Hello and welcome to the House of Faith Ministries. I'm Lisa Kane and I'm recording this message on Saturday, January 6, 2023. This message is called Enter His Rest. Amen. Let's open up in a word of prayer. Father God, we thank you for your presence and we thank you for your anointing and we thank you for the power of your word, the living word of God. And we thank you that it moves forward. That it strikes and divides and meets the needs of every person deep within their bones. Father God, I thank you. I thank you. And I thank you because you are all powerful. You are glorious. You are the creator. You are the healer. You are the provider. Thank you in the name of Jesus. Amen. And amen. Amen. Amen. Let's go to our opening scripture here in Hebrews. Hebrews 3:19. And so we see that they cannot enter in because of unbelief or that word unbelief means faithlessness or another word for it is faithlessness. Well, you know I am teaching a different kind of message. So this is called enter his rest. My pastor taught on Sunday uh a message on rest and the Sabbath and I you know resonated with me. Normally I don't teach on something that another pastor's taught on but then I heard three other messages. So, I got a total of four messages this week on the topic of rest in the Sabbath. And I thought, wow, Lord, you're talking to me. So, this message is really more for me, but I'm going to share it with you while I teach myself. Amen. So, I've done some research here. We are going to be focusing in Hebrews, and we're going to be focusing on uh Hebrews 3 and 4. So, if you want, get your Bibles ready because we're going to be reading some good chunks of scripture through there. In the meantime, there are three scriptures in Psalms that I want to show you that apply to rest. And it kind of really uh brings to heart the difference between living in sin, living with Christ, because you got to know the difference between the two. I taught on this last week, what the difference between salvation and living for Christ is. So there is something visible that we can see and actually entering or not entering into that rest gives us a clue as to who you are and what kind of life you're living. Amen. So Psalm 37:7, rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him. Fret not thyself because of him who prosperth in his way because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass. All of us look out at other people and we all see those that are doing so good, so prosperous, have all the money. I mean, look at our current leadership in the government of the United States of America and how prosperous they are. It's frustrating. But God is saying, look at this or this the author of Psalm here is saying rest. Look at the word rest. To be dumb, see, stop in the Lord. Okay, let's explain because it takes a moment to think this through and understand it. So to be dumb. Okay, so in other words, what you're doing is because you're so frustrated, you get mad and you see these situations. So what that word rest is telling you to do, just stop, pretend that's not going on, be dumb about it, and go to the Lord. Wait a second. How do I do that? Because now the emotions are flying. Look at what kind of emotions he's talking about in the Psalms. He says, "Fret not thyself." And what does that mean? Glow or grow warm. The blood pressure, you're you're getting heated. Your your face turns color when you get angry. It turns red. It just that's the way it happens. Darkens and reds and bulges. Well, he's saying, "Don't let that get to you. Rest in the Lord." What does he say? rest, which means to be dumb. Cease. Stop. Stop yourself. Oh, okay. I gotta stop myself. How do I do that? So, we're gonna be looking into that. Um, now let's look at another verse in Psalm. Psalm 38:3. There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger, neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin. Here we are again about anger. If you're angry at something or someone, look at this. I have no rest. There's no soundness, no wholesome, no I'm not complete in my flesh. My my my bones are not at safe. They they're not healthy. They're not prosperous because I'm in sin and I haven't been forgiven of my sin. So taking rest is an act of obedience or if you don't do it, you're in sin. [Music] which we all know that Jesus, he's the the Messiah. He came to redeem us and pardon us. And because he did that, we get to stop and say, "Lord, forgive us." So, he's showing us, these scriptures are showing us a little bit of self-control here. We have to take heed, make sure we don't let this get out of hand. Let's look at a third verse in Psalm. Psalm 116:7. Return unto thy rest, oh my soul, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee. Look at this. Return back. You got to get your life back with God in the secret place with the Lord. You have to find that rest, quiet, settled spot home for your soul. Your soul needs to have that quiet moment. And look at because the Lord is treated bountifully with you. You are God will treat you bountifully. This is an act of obedience. He's going to do that. So, let's go to Hebrews. We're going to look at start at three. We're going to go in start at chapter 3. We're going to go into chapter 4, but let's start at verse 11. And this is the chunk of scripture we're looking at is the author is