The Vision’s Rest! 2010/9 04/25/10

Just as a beginning for this time together, and to start up Habakkuk again this week, either take notes for later reference, or follow along with me, you will be blessed by the Word;

I am going to read some scripture that has the same purpose and impacts the same subject all along the way, and it is the proper theme to put in this portion of this prophet’s vision, and we will begin with John 14:1-4;

“ Do not let your hearts be troubled (distressed, agitated). You believe in and adhere to and trust in and rely on God, believe in and adhere to and trust in and rely also on Me.

In My Father’s house there are many dwelling places (homes). If it were not so, I would have told you, for I am going away to prepare a place for you.

And when (if) I go and make ready a place for you, I will come back and will take you to Myself, that where I am you may be also.

And [to the place] where I am going you know the way.

Now to John 14:27, and this is just after He taught on the Holy Spirit.

“ Peace I leave with you; My [own] peace I now give and bequeath to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid—stop allowing yourselves to be agitated and disturbed, and do not permit yourselves to be fearful and intimidated and cowardly and unsettled.”

Isaiah 26:3-4

“You will keep him and keep him in perfect and constant peace who’s mind [both its inclination and its character] is stayed on You, because he commits himself to You, leans on You and hopes confidently in You.

So trust in the Lord—commit yourself to Him, lean on Him, hope confidently in Him—for ever; for the Lord God is an everlasting rock—the Rock of ages.”

1 Psalm 11:4

“The Lord is in His holy temple, the Lord’s throne is in Heaven; His eyes behold, His eyelids test and prove the children of men.”

Nahum 1:7

“ The Lord is good, a strength and stronghold in the day of trouble; He knows—recognizes, has knowledge of and understands—those who take refuge and trust in Him.

Psalm 46:10

“Let be and be still, and know—recognize and understand—that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations! I will be exalted in the earth!

Now back to Habukkuk in Chapter 2:20

“But the Lord is in His holy temple; let all the earth hush and keep silence [still] before Him.”

I highlighted the words still and silence because they have the same root and are intimately attached to the circumstance. One more thing before we go on;

1 Cor 3:16

“Do you not discern and understand that you are God’s temple (His sanctuary), and that God’s Spirit has His permanent dwelling in you—to be at home in you [collectively as a church and also individually]?

1 Cor 6:19 – Paul wants them to surely know this point, and us as well;

“ Do you not know that your body is the temple—the very sanctuary—of the Holy Spirit Who lives within you. Whom you have received [as a Gift] from God, You are not your own.”

Now, with all this said and read, we should be reasonably well assured of our safety in Him. Listen to this heartening statement;

I want you to remember just several weeks ago, when we talked about the secret place of the Most High, and it stated that when the

2 absolute chaos of Psalm 91:5 through 7 was happening, vs 8 declares that you will only be a spectator there, for there you are inaccessible to any foe, and you will witness the reward of the wicked. It is also there that no foe can withstand the power of the Almighty in the place of your safety. You are the temple of the Most High God, and when He is at home, nothing can assault you nor disturb you. [unless you allow it to].

I think as we read Habakkuk, we see that he saw more than just what the vision first portrayed, and we have already spoke of most of it, but again;

The just shall live by his faith in His faithfulness! The earth shall be filled with the knowledge of His glory! The Lord is in His holy temple!

In the days when Alma had just been saved and I was just saved, there was a massive move of God across the land and it crossed all denominational lines; it was called the Charismatic Renewal, and it was a move of the Holy Spirit to awaken many. There was a new wave of praise, and teaching of faith and healing. There was a new awareness of the demonic activity that had been harassing God’s people for many years and a lot being taught as to how to deal with all the evil forces. The problem was that it moved so fast that there was no real stability taught, and sometimes things got out of hand, but God is still rich in mercy and He is now, after these many years, calling His people back to the stability of a genuine personal holiness. It is just about supper-time and He is calling us.

What is happening, is that God, Who is a consuming fire, is using an element to cleanse America, and letting all know that He is still in charge and that the Chaldeans [or their counterparts] are only being allowed to bring tests on us that will get our attention and cleanse us. Listen to a statement that a brother made not so long back;

God is cleansing America and the nations now, and showing them that they can do nothing without His approval. He has begun a baptism of fire. The man centered life style and all the principles that man has ‘self’ devised, are going to melt, with “fervent heat,” [2 Peter 3:7-13]. This fire is His Word through the mouth of His true servants. This day is the Day of the Lord and is typified in Scripture by the Feast Day of Atonement, preparing America and the nations for the Feast Day of Tabernacles. [Varner]

3 Now let us go to the meat of the lesson for this day, and it is from Habakkuk 3:1-4; [listen with a joy that fills him]

A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, set to wild, enthusiastic and triumphal music.

