Discovering Rest in Jesus

Abiding is 3D. 

It's more than posturing and finding a prayer time.
It is purchased for us by Jesus and empowered by love.
It is in Christ. 


It is relationship in three dimensions.



"Trust in the LORD and do good; Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness." 
Psalm 37:3

Rooted and Established

Abiding is rooted and established in the love of Jesus. 
Ephesians 3:14-21

For this reason I kneel before the Father, ¹⁵ from whom every family^[a] in heaven and on earth derives its name. ¹⁶ I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, ¹⁷ so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, ¹⁸ may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, ¹⁹ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

²⁰ Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, ²¹ to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

Rooting goes on and on in our lives as we walk in the Spirit and abide in Jesus.  

The most important rooting is in love.  The love of Jesus, experienced and known, is the sticky honey that keeps our heart, mind, soul and spirit focused and expanding. 
Our roots grow up and fill up to the capacity of the love we know in Jesus Christ.  Real experienced and known love,  that is what abiding in Jesus is about. 

If we can grasp it, we are completely enveloped in the love of God as we move in his will.  Totally and literally surrounded in the effective love of God.  

Somehow, as we move in the Father's will, abiding becomes our habitat.  Our habitation.  

Resting in His Rest

Abiding is learning to rest in the reality of our salvation and his peace.


There is a resting place in Christ that soothes the soul, pours fresh rivers on the spirit and calls out the deepest desires of our lives in Jesus.  It is found in faith and trust.  It is a rest for the soul, always available to us in all circumstances.  It is a rest established in love (Ephesians 3:14-21) and cannot be broken by anything in creation (Romans 8:31f). 

 Jesus is jealous for us and our affections.  He deserves them all in their highest forms.  As we surrender to his affection for us we fall deeper into his rest.  It is a vast assurance and true comfort.  It is water for the soul.  It is healing for the heart.  It is knowing God (John 17:3). 

Jesus said, "It is finished" and with that he set down forever a new and living way (Hebrews 10:20).  A way,  that leads to the Father and his awesome blessings.  Those blessings are set as inheritance for the Saints.  They provide an abiding in rest that cannot be shaken once experienced.  It's as if he writes on our hearts, mind, soul and strength this rest. 

To learn to rest is to learn to trust.  To abide in the resting place with the Father is to place all cares, hopes and our very future in his hands and will.  It is in loosing our lives that we find them in the Father.

Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. ^a]

Hebrews 4:1

Activating Obeying faith

Abiding is activated by obeying His voice and touching the world.

If you love me.....Obey my commands.

 ² For we also have had the good news proclaimed to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because they did not share the faith of those who obeyed.

Hebrews 4:2

Many believers know how to position themselves in a posture of abiding.
Waiting on the Lord, praying and seeking the Lord's face regularly,
they perfect an individual experience of abiding.  
Yet in itself this is not abiding in fullness.

If you love me you will keep my commands. 

My command is this, that you love one another as I have loved you.  

Abiding empowers the action of love through Jesus in the world. 
No action. No love. 
No love.  
No abiding.
Spirit and Truth worship is abiding in the Fullness of Christ. 
We tend to take pieces as the whole.  


Abiding is 3D. 

It's not just learning to wait for the Lord.

It is waiting for the Lord in action.

It's not just learning to rest in God.  It is  waiting for his blessings and rejoicing in the intimacy we experience.  It is knowing him and seeking his face (Psalm 27).
Abiding in Jesus is a full circle journey.

Abiding is from the secret place, to the House tops, 

to the world in love.  

What is heard in secret proclaim from the roof tops


When abiding is 3D.....
It brings the power of intimacy into the open.
It refreshes those around us with the fragrance of his presence.
The Kingdom finds expression in the world we live in through remarkable simplicity.


