JACOB'S LADDER

GOD’S REST

Today I received yet another one of those scam emails where someone claims that they are going through hard times, and have amassed a great deal of wealth, are about to die and simply need someone like me to help them distribute it charitably. I couldn’t help but think of those that are desperate today. Those that really want to make a difference, and also could use the money, that might fall for such fraud.

I have seen over the years, so many scams in the name of God, that it is hard for me not to feel for those who have believed them. The greatest scam of all, of course is the belief that somehow God is separate from us, and not in control of our lives. That somehow, our actions can push God away. But if truth be told, it is impossible for us to be separate from God. Regardless of who you are, where you are, what you believe, what you do, or have done, God is ALWAYS right there inside you, guiding you every step of the way BACK TO the understanding of WHO YOU ARE in HIM!

Proverbs 16:9
A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.

Jeremiah 10:23
O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.

Recently, I myself have felt pretty far removed from the Lord. With so much turmoil, change, disappointment, and sadness for my situation and the situation of others, it has been hard to remember the good news (the salvation in Christ understanding that God is in control of all things).

You see, the cares of this world, whether it is bills, abusive family members, friends, co-workers, the loss of a job, nosey neighbors, health problems, or just the daily grind, can steal every bit of life, peace, and joy from you. You may desire to have peace, power, and purpose, but when you are ruled by the cares of this world (thorns) you seem to only find pain.

Well we can’t say we weren’t warned about this very thing.

Mark 4:19
And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word (Truth/Life), and it becometh unfruitful.

That’s right, the “cares of the world”, these are the “thorns” that strangle the seed, which is the word of God, which is the very life and truth of who we are. We get so hung up on everything that is happening to us, that we forget the good news. GOD HAS NEVER LEFT US NOR FORSAKEN US.

Romans 8:38-39
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

And with this understanding, we must also understand that EVERYTHING IN OUR LIVES AND AROUND THE WORLD is going to plan.

This is described beautifully just a couple of verses earlier in Romans, as well as pretty much everywhere in scripture. For example, “God saw ALL THAT HE MADE and said it was VERY GOOD”. Which means people, IT’S ALL GOOD even when it looks bad.

But pay attention to these verses.

Romans 8
28And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. 29For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

We are PREDESTINED! That’s good news! Now for the carnal ego man and woman out there, they say, “No! We have free will, we are in control!” – Well people, first of all don’t mistake Free Will with the ability to make choices. Jonah chose the wrong path, suffered and still ended up doing EXACTLY what God purposed for his life. I like to say, hey, you can take the cruise ship and eat grapes and rest or you can struggle to get out of the belly of the beast (which is your carnal imagination/hell/suffering/ignorance).

I will not say we don’t make choices, but I will say that each choice we make is influenced, and regardless of each choice, we eventually will all come to stature of the perfect man (Christ) and the full understanding of the truth (who we are).

Ephesians 4:13
Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:

Our lives have been written in the book, it’s in our DNA, if you can’t choose the color of your eyes, your family, your height, if you can’t choose your next breath, how much choice do we really have?

Matthew 10:29
Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father.

A sparrow doesn’t die unless it is God’s will. So much for those depressed Sparrows who choose to end their lives, even it that were so, God purposed it, so something greater would rise because of it.

So HOW MUCH CHOICE do we REALLY have? Well the answer is simple, we have two choices.

We can choose to REST, or we can choose to WORRY. We can choose to hang unto FEAR or we can choose to HAVE FAITH! We can choose this day which God we serve! Will we choose to serve the TRUTH, which means we will take each day as it comes and understand that eventually it will be for God’s and ultimately our advantage (because we are ONE)… Or, will we serve our Carnal imagination and begin to believe the sky is falling. Do we worry we’ll lose our home, our kids, our spouse? OR, do we believe God only has thoughts of peace, and wants us all to have a sound mind, as it is clearly written below.

2 Timothy 1:7
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

Now, to truly understand this scripture, FIRST, you MUST understand what a SPIRIT IS!

John 6:63
It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

Quite simply a SPIRIT is a THOUGHT. Jesus said, “My words are spirit” – words are thoughts expressed.

