Rest - God's Key To Restoration
Submitted by Clay Sikes

Forerunners are called to sink the plow of God's truth into the hard ground of men's hearts and plow up this hard ground caused by tradition, wounds and experiences from the past, religion, and faithlessness. I believe this to be 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 into "His rest" will touch this supernatural occurrence, laying a foundation and example for the masses to follow. Many unknowns 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 shinning 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 this recovery uniquely tied to "the rest" of God. "Rest" and "recovery" are virtually synonymous terms in this unique prophetic hour. 2003 has seemed to awaken this fascinating phenomenon of prophetic spiritual revelation in me, and I feel God is telling me to "speak it" in this appointed occasion. Judge what I am saying here, 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 locust 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 promises manifest in our lives. Such, I believe to be, is the essence of this writing.

I have walked in "the rest" of God at times, and known of its existence for years, but only recently come into a depth of 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 that lets me walk in 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 the place and position with God through which destiny and purpose can come forth. 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 in this prophetic hour, 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 dominos, my restlessness pulls me back into doing my own thing.

John 5:30 is the 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 will require complete understanding and patient discipline to carry 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. 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 for 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.

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 of us 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 our own 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. 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 man wanting 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 the factors that remove us from the rest we will 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 welcomes 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 came in 2002 - 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 and strive, even fight in the Spirit 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

What will remove or prevent you from the rest of God quicker than any other factor? SELFISHNESS. The KJV in James states, "Where there is envy and strife there is confusion and every evil work." Envy is a vicious form of selfishness. When we exalt and put ourselves above anything or anybody else, it is guaranteed that the rest and restoration of God will be lost. What will get you back into the rest the quickest? Putting God and others first; putting others ahead of self (I Corinthians 10:24). A willingness to do this is a sure sign of release, which spontaneously puts you back into the rest, which ultimately produces restoration. What produces God's miracles and favor the quickest? Selflessness through obedience FOR GOD'S GLORY, which will always spawn God's favor in your life because THE GREATER ALWAYS INCLUDES THE LESSER. From personal experience, the lesser is abundantly beyond what you can even imagine. I have seen a number of financial miracles that spawned as a result of putting others ahead of self. What started as a selfless acts ended in financial miracles. This continues in my life today. "Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others" (1 Corinthians 10:24).

Self-interest is a peace robber; selflessness is a peace giver. Selfishness will eradicate rest and deny restoration very quickly. As stated, what I have learned in business, which I am sure applies in other areas of life, is that selfless acts based on fairness and putting others first, will bring God's hand and favor into the deal in incredible ways. If you are a businessman, lose the naïve notion that you must use your great skills and intellect to make money for the Kingdom - God doesn't need your skills or your money, He needs your yielded heart! Forego the World's System for your reward and gain the Kingdom's method of receiving. Being yielded will require being selfless, which will result in God's immediate favor and restoration.

"Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by the good life, by deeds done in humility that comes from wisdom. But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or DENY THE TRUTH. Such wisdom does not come down from heaven but is earthly (a product of the World's System), unspiritual, of the devil. For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice. But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest in righteousness" (James 3:14-18).

Another major revelation in staying in the rest can be found in I Corinthians 4:4,5 - "Everything hidden will be revealed." When something in us has been revealed, we must be quick to acknowledge it to God, seek God's direction, and if so directed make it right with those we may have offended or done wrong. Living transparent is a key to rest. Cover up is key to restlessness. Our Father will correct us if we will allow it because "those He loves He chastens." A true son, who is led by the Spirit will not only hear the Lord's correction, but also will be quick to respond to it. God honors transparency; in fact, he rewards it with anointing and favor.

"It is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful" (I Corinthians 4:2). We will be given opportunities to "prove faithful" as everything hidden is revealed. What will we do with it? Will we repent? Will we acknowledge it? Will we make it right with our brothers and sisters? If we "prove faithful," God will reward us with anointing and favor. A major key to staying in God's rest, which results in His favor, is staying "transparent." Cover up will stop God's favor as sure as transparency will start it. The extent to which we live our lives in transparency, to that extent will God's mercy, favor and blessing flow into our lives. God rewards faithfulness.

Bowing: Another Key To Staying In The Rest

What do you do when opposition comes? Do you bow to it or do you fight it? If most of us were honest our answer would be that we rise, and yet nothing will rob our peace quicker than rising against that which God sends to oppose us. It is here that we must remember Romans 11:36, "All things are of, through, and to God." Only accurate discernment and a yielded ness to God enable us to recognize opposition as God-sent. Is the broad statement being made here stating that the opposition I face in life could be from God? Arthur Burt, whose revelation of this is deeper than any I have been exposed to, states in his book Surrender, "Every moment of everyday I am either bowing or rising: bowing and glorifying God or rising and glorifying myself…so then, finality is glory, either man's or God's. Which shall it be?"

Opposition is designed and ordained of God to reveal to us areas in which our heart is not submitted to God. If we will simply allow God, by bowing to the opposition, He will reveal what is in us and give us the opportunity to "judge it" so He will not have to. By refusing to see the opposition as from God, we consequently lose what God is trying to reveal as ugliness within, and consequently we lose our peace and place of rest. Again, quoting from Arthur's book, "If I (can learn to see God) in challenging circumstances, I will bow to the infinite wisdom that permits what the almighty power could prevent." God can allow or permit anything. If "all things work together for our good," then we should never doubt the power and vast importance of the words "all things" in our lives.

It is such a foreign thought to those of us who naturally fight and contend for what we perceive to be ours, or what we perceive to be right or wrong. We feel instinctively that we must rise up and position ourselves against the wrong we perceive. Again quoting from Surrender, "Man's attempt to steal God's glory occurs when his heart functions out of order and instead of bowing, rises in self-exaltation (pride). More damnable than any sin, more vile than any injury a man can inflict on his brother, is this refusal to bow to God, this rebellion of the heart in its uprising as it seeks to unseat God from His throne - to become a god instead of having a God! It is the same response Eve had when Satan tempted her to eat of the forbidden fruit, insisting that she and Adam would "be as gods" (Gen. 3:5). When we judge from our limited perspective, we become god, and as inevitable as darkness befalling night, we lose our peace and rest.

I recently saw one of the most powerful examples of what can happen when we choose to rest in God, even in the direst of circumstances. A local Christian family experienced the horror of losing their 24 year old eldest son to drugs. His death shook the core of many young people in this community as evidenced by the vast numbers who attended his funeral. Well in advance of the funeral the family began to sense a divine purpose and began to rest in that purpose and yield to God instead of allowing the normal feelings of anger and guilt. They soon found out that their son had attended church recently, and that the pastor had called him out and prophesied that his life would be used to turn many young people to the Lord.

Bravely, as the service ended, the young man's father stood before the church, and with one hand on his boy's casket he said, "Don't let my son's death be in vain. There is a reason for everything that happens and this is your wakeup call." He implored the young people, as a loving father, to examine their lives. The young man's grandfather, a local minister, came forward and gently asked if those in attendance wanted to get their lives right with God. Many accepted the Lord. As yielded vessels in God's rest this family turned a community of young people to a loving God, and in the course of doing so set one of the most powerful Godly examples I have ever witnessed. Through rest comes restoration.

Many young people, including my sons, were spiritually affected by the tragic death of their friend, yet by choosing the "rest" of God, a family allowed their tragic lose to produce enormous gain. Through rest comes restoration, and by bowing to the Father instead of fighting and contending with Him, a community will never be the same.

Visit us at  www.lighthouseprophecy.com    To Top