Life Rhythms of Rest and Gifts of Sabbath (Part 1)- Lucy Cantrell

Many think of Sabbath as a religious rule. But God invites us into rhythms of Sabbath, from daily rhythms to entire seasons of Sabbath. These rhythms of rest are God’s gift to His people.

Full transcript generated by ai (please excuse errors):

​I asked Beth to just keep playing there just times that I feel like the Holy Spirit brings us into this moments when when Elijah says, basically, bring me a minstrel. So that I may prophesy. And I just feel like that's what, that's what as we, as we hear this, this notes play in high believe that the Holy Spirit, the testimony of Jesus, which is the Spirit of Prophecy, is falling upon us is speaking and prophesying over Ross over degenerations. So I just want us to even just tune in, even what the Spirit of the Lord is doing right now, as we hear this notes. What the testimonial of Jesus is saying, in our spirits, through the Holy Spirit right now what the Holy Spirit is prophesy, and over the generations in this hour. You know, most things in the kingdom is like a master key. So we're going to see this morning is faith. And as we enter in faith in faith through these things, whether we see them whether we, we feel them. But as we enter in faith, we receive them. So right now I just pray that we will enter and receive not only for us, but for the generations, in this hour, and those generations to come to we see the words that the Spirit of the Lord is saying, over the generations, this time that we enter into this time, this holy time, that God is opening for us to enter and to receive what He has for us. I want to read the Scripture that came to mind as we were worshiping Jeremiah 616. This is what the Lord says, stand at the crossroads and look, ask for the ancient path. Ask where the good way is, and walk in it in you will find rest for your souls. But you said we will not walk in. So I just pray that we will be the generation that we ask for the ancient path, that as we stand in this crossroad in the ancient path, we are not just standing with the people in this generation. But we stand with the generations of all the generations of mankind since Adam, and was standing at the crossroads, to ask for the ancient path of God, the path of who God is not just the path that he has traced upon the earth, but the truth of the Spirit. They are from eternity to eternity. We ask him for the ancient way of God or the Ancient of Days in this hour. And we ask him in this our Holy Spirit, for the ancient path. So we can know the good way and walk in it and walk in it and we pray for those who are saying in this hour, we will not walk in. We pray that you will breathe upon them afresh in this hour. The day we'll hear the call come, coming join us. We are the crossroads and I believe that the Lord is saying you're standing at the crossroads because you're waiting for them, waiting for them to join you in this path that I have for you. So we say come coming join us in this crossroads. We are waiting for you. We welcome you we call you in the spirit in this hour. In the name of Jesus, Lord, we think we commit this time on to you and I pray that you open the new things that you want to do in this power in our lives more, even if we hear things that we know and we have heard in the past, custom to be new breathe upon this words, breathe upon us Father, in Jesus name, amen hi, hi everybody it's hard, it's hard to recover in the presence of the Lord this morning with us. So this morning, the message that I felt that I wanted to bring is, is the Sabbath or the day of rest. And I think the Nancy said something like this last week, I'm sure I'm not gonna say exactly how you said it. But I heard it, I think it was I remember if it was Beth is sharing with me. You said something in the line of how sometimes we teach or we impart others as we are walking the journey. As we are walking in that journey, we are in part in that and, and this is the place that I'm sharing from this morning, I journey that we are as a family. And I believe that many of you may be in this journey, as well. But I also believe that the Lord is inviting us as the body of Christ globally, in this season, to enter into this holy place in time, the He has blessed in Santa Fiat, and call it Sabbath. And I can tell you that there is so much to learn from the Lord, there's so much to learn from each other in this subject. I believe that a few concepts that we are going to learn a case we're going to learn from each other. And one of these concepts that we may not have time to share today. But I think that it's important that we start here is how God invites us into rhythms of Sabbath, from daily rhythms, into seasons of Sabbath. And all of these daily rhythms, weekly rhythms, and seasons of Sabbath Sabbath are to help us to live a lifestyle of Sabbath in the blessing is store specifically for this time, this holy time called Sabbath. Okay, so what are words to come to mind for you when I say Sabbath? This will tell you can be interactive. Anybody there's no wrong questions. It's just rest. Thief seeking. Amen. All those are part of these. I don't want to call it concept of Sabbath, this blessing this time of Sabbath because we're going to see the Sabbath was given to man