The voice of the Lord calls to us tenderly, “Come away, my beloved one, arise unto thy God!”

Our Heavenly Father desires us to be in that position of “oneness” with Him, just as the Lord Jesus demonstrated to us. Jesus was one with the Father, He came to earth to fulfil the Father’s will – “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes on Him, should not perish but have everlasting life,” John 3:16. Jesus only operated from being obedient to His Father’s will. He was so one with His Heavenly Father that the Presence of God emanated from His being. God was His source of light and life which either attracted the hungry and thirsty soul, or repulsed and challenged the Pharisee.

Our Lord Jesus was forsaken at Calvary by His Father when He took on the sin of the world and paid the ultimate price with the sacrifice of His life blood. The greatest agony for Jesus was losing His Father’s presence, even greater than the physical agony He endured in His crucified body. He cried out, “My God. why hast Thou forsaken me?” Calvary is a finished work. On the cross Jesus was the Man of Sorrows, He took our place, forsaken by His Father for a brief moment in time as the sin offering for the world, that we might never be forsaken. God’s promise to us is “I will never leave you, nor forsake you,” Hebrews 13:5. As God has given us this great and precious promise, what is it then that causes us to leave the position of rest and begin to operate instead in stress and strife? God’s word answers the question:-

Hebrews 4:1 gives a clear warning, “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,” and verse 6 states that their unbelief prevented them from entering into God’s rest, “…they…entered not in because of unbelief.”

Philippians 4:19 is another great and precious promise, “But my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory.” Do I believe this?

When I leave God’s rest and enter into unbelief I move from the position of faith in what God has declared and exchange it for the lie in unbelief. Unbelief has a source, a “come from,” which is our ugly enemy, pride! My pride thinks it knows best, rather than believing and trusting in God and His word.

The glory of God enters into faith and produces righteousness, but the glory of man, (pride), enters into unbelief and produces sin. When I enter into strife I cease to operate from a place of God’s rest. I begin to depend upon my own efforts and thinking instead of depending on Jesus the Indwelling Christ, without whom, I can do nothing.

Worry and anxiety are just fluffy words for fear and are an affront to the Living God. Fear is never from God and its’ source is traced back to my unbelieving heart where I traded the truth of God for the lie of the devil. Learn to nail the lie and trade it for the truth of God!

All fear is built on a lie,
DEAL WITH THE LIE AND FEAR WILL DIE
Deal with the fear and fear stays near.

Is the above a nice little ditty or a profound truth of God? Actually it is God’s dynamite to explode the lies and unbelief that can so easily become a lifestyle of stress. God holds His sceptre out to each of us through the finished work of Calvary. We can arise unto our God and trust His word to us. 2 Cor. 10:5 is a Holy Ghost instruction for taking captive every thought that exalts itself against God, “Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.” A daily choice of trusting God can become a lifestyle as we “practice living in His Presence,” and will be hallmarked by His Rest. It is the Promised Land of our birthright to live there. Let us learn to live in His Presence! Oneness with the Father.