“O Lord, I have heard the report of You, and was afraid. O Lord, revive Your work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make Yourself known! In wrath [earnestly] remember love, pity and mercy.

God [approaching from Sinai] came from Teman, [which represents Edom,] and the Holy One from Mount Paran [in the Sanai region]. His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of His praise.

And His brightness was like the sunlight; rays streamed from His hand; and there [in the sun-like splendor] was the hiding place of His power.”

Now, starting here, vs. 5, just listen and read for yourselves this week all of chapter 3 in completeness;

Pestilence and fever both were the judgment of Egypt before, and of Israel at the time of the prophecy. When God decides to bring His judgment, there is no natural or political power that can stop Him.

Startled nations, scattered mountains, hills bowed and His ways are everlasting. His will is set in eternity.

Vs’s 7-15; The fruit of His wrath worked to favor the righteous. Every retribution was designed to straighten out the kinks and the kooks of the world, both His people and the others as well. God used natural phenomenon as well as human foes to render His judgment.

Now we arrive at the foundation that we have headed for and it is based in a verse we discussed at the last lesson. In 2:4; “the just shall live by faith” Now listen to Habakkuk, with all the rest of the story behind him;

We are at 3:12-15 to set the stage for what is ahead; Get even the scent of the power of God’s judgment, and this is not the extent of His wrath.

4 “You marched through the land in indignation; You trampled the nations in anger. You went forth for the salvation of Your people, For salvation with Your Anointed. [this is the Anointed, the Messiah, that was the vision that Habakkuk had at first].

You struck the head from the house of the wicked, By laying bare from foundation to neck.

[Smashing heads, slicing open from head to foot indicate the complete devastation that God brings on the enemies of His people. He can take nations completely down, literally as though they never were]

You thrust through with his own arrows the head of his own villages. [this is what God did to the enemies of His people]

They came out like a whirlwind to scatter me; Their rejoicing was like feasting on the poor in secret.

[these enemies were like cowardly bandits lying in wait to destroy their victims – but God…!]

You walked through the sea with Your horses, Through the heap of great waters.

When God moves in this fashion, all the powers of nature are shaken, and there is an awe that overwhelms all who witness it. What God does for His people, He does with their salvation in mind, even in the most violent of shakings.

Now, listen to the awe that Habakkuk was experiencing;

“I heard, and my [whole inner self] trembled, my lips quivered at the sound. Rottenness entered into my bones and under me— down to my feet—I tremble. I will wait quietly for the day of trouble and distress, when there shall come up against [my] people him who is about to invade and oppress them.

Though the fig tree does not blossom, and there be no fruit on the vines; [though] the product of the olive fail, and the fields yield no food; though the flock be cut off from the fold, and there be no cattle in the stalls;

5 Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will exult in the [victorious] God of my salvation!

The Lord is my strength, my personal bravery and my invincible army; He makes by feet like hinds feet [not to stand in terror, but to walk] and make [spiritual] progress upon my high places [of trouble, suffering or responsibility]!”

In other words – The just shall live by faith in His faithfulness.

Wow!! Can you hear him shouting as he ran through the streets in joy;

I WILL NEVER AGAIN WAIL IN MY WOES – BUT RATHER I WILL REJOICE AND REIGN IN MY REDEMPTION! He was then SINGING IN THE REIGN!

My God has delivered me in my trials, not from them, and now I am free even in the midst of any tests, trials or temptations and the fate of the wicked are in His hands and not mine. I will pray and wait upon Him, for the battle is always His -- not mine.

We need to remind ourselves that Jesus is our Rock, and our total safety and security, there is none other. We have all it takes, to take us through to total victory, and He has already, in Romans 8:36-37 told us;

“Even as it is written, for Thy sake we are put to death all the day long, we are regarded and counted as sheep for the slaughter.

Yet amid all these things we are more than conquerors and gain a surpassing victory through Him Who loved us.