trying to tell us, okay, we're going to look at the Israelites who wandered the wilderness for 40 years and what they did. And look at what God did here. So now God, he swore an oath in his wrath. Okay? Because it's talking about God. So I swear in my wrath, and it was a justifiable, violent, passionate wrath that he's talking about that this is God talking. They shall not enter my rest. Because see, God said to the Israelite, he was so vexed and frustrated with him that he's like, I'm not going to let you enter my rest. I mean, he just got mad. And this is where he's saying, "They shall not enter my rest." Look at the word rest there. It means reposing down or dormant sleep, abode, which is like a home. And uh as you can see what I'm teaching here is the bold words are in the King James version. The words in parentheses are additional meanings of that word in bold. Okay. So as you can see here he swore in his wrath and he's a they're not going to get into a reposing down dormant sleep or abode. Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil which is a hurtful influence heart or thoughts or feelings of unbelief which is faithless faithlessness in departing from the living God. You see, when you're in hardness of heart, which is what these people in the wilderness were, you are in evil. You're you have a hurtful influence on the thoughts and the feelings of those around you because you don't have faith. you're not following the living word of God. You're not living in the living word of God. And these people were doing that. So this writer, the author of Hebrews is telling us, get a hold of yourself. Now let's continue on. 13 But exhort one another daily while it is called today, lest any of you follow the same pattern, be hardened through the deceitfulness, delusion of sin. You see, when the Israelites had wandered around and they were eating heaven, bread from heaven, mana, they got bored with it and they wanted their onions back from when they were in slavery with the Egyptians. Oh, those onions. Oh, I miss those. Oh, if I could only have another, you know, had they had just humbled themselves and took hold of themselves and say, you know, Lord, went to Moses and said, "Hey, Moses, can you go talk to God? I'm thankful we have the mana. I'm grateful for it. Can he add some flavor to it or give us a a difference? Because see, we're in the flesh. We want something different all the time. And God knows that and he will work with you. This is why he said, "Enter your rest." Because you got to deal with your flesh. Which is what Psalms was trying to tell us about our bones not being in good, safe, healthy, prosperity areas because we're not entering into that rest. This is where people get cancer and things of that nature. This is why you'll see a lot of medical offices and systems try to provide a tw tranquil atmosphere for their patients because they're trying to calm them because if they can calm down a bit, it brings the blood pressure down. Right? Verse 14. For we are made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end. Basically saying we're participants of of Christ and what he did. We need to stay confident in and we have to set ourselves under his support and be stable unto the end. You see that's what entering rest is all about. Stability. How many times you do good, you do good, you do good, you do it for several months in a row and all of a sudden you crash and burn because you got to enter your rest to keep it going to the end. While it is said today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts as in the provocation or the irritation of the Israelites to God back in the wilderness. And he's saying today, now today meant, let's say we were here yesterday. Yesterday was today. Tomorrow will be today. So he's saying now, this is the now you have to get a hold of yourself, take heed of yourself and watch out for hardening your heart. And then he says, "For someone they had heard did provoke or exasperate. How be it not all that came out of Egypt by Moses." See, some did. And what's happened is when you get a bad apple, it kind of affects all the other apples in the basket. Well, you had these moaner and groaner and complainers. And then these people who weren't moaning and complaining heard that and oh yeah, okay. and they agree and it becomes fruitful. It multiplies. Well, we have to stop that. We have to take heed of ourselves. If you hear someone complaining, you should be entering the Lord because that's where your rest is. Let's continue on because the author is going to get to that. Says verse 17, "But with whom was he grieved or vexed?" 