as a gift as a gift of time. It's not a day, and we're going to see in more in in a few. So let's start with what God says about Sabbath. Okay, so the first time that we hear about this, this word Sabbath in the scriptures, we see it in Genesis chapter two and verse 123. And it says, Thus the heavens and the earth in all of the hosts of them, were finished. And on the seventh day, God ended His work which He had done. And he rested on the seventh day, from all his work, which he had done. Verse three, then God blessed the seventh day and sanctify it because In it, he rested from all His work which God had created and made. Most of us when we think about the definition of Sabbath as rest, which is correct is part of it. But in the Hebrew rest is kind of like a bow the third definition of Sabbath. Sabbath literally means to stop into sees that that's the meaning of this word that we see here in Genesis two, verse two, in he, meaning God rested. On the seventh day, he stopped, he ceased on the seventh day. Now, before I continue with this, I just feel like the Holy Spirit wants me to share this. When we hear the term Sabbath, we tend to see to think, Oh, this is what the Jewish people, right? This is what the Jewish people do. Okay? Is that really for us. But there was something very profound that I found in the in this journey that is just like, made me even more to be able to enter into this holy time and time of blessing that is the Sabbath, to realize that when God spoke about Sabbath, when he says here in Genesis, we just read it, the He blessed that sanctify it. He, in he plays men, Adam and Eve in the garden. So the first thing that Adam and Eve encounter with God, what's rest was ceasing from all their work. God didn't place them to work immediately, he placed them in the garden, to rest with him, to encounter the Sabbath with him. And I just realized that because Adam and Eve were not Jewish. Think about it. The nation of Israel was not formed on to Abraham, the commandment given to Israel of the Sabbath was until Exodus. So that means the Sabbath was, was a gift given by God to humanity to creation, not just to the Jewish people. Now, our tendency, okay, and talking about Sabbath means to cease to stop, or tendency is always feel the time that we have available with something. Think about it. If you don't, for example, exercising, you go and take a shower, hopefully. And since you are in the most likely in the exercise mode, you might as well look for more videos about exercise and right because you want to learn more about it for your next workout. And while you are in that video, something pops up. Right? Like it usually happens in social media. And you go from engaging mentally, in that activity, that you were about exercise into this news activity that just pop up, you begin to engage mentally, until someone or something else may interrupt you. Maybe your children because they're hungry, or they're bored. And you go then to the next thing to the next thing and to the next thing. And you may say well, Lucy, that's, that's life. There's nothing we can do about that. Right. And I may agree with you to some extent. But I believe that we also have to realize that we are programmed like never before. A society to never stop to never rest. Instead of removing ourselves even for a few moments. Even no daily life, from any activity, engage with God, that we're going to see that that's how we were designed. We replaced one activity to the next one. One stimulus to the next one, or minds never to stop, or body's desire, the next time of dopamine and adrenaline, then we have trained ourselves in our bodies or soul in our spirit, to seek the next thing that will entertain us. We, if we're honest with ourselves, we all in some way train, have trained ourselves to this. But what we don't realize, and this is why the law was just convicting me deeply, personally, well, we don't realize is the most of the time. Those things give us us a false sense of movement. Towards into the next one is a false sense of movement. We may think, Oh, we're moving forward to one thing to the other, or I'm doing all the things throughout the day, when in reality is keeping us stuck in a place of isolation, from the opportunities to encounter God, to encounter a family around us to encounter others in encounter creation, as God created us to encounter we have been designed by God to actually heal during these opportunities that we have with him throughout the day, to this rhythms, the I was talking at the beginning, God designed us to actually have a healing and restoration in our souls through creation, or bodies, or souls or spirits are designed to be constantly restored, and empower through our encounters with God, or encounters of God in creation, or encounters with God with one another. In this is part of what a cleanses exclusives, this three one says, to everything, there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven. You know, we we heard a podcast, I think it was John Eldridge, I'm not sure. But Brad had shared this podcast with me when we were in Virginia. And he actually made a big impact on us as a family. And basically, the message in a nutshell was to see that design God made from the beginning, when he created men and placed