Forerunners are called to sink the plow of God’s truth into the hard ground of men’s hearts and plow up hard ground caused by tradition, wounds and experiences from the past, religion, and faithlessness: Perhaps this is just such a prophetic message, with directional teaching to guide us into the prophetic and physical realities awaiting our proper response.

We have entered a prophetic hour of restoration within the Body of Christ. God desires His people to walk as a victorious people, called to Kingdom power upon the earth. It is an hour of generational prophetic destiny in which God has ordained His people to walk in power, favor, and blessing. Initially, only those remnant few who have truly learned to enter “His rest” will touch this supernatural occurrence, laying a foundation and example for the masses to follow. Many unknowns to the people with an apostolic and prophetic call are emerging from years in the cave and now showing early signs of foundational restoration. Most, in these ranks, are no-names within the Body of Christ, those who have been deemed failures and misfits, and for the most part rejected by the religious establishment.

“And we have the word of the prophets made more certain, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. For the prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:19-21).

I hear the words ‘recover’ and ‘recovery’ in my spirit. We are in a time of recovery in which everything stolen is being returned, but of almost equal importance I also see recovery uniquely tied to “the rest” of God. “Rest” and “recovery” are virtually synonymous terms in this unique prophetic hour. Since early 2003, prophetic voices seemed to awaken to this fascinating phenomenon of rest and restoration. I feel God saying even more now than ever to “speak it.” Judge this word, as I strongly sense that we have entered a time of restoration.

PROPHETIC WORD

Recover! Your recovery has begun. Settle into my rest and the “suddenlies” will birth almost spontaneously. Trust me to completely restore you. You were purchased with a price and sealed by My Spirit, all of which translates into an inheritance upon this earth called “your destiny.” Find the good way and walk in it for there is treasure along this path. I will restore the years the locusts have eaten, the great destroying army that was sent against you. You will drink from wells you did not dig and live in houses you did not build, for my hand of favor and blessing are upon you (your house).

In God’s magnificent way, in His magnificent timing, He often marries prophetic truth, which is His part, with His commands to us, which are our part. When we engage these commands successfully, His prophetic promise manifest in our lives. Such, I believe, is the essence of what is written here.

I have walked in “the rest” of God at times, and known its existence for years, but only recently come into an understanding that allows me to apply it daily. Even with this new understanding, I must labor daily to evidence its workings. I am constantly having to kill the “old nature” to escape the trap of the natural, and thus propel myself into this extraordinary force of God’s spiritual law, allowing me to walk in and experience the supernatural. In short, obedience propels us into the supernatural, just as disobedience binds us to the natural.

This revelation is a major key to getting into place and position with God through which destiny and purpose can come forth. Obedience is the ‘place,’ just as rest is the ‘position.’ Perhaps it is simply the hour God has chosen to awaken the Body to the revelation that “When I stop, God starts, and when I start, God stops.” It is an extension of Jesus’ words in John 5:30, “By myself I can do nothing…” It is the recognition that I can only do what I see and hear the Father doing (John 5:17-20), that I have boundaries (1 Corinthians 7:17) (2 Corinthians 10:13), and to exceed those boundaries is to leave the peace, protection, and provision of my heavenly Father. In my ‘old nature’, I am drawn to my own fears, traditions, training, appetites, ambitions and pride; all of which work against my walking in the prophetic Kingdom power (Galatians 5:16-21) available, and all of which cause me to leave “the rest” of God. When I allow myself to be pulled by these forces, I allow myself to leave “the rest” of God, and like dominoesambitiion,  my restlessness pulls me back into doing my own thing.