40 years God whom was he grieved and vexed with? Was it not with him that had sinned or missed the mark? whose carcasses the limb of the body fell in the wilderness. You see, there's a consequence to not entering in his rest, to not following the obedience of God's call. The people of the Israelites in the wilderness did not make it into his rest because God swore they will not enter his rest because they were provoking him to anger. They weren't taking heat of themselves and getting some self-control to say, "Hey, so this is what he's saying." So those people, they died in the wilderness. This is why your bones get sick. This is why you get sick because you didn't take the rest that your body requires. And God used that to just basically tell them, "You're not entering my rest." And he killed them all off. I think it was 21 years and younger entered into the promised land. the rest didn't because of their act of disobedience. Verse 18, and to whom swear or an oath he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believe not. So what he's saying is they there's a promise here. And this is what the author is trying to point out. He's telling them they're the ones that were acting in disobedience and I swore that they cannot have rest. Which means there's a rest for those of us who do obey. Let's look at that. Let's look at that. This is awesome. So, we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. We know that they lacked faith. You know, they you know, it was different because Moses would go speak to them face to face and he they got scared of them. Yes. But then they went and built a golden calf and they went and did this and they went and did that. Wandering for 40 years, moaned and complained and groaned and and vexed the Lord. So now look at what he says about this. We're now in chapter 4 verse one. Let us therefore fear lest a promise being left of us enter into his rest. Any of you should seem to come short, deficient in fear of it. You see, he's saying if you're going to believe you, if you're not going to believe me, you're going to act in disobedience. This is what's going to happen to you. But if you choose to believe, this is a promise for you to enter into his rest today, not tomorrow. But tomorrow will be today, and you will be in that rest if you choose to have faith and believe. How do you have faith when faith is you? A lot of us don't have faith that even measures up to the size of a mustard seed as Jesus pointed out. And these people in the wilderness did not have any faith. They wanted to go back to what they knew. They couldn't see the future that God had for them. And remember, even when Joshua entered into the promised land, they had to go to war and fight the um other cultures that were around and all the other kingdoms that were there. They had to fight them. But God was with Joshua and he used different tactics to beat them all and God showed himself more and more because they had faith. This group of people believed. So the question is, are you going to be the one who's going to die out in the wilderness where your carcass dies, your bones become sin, uh corrupt, full of sin and disease, or are you going to have the belief and the faith that Jesus is the son of God and that you can enter his rest? I mean, I don't know if you're struggling with sleep right now or if you're struggling in your mind where you need to have a peace. I'm going to tell you right now, all of this action of being obedient, entering into his rest gives us the victory for the situations and the circumstances we've been dealing with and praying for and whatever we're facing. Let's go on. Let's go on. I want you to see this. Verse two. For 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. You see, now you're looking at two groups of people, which is what I've been talking about. Ones that don't have faith, they lack belief. They're not believing. And then you have a group that is believing. And all it takes is the moment you choose to be obedient. Okay, God, I don't understand why you're telling me to sit down or why I have to come to you and I can't deal with this situation myself. I can't go deal with our current government and current powers. I can't go deal with that myself. Okay, I'm going to put myself in this situation and I'm going to wait on you in obedience even though I don't want to. God respects that. He does. He wants you to act in that obedience because that act is your act of faith which activates God and he moves on your behalf. Now your bones are safe. You're in good health because those that try to attack, let's say a prominent position that's being ran by evil right now and you try to go take it out, what happens? You end up dying most of the time or they arrest you and you go into jail and you never come out again. That's just how that works. So, this is where now we have to take heed, self-control, and come into believe. And whether you believe or not, you say, "Okay, Lord, I'm going to have to trust you. I don't understand what's going on. I don't know why evil is so prominent right now. I don't know why these these things are taking place for I know that the the gates of hell will not prevail. So, I'm just going to take a step of faith and I'm going to enter your rest and I'm going to pray about it. Or you've got managers at work that are just picking on picking on you. You've got situations in your home where people are aggravating you and and I'm going to go enter my rest with the Lord because I need it. Lord, I come to you. I give this to you. I'm going to sit here. I'm going to put some praise worship music on. I give it to you. It's done. I'm going to leave it alone and I'm going to do something different. I'm going to read scripture. I'm going to do some crochet. I'm going to do knitting. I'm going to bake some bread. I'm going to go work on an engine in a car. But I'm giving it to the Lord first. You see how powerful the presence of rest does for us? For us, for me, the me. This is so important. Oh, and that that takes that's taking faith and belief and