them in the garden, so he could walk with God in the things God had created. Because those things, think about it if God plays man in the garden, right around creation, and as man was supposed to commune with God, and was supposed to be in charge of the garden, and supposed to name things every time they were to see something new and discover something in the garden, because the garden creation reveals the glory of God that was supposed to see something that was remind them and he had an encounter with the glory of God through that, and maybe even named it because of that. It was supposed to always be a constant reminder of the communion with God through creation. So creation not only reminds us of him of God, but will invite us to encounter him to restore souls through the beauty of creation. Something that they said in the podcast is how artificial beauty will never be able to accomplish this. And yet, most of us spend probably 90% Every day seen only artificial beauty. We spend a lot of money sometimes getting the next HD TV to get the best clear picture possible. We spend so much time watching nature channels and beautiful scenery in views of creation on TV. Oh my goodness, you see that the picture on this TV how those mountains look? Oh my goodness, yes. We spend so much time in our electronics trying to see the artificial beauty instead of going outside and being in nature to experience the real thing. And we miss the opportunity to receive healing in our souls. As we encounter God in creation we keep us Help so full with everything else that don't have space to receive what God has for us. Mother Teresa. I like this quote of Mother Teresa. And she said, Let us remain as empty as possible, so that God can fill us up. We live in right now in a society that we are filled about with everything, again from the next thing to the to the next one. But I remember that when we heard this, I remember that we began to challenge one another to experience God everyday through creation even more. When we were in Virginia, even if he was from the house, we took time every day to sit on the back porch to see the sunset and the sunrise, to hear even the birds in the morning. Just to enjoy the silence. Yet, the then the sounds, the creation makes in the morning, to take time on the weekends. So we can go hike or drive to see leaves. And something began to happen, that we began a prayer that we continue to say together when we feel overwhelmed, or hurt by situations. Those times Okay. became part of this prayer that I think they was part of something like this. They said in that in that podcast, we give everything and everyone to you, Lord. We give all of our heart affections to you. That helped us to shift in that moment or focus to God, no matter what. So those times even those seconds where we will go sit in an experience creation. It helps us to slow down to stop to cease into even allow the things to come in the surface the things that we are maybe feeling and we real realizing the things that we're struggling sometimes we don't realize that we're struggling to be able to say, Lord, we give everything and everyone to you right now. So also during that time, that God was teaching us this even more we began a season of Sabbath without us realizing that that was what God was doing. And that was a season of great healing in our hearts. As we were experiencing Sabbath rest. Okay. You have to agree with me that God has a sense of humor, he sent us to the land of no rest. Not even the highway ever. rests, there's always traffic always, always, always. I never experienced the series they just never stop you never sleeps. Day and night, always traffic. But he sent us to that land to experience in a way, a deeper place a Sabbath rest. That's what Matthew 1128 to 30 invoices. Come to me all you are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you in lien from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, My burden is light. This is part of the invitation of Sabbath, to cease to stop, and even to heal. To allow God to heal this place is in our hearts. But this is not the norm in the times that we are leaving we have again we have trainers self to go after the net stimulus in our minds, in our body, in our souls because we have come addict addicted, have the never stopping, never stop and always feel every moment of our lives with something. And not only that, okay, but we have informed our souls to believe the lie that who we are or identity is in what we do. Even the knowledge that we acquired every day, even if it's knowledge of God and in the scriptures and we find fulfillment in the things that we do. This is one of the greatest temptations that we have as human beings and we need to be aware to think that God gives us the Sabbath as a gift. So we can realize that we need to cease and stop in rest in cookies in what he has done. In he can bring some of the things to the surface. That's why our souls crave so much for that. The problem is that, as we keep have been training our souls and our bodies and our spirit to just be craving of this artificial things. The problem is though things will never fill it is like the black hole that will desire more and more and never be satisfied. Because God has placed eternity, in the heart