Joshua brought the children of Israel into Canaan, the land of milk and honey, the promised-land inheritance, the rest of God. The Israelites never did receive the fullness of the inheritance because they were stoutly resisted by the inhabitants of the land.

As soon as we endeavor to rest with God in the blessings of His creation we discover there are enemies already living in the places assigned to us and that they will resist being dispossessed.

The present inhabitants of "our land" are crafty, diligent opponents who are determined to destroy us. It is impossible for us in our own wisdom or strength to obtain our inheritance. We are flesh and blood. The enemy is spirit. He is wiser, stronger, and more experienced than we.

Every time we attempt to enter God's rest something happens that produces unrest, pain, unbelief, sin, rebellion or some other evil or troublesome situation. Such opposition is caused by the enemy, with God's permission. God is using the enemy to humble us and to instruct us, to teach us discipline, and to make us know that man does not live by bread alone but by the words proceeding from the mouth of God.

Even though the works were finished before the world was created, and the land of promise is legally ours by inheritance, yet it is impossible for us to enter. What do we do? We come to Christ and follow Him as He destroys His enemies because He and we have the same enemies.

We learn to follow the Holy Spirit into the land of promise. We labor in the Spirit of God to enter our rest, our inheritance in Christ. Anyone who is of the opinion that we just fall into the fullness of Christ by accepting Him as our Savior and then continuing with our business as usual, has no idea of what it means to enter the rest of God.

Entering the rest of God requires total diligence on our part. We must give ourselves to Christ wholly if we expect to make any progress. No one can be a disciple of Jesus until he forsakes all he has, takes up his cross, and follows the Lord Jesus.

We cannot earn the rest of God, but we must follow the Holy Spirit every second of every day of our lives in order to wrest the inheritance from the hand of the enemy. The Christian discipleship is a battle to the death. There is a crown of glory to be attained. Let us make sure we do not lose the reward but are followers of those who through faith and patience obtain the fullness of the inheritance.

The promises of glory and authority are to the victorious saints. To be an overcomer requires all that a person is and possesses. Christ must become the center on which life revolves in worship and obedience. Anything less than total devotion to Him will prevent the seeker from laying hold on the fullness of God's rest. We must labor with everything that is in us to enter the rest of God.

That labor is not the wearisome striving of the religious seeker. The labor that is effective in the Kingdom of God is the labor of perceiving the mind of the Holy Spirit and then resting in the strength of God while the Spirit brings victory. (from Three Deaths and Three Resurrections, Volume 3)