When abiding is 2D....
Believers rejoice that God loves them and in the experience of his presence, but the world or the Saints do not "hear the word" or experience the testimony.
We find assurance for our way and rest for our souls, but we hold back the explosive quality of love, intimacy and knowing God among those where we live everyday.
This is not a 3D abiding.
It is only part of the whole picture of the Love of God.

 "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters."

I John 3:16 

Jesus' love of the Father was not 2D.   Not 1D.  

Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”

⁹ Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? ¹⁰ Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority.

John 14:8-10

Abiding in Jesus means being 3D .  Real demonstration of a real love.  
This is a love that pours out of us because it is written on us.  
Its more like fragrance than anything else. 

We are like our Master when we rest in the Trinity God.
We carry his voice and spirit everywhere, as we move around the world.

God loves making his love tangible and real. 
He is supernaturally natural at it. 
His presence is with us everywhere we go. 

So.  Will you step into his rest? 
Will you abide in his rest? 

Repent.  The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. 
Move out of pressure of a world screaming for things Jesus never asked us for and into the Kingdom of our Lord and Christ.  A place of pure rest in HIM. 




What do you think about describing abiding as 3 D?  
Does it make sense?  Move you to a go further into obedience and following your abiding into your day to day life?  

2018 - is Open Doors - Restored Paths - New Fiery heart

Transfiguration! 

Look forward, eyes filled with Abundance, Boundless, Victorious vision in Jesus.  

  

How's your 24?  
How's your prayer walk?  
Sowing into prayer is the greatest avenue for consistent joy in Jesus than any other thing out there.   

Take a new step into the depths and riches of knowing Jesus.  Pray. 

Start today.  5 mins listening to or reading the Scripture and Psalm 27:14 wait for the Lord.
Grab some time and steal away with Jesus.
He is remarkable to be around.
You will tap into the grace of God.
The Father sent Jesus to restore us to him and he is longing to know us in Christ.  (John 17:3)


1. 10 Keys to Praying with Power
http://jeffreynoldsonedesire.blogspot.com/2014/11/10-keys-to-praying-with-power-moving.html

2. 10 Keys to Sustaining Supernatural Life
 http://jeffreynoldsonedesire.blogspot.com/2014/12/10-keys-to-sustaining-life-in.html

3. Why is the Prayer House Empty?
http://jeffreynoldsonedesire.blogspot.com/2014/11/why-is-prayer-house-empty-or-is-it.html

4. Intimacy with Jesus Beyond Religion? 

 

Thanks for Reading!   

I love your comments. Ideas and thoughts.  
Please share em.
Re-shares are great. thank U.

Here are some other blogs posts that may interest you.  

The dialogue is awesome.  Thank you. Testimonies?  Share em with me.  Re-Shares lov em.  Thank you! With much love in Jesus 

You can do this thing!  He's got you. 

Jeff Reynolds   --- 

Brother Jeff

www.jeffreynoldsministies.com 

The Day Turns into the WAY. Knowing God from Every Point You Meet Him

Everyone caught up in the salvation in Jesus Christ...

Had an encounter, a Day. 

A moment.  A realization.  A prayer.  A starting point.  A beginning in Christ. 

Nearly every believer understands the importance the Day made in their eternal story. 

Equally so, most understand that being born, awakened, or to come to life in Christ is the starting point.  

The DAY.

Few believe the DAY is the end.    

That's like believing we get born and that's it.

No one in their right mind believes that newborn babies are finished; of spiritual babies, that there is nothing more to be done, just to die and go to heaven. 

There's always an eternal road out in front of the Day.  
  Isaiah 49:11

So why would we believe salvation is just about being born? 

Waiting for some far off day to step into heaven, are believers to simply live like every other person of our culture and time?   

Some believe they get a ticket on the DAY.  A sort of getting out of hell free card.  
That's it.  God stays in heaven, with nothing to do but wait for us all to arrive?

That's all that happens? 
Everyone simply goes on living however they want? 
Waiting for the day they go on into heaven.  The sweet bye and bye.  
Wow. 

Seriously?  