John 5:30 is an anthem of this prophetic hour – “By myself I can do nothing…” Exceeding the boundaries of God, even in the innocence of presumption will have costly consequences! This penalty is not being orchestrated for our harm, but for our eventual good because the age requires complete understanding and patient discipline in carrying out our assignment upon the earth. Like David in 2 Samuel 6:1-13, I have often received God’s ‘direction’ without awaiting His ‘how to,’ the end result being a quagmire in which I wallowed in the mess of my own impatience. Flesh cannot touch what God is doing. Ismael and Isaac cannot live in the same house. Those who have begun to see the end of themselves will no doubt recognize this type experience, and too recognize that impatience is a stout enemy to walking in this deeper place with God.

STEER US TO THE REST, LORD

Before leaving the subject of “exceeding boundaries” let us recognize its vast importance in Kingdom dynamics. Many are shocked to see the words “selfish ambition” in Galatians 5 linked with sexual immorality, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, jealousy, fits of rage, drunkenness, orgies, etc., Ambition is respected in the World’s System, even considered a worthy character trait; hence we often see the World’s System nestled in the Church in the form of mega churches and television ministries built upon the appetites and ambitions of men rather than God. Mega ministries are not the only evidence of man’s ambitious nature in the Church. Many pastors, music ministers, and church leaders are products of their own ambition. Elder boards are filled with successful businessmen and community leaders, not for their spirituality but rather their worldly success. Much of the carnality of today’s Church is a result of man’s ambitious nature. In business, we see Christian businessmen trying to ‘get ahead’ using their own striving nature to achieve their purpose in God, a trait I am all too familiar with.

In order to tap into “God starting” something in our lives, we must yield the deepest part of our being, even our dreams and ambitions; and this is where many will get off of the bus, because we are unwilling to give up our dreams and ambitions. The irony is however, that if we would, we would find that God has something even better! Many are missing their inheritance because they are in the wrong arena, launched there by ambitions. God is looking for a few dead men! What we are speaking of here is completely losing our lives in exchange for His (Matthew 10:39/John 12:24). Most of us have found it easy enough to give up the appetites of the flesh, but impossible to give up the appetites of the soul – specifically, our dreams and ambitions, even our desire for a mate. God sees our heart and inherently knows what we are willing to submit to Him and what we are not. Since our dreams and ambitions are so deeply personal to us, coupled by the fact that they cannot be seen in an outward way, we tenaciously cling to and are unwilling to submit them to God. To us, they represent the inner core of what we want out of life. These are always the last bastions of strength in self’s war against God.

It is also important to remember that Satan was kicked out of heaven and sent to earth because of his ambitious nature. The bible identifies him as the god of this world and his force rules many. This (almost) hidden spirit, unlike lust and other forms of obvious demonic spiritual activity, is often operating in us without our knowledge. Since, as the Bible states, satan is the subtlest beast in the field, we have been sold the bill of goods that self-appointed ambition is a good thing. As an evidence of the subtly and acceptance of this spirit, most of us ignorantly impose some of these ambitious appetites upon those we love the most – our own children! Often our acceptance of our children is based on how well they perform to our expectations, and our rejection of them when they do not. The challenge remains to muster the courage to yield ourselves completely to God for His expectations of us, not ours or anybody else’s.

Self-rule is a dangerous thing to a man or woman of destiny. What caused the fall of man initially was the desire to exceed the boundaries established by God: Man wanting to be God in his own life (Genesis 3:1-6). The temptation in Genesis had to do with limits. Man was originally purposed to respect God’s limits for him and trust Him (God) that these limits were for his (man’s) own good; NOT barriers to his growth and freedom as satan proclaimed. Man fell for the temptation because he saw the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil as something that would give him power to supply his own needs (food), give him power over himself and the environment by making him wise, and make him a god by knowing good and evil. In other words, man would become independent of his Creator and God’s imposed limits on him, and man could use his own resources of self-acquired wisdom and self-acquired ability to solve problems and create what he wanted. Remember this if nothing else you read; this continues to be our individual battle today! The antithesis of learning how to tap into God’s power within us is to constantly tap into our own strength, ability, intellect, and wisdom, the result of which is stress, toil, strain and fatigue. Stress, toil, strain, and fatigue are sure signs that we are not living and walking in the “rest” of God, a place of complete and total trust where we allow nothing to rattle us: A place in which we completely trust that all things we will ever encounter are of, through, and to God (Romans 11:36), hence whatever we face we can face with confidence if we are walking in the rest.