of man he has placed in eternity, think about this, he has placed eternity in each one of us in our hearts. Because only God himself is big enough to fill it. And the view of who we are in eternity, will fulfill that hole. This is where we're going to see why the Sabbath is a gift, the God gives us a gift of time that Gods gives us. And we're going to see even some some Jewish perspective that I think that is going to help us to even I mean, it's blowing my mind, I'm just like, sometimes have just to stop and just like us, I'm encountering this with the Lord and I'm like Lord is, is just so much Sabbath. It's an invitation again to stop to cease in the daily rhythms in the weekly rhythms in the seasons that we are. But today, I think I'm going to concentrate in the weekly rhythm of Sabbath. Okay. And as we learn more about this weekly rhythm of Sabbath, we're going to see that is not about replacement. But removal. When we remove ourselves from the activities of the world, even for those 24 hours, we are not replacing one activity from another. I'm just not going to stop what I'm doing during the week, to go on Sabbath and just watch TV all day long. I'm just replacing an activity there and filling myself my mind with that, that's a replacement, nor a removal. But we are when we are removing ourselves from this activity is to enter into a time that is holy. There are things blessings, deep communion with God that I believe will only happen in that time. The he has sanctified. Think about it. If I want to tell you, Okay, you have permission to go everywhere in this house. And you think about the room that we see here in the front. And you choose never to go into the room, maybe that's not a good idea because it has glass doors, maybe here, okay? Going downstairs from this door, you cannot see right now, how the downstairs looks like right? But you have access to it. You have access to go and enjoy it. But if you choose just to be in the house in every other single place of the house and never go there, you're never actually going to experience and to even maybe enjoy what is there for you to enjoy. This is what Sabbath This is a place in time. God. After the sixth day it says okay, I'm going to sanctify time, then I'm going to call Sabbath. And it's going to be specific time. So my people can receive this gift of this time that I have sanctified, that I have blessed that I'm going to encounter them in ways that they will not encounter me any other way. In the receive in an enter into who I am as a holy God because it seems sanctified, it's set apart. I'm calling them to be set apart to encounter me in this time that is set apart for them so they can receive what I have in store for them. So they can actually be aligned with myself and with the reality of eternity of who they are going to be in the ages to come. Because we're whether we realize it or not, or salts in our spirits I crave in for this craving. That's why the scripture says even creation is waiting for the sons and daughters to be revealed. God is wants to reveal in those times of Sabbath who we will be in the ages to come and when we come in alignment with that we're going to realize we go going to realize more of who will be in the times in the ages to come and that is going to satisfy a whole lot black hole that we have Have of eternity placed in our hearts that can only be filled with God. So let's talk about practical ways that we can leave Sabbath. Of course, I'm just going to isn't we don't have time to just talk about the infinite ways, but it just picked some that I felt the Holy Spirit wonders to. To go through this morning, the invitation to Sabbath is to experience again, true rest, in drawn nearer to God. So if you were to say, what is Sabbath? Why do we want to experience Sabbath, so we can experience through rest, and draw nearer to God. This may include activities, kind of like to mark kind of like the beginning of the end of the Sabbath, if you feel like that's why you, you, the Lord is guiding you to do okay now may give some practical suggestions here. However, however, I say this words with the fear of the Lord, if they created you, a sense of obligation, a sense of legalism, or striving, I believe that I will have defeated the purpose of the Sabbath. If the various possibilities, like worship service candles, festive meals, prayer, walks, hiking, special game, and so on, become one more way for us to be successful or productive, another burden to carry, they are not connecting us with God, then we are missing the point of the Sabbath. On the Sabbath, we are invited to clear away the distractions of our lives. So we can rest in God and experience His grace in a new way, is when we actually come encounter with a cross and the reality of the cross and the and the and the reality of grace, what Christ has already done for us what God is saying, Stop, stop. I already have everything I have already done everything it has finished, come come into My rest. And let me show you. Let me show you. What I have already in store is remembering the work of grace and what Christ has already done for us. So we can stop our work. We may need to create simple structures to experience the rest in God's presence. But if we give ourselves to too many things to