Think about that for a moment. When SAUL had a TORMENTING SPIRIT, was it any different from when I, or you, were tormented by our many thoughts of fear, worry, and sadness for those who we have seen have gone astray.

So where do these tormenting spirits come from. Well, if truth be told, everything comes from God. But these tormenting spirits are not GOD, they are imagined, they are EGO, they are carnal. SATAN gives us these thoughts, and who is SATAN, none other than your CARNAL EGOTISTICAL MIND, which is the FATHER OF ALL LIES. I’ll explain a bit further, but if you need more explanation, find my essay on the subject to the left, under the subject section.

Here is how it works, a situation arises, and OUR WICKED IMAGINATION creates a bunch of things for us to worry about and consider. FOR EXAMPLE: “how will you make your rent?””Your kids will never get off drugs””I’ll never have any friends””I’m going to lose everything” – you get the idea.

OUR SATANIC IMAGINATION, creates a whole universe of worry and fear by tricking you into believing all of these things WILL HAPPEN! But YOUR CARNAL EGO is a LIAR! And the FATHER OF ALL LIES! This is why we are taught… “To TAKE EVERY THOUGHT CAPTIVE” and find out whether or not these “spirits” (thoughts) are of God and True, or are from your wicked imagination (satan) and are lies.

This is what it means, “Choose this day which God you will serve” – Is it the god of this world (Your carnal imagination/ego/satan) – or the ALMIGHTY GOD who is COMPLETELY IN CONTROL, and is trying and testing you in the fires of this world?

If you want to know why you suffer I will be glad to tell you. It is because you are worshipping and serving the wrong god. One will bring you life and peace, the other will cause nothing but pain and suffering, because the voice of this “strange woman” as it is written in scripture leads to the depths of hell (your ignorant suffering)

Proverbs 2:15-17
15Whose ways are crooked, and they froward in their paths: 16To deliver thee from the strange woman, even from the stranger which flattereth with her words; 17Which forsaketh the guide of her youth, and forgetteth the covenant of her God.

We have been conditioned since coming into this temporal (temporary) realm, that we should worry about everything. The ELDER (ego nature) which was formed from the DUST OF THE EARTH (lies we have been taught, told, and our experiences) tries to kill off the YOUNGER nature (Christ/Truth/God) as Cane killed Abel, Ishmael would have killed Isaac, and Esau wanted to kill Jacob. BUT THE ELDER (Our Ego/sense of who we think we are) will serve the YOUNGER (Our True Life/WHO WE REALLY ARE/Christ)… So this is why our ego refuses to listen to the TRUTH, and this is why we have so much fear and pain.

Jeremiah 13:10
This evil (ignorant) people, which refuse to hear my words, which walk in the imagination of their heart, and walk after other gods (false beliefs/ideas), to serve them, and to worship them, shall even be as this GIRDLE, which is good for nothing.

A GIRDLE, or BELT is really good for one thing and one thing alone, and that is TO BIND! And that is why, worshipping and serving your imagination/Ego/Satan is USELESS!

Your wicked (ignorant) imaginings are good for nothing but BINDING YOU! KEEPING YOU IN PAIN, USELESS, HURTING, and that means, it’s time to learn how to STOP LISTENING TO THE VOICE OF FEAR AND WORRY IN YOUR HEAD that says, YOU (your ego) is IN CONTROL!

2 Timothy 2:25-26
25In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; 26And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.

Notice, the very first line, “those THAT OPPOSE THEMSELF”, to follow after the false belief/lie that YOU(your ego) is in control and that everything is going to hell in a hand basket, is in fact OPPOSING THE TRUTH OF WHO YOU ARE! Which, may I point out, is PRETTY AWESOME! For you are GOD’S CHILD!

1 John 3:2
Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is

Yes, we are GOD’S CHILD… but right now, it is hard for us to see that. The reason is we have all of that clutter and nonsence rumbling around in our head. This is why I am writing this simple essay today, because way too many people, are going about their lives believing they are the masters of their destiny, listening and following every foolish worrisome thought that comes to mind (as if these thoughts are true and coming from the true YOU which is Christ).

