Page 25 - SABBATH
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Rare is the saint who can separate the voice of the Spirit from the voice of his own
soul. When the saint looks within to see what he should do and he is met with the soul’s
answer of the good path before him, a path that eschews evil, he decides that this is the path
he must choose and that he must look to God to help him walk this path. Such a saint fails
to understand that he must die to the good he finds within his soul that he might discern
the voice of the Spirit and find empowerment to walk the path God would have him walk.
This is a most important matter, and one that cannot be stressed too much. I would
guess that one out of a hundred thousand decisions made in Christendom today are actually
at the leading of the Spirit. All else arises from the soul of man. Look to yourself. Are you
listening to the voice of your soul, or the voice of the Spirit of God? Do you recognize that
there is present in your soul a sense of righteousness that does not have its source in God?
Have you falsely supposed that the sense of right and wrong within your soul is in harmony
with God’s will for your life?
The saint of God who has been born again of the Spirit must learn to discern the
difference between the voice of his own soul and the voice of the Spirit. Many, failing to
discern that there is a soulish sense of good and evil present within them, wrongly assume
that they are walking according to the will of God when they have only consulted with their
own soul and they have not yet discerned the witness of the Spirit of God.
It may seem to some that I am belaboring this point, but it is a most critical point,
perhaps the most critical matter in all of the Kingdom of God, yet it is not perceived by the
majority. Consider the way the apostle ends his treatise on entering into Sabbath rest in the
book of Hebrews. Some have felt like he was suddenly changing topics in the following
verses, but they are all of a consistent theme.
Hebrews 4:11-12
Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall through following the
same example of disobedience. For the word of God is living and active and sharper
than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of
both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
In order to enter into Sabbath rest we must be able to separate between the voice of
the soul and the voice of the spirit. We must refuse the good course the soul brings to mind
that we might follow the leading of the Spirit of Christ. We only enter into Sabbath rest as
we cease from the works that arise from the soul’s sense of good and evil.
Let us end this chapter by taking another look at Yahshua’s words, the words of the
One whom we are to imitate.
John 5:30
“I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just,
because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.”
Yahshua’s life was an example of perfect Sabbath rest. He initiated no activity of His
own. He only went those places the Father directed Him to go by the Spirit. He only
performed those deeds the Father revealed that He should do. He was even perfect in His
speech, only speaking what the Father commanded Him to speak. He did the will of the
Father in heaven.