Yes. I've talked with people with this view.  This idea brings home the "I never knew you" phrase of Jesus.  

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ 23Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’  Matthew 7:21-23

Jesus is pointing to those who don't actually know him but act like they do.  Tragedy.  
They are doing religious stuff and somehow have no connection to Jesus himself.  This can lead to a miserable life. 
"Doing good things for God"  -  Things he never asked them to do. 

"Not doing any of the things for God"--  Things he actually asks us to do. 

Seriously?

The prayers-less faith of so many...
The "no visible sign of Jesus" lives people live...
The "I prayed a prayer and I'm good" Laodacian passion... 

And we really believe the statement above from Jesus is for "other people"?


Yes. Praying a prayer works.  I've seen it on many occasions. And people grow up and follow Jesus.  

Maybe we should include in the interpretation of the DAY a "hey awesome, you prayed the prayer, now come follow me as I follow Christ."    I Corinthians 11:1

Most understand that the Day of Salvation leads to the Way of Salvation. Walking us in the Spirit into all the Ways of the Lord.  

Jesus mandated his followers with this...

"Teach them to obey all I have commanded you".    

Matthew 28:18-19

It's not a mandate of words and religion. 
It's a mandate of life and real living. 
Demonstration.  
Teach and do. 
This is the Jesus way. 

There is nothing virtual about living out our faith. 
Yet so much appears invisible.  
In our heads. 
Not on the written words of our lives. 

When you look down and see a three-year-old imitating you as you brush your teeth, you realize "teaching them" is much more than a lecture or the intake of information.  

When I noticed my three year old son brushing his teeth like me and looking up at me and doing everything I was doing.....  Fear coursed through me.  A sober awareness of my involvement in shaping this little one. 

Wow.  He sees what I do more than what I say.  That changed my whole outlook.  Parenting and giving away the life I believed I had, took on a whole new vast moment to moment responsibility.  

I don't think Jesus was saying, "please say all the things I said to them and we'll be good."  

Teaching to obey carries a real, "I am modeling and obeying Christ and this is how you do it" tangibility.  It's really hard to say that if you are not actually doing it.  And so goes so much of our witness and discipleship.  IT's Virtual.  In our heads.  Secret.  Not demonstrated.   


Somehow we have a stronghold of thought that says, "If I believe the right things and agree with all the truths about Jesus, I will be saved."  This is the massive doorway to religion.  It is simply a "work" of the intellect.   If we don't receive a direct lead to knowing Jesus (John 17:3), to follow him, to walk in the Spirit, to go with his Gospel, or disciple others, possibly it is pure religion we are peddling and receiving.  Pharisee stuff.  Blind Guides.   

This is a turning point that cannot be overlooked.  Religion is easy.  It is natural to condemn, enslave into law, judge and shame.  This is 101 flesh life.  We condemn ourselves so freely in religion.  This is not our faith.  Rooted and established in the love of Jesus and the righteousness of his Kingdom. 

More than all the above, what if we invited people to follow us as we follow Christ when they pray a get out of hell prayer? 

"Hey, come and follow Christ with me."  This is so much more than simply saying Jesus' teachings and getting a head nod of agreement.  We are invited to walk in the Spirit.  To demonstrate Christ with every step.   

Of course a brand new baby, born that DAY, does not grasp the wonders of their future or even the most basic ways of their new family.  

We fully intend to teach our kids the life we live and we do, either deliberately or by default.  There's no getting away from modeling how we live each day in Christ.  Every new family is intent on teaching their kids their ways.   That generosity and sacrifice is good grace poured out to kids and new believers.   The Ekklesia family of Jesus is no different.  We are called to entrust the Way, Truth and Life of Jesus to all who would learn.  

The DAY of our birth leads to all kinds of future DAYS in the Way of Christ. 

The Day of our salvation leads to all kinds of knowing the Ways of the Lord.  
The Day speaks to the Way. 
The DAY is not the end.  It's the beginning. 
And every new day is intended to be filled with the knowledge and spiritual life of the Day of Salvation.  

