When we first were saved we continually were opposed to the will of God, our human mind being an enemy of God. After God completes His deepest workings in our nature we will long to do the things that please Him. Our greatest joy will be to act in the manner that God desires. Our will shall be synchronized with God's will so that the two wills, God's and ours, shall coincide in all matters great and small.

Sometimes people who are well-placed in their vocation are heard to say: "I feel guilty about picking up my paycheck because I am so happy in my job." There are those who would not cease to perform their tasks even if they possessed millions of dollars because they are enjoying so much what they are doing. Yet, their work may be difficult and challenging.

That is the way it is with us when the Spirit of God completes His work in us. We desire to do what God desires that we do. Here is an important dimension of the rest of God. "It is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13).

God enjoys opening His hand and satisfying the desire of every creature. However, there are seasons during our training when He cannot do this. His will and our will are opposed for a time. There is a prolonged withholding of our most intense desires so we may be perfected. At the end of the period of restraint we shall discover that God's will and our will have become one will and we then shall receive the desires of our heart.

May God soon bring us to the place where we are "taken" by the Spirit of God such that our will corresponds to His will. Our joy is His joy. Our plan is His plan. Our sorrow is His sorrow. Our desire is His desire. Our judgment is His judgment. Only then will we be fully in the rest of God. Then the Father and the Son can find rest in us.

We do not come permanently into the fullness of the rest of God the instant we receive Christ as our Lord and Savior. There is a progressive capturing of us by the Spirit of God.

In the illustration of Ezekiel's river, the first death and resurrection are portrayed as the measuring of a thousand cubits and the bringing of us through the waters until they are to the ankles. The number one thousand suggests a "day" of the workings of God.

You may recall that the dimensions of the Tabernacle building were ten by ten by thirty cubits. This totals 3,000 cubic cubits. The first three judgments of the man with the line in his hand include 3,000 cubits, suggesting that the two thousand years of the Church age, and the one thousand years of the Kingdom Age, have been accomplished and we now are ready for the new heaven and earth reign of Christ.

The "ankles" experience is close to the shore. We can run back up on the beach if we change our mind about serving the Lord. We definitely have entered a new environment, the Kingdom of God. Although most of our personality is still "dry," our feet (direction of our life) are submerged in the Holy Spirit of God.

If we are willing to follow the man with the line in his hand (the Holy Spirit), He will lead us into deeper waters. (from Three Deaths and Three Resurrections, Volume 1)