Our human nature is the only nature we really know when we’re born. It is even the only nature we know when we are ‘born again’. But this is the beginning of needing to learn a new nature and letting go of the only one we have known up until then.
So all that comes very natural to us should be questionable in our spiritual growth process. We are not to lean on our own understanding, for example. I don’t know about you, but my understanding is the only understanding I have, until I gain further or another’s understanding.
The enemy knows our fallen human nature very well and can find a great deal in us to condemn us for once we recognize it as unholy. But we shouldn’t be giving him room to use it against us. Did we really think that we were made Holy instantly when we came to believe Jesus as God’s son, crucified, died, buried for our sin and resurrected? No. So we can truthfully acknowledge our imperfect state and hold to God’s promise to make us perfect as He is perfect.
So here are just some things we can do to ‘strive’ to enter God’s rest where we can trust Him to do in us what He has promised and release ourselves from the bondage of condemnation that serves only to undermine our faith.
10 Things to do to enter His rest:
1. Agree with the enemy that you are imperfect and unable to do more to be perfect.
2. Confess your weakness to God.
3. Tell yourself to keep turning to Jesus in humility and weakness.
4. Pray for the power of the Holy Spirit to perfect the Father’s will in you, in your spirit.
5. Do not allow self-pity in even though you feel it is warranted (this is an enemy tactic!)
6. Refuse to attempt some spiritual achievement in your own power.
7. Accept what God brings to you as His will for you (no matter what it is, even of the enemy – see Job – and make it an issue of prayer).
8. Accept that what God brings into your life may well be the cross He has given you to bear (even to share in His sufferings).
9. Do not bring true spirituality (what God is doing in you to perfect you) into the fallen realm. In other words, having begun in the spirit, don’t expect to finish in the flesh (laws, rituals, regimens, promises, rules, etc).
10. Refuse to lean on your own understanding (as much as you are able). Resist the temptation to do what you know, what you’ve done before, what ‘makes sense’ and what would even seem right. Either wait for the Holy Spirit to confirm it as His will, or wait for new, spiritual understanding. Doing the best that you are able.
I’m sure there are many more things we could do that I have missed. Please share more that you know of by leaving your comments.