So how is it  we do not link the Day of our Salvation with the Way ahead and forward into eternal life?

 









What are your thoughts on all this? 
How do you see it? 

Comment.  

Share your ideas! 

I want to know how you see these things?  

Thank you in advance for sharing!

Prayer is the inexhaustible truth.  
United Prevailing Prayer is an indispensable weapon.  

Get these two foundations in prayer!  

How's your 24?  
How's your prayer walk?  
Sowing into prayer is the greatest avenue for consistent joy in Jesus than any other thing out there.   

Take a new step into the depths and riches of knowing Jesus.  Pray. 

Start today.  5 mins listening to or reading the Scripture and Psalm 27:14 wait for the Lord.
Grab some time and steal away with Jesus.
He is remarkable to be around.
You will tap into the grace of God.
The Father sent Jesus to restore us to him and he is longing to know us in Christ.  (John 17:3)


1. 10 Keys to Praying with Power
http://jeffreynoldsonedesire.blogspot.com/2014/11/10-keys-to-praying-with-power-moving.html

2. 10 Keys to Sustaining Supernatural Life
 http://jeffreynoldsonedesire.blogspot.com/2014/12/10-keys-to-sustaining-life-in.html

3. Why is the Prayer House Empty?
http://jeffreynoldsonedesire.blogspot.com/2014/11/why-is-prayer-house-empty-or-is-it.html

4. Intimacy with Jesus Beyond Religion? 

Transfiguration! 

www.jeffreynoldsministries.com 

Thanks for Reading!   

I love your comments. Ideas and thoughts.
Please share em.
Re-shares are great. thank U.

The dialogue is awesome.  Thank you. Testimonies?  Share em with me.   

Re-Shares love em.  Thank you! With much love in Jesus 

You can do this thing!  He's got you. 

Jeff Reynolds   --- 

Brother Jeff

United Prevailing Prayer - Changes Everything

Prayer is the indispensable element.   The air of an abiding life. 

Heart Seeds from Japan

To see movement and progress in the hopes of people, cities, nations, our own assignment, requires prayer, both corporate and individual.   

Personally, I see prayer rooting everything of value in the Kingdom of God.  

It rooted the Lord Jesus.  It appears to be essential to life, hearing and knowing the will of the Father for Jesus and the apostles he shaped.    

I expect myself, and all Christians actually, to be intentionally pursuing an abiding worship-filled life of prayer. 

• A life of prayer that actually moves a couple mountains in their lifetime. my lifetime. 
• A life of prayer tapping into the miracle reality of a faith that finds itself often confronted by the impossible.   

Not just a individual prayer life.   
Lost in the playground of Holy Spirit experiences, personal quests and endless encounters that don't translate into any tangible benefit for the Body of Christ, such a personal prayer life cannot be the fullness of the mission and purpose of Jesus Christ on the earth.  Certainly a brick in the roadway of kingdom progress, such wanderings need insight, wisdom and some faith action in the world of love.  If heaven conducted itself in such a way, if the character of God was like this, Jesus would still be in heaven enjoying the beauty of the Father and the fullness of the Trinity for himself.  Instead, love compelled him to come down from the Throne of Heaven and lay down his life in love.  Prayer is not an individual pursuit in the Kingdom of God.  It is an essential element of individual abiding and practicing of the presence, but it is not the fullness of Jesus Christ if left on its own.   The revelation of Jesus in his Death, Resurrection and Ascension to sit at the right hand of the Father as the High Priest of the Heavenly temple is proof enough that prayer leads us to service, love and sacrifice.  

Prayer is also corporate.  Centered with the family of believers, each one is called to overcome the world, preach the Gospel of the Kingdom, and disciple the Nations.  Not an individual mission.  A family mission.  A mission forged in community, communion and co-laboring with Jesus and the Saints.    