The first major factor in entering or returning to the rest of God is the knowledge that YOU ARE NOT IN IT! Of equal importance is the knowledge, that for a period of time you can walk in His rest in certain areas and be out of it in others. Eventually, however, restlessness will take its toll in those areas as well.

As we become sensitive to factors that remove us from the rest we become more apt to stay in it. We will address this in more detail later. Our peace and joy are the first things to go, and joy is the source of our spiritual, mental, and physical strength. From here we begin to experience confusion and anxiety, and finally, we see that in giving up our rest, our physical bodies begin to suffer extraordinary fatigue and even sickness. Migraine headaches tormented me for years, but as I have yielded to the rest of God, they have become practically non-existent. To reiterate, the progression is first a lack of peace and joy, which introduces confusion and anxiety, then fatigue and eventually sickness.

In examining the cause for Adam’s fall from rest to restlessness in Genesis 3, where the desire to self-rule caused the original fall of man, we again see scriptural evidence that when we take God’s place and begin to self-rule, we fall into the trap of our own carnality and leave “the rest” of God. Make no mistake about it; self-rule in the eyes of God is the highest form of selfish ambition. With that understanding, let us examine a poignant New Testament scripture – “For where you have selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and every evil practice” (James 3:16). There is no greater form of “selfish ambition” than to rule what is designed to be led by God’s Spirit (Romans 8:14). The disorder, or lack of it, in our lives today is gauged by our propensity to rule self strictly through intellect rather than God’s Spirit.

When we worry, when we doubt, when we fear, when we accept an evil report, we are accepting that God cannot be trusted. It is during these times that we are inclined to come up with something to help ourselves and form our own direction. It is during this hour of testing that we are revealed. How many Ishmael’s must I birth before I realize that God only desires Isaac? God’s purpose can never be found in the life of Ishmael, only in Isaac. One of God’s loudest prophetic pronouncements for this hour – Ishmael and Isaac can no longer live in the same house! Works of the flesh can no longer live comfortably with life in the Spirit. Ishmael will always taunt Isaac.

Upon recognizing that we have left the rest, we now have an incumbent responsibility to re-enter the rest. We must recognize that there will be no restoration without we first enter into the rest. There are times that we must labor, even fight to get back into the rest of God (Hebrews 4:11), but just how do we do this? If we have recognized that we have left the rest, and that the aforementioned downward spiral is now taking place in our lives, what must we do to return to the rest? We must first identify the areas in which we left (the rest); areas that we have stepped back into depending upon self. Once we recognize the area or areas, we must repent and RELEASE everything to God (Isaiah 30:15) and strive, even fight in the Spirit to stay in the rest. We must recognize who is sitting on the throne of our hearts – us or God?

Release is the key to rest. Recognize and practice this key because it also is also the key to walking in true Sonship, without which there is no Kingdom walking, no Kingdom power, and no Kingdom inheritance in this earth (Romans 8:14-17). What you cannot truly release to God, you cannot truly rest in. There will never be rest without release. Let me risk redundancy by writing this again – There will never be rest without release. Release is as tantamount to rest as sun is to light. Release is often impossible with man, but what is impossible with man is possible with God. When we humble ourselves before God, the grace will come to enable us to release our fears, cares, concerns, and ambitions to God. ONLY HUMILITY will draw the enabling grace; not a false carnal humility, but rather a Godly humility that allows us to come as a little child, broken but confident that “our Father will.”

