As most of you know, the Lord told me to declare and believe for double this month. I have been doing just that. I have prayed and declared and have done all the things I felt I should do daily.
Last week I began asking God if I needed to do anything else…I wasn’t ‘feeling’ very powerful in my prayers concerning this. Then something came through my inbox one morning. I was reading this word, I am sorry but I don’t recall who the author was, and one part caught my attention.
It said; ‘do not try to manufacture anything or make anything happen, in rest you will find explosive breakthrough, fruit and favor.’
This word instantly brought peace to me concerning what I had been praying about. As I meditated on this word, I was reminded of a scripture. It is found in Isaiah 30:15; “For thus says the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel: “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and confidence shall be your strength.”
I decided to look up the word ‘rest’ in this scripture and was pleasantly surprised. It means; quietness, rest, a quiet attitude and to come down into, to penetrate and to stretch.
Jesus said in John 14:27; “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”
When we allow His peace to ‘come down into us, to penetrate our hearts and minds’ it stretches us, yes, but it also causes us to enter into HIS REST. And it is in that rest that we will be saved, healed, prospered, whatever we need. It is in quietness and confidence in HIM that we will be strengthened.
Friends, it is good to war with our words, it is good to declare the word of the living God. It is good to spend time in prayer and worship, it is good to fast and pray – all these things are good.
However, when God says ‘rest’ then it is time to rest. If God is saying rest and you feel you have to keep on warring in prayer, then you are missing a chance to be strengthened.
I am a person who is a doer….I am good at doing….I am not great at resting. However, a few years ago the Lord spoke something to me that has stuck with me. He said ‘in my quietness you will find my glory.’ I have since learned the power and strength in spending quiet times with God. I have learned the power in the word that says ‘be still and know that I am God.’
Eccl. 3 says; “To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to gain, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to throw away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.”
Yes there is a time for war, and yes, there is a time for prayer and interceding, and there is a time for peace and rest. Make sure you are discerning the times correctly. Make sure you are resting, when rest is required. In HIS rest….you will find strength.