do, the Sabbath become a legalistic and burdensome duty. The Sabbath is more than doing nothing at all. We need to seek a balance in between a lot of rest and a few habits that will nurture intimacy with God and with others which we're going to see. Okay. Because Sabbath is not one dimension. It's not just about resting, moments of silence, although those are part of it. Moments of connecting with God, but Sabbath we're going to see that is a time of celebration, it is time of community as well, that it's time to the joy of community. Okay, so we're going to see that it's multidimensional. Were the one thing is God the Sabbath is more again, than doing nothing at all we need to seek that balance the Sabbath is about Resting in God and not feeling this is important not feeling obligated to do something more or just feel guilty because you're not doing it. So engage in this talk a little bit about Sabbath and engage in our census, how we are in time many people find that experiencing God's creation is an important part of a restful Sabbath and I agree because that's what we have as a family we're beginning to encounter even more whether that involves gardening walking riding a bike sitting in a park, feeling the fresh air and seeing the sky and clouds and landscape in landscape. Okay, I mean, all these may involve don't these activities may be involved in Sabbath. I know I know that being for us to be engaging in this activities. Okay has done just has made a difference in our lives and in the way that we are connecting with God. So being in God's creation, often slow us down. We should enable us to notice beauty which in turn creates thankfulness in us, and an attitude of receiving any seems effortless. You know, we just went to spend a Sabbath weekend on the mountains a few weeks ago. And when we were in the cabin, I mean, you couldn't hear nothing, I mean anything, just a stream of water that it was next to the cabin, the birds, the wind, the wind, the, the the trees moving with the wind and the leaves. That's the only thing that you could hear. You literally could hear silence a sub than the sounds of creation. And I tell you that I was not trying to connect with God in that moment. It's not like, Okay, Lord, I'm just going to pray right now to connect. I just went outside and look, and listen. And immediately, it was like, my mind began to be flooded with thoughts of God. And I'm like, it was effortless. It was almost like he was like, like, downloaded onto me, like, I was like, wow. And scriptures that I have not thought in such so many, you know, in such a long time, begin to just flood my mind. I thought, even the things that I was seeing, and I was like, wow, this is real. This season and stopping in actually create space and room, there is a blessing that we receive in the time that God has sanctified, to spend time with him. We are invited in this times of Sabbath again, to enjoy nature, but to engage or senses in so many ways, an invitation for our senses, to be awakened to the reality of the creation that God has made so quick, they can even be restored, and be ready to encounter God Himself. And again, this might involve some, some activities like walking instead of driving garden in writing, or by walking and enjoying or community. But this is part of the invitation of Sabbath. I want to talk a little bit about receiving Sabbath as a gift of time, as we talk a little bit already. So the Sabbath, again, is a gift given by God, to men to humanity. That's why Jesus said in Mark 227, then he said to them, the Sabbath was made for men, and not men for the Sabbath. Jewish rabbis explained Sabbath as a place in time he has built Okay, I'm gonna just repeat this, this is just really actually is just really profound definition of what they how they explain Sabbath. Sabbath, as it sets up is a place in time that God has built our tent in time, the guiding vices. They believe that even in the tent of meeting, even the tent of men, and even the holy place, that the tower knuckle was a reflection of the Sabbath, the tent, the place that God has, has built in time to meet with his people in a deeper and in a holy way, or dimension, in which we are at home with the divine. I when I was reading this, I kept thinking about a Hoopa you know, where in Jewish wedding, they create this beautiful canopy, right? It's like a holy Hooper, where a bride meet with his bride groom. In fact, in one of the things that I was reading, they were explaining how a lot of Jewish also see the Sabbath as the bride where they meet is a time to meet in with the bride groom, to have weekly dates with the bride groom, and enjoy each other. In entering a Sabbath lifestyle, we begin to realize, like we just said, not what we do, but rather we are who we are loved by. Know why we do but we are who we are loved by. I believe the Lord wants us to receive time as the gift, this time of Sabbath as a gift to shift your how we see the time that has been given to us. That's what Ephesians 515 is says. See, then, what you want that you walk through search comm speckly secret 16 synchronistically. That's a hard word for me to say, not as fools but as wise Redeeming the time. Because the days are evil. Time has become an enemy. Tour, never stop in societies to are