As we begin to press back into the rest by ceasing from our own efforts, we soon see the revelation of Hebrews 4:10 (Amplified), “For he who has once entered God’s rest also has ceased from the (weariness and pain) of human labors, just as God rested from those labors…”

Once we recognize that we are back into doing our own thing, we must quickly “cease from our own labor,” or as the NIV states, “For anyone who enters God’s rest also rest from his own work…” The “God Thing” can never get done as long as we are doing “our thing.” In order to enter into the true rest, where we are able to flow with the Spirit of God, we must RELEASE everything to God, even labor to stay in the rest. “Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall…” (Hebrews 4:11). Rest is a prerequisite to restoration. Rest will initiate restoration as surely as restlessness will stop it! God is in the restoring business and desires us to recover all, but for this season to be initiated in our lives we must ACCEPT that restoration will only come through our “rest” in Him. God cannot and will not work through our anxiety, bitterness, backbiting, fear and complaining.

As mentioned, the “God Thing” can never get done as long as we are doing “our thing,” or said differently, God starts when we stop, and God stops when we start. When we violate the boundaries of the Spirit, we enter into doing our own thing, and it is here that we again face John 5:30, “By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.” When our true motive is not “to please ourselves,” we will begin to hear with clarity. When we can honestly say that we have been removed as the source of our direction, then the Spirit of God is free to direct us with specifics. Why? Because now our sole focus is obedience without interference from outside motives of self. Obedience is strong within us because the desire to glorify God, through our obedience, is greater than the desire to please self. When we launch into this condition of heart, we launch into the rest of God, because now my sole purpose is to glorify God through my obedience. My will, my way, my wishes are now secondary to God’s.

What I am learning, as first taught by Arthur Burt, is that “the greater always includes the lesser.” The greater, my obedience for God’s glory, always includes the lesser, my needs being met. Why do we take into our own hands what God intends to give us anyway? Because we have left the rest, because we have again become our own source and resource!

There are measures that can and will quickly tell us when and where we have left the rest of God.

The following little phrase has been around for years, but honestly pegs the question of rest. The amount of stress in one’s life is directly proportional to the areas Jesus is not Lord over. If Jesus is made to truly be Lord over a situation, we will not stress over that situation. Testing is the time that determines whether or not we have truly entered the rest. The battle has two fronts: restlessness on the outside created by circumstances, and restlessness on the inside created by doubt and fear. True rest will produce victory on the inside and is the best way to insure victory on the outside. “So as the Holy Spirit says: Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, During The Time Of Testing in the desert” (Hebrews 3:8). The time of testing is the time of revealing what is really in us. As we have stated many times, “Circumstances do not make the man, they simply reveal him to himself. A test will reveal one of two things – rest or restlessness!

REST REMOVAL FACTORS

This is only a portion of this great article. FOR THE FULL ARTICLE GO HERE: https://www.openheaven.com/2018/08/06/rest-gods-key-to-restoration-by-clay-sikes/  

---

3. NEWS HEADLINES

Foster families for unaccompanied minors Aug 7, 2018
USA (MNN) – Despite the possibility of detainment, thousands of unaccompanied minors continue fleeing to the United States’ southern border to escape violence. A Safety Problem “The situation’s not going to get better until we deal with the root cause,” Bethany…

“You Have to Leave Now”: Wildfire Evacuees Heard the Voice of God Just Before Disaster Struck Aug 6, 2018
Shawn Bolz compares the Carr fire to the devastating 1906 San Francisco earthquake which caused an urgency in Christians to bring salvation to people in the city and then led to a great awakening in America and movements like the Azusa Street Revival. Abigail…

Tennessee Schools Must Display “In God We Trust” in a “Prominent Place” According to New Law: Starts This Fall Aug 6, 2018
A “prominent place” is described as a “school entry way, cafeteria, or common area where students are likely to see the national motto. Michael Foust : Aug 6, 2018 : ChristianHeadlines.com (Nashville, TN)— [Christianheadlines.com] Students heading…