mingling the two together. That is our responsibility that we need to do. Now, verse three, for we which have believed do enter into his into rest, as he said, as I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest, although the works toil, acts were finished from the foundation of the world. You see, God entered his rest after he did his works and all the works were done at the end of the sixth day. So if all the works were done, all the evil was already taking place and we know the victory and the outcome of the war, then this is where now we can win the battle because we choose to come into the rest knowing faith, knowing belief we got the victory. Oh hallelujah. Look at Jesus. Look at what God did on the seventh day. This is the author still Hebrews. He's still talking about God on the seventh day. For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise and God did rest that seventh day from all his works. Now that word wise there means it's referring to a precedent. Uh it's going to go be it's going to become the rule to follow. So God rested on the seventh day. This is why we have what's called the Sabbath. This is one act of obedience that we can take upon ourselves and have that um that satism that that peace at rest. Now it doesn't mean no work or it doesn't mean sleep or don't walk to your neighbors or things like that. Now I know the Israelites followed it that way but as a believer in Christ a little different for us. It is the act of obedience to say I'm going to settle down. I'm going to calm my soul. you know, because I've been praying in the spirit now um for the prayers I posted up on our website recently and I've been doing it for several weeks in a row and I was kind of getting burned out of it and I was like, Lord, I can't keep doing this. I'm going to treat it kind of like a job and take my weekend off and do it during the week. And then all of a sudden, here comes this message teaching me how about rest. Now you see why I want to teach this to you. Because now I'm finally beginning to understand what it is that God did when he rested on the seventh day. So now I've done my prayers. I did my obedience. And now Lord, I enter your rest. I'm going to sit down. I'm put some praise and worship music on. I'm going to knit. I'm going to crochet. Whatever I'm going to do for that that settles me, that keeps me calm and the things that I like to do. But I'm sitting there and all I'm doing is just I'm not having to do anything I don't want to do. That's the rest our bodies needs. And you know, it's a mind and body thing that your your bones are going to appreciate because you need to heal. They need to heal. This is what I I've been aching and hurting because we've been moving all this kind of stuff and getting settled. And the other day I sat down and I was I was crossstitching and and a couple hours later, you know, as I got up, walked around, I was like, even the next morning I got up and I go, man, I feel a whole lot better. I'm telling you guys, this is very powerful. Very, very powerful. Um, and and so here God rested on the seventh day. Verse five. And in this place again, if they shall enter into my rest, seeing therefore it remainth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached, entered not in because of unbelief. It was first preached to the Israelites, and they didn't enter. They rejected Jesus as the son of God. And as a result, and well, they rejected God and his provision out in the wilderness. What he was trying to do is work on their heart so that he can get them humbled so he can bring them into the promised land. this group of people were so stubborn and hard and necked hardhearted that he couldn't get them out of it. So he says, "Never mind. You're not going to enter the rest I have for you." But he's telling the rest of us who look at that as an example to say, "I do have a rest for you." It's a promise. I love it. I love it. Let's continue on. Verse 9. There remainth therefore a rest. And look at what that word rest means. Type of heaven, sabbaticism. It's a repose, which means a sleep, peace, tranquility, calm of Christianity to the people of God. Meaning, all hell can be breaking loose. And you've entered into God's rest. And you say, "You know what? I've already given it to the Lord. He's taken care of this. I don't have to worry about it." And you have victory just from that alone. That act, that statement, because you are now stating as a fact, which is an act of faith of belief that God already took care of it. I don't have to worry about it. A that's awesome. I hope you guys are grasping this. Verse 10. For he that is entered into his rest, he also has ceased from his own works, as God did from his. Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest lest any man fall under the same example of unbelief. We got to take heed, have some self-control, put ourselves in that rest. It's something we have to do. God is expecting us to do it because now it becomes an act of obedience. And did you see that he says settle down cease for he that entered into his settle down cease moment we ceased from our works. You know, all these prayers that I've been praying, actually, the moment I enter my rest, it's like the amen and the amen. Let it be done. Okay, Lord, I'm going to enter my rest. I've done my part. It's up to you to do your part.