never self indulgent souls that crave the instant bus of social media of, of the immediate things that we get text messages, email, and have immediate access through everything through our phones. And again, I'm not saying that the things are bad or they're evil, I am not saying that they actually can be used for good, okay. But this is what the Lord was saying to me as I was writing this. But just because some things can be good, just like the first days of creation, one through six, God called everyday Good, very good. But there was one thing that he chose to go holy for the first time. So when we leave behind, we remove ourselves, even from the things that may be good. Those six days in time, we are choosing one time, that is holy. One time that God said apart as holy, I believe that there's something set apart for us when we choose this holy time to spend exclusively with God. Now, I'm just going to talk about more about this in another week, but I just want to just go to really just inviting us a little bit about Sabbath in, in in communities. Okay, again, there will be times rhythms of silence and solitude, the Sabbath invite us the Sabbath, again, is not one dimensional, it's multi dimensional. And the one thing is God. I believe that although Sabbath invites us to rest, and it's actually an appointed time, that will awaken are souls or spirits. I believe that that's why God is calling us right now to this. A time to be awaken, as a bride, a tongue awaken as a sons and daughters to be awakened. In the times of rest. I noticed kind of cultural, I know, it's like an upside down thing, just like the kingdom is upside down Kingdom rest sacrificed time so you can have more time, sacrifice time, rest, so you can be awakened. So you can be alert. So you can receive what I'm doing in this time system. So you can enter into the reality of time, or what I have right now in this times in the seasons. There is there is so much to say about community I remember that asking call in and I keep asking him when I was reading. I was talking to him and Brighton. And I was asking him about his time in Israel and his experience with Sabbath. Okay, and not only with the community that he was part of, but what he experience as a nation. Going into complete rest is done, legalistic in some places, right. But the fact think about this, the implication of a whole over whole nation over whole land, going into rest every six days. Entering into the holy time and the blessings that God has for that, for that time that he called Sabbath. Wow. I couldn't stop thinking once I was talking to him about this, what it will look like when the nation of Israel finally enters into the truth in Jesus. When we together too, in the millennial reign, we are able to enter and celebrate the feast and and the banquets and hold these things with Jesus. The true rest and something else that I felt like the Lord was maybe praying about maybe this is part of why we need as a nation in this our more communities that will enter into this holy time of bliss of awakening I have blessings, prayer and celebration with God, with our families and our communities. A reminder each week for all God's people together to return to their God, to their maker, that integrate that He has created us. In Him in His love, is a day when all to all of us together, run back home, to the presence of God. Isn't that just beautiful? To be able to even see Sabbath as a time of coming home. That's what they see it a lot of them time where everybody just come home, come home, but not to their houses come home to the Father's house, to God's house. And I couldn't stop thinking about what if we begin to even enter into this time of Sabbath, a sub prophetic act of calling those who we are praying to come home to the Lord. Something that happens in communities, in Jewish communities, when the experience I have is this, it is the time for the father to take his place, not only the mother, but the Father, the Father will bless the evening at the beginning of the Sabbath, and he will take time to bless each one of their children. There's an invitation to even for some messianic communities to prophesied over the children every six days, basically, just in case. This is an all of the things happening during the week, and the blessings. In the speaking words of life and a truth in of Destiny fell in the cracks. There is an intentionality at least every six days, there's a rhythm of this, to speak life into them. What if we begin to speak blessings in the table in a Sabbath time set apart for God, to speak, even if the person is not there with us. But we are prophesying their destinies agreeing with God, or how they come in home. I don't know I just have the sense that it is greater and bigger than where we think. There's so much to say about this. But I'm not going to take more time. But I do want to hear what you what I know that probably the Lord had spoken to you or things that you know about this more than that I that I will probably ever known. But I just feel like the Lord is inviting us to a journey. And it's a holy journey to receive a blessing of this place in time as we enter into display. So I want us to pray right now. And Father, those of us who feel this, this stuck in your spirit, this calling