Page 21 - SABBATH

The Tree of Strife

aving read the previous chapter, you should be starting to get a glimpse of how truly
Hfoundational is this issue of the Sabbath. It is tragic that such deception and darkness
has overtaken the body of Christ until the meaning of Sabbath has been reduced to a set of
doctrines regarding the cessation of labor during one day of the week. The only
understanding among the majority of the saints is that Sabbath refers to some desire that
the Father has that mankind should not work one day out of seven. For most Christians, the
true significance of Sabbath remains hidden.
As we have seen, Sabbath actually refers to man dying to all personal initiative. It
pertains to man being truly governed by Yahweh so that all of his actions and all of his
words have their origin in Him. Sabbath is man ceasing from his own labors and entering
into a state where every moment of life is in harmony with the revealed will of the Father.
This requires that man must always be sensitive to the voice of the Spirit, for it is the Spirit
of God that discloses to the saint the mind and will of the Father.

I Corinthians 2:10-12
For the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. For who among men
knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man, which is in him? Even so
the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. Now we have received,
not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the
things freely given to us by God.

When Yahshua walked the Earth He said that He was always beholding the Father. He
did not begin His earthly ministry until the Spirit descended upon Him and abided with
Him. Yahshua is our example and it is to Him, and the pattern of obedience in which He
walked, that we are being conformed (Romans 8:29).
For this reason it is essential that the saint who would walk in true Sabbath rest
should be in constant communication with the Spirit of God. Unless we know the mind and
will of the Father, moment by moment, we cannot walk as He would have us. In the 8 th
chapter of his epistle to the Romans, Paul tells the saints in Rome that those who are
mature sons of God are led by the Spirit of God (Romans 8:14).
In every decision, at every turning and crossroads, man is not to have any initiative
of his own. He is not to decide the course he would take. Man is not to be led by his own
passions and desires, by the leading of his soul. Man is to have no will in any matter other
than to know the Father’s will and to do it. This is to be his highest aim and single objective.
It will necessarily and frequently occur that the desires of our souls will be in
contradiction to the revealed will of the Father. Sometimes the gulf between our soulish
desires and the Father’s desire will be exceedingly great. In these times we are to put to
death the desires of the soul that we might follow obediently the course the Father has
determined for us. This is the subject of Yahshua’s following discourse.

Matthew 16:24-25
Then said Yahshua to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny
himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life
shall lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake shall find it.”