In the kingdom, there are no great men of God, just humble men whom God has chosen to use greatly. How do we know when we are humble? When God speaks, we tremble. God is looking for a man who trembles at His words. Such a man will find the Spirit of God resting upon him; he will become a dwelling place for the Almighty.

Entering the Sabbath Rest of God

Heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool. Where then is a house you could build for Me? And where is a place that I may rest?     —Isaiah 66:1 

God asks for nothing but ourselves. Our beautiful church buildings, our slick professionalism, all are nearly useless to God. He does not want what we have; He wants who we are. He seeks to create in our hearts a sanctuary for Himself, a place where He may rest.

In the Scriptures this rest is called “a Sabbath rest” (Heb. 4:9). It does not, however, come from keeping the Sabbath, for the Jews kept the Sabbath but never entered God’s rest. The Book of Hebrews is plain: Joshua did not give the Israelites rest (v.v. 7-8). And after so long a period of Sabbath-keeping, Scripture continues, “So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God” (v. 9).

The question must be asked then, “What is this Sabbath rest?” Let us explore Genesis in pursuit of our answer. “Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work” (Gen. 2:3). Before God rested on the Sabbath, there was nothing special or holy about the seventh day. Had the Lord rested on the third day, then it would have been holy. Rest is not in the Sabbath; it is in God. Rest is a prevailing quality of His completeness.

The Sabbath was not a source of rest for God; He was the source of rest for the Sabbath. As it is written, “The Creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired” (Isa. 40:28). And even as the Sabbath became holy when God rested upon it, so we become holy as we put away sin, as the fullness of God settles and rests upon us.

The rest we seek is not a rejuvenation of our energy; it is the exchange of energy: our life for God’s, through which the vessel of our humanity is filled with the Divine Presence and the all-sufficiency of Christ Himself.

We must be enveloped and permeated With God. The Hebrew word for rest is nuach; among other things, it means “to rest, remain, be quiet.” It also indicates a “complete envelopment and thus permeation,” as in the spirit of Elijah “resting” on Elisha, or when wisdom “rests in the heart of him who has understanding.” God is not looking for a place where He can merely cease from His labors with men. He seeks a relationship where He can “completely envelop and thus permeate” every dimension of our lives, where He can tabernacle, remain, and be quiet within us.

When God’s rest abides upon us, we live in union with Jesus the same way He lived in union with the Father (John 10:14-15). Christ’s thought-life was “completely enveloped and thus permeated” with the presence of God. He did only those things He saw and heard His Father do. He declared, “The Father abiding in Me does His works” (John 14:10).

There is rest because it is Christ working through us. Jesus promises us, “If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it” (v. 14). How vain we are to think we can do miracles, love our enemies, or do any of the works of God without Christ doing His works through us!

This is why Jesus said, “Come to Me . . . and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28). In a storm-tossed boat on the sea of Galilee, Christ’s terrified disciples came to Him. Their cries were the cries of men about to die. Jesus rebuked the tempest, and immediately the wind and sea became “perfectly calm,” even as calm as He was (Matt. 8:26). What program, what degree of ministerial professionalism can compare with the life and power we receive through Him?

Our efforts, no matter how much we spend of ourselves, cannot produce the rest or life of God. We must come to Him and enter into the rest of faith. Resting in God and surrender to His will is the key to humility and spiritual power.

http://www.frangipane.org. Used by permission.

Francis Frangipane was born in 1946 and grew up in Lodi, New Jersey. After graduating from high school in 1964, Frangipane entered the U.S. Air Force, where he was discharged honorably as a sergeant on February 2, 1969. He relocated briefly to Berkeley, California and then Honolulu, Hawaii before returning to the mainland U.S. These were the days when the hippie movement was emerging, and Frangipane, like countless other young people, was searching for meaning. He traveled extensively throughout the United States and Canada. Eventually his travels brought him to the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia where he became a Christian on November 26, 1970. Five months later he met his wife-to-be, Denise Piscitelli, and led her to the Lord. In October of 1971 they were married. In 1972 Francis and Denise received ministerial training at Grace Chapel in Southern California; by early fall they had moved to Hilo, Hawaii to start a church. Their little work grew to about twenty-five people, most of whom they had personally led to Christ. They also had their first child during this time. After fourteen months, however, they felt their time in Hawaii was complete. A church in the Detroit, Michigan area offered them a pastoral position. For the remainder of the seventies, they led a small church of approximately 100 people; they also planted eight churches and home groups in southeastern Michigan and Ontario, Canada. They relocated to Iowa in 1980 where, with the addition of four more children and a Vietnamese foster child, their family grew to eight. These were hard times. Francis was self-employed and the family was very poor. It was during this time that Francis began to develop his writing skills. It was also a three year season of being shut in with God; the only spiritual food that nourished him came from the words of Christ in the Gospels. In 1982 the opportunity to pastor a church in the Cedar Rapids area was offered to the Frangipanes. After a season of prayer, they accepted this new assignment. Pastor Francis soon found himself united with several other pastors from various evangelical denominations who met in one another's sanctuaries for monthly prayer. After three years, the founding minister of this prayer group left the city, and in 1985 Francis and another local pastor (from the local Assemblies of God) picked up the prayer initiative. They opened it up for intercessors as well and increased their times together from monthly to weekly. The group soon multiplied, which led to many other interdenominational citywide events. During this time, Pastor Frangipane began to write in earnest. His first book, Holiness, Truth and the Presence of God, was a compilation of his essays and sermons. It was published in 1985. He wrote his second book, The Three Battlegrounds, in 1989 when asked to speak on spiritual warfare at a conference in Kansas City. Both these books became best sellers. Since 1985, he has written fourteen books including four In Christ's Image Training manuals, which were developed for his online school, plus a number of study booklets. Francis is the founder of River of Life Ministries in Cedar Rapids IA and has traveled throughout the world ministering to thousands of pastors and intercessors from many backgrounds. Francis' heartfelt prayer is to see established in every city, Christlike pastors and intercessors, united before God, revealing the love of Christ to their communities. Over the past decades, Francis has served on a number of other ministry boards. However, in recent years he has gradually resigned from these various boards. As of June 2009, he has also retired from his position as senior pastor of River of Life Ministries. In this more simplified life, Frangipane is devoting himself to prayer and the ministry of God's word.

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