You are being fooled, you are being told by that EGO DEVIL, to worship him. You are being tempted to worship your EGO!

Luke 4
6And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. 7If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine.
8And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.

Our Ego is always trying to get us to worship OUR EGO! It basically says, “if you do this or that you’ll be fine, everything can be yours, simply do whatever wicked thought that comes to your mind and you can have it all!”

But Jesus, understood that we have to put these CARNAL THOUGHTS behind us! And WORSHIP AND SERVE GOD!

Now one may question how one does this… Is it more than “Love God, Love Others”? Well, I will tell you that if you do these two things, you’ve overcome. Simple you say? Well remember to Love God is to PUT YOUR COMPLETE TRUST IN GOD.

1 John 5:2
By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments

To love God is to keep his commands, now I’m not trying to put anyone under any carnal man made law. But I am saying, to LOVE GOD we must HAVE NO GOD’S BEFORE HIM. In other words, to focus your thoughts on anything like fear, worry, doubt, etc… is to worship other Gods. A little know fact about the word “worship”, the first time this is mentioned is when Abraham was to sacrafice Isaac, it has nothing to do with raising your hands, closing your eyes, swaying and singing “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts.” Not to say that, doing that isn’t awesome, IT IS! But to WORSHIP God means you must be willing to lay down anything you have CREATED (imagined, gave birth to) anything that you exhalt above God, must be laid on the altar. GIVE UP YOUR FEARS AND TRUST THAT GOD HAS EVERYTHING IN YOUR LIFE UNDER CONTROL! Do that, and you LOVE GOD! Don’t do that, and you don’t. Because you will always be wondering why GOD isn’t changing your circumstances, as opposed to seeing God is making your circumstances to BETTER YOU! When you change your thinking, your life changes.

The ONLY TRUE WAY TO SERVE GOD is to KNOW GOD IS IN CONTROL and to CEASE FROM YOUR LABOR! The question is, how many when reading this will do this? And what about me, will I do this? Sure it’s easy to intellectually understand something but without FAITH and putting this into practice it is worthless.

Hebrews 4
2For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. 3For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.

So we need to STOP TRYING to control the situations in our lives that we believe will give us life, because in fact this will produce more pain. “Those that try to save their lives, lose their lives!”

So take a step back look at everything that you have MADE OF YOUR LIFE already, and say, as God said, “It’s all good!” Whether I’m in a castle or on the street, I am where I am, I am what I am, and it’s very good! Even if your situation seems desperate and your imagination (ego/satan) is screaming, “EVERYTHING STINKS BIG GREEN EGGS!” You need to say, NOT MY WILL BE DONE, BUT GOD’S BE DONE in my life!

Where you are right now is not where you will always be. And it certainly is not where God is going to bring you. Where you are is simply where you are and it is WHAT YOU DO WITH THAT, THAT MATTERS!

When Jesus was about to be killed, before he was driven from the Garden… BTW, sound familiar at all, didn’t another son of God we know be driven from a garden?

I digress, before Jesus was driven from the Garden he didn’t want to give up the LIFE HE WAS LIVING AS JESUS, but he knew to pray “NOT MY WILL BUT YOURS!” And it was that prayer, faith and understanding that allowed him to finally GIVE UP THE GHOST.

Let me first point out what JESUS REALLY GAVE UP “Ghost” – A ghost is a SPIRIT of a DEAD PERSON, so actually it was the SPIRIT OF DEATH he gave up! He let go of the thoughts of death (ignorance/fear/worry/suffering) so he could RISE ALIVE AFTER DOING SO! It is a person’s ability to say, NOT MY WILL BUT YOURS BE DONE, that allows us, as it did Jesus, to finally say “INTO YOUR HANDS I COMMIT MY SPIRIT!”

We have to be ready to give up the SPIRIT OF DEATH (THE GHOST), we have to be willing to give up the “Thoughts of worry, fear, and doubt” and be willing to commit our SPIRIT (overall thinking) to the HANDS (AUTHORITY/RULE) of God as Jesus did.

