I remember how, after hearing a lot of teaching that we must fear not entering God’s rest and must also work to enter it, I tried hard to abide in that rest. My usual reaction was to do nothing. Something like: the flesh wants to do something to solve some problem, and I will try not to do anything, so as to stay in rest. In reality, “doing” or “not doing” are both still being focused on your own works and efforts in order to achieve something. Often even things like praying in tongues or renewing the mind can also be turned into just another work. In that case prayer becomes yet another wearisome labor, and the renewing of the mind turns into the job of listening to an endless number of sermons and reading the Scriptures.

Our activity during the day has nothing to do with our rest. You can lie in bed all day while your brain works hard looking for a solution to one problem or another, and that is no different from bustling about all day trying to solve the same problems. Rest is not connected with our activity. It is connected with whether or not something still needs to be done to solve a given task or problem. Suppose a person has health problems. You can try to find ways and means to get well — go to various doctors for consultations, read about symptoms and treatments on the internet and so on. Or you can go to the other extreme — this is often called “standing in faith”. Something like: “I will not” solve this by worldly methods. But often this kind of “standing in faith” is just another kind of activity. The person “tries” to trust God, as he thinks, although in reality he wants to go to the doctor and forbids himself to. Let me say it again: the point is not what we do or what we need to do, but what the Lord has already done.

The Father Shows His Works

For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.
—Hebrews 4:10

When did God enter His rest? On the seventh day of creation. During the first six days He worked, and on the seventh He rested from His works. It is written: “And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.” [Gen.2:2] And also: “the works were finished from the foundation of the world.” [Heb.4:3] “So God has not done anything since the moment He entered His rest?” That’s right — He doesn’t. “But what about Jesus, He healed the sick and preached the gospel. And the Holy Spirit works tirelessly. Isn’t that so?” No, it isn’t. Jesus did not work; He simply walked in the works God had already finished. Jesus said: “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.” [Jhn.5:19] “There you go, it’s written that the Father does things, isn’t it?” Let’s read the next verse: “For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself does; and He will show Him greater works than these, that you may marvel.” [Jhn.5:20] Notice the words shows and will show. What was the Father doing? He was showing Jesus His works, which He had finished from the foundation of the world. Jesus saw the Father, who had done the works from the foundation of the world, and simply walked in those works.

Jesus, though very active, was in fact in constant rest. He was never in a hurry to get anywhere. When Jairus invited Him to his house so that the Lord would heal his daughter, Jesus did not run, but simply walked calmly to his house. Even when Jairus was told on the way that his daughter had died, the Lord said to him: “Do not be afraid; only believe, and she will be made well.” [Luk.8:50] Why was the Lord in no hurry? Because the Father had already shown Jesus that Jairus’ daughter was raised. Jesus did not try to imagine her raised, the way some today teach us to visualize or imagine a problem solved. That is trying to be your own Creator and trying to create by yourself. No, the Father showed Jesus the finished work. The same with Lazarus. The Lord did not rush to heal Lazarus, but stayed in that place two more days. He knew the right time, because the Father had shown it to Him. That is why He said to His disciples: “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world” [Jhn.11:9] The key words are sees and walks. Jesus saw the Father at work and walked in the finished works.

Paul writes to the Ephesians: “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” [Eph.2:10] The words prepared beforehand [Greek proetoimazo] literally mean made ready in advance. And the word walk [Greek peripateo] means to walk about. By the way, Paul very often uses this word in his letters when he describes the life of a Christian. The whole life of a Christian consists in walking in the works that God Himself has prepared in advance. The Father shows the Son His works, the Son goes, and we simply follow our Shepherd and walk in the finished works. Notice that Jesus said: “The Son can do nothing of Himself.” That is why the Lord said to His disciples: “without Me you can do nothing”. Why can we do nothing without Him? Because without His Spirit and His light we cannot walk in the works which the Father finished from the foundation of the world. Whoever walks in the light does not stumble, because he sees the Light of the world.

The Promised Land Is the Sabbath

For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day. There remains therefore a rest for the people of God.
—Hebrews 4:8-9

Whoever has received the redeeming sacrifice of Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit begins to live in the promised land — the land of rest. A believer in Jesus has no need to strive to enter rest, as it is written in the letter to the Hebrews. That letter was addressed to unbelieving Jews, so that they would receive their long-awaited Messiah. But of those who have believed it is written: “For we who have believed do enter that rest” [Heb.4:3]. Those who have believed wake up in the promised land and begin to walk in a land where everything has already been prepared in advance. Something similar happened with the Jews. Moses said to Israel: “So it shall be, when the LORD your God brings you into the land of which He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you large and beautiful cities which you did not build, houses full of all good things, which you did not fill, hewn-out wells which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant; when you have eaten and are full.” [Deu.6:10-11] The Lord did not say: “When you come into the promised land, you will work there tirelessly.” No! He said: “You will eat and be full.” That is exactly what the prodigal son did when he came back home to his father.

