; not the wisdom of man, of this world, nor of the princes of the world. The dwelling or tabernacle of the children of Israel is a wisdom in the spirit such that Balaam could not find an in-road to curse them.
Balaam's climb to the mountain was to view Israel in their tents, innocently living their lives; probably sleeping at night not knowing what was going on. It is the same way we do not know the warfare over us and the troubles raging against us, but just dwelling in the order God placed us in secures for us a kind of safety. This safety is a manifest demonstration of wisdom, such that spirits cannot find any opening to do whatever they want to do amidst us. However, so many times, we do not see it as wisdom. That is when we have people complaining of too much revelation.
Tongues and Interpretation (1)
''I come to make you see the prerequisite into My different courts, wherein blessing, inheritance and rest lie. I cause to make you see what will qualify you for entrance; the heart requirement, arrangement, and preparation that will make you ascend to the place of My rest, where the promise lies. I cause you to see, for this is your wisdom, this is your entrance. I am showing it forth, so that many can have entrance into that which I am bringing My people into, Saith God.''
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God wants us to see this wisdom as it is laid. So, what is actually called fear is wisdom (Prov. 9:10). Each of the places of the tabernacle is a house of wisdom: you need wisdom to fetch the knowledge that is kept in all of these places. Knowledge means what one has come to learn to lay hold, but one cannot learn except wisdom is given. You need wisdom to be able to hold knowledge. You can hear knowledge but may not be able to walk in it. It is wisdom that helps one fetch or translate knowledge into a walk. You are not said to have understood until you have begun to walk. For you to walk worthy of the Lord, you must be filled with the knowledge of His will (Col. 1:9-10). To key into knowledge, one needs wisdom. Wisdom will enable one to see the knowledge. That is why fear is the beginning of wisdom.
We cannot know and partake of a realm if we do not have the wisdom of that realm. We cannot come there or be admitted there without knowledge and what will enable us to see the knowledge is the wisdom that will give us understanding. This understanding will result into a walk, which will wrought a work in us and make us have the testimony that we have laid hold on that realm.
We need to possess fear to be able to know or access knowledge. The reason fear is required is that the knowledge is a holy one. When we access that knowledge, a kind of heart will be worked in us. This means there is a kind of heart we need to have to journey and ascend.
Colossians 1:9
"For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding."
Wisdom enables one to see knowledge. To come to the realm of the high places, you must have the knowledge of the realm. Having knowledge of such realm gives understanding which will resolve into a work, and one who has done this work has possessed the realm. We need to possess fear to access knowledge. The Outer Court is the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 9:10), as such, fear will begin from the Outer Court and ends in the Holy Place. The Holy Place has its own wisdom and fear.
1 Corinthians 2:6-7
"Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought: [7] But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory."
Holiness is a separation that has been done as a result of a kind of work, however, that heart still needs to be perfected in the fear of God. This wisdom in 1 Corinthians 2:7 is the wisdom of the Most Holy Place; the wisdom of those who have perfected Christ. The fear in this realm is a kind of wisdom.
Hebrews 4:1
“Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.”
The tabernacle is a place to practice rest. Rest has to be practiced from the Outer Court. Any rest that is not the rest of God is not actually rest. There is a wrong definition of rest that every man on earth has learnt and is in pursuit of rest but this is not actually rest because when men truly see what rest entails, they find out that it is not actual rest. Naturally, man seeks to get to a place of rest after all his labor; this is usually a character of the soul in expression.
The soul has been set to chase after something because he believes that when he gets it, he will have rest. But after he gets to the proposed ‘end’, he begins to have regrets because what is considered as rest cannot satisfy him. This is because the rest that man is currently running after on earth is a wrong interpretation that Satan has given to man; as such, souls are not resting at all. Rest is found in God: any soul that finds God has found rest. Rest cannot be found in anything.
Hebrews 4:9
"There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God."
God is saying, "I am your rest". Having come into the rest of the Lord, we need to come into the rest of God. In the rest of God, we will no longer thirst or hunger because something would have been satisfied in us. This rest does not necessarily have to be something that will be gotten in eternity; a soul can rest even while he is on earth. A soul can find rest in marriage and even in ministry. But when a soul has entered into the rest of the Lord, marriage or ministry will be glorious because rest is glorious, and it will be much more glorious when a soul gets to the rest of God.
Rest is not inactivity; it is something that must be practised. A man has to be delivered from servile works to know rest. A man can lose rest because of exposure to certain things that he hears - like the prosperity of his fellow brother. The level of rest a soul has come into is the level of service he can give to God. However, we cannot serve God without rest. We are being taught to be practitioners of rest because the level of fear you will have is as a result of rest you have come into.
Hebrews 4:1
“Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.”
Your service to God has to be with fear. Every level of service has its own level of fear for it to be accepted. Cain did not have rest, so his offering was not acceptable to God. What will bring unrest to a soul is what will bring wrath to it. Abel on the other hand had learnt rest over time; he had fear, therefore God could accept his offering. When you do not have fear or rest, what you offer will be a transgression. To transgress means that you have gone out of order.
The difference between the Levites and the other children of Israel is that the Levites possessed a level of rest that the other Israelites did not have. Their service was more acceptable in the sight of God than what the other Israelites were doing. The other Israelites were not qualified to lead an animal into the Outer Court because they did not have the commensurate kind of rest to do this service. Rest is a separation: your level of separation is according to your level of rest.
The epitome of rest here is the ‘ark’. It does not move and has to be carried. The ark makes war in rest, just like how it destroyed the figure of Dagon and caused a commotion in the camp of the Philistines when it arrived among them (1 Samuel 5:3-4). The essence of these teachings on how to become an ark is to teach us how to rest. The ark will make one rest. Rest is not inactivity but a practice of another kind of expression of life and reign that is beyond what death can understand, stop or interject. It is to live in a realm that is obscure to death. Death will prefer that we are active in its realm, but God is raising a generation of people who will come into this kind of rest.
Isaiah 11:10
“And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious.”
Gentiles will seek this because they do not know rest, but they will begin to see another kind of life. Jesus was the epitome of rest on earth because He did everything that He did in rest. Jesus was resting and kept entering into more rest even while He was in human flesh and was tempted just as we are. He was touched with the feeling of our human infirmities but He was resting (Hebrews 4:15).
All forms of unsettling that we face as men is a work of death in us which is out to make us come into unrest. Money has made men come into unrest, but we see that when Jesus had need of money, He was still at rest. He could not have worked with Judas Iscariot if He was not dwelling in rest. Jesus must have known that there was no money in the purse because Judas had probably spent the money, and Satan must have sent the Pharisees to ask for a tax to expose Judas and make Jesus break the laws of the spirit. However, Jesus did not expose Judas but asked Peter to go to the river and catch a fish with a coin in it (Matthew 17:24-27).
Isaiah 11:10
“And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious.”
The rod is an expression of a life of authority and dominion. This life is totally alien to what death can handle. There is a promise being left of us of entering into this rest. However, we need to have fear and be wise so that this promise will not elude us from entering into the Most Holy Rest. In our journey to God, we have reached the point where this glorious rest is being preached to us. As we hear, may we also fear because hearing precedes fear. There is a level of fear we need to possess in this season. The level of fear that is being demanded of us at this time is higher than what has been demanded of us in previous times.
May we come to the point where it would be said of us that, "...now I know that thou fearest God..." (Genesis 22:12)
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