He understood, as I am hoping you will understand that we can do nothing of ourselves. And even though times may be hard we will be RESURRECTED from our current situation when WE REST IN GOD’S HANDS! We must be willing to accept whatever comes out way as if it is a gift from God, BECAUSE WE KNOW…

2 Corinthians 9:8
God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work:

I know life isn’t always easy. I know this as well as you know this. I have experienced pain. As you have loss I have had loss. I hurt as you hurt. I’ve been betrayed as you have been betrayed. I like you have cried, screamed, shouted, and worried for my very life, for my family, and for my friends. Of course, everyone’s challenges are different, but we all suffer with the same fears. The good news is, in my like I have learned that after the storm there is always that still small voice reminding me to…

“Be Still and Know I am Lord”

Because…

Philippians 2:13
It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

Ephesians 2:10
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

Soon, you will understand that all of these hard times will be as NOTHING compared to all the good that comes out of them!

Romans 8:18
For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

At this moment, take a breath, forget about everything you owe, forget your troubles and say to yourself…

“ALL THINGS WORK TOGETHER FOR THE GOOD OF THOSE THAT LOVE GOD!”

A weight lifter doesn’t become strong unless resistance is constantly added. A pearl isn’t formed unless an Oyster is constantly covering and dealing with the irritation of the grain of sand. A student doesn’t learn unless that student is tested and passes the test.

But worrying about the test never helps that student pass the test. Thinking you will fail it won’t help you ace it!

So why is it a majority of our thinking is like that of the ignorant student worried he will somehow fail? Why do we worry so much, when scripture states, ALL WILL OVERCOME THIS WORLD!

THE REASON: You have not yet renewed your mind.

Romans 12:2
And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

Don’t conform (give in and believe) your wicked imagination (Satan=god of this world). No, cast those thoughts away. Any thought that brings you fear, STOP, DROP, AND ROLL THAT STONE OF CONDEMNATION AWAY! Say, it is no longer I (my ego) that lives, But CHRIST (the power and wisdom that God is completely in control)

We are told what to think on, and nowhere does it say think about fearful thoughts.

Philippians 4:8
Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

We all have to change our thinking people! And the best way to do that is to FINALLY REST! Give up the reigns, give up the ghost (spirit of death) and just go with the flow, saying NOT MY WILL LORD BUT YOURS!

Let me give you a personal example: My will is NOT to have trouble at work, but there is trouble at work. Not of my doing, not of my lack of dedication or talent, but because people know not what they do, and God has saw fit to bring this into my life to teach me to REST! Everything in our life is a lesson to learn. The sooner you learn the lesson, the sooner you trust that God is in control of it all the sooner you will rest and be free! My Egotistical Will is to not suffer, but God’s will is for me to have faith! My will is a great lack of faith, SO I LEARN TO PRAY “FATHER INCREASE MY FAITH” SO I MAY REST! And I evenually rest!

Matthew 7:7
Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you

The sad truth is even though we say we believe these things our EGOTISTICAL SATANIC IMAGINATION will fight us and try and keep us from ENTERING INTO SUCH REST! This is the war within and the only way this war is won is to GIVE UP THE FIGHT!

A fight only ends when one side gives up!

Hebrews 4:10
For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.

Now many won’t be able to do this because they have not yet learned the most important lesson of all…

OF OURSELF WE CAN DO NOTHING, WE CAN ONLY DO WHAT WE SEE AND HEAR THE FATHER DO!

If you’ve ever wondered why it states that Christ suffered in all points as we suffer it is because BY HIS STRIPES (WHICH ARE OUR STRIPES) we are healed. CHRIST is our LIFE, our suffering is CHRIST’S SUFFERING, but also HIS GREAT WORKS which cannot be contained in all the books, are our great works!

So fear not, GREATER IS HE THAT IS IN YOU (your true life/christ) THAN HE (your ego) THAT IS IN THE WORLD (your wicked imagination ruled by your EGO/SATAN) – In the end, it is all good.

SO PLEASE, NO MATTER WHAT YOU ARE GOING THROUGH, REST!

I pray this was an encouragement to you, Jacob
http://www.JacobIsrael.org