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The Daily Word of Righteousness
Revelation 14:13, #2
Then I heard a voice from heaven say, "Write: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on." "Yes," says the Spirit, "they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them." (Revelation 14:13)
Our verse says, "they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them." What does this mean?
They will rest from their labor means they will enter the rest of God.
For anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. (Hebrews 4:10)
I think what we are saying here is that the spiritual pressures will become so intense that devout Christians no longer will be able to perform their customary religious works.
Lately the Lord has been speaking to me about riding in His chariot, about living by Him as He lives by the Father, about being with Him where He is. I wonder if this is what it means to die in the Lord, to cease from our own labors?
Did you ever drive down the highway and pretend you were standing still and it was the road that was coming toward you? I think dying in the Lord is like this. Instead of driving forward we are at rest in God's chariot and the various problems and blessings are coming toward us. We are resting in the Lord and He is giving us power and wisdom, as we pray and look to Him, so we are able to pass every test.
I have begun to stop at different points during the day and ask the Lord if I am with Him where He is, or if I am worrying and forging ahead in my own strength. Am I living by Him as He lives by the Father? Am I resting in God's chariot, in God's rest?
Consider the following as an example of dying in the Lord and ceasing from our own works:
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)
I do not believe it would be stretching the point to declare that Paul the Apostle had died in Christ and had ceased from his own works. Paul no longer was living. Paul no longer was scheming, reasoning, plotting. Paul was living by faith in Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ was (is) living in Paul and working His own works. This really is the heart of the new covenant, of the rest of God.
We realize that Paul on more than one occasion was brought down to the place where he not only could not work but despaired of his very life.
We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. (II Corinthians 1:8)
To be continued.