Refugees fleeing to Europe face continued roadblocks Aug 4, 2018
MENA (MNN) — The fight against ISIS isn’t over yet. Syria is still a dangerous place. Kurds in northern Syria continue to flee the country. Operation Mobilization’s Ambassador for OM Ministries to Muslims—Julyan Lidstone—says people from Iran, Afghanistan, and even…

Death toll from fires in Greece continues to rise Aug 4, 2018
Greece (MNN) — Fires have been roaring across Greece for the past week, leaving behind only ash, tears, and uncertainty. The death toll is rising, and there are even suspicions of arson. Greece has declared a national state of emergency and had three days of national…

Dr. Dobson: Christians Must Vote This Fall or Face Losses of Freedom as Seen in Canada Today Aug 3, 2018
“So far, President Donald Trump has nominated 44 judges who have been confirmed to the bench, and there are many others in the pipeline. There is hope for additional conservative and common-sense decisions to be handed down in the future. This is a matter for…

Prayer Alert News: UK, Europe, and Worldwide Aug 3, 2018
Praise Reports The broken cup USA: children return $700 Europe Europe not coping with mass migration Brussels: European Parliament prayers British Isles and Ireland Intercessor Focus: Christian holidays Incident at HTB’s summer festival Right to die law changes…

Political, religious disillusionment propels Iranians to seek spiritual truth Aug 2, 2018
Iran (MNN) — Last week, a Twitter clash featuring all-caps and threats of war flared between American President Donald Trump and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. Then, in a complete reversal, Trump offered to meet with Rouhani without preconditions and discuss how to…

US hits Turkey with sanctions over jailed pastor, Andrew Brunson Aug 1, 2018
Pastor Andrew Brunson was transferred into house arrest last month due to health issues . . IZMIR, TURKEY (ANS – August 1, 2018) — The BBC is reporting that the US has imposed sanctions on Turkey’s justice and interior ministers over the…

Twisted! Media “Freaks Out” Over New Religious Liberty Task Force, Accusing President Trump of “Holy War on LGBT People” Aug 1, 2018
“The media have tried to convince Americans that gay rights, which are not stated in the Constitution, overrule religious rights which are clearly stated in the Constitution. Journalists fear being proven wrong.” -Dan Gainor Donna Russell : Aug 1, 2018 :…

‘Prayers Make Such a Difference’ -Amid Devastation of California Wildfire, Community Pulls Together in Love Jul 31, 2018
The Fire is Devastating, but the Community’s Outpouring of Love and Help is ‘Unbelievable’; Redding Residents Reveal What’s Really Happening “For a brief moment, I wondered if our prayers could actually make a difference with something so…

Beijing Churches Issue Declaration in ‘New Era’ for Christianity in China Jul 31, 2018
Chinese Christian in Prayer BEIJING, CHINA (ANS – July 31, 2018) — Thirty-four churches in Beijing have issued a joint declaration calling on the government to respect the basic freedom and rights of religious citizens, and affirming the churches’ commitment to…

Through Native ministry, young man goes from dealing drugs to receiving grace Jul 30, 2018
North America (MNN) — This summer, 47 Native American young people from 28 tribes spanning from Alaska to Peru are on a mission. They are with the On Eagles’ Wings team – a branch of Ron Hutchcraft Ministries – and they are traveling to 12 Native communities across…

First-ever Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom gives voice to the persecuted Jul 27, 2018 USA (MNN) — Religious freedom is under threat in several countries and regimes around the world. However, the United States is putting a spotlight on religious freedom and giving a platform to those who have suffered religious persecution. By Lyndsey KohJuly 27, 2018…

How the RNC is Helping Parents Protect Kids from Radical Sex-Ed Curricula Jul 26, 2018 ‘Parents… Deserve the Right to Know’: RNC Passes ‘Parents’ Rights’ Resolution to Protect Children from Radical Sex-Ed Curricula “…Our hats go off to the RNC for joining us in this fight and demanding parents have a…

MORE NEWS HEADLINES