For I am persuaded beyond doubt—am sure—that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things impending and threatening, nor things to come, nor powers,

Nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

We are facing things in America that, as I said in the last lesson, we never dreamed we would have to face. I do not think that any here would have ever thought that our nation would seek to remove any trace of God or His name from the hearts of us as a people. None of this agrees with the way we were brought up, and

6 we do not like it, but I know that God is about growing us and He will allow us to go through a lot for a while, but His eye is always upon each of us. What can we do? Well, we can do as Habakkuk did and get on the watchtower and pray, and God will reveal Himself in ways we have not dreamed of before. He is beginning to do that new thing that we have been speaking of and He wants us to learn to rest in the day of our troubles. [Matt. 11:28-30]

“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden and over burdened, and I will cause you to rest—I will ease and relieve and refresh your souls.

Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am gentle (meek) and humble (lowly) in heart, and You will find rest—relief, ease and refreshment and recreation and blessed quiet—for your souls.

For My yoke is wholesome (useful, good)—not harsh, hard, sharp or pressing, but comfortable, gracious and pleasant; and My burden is light and easy to be borne.”

Note: Several things we want to see in these verses that Jesus spoke for us; two words preceding rest, and they are ‘cause’ and ‘find’, and the other is the word ‘soul’. The first thing, is that in the feast of Passover, that the church has already experienced, there is a rest that is given, our sins forgiven and we came to peace with God. The second is that in the feast of Tabernacles, in the most Holy Place, there is a rest that is found. The church has yet to experience Tabernacles in fullness, but as we have the fullness of God within, we begin to experience the peace of God within. The other word that we need to see is ‘soul’. The word here is psuche and it is our humanness, and in James 1:21 we are told that the Word, (Jesus) [Capital ‘W’) in His fullness is implanted has the power to save our souls,, and He is the power through which we find and obtain rest, our spirit is already at rest in the Lord, and our soul has to be aligned to the work already in our spirit.

It is the Holy Spirit that is the power in us that causes us to grow and our lives become the witness that others see and desire to come to that rest.

In His recent newsletter, David Wilkerson had a statement that I read and it fits right here, and it concerns a redemptive revelation (vision) that we need see in the fullness of God in us, and I quote;

7 “ It is incumbent on every Christian, that in all our trials, afflictions and difficulties we see Jesus in everything.”

Seeing Jesus in everything is the same as the vision that Habakkuk watched for and received.

The word ‘incumbent’ here is exciting, for in Webster’s it means to rely on a person, and that person in this case is Jesus.

We are not to become entangled in bitter political battles, but rather we are to focus our lives and times on Jesus and His Word for our lives. God has never lost a battle that is given to Him and all our battles are to be His, if we allow Him to deal with them and us in the process.

All that Habakkuk saw, in his vision, was that he envisioned the finished work of Jesus in His death, burial, resurrection and His coronation. God ordained rest for His people, and He is calling us to go now from rest to rest and glory to glory. He is now calling us to the place of maturity and responsibility that recognizes His will to finish the work as only He can.

I am going to close this with another New Testament quote from Habakkuk 2:4 found in Romans 1:17, and you will see it, but listen to what it declares;

“ For in the Gospel a righteousness which God ascribes is revealed, both springing from faith and leading to faith [disclosed through the way of faith that arouses to more faith]. As it is written, The man who through faith is just and upright shall live and shall live by faith”.

Note: Paul wrote of Habakkuk’s words in 2:4 and makes it the heart of the gospel. The righteousness of God is attained only through faith, so that the right way to live is to trust. Habakkuk calls all believers in all times to trust God, to be faithful to Him, and so to find life as God means it to be lived. The final verses of the prophecy teach that it is possible to rise above all. Habakkuk does not deny his problems, nor does he treat them lightly, instead, he finds God sufficient in the midst of his troubles. [taken in part from Spirit Life Bible].

One place to close this out for this time is found in Jesus statement to his disciples in John 16:33;

8 “ I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have [perfect] peace and confidence. In the world you have tribulation and trials and distress and frustration; but be of good cheer [take courage; be confident, certain, undaunted]! For I have overcome the world. [I have deprived it of power to harm you and have conquered it for you.]”

We can do this only through the power of the Holy Spirit Who empowers us to be witnesses unto Jesus, and our peaceable stand in the midst of circumstances will be the vision of Christ-Likeness that they see. This is how the knowledge of the glory of the Lord will cover the earth. Alleluia to the King of kings! Class! Be Abundantly Blessed!!

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