This is now to show you what I'm talking about in that because I want you to see this. Those scriptures preede this. This is now Hebrews 4. We're still in Hebrews 4. We just finished verse 11. Look at what verse 12 is. For the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing of sunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the hearts. You see, you're now in a situation. And I'm going to pause. I'm gonna let God handle this because he's going to take care of it better than I would anyways. So every time you're praying and you're giving God the glory, and then you enter into that moment of confidence, boldness, rest, I feel good. God's got it. God's got it. And every time that all hell breaks loose and it's all, you make a better decision when you're in your rest. You know how to decide where to go, what to say, what to do. you are prepped and ready as a believer in Christ. And then what does that do? That establishes your testimony to those running because they're looking at you like, why aren't you all in all up in arms about this management change or this this kind of issue or situation? Or why aren't you more concerned about our loved ones and da da da why aren't you concerned that he's not getting well? And what you're doing is you're saying, "I'm in faith by obeying God because I gave it to him and I'm not going to let it worry me." [Music] That's what this scripture means by the dividing of the soul and the spirit. You know, like I said earlier, when I had laid down and rested and finally got in my rest, I sat down and the next morning I got up and I was like, "Man, my bones feel a lot better. I'm not so achy today." That is the rest of God that he has promised us. The healing that we have the right to have. Oh, hallelujah. Hallelujah. This is how the word of God penetrates our hearts and minds. It's that act of obedience where we step out and say, "God's got it. God's got it. Quick. It's powerful. It's sharper. God's got it. It discerns. Oh, God's got it. Look at verse 16. Let us therefore come boldly into the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. You We got to do this for God's grace and to help those in the time of need. Because how many people are out there that are not in the rest of God? They're not resting in God. Now, Paul talks about this in Romans. Look at Romans 16:20. And the God of peace, look at that word peace here. Prosperity, rest, quietness, shall bruise, crush completely, shatter Satan under your feet shortly. That's in the state of rest. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen. Are you catching this? The moment you enter into your obedient rest time and rest period, the grace of peace, the God of peace, your prosperity, your rest, your quietness is going to bruise the devil because every time the devil throws something at you, God's got this. I'm at peace. I've settled my soul down with the Lord. I'm good. Woo. And he says, "Satan, it'll crush completely, shatter Satan." Now, Satan is, it's another word for any evil that comes in your life that comes after you. Bad health,

bad finances, and and a lot of these things you're in that situation because you made bad decisions because you didn't enter your rest that you have that God has given you to enter. Oh, and it crushes crush completely shatters Satan under your feet shortly. And that's that state of rest. How long does it take for healing to take place? Sometimes it could take days. Sometimes it could take months. Um I went uh when I was getting out of that diabetes and high cholesterol, that kind of stuff. And I've been healed of all of that. It took several weeks of me praying. I had the elders pray over me, casting the demons out. I did everything I possibly could. It took weeks, but finally when I finally said, "You know what, Lord? I'm going to trust and take this step of faith and I just got rid of all that insulin. I got rid of all that those pills." Do you know that to this day I still have no issues? None whatsoever. You know, and and there are moments that it tries to come back and it's like, "Nah, get lost. I already defeated you, devil." Talk about having some confidence and boldness. This is going to trigger that when you enter your rest. Because what you're doing is you're telling the Lord, "You got this. I'm done trying to handle it myself. And I choose to walk in the quietness, in my rest, because you promised me rest." And that means I know that you and the angels and the Holy Spirit are going forth and doing your thing. Amen. Amen. Amen. Oh, I hope you get this message. I hope you stand on Christ and I hope you apply it to yourself. Oh, let's close the word of prayer. Father God, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the power and the anointing of your word. And we pray and ask that we apply it to our lives. That we do enter our rest that you promised us. That we live in that rest. that we live in that confidence and the boldness knowing that you and the angels and the Holy Spirit are taking care of whatever's going on around us, Father God. For we do it in the act of obedience. We do it in an act of faith because we believe. We believe that you are the son of God, Jesus. We believe that you redeemed us and pardon us. We believe that you are God. You are holy. We believe in faith that you are our provider, that you are our healer. And so we take the act of faith to believe and co-mingle the two together so that we can enter into the rest and say, "Here you go, Lord. All my problems belong to you because they're not mine anymore in the name of Jesus, the son of the living God. Amen and amen." And God says, "I take it. Enter your rest." I hope you get this and I hope you live it. Amen. Amen. God bless you. I'll see you in the next message. Byebye.