“Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened” (Hebrews 4:1-2, ESV).
This verse is referring to the ancient Israelite’s journey through the wilderness. When they came to the Promised Land, they sent 12 spies into the land. Only Joshua and Caleb came back with a good report; the other 10 spies gave a report of unbelief and disobedience. They poisoned the well with the children of Israel, and they refused to believe God’s promises to protect them. This is what God was speaking about when the writer of Hebrews said, “as he has said, ‘As I swore in my wrath, “They shall not enter my rest,”’ although his works were finished from the foundation of the world” (Hebrews 4:3).
I believe that God has called us as his followers to live by faith! The only way that we can show God’s power in our lives and receive his promises like his rest is if we walk in his Holy Spirit, by grace through faith.
If you don’t believe me, look a little further down in that passage. “For whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his” (Hebrews 4:10). The only way that we can enter into God’s rest is if we cease from our own labors.
Now this doesn’t mean that we come to a place of inactivity. I believe the life of the Apostle Paul testifies to this; he walked in the rest of God, and he also wrote two-thirds of the New Testament, took the gospel to much of the Roman Empire, and was a great church-planter. The rest he found wasn’t from not doing anything. It came from living in faith and in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Our Christian life isn’t like “Well, God does his work, and I do the best that I can, and then God can produce something.” That’s not how it works. We must surrender our own understanding, strategies and creativity to God. He will do far greater things with his strategies and creativity than we could ever imagine. We simply must have faith.
John Bailey is the Vice President of World Challenge Inc. and the Founding Pastor of The Springs Church in Jacksonville, Florida. John has been serving the Lord in pastoral ministry for 35 years, ministering the gospel in over 50 nations, particularly as a pastor and evangelist in Cork, Ireland.