If we are willing to commit ourselves to God, no person or spirit can possibly harm us no matter how dark the spiritual environment becomes. God, the righteous Judge, will plead our case.

We are made perfect.

For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. (Hebrews 2:10)

The suffering and death of the cross remove the "spots and wrinkles" from our wedding garment. When we suffer in our flesh we stop sinning, if our heart is right toward God.

Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin; (I Peter 4:1)

Much suffering and the exercise of patience sanctify our spirit. There is no other way to gain the maturity we desire.

We bear the fruit of the image of Christ in ourselves and in others.

Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. (John 12:24)

The fruit of the Kingdom cannot come from our adamic nature. It is only as we die and Christ lives that the Holy Spirit can take the life-giving Seed and from it bring forth the image of the Lord.

We experience God's desires in us.

For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. (Philippians 2:13)

How we long for the Lord's will to be done! Yet we are filled to such an extent with our own lusts and deception that we cannot tell what is of God and what is of our own flesh and soul.

It is not the Lord's will that the saint go about seeking to persuade God to perform the saint's will. This is why the current "faith message" is so ungodly. It is not our task to persuade God to do anything whether by faith or by any other means. Rather, we are to seek the Lord alone. God works in us, giving us a desire for His will, and then brings to pass His own will. This is the rest of God. Blessed indeed is the person who is content with God and His will.

How much time and strength we waste until we are willing to enter God's rest, allowing Him to create in us His own will and the accomplishing of His own will!

We find rest in the Lord.

For he that is entered into his [God's] rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. (Hebrews 4:10)

As we are willing to die in the Lord, to cease from our own works and striving, we enter the rest of God.

In six days God finished all His works through to the coming down to earth of the new Jerusalem. Every detail was finished in the mind of God from the beginning. The sons of God were predestined, called, glorified, in the darkness before time began. Then God rested.

To be continued.