So, yes.  I have a few assumptions behind these ideas.  They could be called presuppositions.  That is ideas usually hidden behind the words we speak or ideas we put forth.  They are typically not out as part of the discussion.  They do undergird and hold up the ideas we typically put out in front.  

Assumption 1

To minister in the way Jesus did, we are most likely required to have the same commitment to prayer he had.  

What did that look like?  
Hebrews 5:7-9  
Cries, tears, reverent submission, suffering, obedience.  All the words we are unfamiliar with.  The sustaining teachings we have little experience in and the endurance we have little patience for.  What does this look like when such words are applied to prayer?  I'm not sure we speak this language.  

The description of this kind of prayer proves lots of time with the Father both in encouragement, insight, and empowerment for the mission of his Father's will.  That mission ultimately overcame death.  Imagine.  Jesus was a human person in all the ways we are, except for sin, and he was fully God.  The primary means of overcoming, or at least central to his mission victory, was prayer described by these words, cries, tears, reverent submission, suffering, and obedience.   

Can we categorize or characterize our prayer journey with these same words?  

So the weaknesses of our lives he understood by experience.  He overcame the world and remained the perfect sinless Lamb. But he experienced the weight, pain, intensity, tears, prayerful cries, of overcoming death.  The all around us, ever pressing in to inform and teach us, death.  The death that fills up minds and hearts while people live, death.  

And Jesus experienced the way of the Father's will right in the middle of the ever-present voice, teaching, character, mindsets, and threats of death.  

This was the life he had to lead based on that call and mission of the Father's will on earth.  In the conflict to overcome the world there was suffering.  Jesus obediently moved through the suffering with the support of the Father through prayer and in a life of continual strengthening in thanksgiving and intercession.  He did that through prayer as a core abiding reality, in Spirit and truth.  This led to prayers of tears, cries of intercession and supplications to overcome death.  

Prayer is powerful.  Prayer is the air of heavens victory in you and me. 

Assumption 2

To know the Father the way Jesus does and to grow in eternal life, requires the same commitment to prayer and intimacy Jesus had. 

Listening is key to getting hold of the Father's will.  Jesus spent morning after morning away in prayer.  So much so the disciples finally caught on and asked, "Teach us to pray".  

To walk in the Spirit, Overcome the World and see the unseen, requires a consistent dedicated persistent life of prayer.  To move mountains, hindrances, spiritual obstacles on the pathway to, "well done good and faithful servant", requires ever increasing prayer and growth in the language and power of God's presence.  

Paying without ceasing as I understand it, is continually abiding in the presence.  Translating prayer into the wisdom and revelation of the Holy Spirit.  All the time listening as we walk in those revealed steps.  Pouring out in service and love the grace we've been entrusted with from Christ.  That grace comes from his victory.  Gifts of overcoming power and love that he won for us.  With his own blood, he purchased for us abiding prayer in continuous and ever-expanding presence.  Such grace empowers us in his victory.  Prayer, listening, and writing lays the groundwork for a faith that activates this grace.  Prayer supports, under-girds, upholds, sustains, empowers, emboldens, encourages, and so much more than we ask or thing, empowers the grace we have received.   

I keep saying United Prevailing Prayer changes everything.  

So what does United Prevailing Prayer mean?

1. United -

Competition may be in American blood, its definitely in mine as a coach, but it's not in the blood of Christ.  Every member is vital to the victory Jesus is bringing.  Sons and Daughters must learn to exercise grace in faith and serve and love one another as Jesus did.  He laid down his life for us and so we should lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.   John 15:12-17;  I John 3:16

We have all kinds of activities that foster and promote the local church organization. Yet few of these offer partnership or co-laboring in unity with the wider churches or ministries around us.  

For the ekklesia, which is called to ONE LORD, ONE FAITH, ONE SPIRIT, we appear to have less generous working unity than the world does in business, non-profit work or simple neighborly love.  Not good. 

