Are you struggling to see breakthroughs and restoration for areas of your life? My friend, God wants you in a position of rest to receive His blessings! Join Joseph Prince in this three part series and learn why rest is the most powerful posture you can take in life.

Today, Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father’s throne (see Hebrews 8:1). And the Bible says that as Christ is, so are we in this world (see 1 John 4:17). This means that we are also seated at the Father’s right hand.

Now, being seated is a picture of rest. In the Old Testament, the priests never sat down. There were no chairs in the tabernacle of Moses or in the temple of God because their work was never finished. But Jesus sat down because His work is finished (see John 19:30, Hebrews 10:11–13). And God said to me, “Son, tell My people to have a throne attitude.”

So what does it mean to have a “throne attitude”?

“The LORD said to my Lord, ‘Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool.’ The LORD shall send the rod of Your strength out of Zion. Rule in the midst of Your enemies!”                                                                  

—Psalm 110:1–2

In Hebrew, the first “LORD” refers to Jehovah, or Yahweh, and the second “Lord” is Adonai. Therefore, the first verse actually reads, “Yahweh said to my Adonai…” After Jesus conquered sin and death, and rose from the dead, He returned to the Father. And the Father said, “Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool.” So Jesus’ throne attitude is to sit and expect His Father to bring all His defeated enemies under His feet.

In biblical times, defeated enemies were brought back in chains and the victorious king would sit on his throne and put his feet up on the backs of his defeated enemies as a sign of victory. Likewise, Jesus’ conquered enemies are being dragged to Him one by one, and put under His feet.

God is telling us to have the same throne attitude as Jesus—to rest, while He makes our enemies our footstool.

“…He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand…And God placed all things under His feet and appointed Him to be head over everything for the church, which is His body…”

—Ephesians 1:20, 22–23 (NIV)

We, the church, are the body of Christ. And who
is the one who makes the enemies our footstool? It
is not us, but God Himself! God’s Word is the truth and He keeps His Word. God is telling us to have the same throne attitude as Jesus—to rest, while He makes our enemies our footstool. So with each passing day, we have all things, including the defeated enemies of disease, poverty, depression and all kinds of curses, being put under our feet.

Enter God’s Rest

Do you want to know God’s definition of His rest? Hebrews 3 describes how the children of Israel were not allowed to enter the promised land because they doubted God’s Word. However, instead of saying “They shall not enter My promised land”, God called the promised land “My rest”.

“So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest.’”

—Hebrews 3:11

This means that what the physical land was to the children of Israel in the Old Testament, God’s grace and rest are to the believer under the new covenant. That is your inheritance today. God wants to bring you out of lack and into the land of abundance! He wants to bring you out of sickness into robust health! And this promised land is the place of His rest.

God’s Word always tells us “Fear not, fear not”. But do you know that there is only one thing the Bible tells us to fear?

“Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it.”

—Hebrews 4:1

In Hebrews 4:1, God tells us to fear that we don’t enter His rest. Now, many of us worry about many things and everything that God tells us not to be afraid of, we fear. But the one thing that God tells us to be afraid of, we aren’t!

Be Rest-Conscious, Not Giant-Conscious

There is another lesson that we can learn from this story. God told the children of Israel that He had come to bring them into “a land flowing with milk and honey” (see Exodus 3:8). This means that the promised land was a place flowing with abundance and provision. It was also a sure promise, a statement of what God will definitely do.

However, what was the posture of God’s people when they reached Kadesh Barnea, the border between the wilderness and the promised land? They sent 12 spies into the land for 40 days and chose to believe the report of the 10 spies who said that the Israelites could not take the land because it was inhabited by giants from the tribe of Anak (see Numbers 13:33).

In Hebrew, the word Anak means chain or neckchain. A chain around the neck is a picture of a yoke which weighs you down. Although God had delivered the children of Israel from their taskmasters in Egypt and they were no longer slaves, they still had a slave mentality. Instead
of focusing on God’s goodness and promise,
the children of Israel focused on their giant problem—the Anakim—and they were weighed down with anxiety and fear.

We are so focused on our problems instead of Jesus’ finished work on the cross, that we cannot enter our promised land of rest.

Today, some of us still have this slave mentality. We are so focused on our “Anakim”— our problems and symptoms—instead of Jesus’ finished work on the cross, that we cannot enter our promised land of rest.

Now, I want to pose to you a question that God asked me which I had to answer as well. Have you ever read the story of the 12 spies
and asked yourself if you would side with Joshua and Caleb—the two spies who said, “Let us go immediately and take the land!”—or if you would agree with the 10 spies?

Well, the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, like your fathers in the wilderness” (see Hebrews 3:7–9). In other words, are your problems bigger than what God is saying about your situation? Before your body is healed, before the money is in your bank account, before every problem in your life is resolved, will you believe that God will deliver you according to His Word and still walk in rest?

God wants you to have the revelation that whatever you need Him to do for you has already been done because Jesus has accomplished all for you. And God is asking, “In spite of the giants, would you go up and enter the promised land of My rest? Can you be rest-conscious, rather than giant-conscious?”

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>> Read Why You Should Learn To Rest Part 2/3

>> Read Why You Should Learn To Rest Part 3/3

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 Rest! God Is Working Behind The Scenes