or spirit to respond, this invitation to enter into this holy place call Sabbath that you have sent a fire we want to enter into the time that you have sanctified and we know that every time in you is holy. Just the same way that you have blessings in spiritual principles like tithing. When we give the first fruit of, of our, of our finances, Lord of what we have received from you, we also I believe there is a spiritual principle as we give our tithe in our first fruit of time to you, as we align with you. And Father, we want to enter into this place in time that you have sanctified, and we pray that our families we enter and receive the blessing received. That the reality of of the revelation of who you are the unveiling of your kingdom, their realities, they are in the spirit, about who you are in your kingdom. We want to enter into this place. The gives us a view of eternity of who you are and who we will be. So we don't stay with the view of just this world in return here on Earth. We want to gain a new perspective. When again, the eternal perspective, Lord, so I pray the Holy Spirit to speak to us in any ways, or as we go throughout the weeks and does learn more about this as you speak to us, help us to just do the next thing that you tell us about this Father, I pray in the name of Jesus, that you will remove any way that the or or hearts or the enemy wants to speak in a religious way and trying to bring legalistic views or something that is holy, that is done in the Spirit. And that is done with your father. In the name of Jesus, we just open right now our hearts to receive you and we enter through faith, through the master key of faith, we enter into this holy times that you have for us in our family, and I believe the body of Christ in this hour, in Jesus name, amen. I'm gonna leave the recorder on for a moment before we go into our sharing time. Because this word is so it's not just timely, it's powerful. And I want to start by saying this this community that we're talking to this spiritual family here, the family of families, there's a lot of people on Zoom today. You guys enter this way better than any spiritual family I've ever been in before. But I believe that we are, we are just scratching the surface. I believe that. So I pray that we will not go okay, we've got this message. Okay. I believe the Lord has gift that Lucy's just uncovering the Sabbath is a gift, then I think God is just uncovering going, Hey, what you have is actually just the downpayment of what I really want to give you, and that we will spend some of the next years area into this. So all of that to say, Hey, I think the Lord is really whetting your appetite to say, Hey, you're just getting started in this. Don't think that you're experts at it. And I don't think he might hear thanks for expert but I think that we enter into it well bet based on all the communities I've lived in. But I just wanted to highlight a few things you said, because I'm praying that the seed will not be lost. And we can go back and listen to this teaching on the teaching library that will be helpful. That helps me recover. See that gets lost or that I forget that when you said when you said Sabbath was started in the creation, it wasn't started by Abraham. It's not a we think it's a Jewish concept. But it's way older than Israel. Its way this is a god concept that was with many Gentiles before the Jews ever came along. And when you look at the 10 commandments, I gotta confess to you growing up, when I looked at the 10 commandments, I always felt like I have to obey the 10 commandments, I mean, name a commandment, you don't think you should obey? Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not covet, Thou shalt not commit adultery, you know, we could go on and on. There's nothing in the 10 commandments, that you think oh, yeah, I get a pass on that one. But somehow, we look at remember the Sabbath to keep it holy. And we think, Oh, I'm not under the law anymore. Well, we're not under the law. But Jesus taught us that actually, the 10 commandments are just tip of the iceberg. And there is a way where our heart enters into the commandments are just a door. They're just a door that opens us into, like Jesus said, He taught us about adultery. He's sad. If you look at a woman to lust after you've already committed adultery, what was he saying? What is he saying the commandment says, love your spouse be faithful. That's what the commandments really saying. But the commandment itself was just the door into the lifestyle. And that's what he taught us. And so this door to remember the Sabbath to keep it holy. And you when you read what the rabbi said that it's literally a space and time that God set apart literally, let me say it this way. It has special powers on it. Right? There are divine powers on that sacred space called the Sabbath. And when we enter into it, get ready. You don't know what's gonna happen to you there, right? So I'm just reflecting what you were saying and how the Holy Spirit was just magnified in my hearts. The other thing when we talk about, I think there's a lot more in Sabbath and encountering God in creation. And the Lord was pointing out to me, the part of creation that is most glorious is humanity. because it's the only part of creation