“But didn’t the apostle Paul labor more than all of them?” The same Paul wrote: “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.” [1 Cor.15:10] It might seem that when the Jews entered the promised land, they fought there and captured cities. But in fact, when Joshua entered the promised land, he saw a man there with a drawn sword. [Jos.5:13-15] It was our Lord. All those 40 years He had been waiting for Israel in the promised land, ready for battle. It is the same two-edged sword of His mouth with which the Lord fights against our enemies. It is written that the battle is not ours, but God’s. [2 Chr.20:15] Reading the story of the taking of Jericho, we may try to find out what it was they did to take the city. In fact, their works had nothing to do with the victory. How can you take a city with towering walls just by walking around it in circles and blowing a ram’s horn? “Well, they shouted, and the walls fell from their shout,” a doer will think. All right, gather 100,000 fans and try to bring down walls by shouting. The whole point is not in our works, but in what God has already done from the creation of the world.

“There, you see, you have to get yourself off the couch and go into the land to possess it; if you do nothing, nothing will happen.” A mind focused on works will make some kind of practice and process even out of lying on the couch. In reality, when we think that the solution to one problem or another depends on us — in this case a city built by a giant, or a stronghold in our mind that keeps us from possessing the inheritance — we will suffer defeat, like the Israelites when they tried to take Ai by their own strength. Let me say it once more: “Rest is not what I do or don’t do. Rest is a land that has been given to us as an inheritance, and we possess it not by our own strength, works, efforts, will or anything else from us. We simply see that it is ours, and we see that the work of solving one problem or another has already been finished by God, and we simply walk in the finished work. We live knowing that the work of our healing, deliverance, blessing and the solving of all our problems is finished! There is nothing left for us to add.

Notice that Jesus healed mostly on the Sabbath, which angered the Pharisees, the doers. The mentality of a doer is expressed in the words of the Pharisee: “There are six days on which men ought to work; therefore come and be healed on them, and not on the Sabbath day.” [Luk.13:14] A doer has 6 days in which to do something, and the seventh day in which to not do anything. And what is Jesus’ answer? “So ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound; think of it; for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?” [Luk.13:16] In other words, Jesus said: “On what other day, if not on the Sabbath, should a daughter of Abraham be set free?” Why did He call her a daughter of Abraham? Because we who have believed do enter that rest, and believers are the children of Abraham. [Rom.9:7-8] Jesus saw how she had entered the land of rest, the Sabbath, so how could she not receive deliverance? How did she enter? By faith, for faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of the Lord God Jesus Christ Himself.

The disciples fished all night and could not catch anything. Then the Lord said to them: “Cast the net on the right side.” They cast it and caught a huge number of fish. Why did they catch them? Because they heard the word of God, they heard the word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord, and Jesus said: “The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.” [Jhn.6:63] Notice that they had been casting their nets left and right all night and caught nothing, but when they heard the Lord: “Cast the net“, and cast it — then there was a result. Paul writes about the same thing to the Galatians: “Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?” [Gal.3:5] When does a miracle happen? When we hear the words of God Himself. And when is He heard best? On the “Sabbath”, when we abide in rest. As soon as the disciples stopped fishing by their own strength and came to rest, they immediately heard the words of Jesus: “Cast the net“, and a miracle happened.

There is nothing left for us to do or finish in order to complete the work of our healing, deliverance, financial breakthrough or the solving of a pressing problem. Even the words “all we have left is just to believe” can lead us into another work called “standing in faith.” No. We simply abide in rest, like Mary, who sat at His feet. Yesterday, as I was thinking about Mary, the Lord said: “You know, the place at My feet is the place of grace.” In other words, abiding at the feet of Jesus, she was in the secret place of the Most High, under the shadow of the Almighty, under the grace of God, for Jesus is the grace of God. That is exactly what Ruth did when she lay down at the feet of Boaz, a type of our Lord Jesus Christ. And Boaz said to her: “Blessed are you of the LORD, my daughter! For you have shown more kindness at the end than at the beginning” [Rut.3:10] What is this kindness at the end that is better than the beginning? It is abiding in rest, in the grace of our Lord. This is the work that Jesus called “that good part“. And this good part — this grace of God that works miracles — will never be taken away from us! [Luk.10:42] As David wrote in his psalm: “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days of my life” [Ps.23:6] And it is not we who will labor, but His grace which is with us.