Resting in the Faith

"Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me." (John 15:4)

Moving forward is challenging. Going to a higher level in life is even more challenging. In this post, I would like to discuss these transitions in life.

Being someone born in civil war, having spent my childhood in circumstances that I can never imagine going through again, having lived in a society I could not relate to and was not understood by, losing family members, breaking through social, generational, national, religious and geographical barriers, as well as addictions and depression to only find myself in a place of constant battle and warfare, but now in the spiritual, I thought to myself: "Hey, maybe I should share a word or two about moving on".

I have led a group of around 30 teenagers over 7 years. I fought my own battles and participated in battling theirs. The same also applies to my wife and family. I do not want to sound like a big shot, but my experience has its own value and has taught me a trick or two about this thing called life.

Before I move on I want to tell you what sparked my interest to think about all of this today. See every now and then I get these 'seizures'. It's nothing health related. It's just these wake up calls in my mind, sometimes valid and oftentimes baseless. So I always check with my wife. I don't know what I'll do without her. All it takes is 20 seconds for her to reassure me that all is good or that I need to get my act together. Somehow, when I see her faith in me or when I see her in the faith, I find my rest.

I don't know if any of you can relate to this, but for those of us who have had a glimpse of the coming glory, we tend to live in immediate expectation of it, with an urgency to do something to enter it, or at least do something of value with our lives, something like a project perhaps. Lately I've been asking God to take me to heaven in my sleep and open ways to disciple a new group of people, since I am living now in a new country and have more time to do that.

Many of us have had our moments of truth, anxiety attacks, out-of-this-world encounters with our destiny, depressions, etc... If you are anything like me, then you live in your dreams and everything around you is either an action movie or a useless time consuming nonsense that needs to end quickly. In other words, rest is not something easy to live in. It just doesn't come natural. As a 5 year old, I used to enjoy dancing frenetically to odd tunes which I used to play from my dad's record collection, things like Argentina's national football team songs, the red army orchestra, Armenian folk and pop tracks that last 2 minutes, etc... Thankfully my taste in music evolved. But the level of adrenaline rush stayed the same. My looks changed, my surrounding changed, collected a few scars on the way; some on my body and some on my heart, but the rocketing little boy was still jetting through life, sometimes effectively but many times idly. 

The Bible says: "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. For we also have had the good news proclaimed to us, just as they did [People of Israel in the desert]; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because they did not share the faith of those who obeyed [Joshua, Caleb and those who entered the promise land]." (Hebrews 4:1-2; clarifications added in brackets)

Although entering the rest of God, whether that be the promised land for the Israelites or ultimately the 7th day of creation or our redemption, resurrection and eternal glory, is the point of the above verse, the key notion I want to emphasize on is "sharing the faith of those who obeyed".

The way I used to read this verse and the way I used to take on my struggles was to convince myself of the value of eternal things (comparing them logically to the temporal) and consequently justify what I have to do (because the Bible says so), and force myself with human effort to 'believe' or 'act spiritual', in order to feel good about myself.

The way I read this verse is completely different now. It goes something like this: Hearing triggered seeing value, which in its turn triggered an obedience to what they saw, while the others did not share in this same pattern of behavior because they were not apt to hearing.

I think this is the best definition of 'faith'. If you have faith, then that means you have heard a message which has made you see something unseen before, and what you now see is of such great value that all you do is in obedience to the call of what you now see.

Paul explains this in Romans 10 and Jesus demonstrated it when He called the disciples by just telling them "follow me" and they left everything behind and followed Him.

So the way I see it, faith is not a set of beliefs, but a hidden truth unveiled to those who are apt to receive, and this manifests itself by a change of behavior, from obedience to natural desires to an obedience to the call of the discovered truth. That is why people look skeptical of others with whom they do not share their faith.

The Gospel, which means good news, calls us to our destiny. It is not by might nor by power but by the tender voice of the mighty Spirit of God, that mountains are moved and lives turned upside down. It is through the lips of weak men and women who obey the call and articulate the same message that shook them that lives are transformed all around them. It is a domino effect, where kings succumb to the testimony of people of faith like Joshua. Kings and demons in the spiritual realm are reminded of the faith that God has in man. They are reminded that God became man and put death to death in his body and was raised above every demonic power.

That message is resonating through the lips, service and acts of love of babes running their course fueled by the faith of Christ. They are His servants. They are as flames of fire, which the enemy cannot stop. The message is in their heartbeat. They are anchored beyond the veil in the very being of God, through their elder brother and leader; Jesus, who paved the way for them and has seated them with Him in the heavenlies.

Therefore, when I am asked the following questions:

• What is faith? 
• How do you fight your spiritual battles? 
• What is the Gospel? 
• How do we move on? 
• What should we do next? 

I tend to answer: God believes in you.

That is true rest. That is the message that calls you into the 7th day. God bless you!