Page 48 - SABBATH

by acting of our own initiative as Satan tempted Yahshua to do?
This is not an easy matter to judge. It would have been a simple matter for Yahshua
to turn the stones into bread. In our lives it is also a simple matter for us to seek our own
will over the will of God. There are many things we can do to satisfy the longings of our
flesh. All we need do is stretch out our hands in an act of our own initiative and we can have
what our flesh desires. Multitudes do so every day, and multitudes fail to enter into the
Sabbath rest of God.
If we are to walk perfectly before Yahweh we must seek His will at every turning and
we must be ready to accept whatever His will is. We must not grumble or murmur. We must
say, “My meat is to do the will of the Father. His will is what I live for. Accomplishing His
will is my sole desire. I have no will of my own. I will not allow my flesh to dictate what
course I will follow. I will put the flesh to death and follow the leading of the Spirit of God.”
The church knows little of such a walk today. The church is full of its own initiative.
Few seek to even know the will of the Father in a matter, and should the Spirit make His
will known there are even fewer who will willingly follow where the Spirit leads. The church
today has conformed itself to the description of the church of Laodicea. The church has not
crucified the flesh, but has pursued the fulfilling of the flesh’s desires until the following is
true of her.

Revelation 3:14-21
And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: The Amen, the faithful and true
Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God, says this... “Because you say, ‘I am
rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,’ and you do not know that
you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, I advise you to buy
from Me gold refined by fire, that you may become rich, and white garments, that
you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed;
and eye salve to anoint your eyes, that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove
and discipline; be zealous therefore, and repent... He who overcomes, I will grant to
him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My
Father on His throne.”

A church that esteems the satisfying of the flesh’s desire has sought to fill itself with
many things to gratify its longings. In gratifying them this church feels that it has gained
all that is needed. It declares that it is not lacking in any way, yet Yahshua says that this
church is wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. Vast is the disparity
between the church’s view and Christ’s view of things.
Yahshua overcame the desires of the flesh. He did not love His soul life, not even at
the cost of death on the cross. At the height of His greatest struggle between the will of the
Father and the desire of His flesh to preserve itself, He declared, “Nevertheless, not My will,
but Your will be done.” He states that those who overcome as He did will be worthy to sit
down with Him on His throne.
As we enter the seventh day of creation, God is looking to find those in the church who
will once more count the cost of following Him. There is no provision for the flesh
promised. As Winston Churchill proclaimed to the residents of the English Empire as the
threat of Nazi Germany loomed over Europe and all of the free world, “All I can promise you
is blood, toil, sweat, and tears.”
The Father calls His children to count the cost and to follow the example of His Son.