Jesus entrusted us with a most incredible insight into his prayer life in John 17.  It gave us a window or picture of what and how he prays; his hopes and his victory on the Cross, in the Resurrection and as soon to be ascended, King.  

What he won for us, is how he prays for us.  

Unity and love among us, demonstrates to the world that he actually came (John 17:20-21).  Real tangible love among the brothers is completely attainable, if we position ourselves in Christ with his eyes for one another.  John 17:20-21  

Anything dividing us is a lie.  Poor teaching and worldly ambitions turn us away from the power of love and service to the ekklesia of our city and region.  Such ambitions?  Such dividing elements?   Are they for money and power.  James 3:14-18    

2. Prevailing - "prove more powerful than opposing forces. be victorious."  Oxford Dictionary.  

Prevailing prayer proves our overcoming strength in Christ.  This kind of prayer does not shrink back in the face of the need for a miracle. The impossible is expected to come along at any time.  These impossibilities are gifts from God, stages to prove the Gospel of the Kingdom to the impossible.  They regularly arrive when we set ourselves into the motions of grace and faith.  
Everything is easy when we simply admire the thought of overcoming the world.  When we are living in the reality and action of overcoming the world, we realize it cannot be done without prayer.  
The power of prayer mixed with patient endurance is a prevailing recipe. 


Jesus paved this path-Way.  Let's follow him into joy.  He travailed in prayer.  Believing that through the cross he would overcome death and defeat it forever.  And so he did.  

To prevail in prayer is to hit head on the obstacles and hindrances that will surely come as we seek to do the Father's will in the world.  

Prevailing prayer is the power that keeps on knocking, asking, seeking in the face of the impossible.   The breakthrough of God's amazing news in Christ, is found in prevailing prayer.  Prevailing prayer is rooted and established in love, the most compelling and eternal reality in the universe.  Prevailing prayer is the partner of HOPE.  It puts hope in motion.  Prevailing prayer is an act of faith.  It cannot be done without faith.  And so by nature, it abides in the "please to God" realms.  

It is impossible to abide in prevailing prayer, without compelling, clear, actionable faith.  

Prevailing prayer will overcome the drout and momentum problems we face in winning the world to Christ.  Prevailing prayer is walking in the Spirit by faith.  Prevailing intercessory worship and prayer are the foundation of every family and ekklesia.  Regions, cities, nations, advance in "every spiritual blessing in Christ" in prevailing and consistent prayer.  Standing on the promise and activating the power of continuous dialogue with God, is indispensable.  As prayer is indispensable, prevailing prayer is equally indispensable for the Saint on the mission with God.  Walking in the Spirit is walking in prevailing prayer both corporate and individually.  

Flowers in Rocky Desert Soil

3. Prayer -- in secret and in corporate
Secret praying is the root and foundation of abiding and walking in the Spirit (Matthew 6:5-13).  This Kingdom life cannot be done except for a vibrant and supporting intercessory prayer and worship filled life.  

The secret place is indispensable to knowing and activating the mystery of Christ in you the hope of glory.  

The Master was devoted to prayer.  We are called to the same way.  What appears weak is actually the greatest strength available to us.  Prayer moves mountains.  A mustard seed moves a mountain?  We have much to learn about the power of prayer.  

Prayer sustains the move of Christ in our hearts.  Prayer covers and upholds the holiness and truth of the Gospel.  Prayer opens the doors for the Gospel and removes the blinders of the enemy over groups of people.  We really should need no convincing, but the guts seem to have fallen out of the churches prayer life.  

Corporate praying...
Prayed Peter out of prison.  Corporate praying and worship busted Paul and Silas out of prison.   We need corporate, developing, intercessory worship and prayer to sustain and uphold the Saints in consistent walking in the Spirit and overcoming life.   

Prayer is the inexhaustible truth.  

The air of heaven. 

The vision that confronts the impossible. 

United Prevailing Prayer is an indispensable weapon.