6) DISCOVER REST IN CHRIST’S IDENTITY

Enjoy the Father

One of the most beloved story in the Gospel is the story of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15. This story has so many layers of meaning. Recently the Holy Spirit opened my eyes to understand it like this. The two sons described my Christian experience in the old model before I came to the knowledge of my Christ’s identity. The son that came home ashamed was me whenever I failed to crucify my flesh and stumbled in sin. I would come to God full of sadness and shame and often felt not worthy to be His son. Then there would be time when I have done well in my faith and I would come to God focused on my accomplishments, what I have done right. However, I never had any satisfaction because I don’t know when I would mess up and fail again. I lived in fear of God’s judgment. When bad things happened, my thought would lead me to wonder if I have done something wrong. Of course I would remind myself that God is not like that at all, but there is something wrong when you have to keep reminding yourself of this. My life would oscillates back and forth between the characteristics of the two sons, misunderstanding who my Father God is, never experiencing His rest. When God began to teach me about my identity in Christ, I still debated with Him that I need to crucify my flesh daily. I leaned on Luke 9:23 “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” I need to take up my cross daily, which means I need to crucify my flesh every day. But then, God directed me back to the text. Jesus said that whoever follows Him must take up “his cross daily.” God wants me to take up “my cross,” not Jesus’ cross. There is only one cross of death, and that is Jesus’ cross, not ours. In Hebrews the Scripture said that Jesus died once for all. The cross of death was Jesus’ cross not ours. Furthermore, Jesus died once, not every day. What then is my cross? What is it that God wants me take up daily? He directed me to Matt. 11:28-30 “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” God want me to take up His yoke. He said take up my yoke daily all who are hard at your labor and carries a heavy burden, and I will give you rest…learn from me…and you will find rest for your souls! The word “rest” resonated in my soul. God new I needed rest, so He directed me over to Hebrews 4 where the Scriptures speaks about a rest for His people. The promise of entering God’s rest still stands because those whom the promise was given to did not have faith to enter it. “So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. (v. 9-10).” Whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from HIS WORKS! That’s me! I need to rest because I am caught up with working, with doing, performing for God. I am just like that older son who, though have been living in the same house with my Father God, did not really knew and understood my Father. That son said to his father, “Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends (Luke 15:29).” I have been toiling to serve God being careful to never disobey His commands. I did not let myself celebrate nor let myself enjoy who I am. I was caught up with performing for God. The words of the father ranged in my heart, “Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.” God said to me, “All I have is yours, you are always with Me, rest, enjoy Me, enjoy all that I have for you.” He reminded me of the Westminster Catechism. The first question in it reads, “What is the chief end of man?” and the answer is “Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.” The chief end to living the Christ identity is to enjoy God forever! Stop living the old model, see ourselves as little children in Christ, rest, let God embrace us and enjoy Him.

Embracing the Christ identity and seeing myself as a little child in the arms of God has changed me completely. It has changed my relationship with God, my view of Him. It has changed my prayers. “Lord you are good, and your mercy endures forever” has been my praise to Him whenever I think about Him. God you are so good! My heart has been released and it feels good! I’m on a spiritual vacation, I have entered rest. I no longer come to God with a guilty conscience because I am His little child. My morning prayer is “thank you God for this day, thank you for this new life and that it is Christ who lives in me, I will rejoice and be glad in it.” I now live each day thinking “how can I enjoy God today.” I now enjoy my intimate relationship with God throughout the day. Why was it that the disciples of Jesus, who have witnessed every aspects of Jesus’ ministry, from His powerful teaching to His healing of the sick, performing supernatural miracles, casting out demons, being a masterful apologetic, only asked Jesus to teach them one thing? In the Christian world today I see people clamoring to Jesus saying Lord teach me to heal the sick, teach me to do miracles and cast out demons. Lord teach me to be a powerful teacher; show me how to master debates. The only thing the disciple have ever ask Jesus to teach them was: “Lord, teach us to pray.” Why was that? Was Jesus’ prayer so eloquent that they were captivated by it? How many chapters of His prayers did his disciple wrote down and collected? It wasn’t the prayer that the disciple was asking Jesus to teach them. It was Jesus intimate relationship with the Father that the disciple was so captivated by. In teaching them how to have this intimate relationship He began with: “Our Father.” O Father, you are good and your love endures forever!