created in the image of God Himself. Now, this doesn't mean on Sabbath go to Ikea because there's a bunch of people down there. Encounter humanity. That's not what I but it's to encounter spiritual family and communion. And connecting and you were you were saying that in some ways, but I just felt like the Lord was saying, Hey, this is important. What she's saying right now is very important. It's me speaking this. And then you said something else that I think is so critical, it's an essential part of healing, and wellness. And guys, I have a confession to you guys. No, I just gave the testimony that I just had my nine year checkup. And and the doctors had diagnosed me nine years ago with a rare cancer, that chemo and radiation doesn't work against, and all this kind of stuff, and Lord delivered me from it. But I really wonder a lot. If that did not come upon me because I did not have good rest rhythms in my life. I was trying. I mean, I was doing daily Sabbath. But it was very hard in my job to have weekly Sabbath. And the stress that comes from that. If you stress your joints or your ligaments in a way that gives it cumulative stress and do things to your body, that it's not created to handle, you will injure yourself many times permanently, through that stress, that cumulative stress. And Sabbath is what gives us that healing in that recovery in our hearts and our minds, in our souls and in our bodies. So I'm just saying amen to Lucy what she's talking about, there is a recovery, a healing that happens there in that lifestyle. And then just that special power of being set apart that really, that really hit me what and you said it several times in your teaching. But then you you really nailed it at the end again, when you quoted the rabbi's. This is so powerful. And I want to say this, I'm gonna say something that I believe is revolutionary for us in our lifestyles. And you touched on at the beginning and said, hey, I'll talk about this later. But there are rhythms of Sabbath more than weekly. And I remember when this revelation began to come upon me 20 years ago, and I realized I cannot just now for me, I believe there's a daily Sabbath. I believe that there is a daily Sabbath of given the first fruits of my time of the day to God, and I have ye I have, I have benefited greatly from the blessings of daily Sabbath in that time with God. It needs to be substantial for me, I have to have substantial time and it's incredible, then I believe there's a weekly Sabbath. We see that in the Jewish nation. For sure, but I think that that's healthy for humans in general. And we'd see it taught in Genesis too. But I also believe there are other Sabbath cycles we see reflected the Jewish community, these feasting seasons. And those were seasons. I don't know you some of you Bible scholars out there. How many feasts were there? Were they were taken seven to 10 days? Well, yeah, I think there were 10 Feasts of Israel, but I don't know that they did a week or 10 days and every one of them. But every few months, man, there's a feast, and there's a season of feasting. And I believe that there is a greater spiritual lesson in this for us, I understand that we don't all are not all in a place where we can do this. But I started to realize this 20 years ago, and I started taking many retreats and sometimes with people that I had close spiritual relationship where we would just seek the Lord together and rest and read the scriptures and pray and do it in a place that was quiet. And some of my spiritual mentors do this better than I do. And they're really calling me to this. And I, I'm still not there yet. But I am coming to believe that the more we do it, we actually think it will cut down on how much we can do. But like you said it actually, it's not about how much I can do anyway. That's what I used to think that you guys, I don't think anybody here knew me when I was young except Beth. I was thinking about this the other day. Let me just tell you how I was in my 20s. And in my 30s basically until my first really intense combat rotation that changed my life a lot. I could not come over to your house and just sit and visit for fifth take 20 minutes, much longer, because I had to be working. I was wasting time. Do y'all hear and I know you can't believe that about me. But my life was like, man, I was I had to be accomplishing something every minute of the day. And so if you said, Hey, why don't you come over and hang out? I was like, okay, but I wouldn't stay long. Because I had to be accomplishing something. I had to be completing something I had to be. Yeah, it was not just I wasn't, wasn't that I just had to be busy at what I didn't feel like, Oh, I gotta be busy. I felt like, Man, I gotta be doing something for God. Man, I'm wasting time. I mean, I love you, but I'm wasting time. And so and so what happened was, is people like, I can't believe how much you've accomplished. Well, that didn't help anything, when they would tell me that. Because then it made me feel like, oh, yeah, I'm accomplishing a lot, you know. But then I started seeing that after my first combat rotation, God reset a lot of things in my life. And it changed me a lot. Because that was a very bloody, bloody bloody combat rotation. And so my kids will tell you, I changed drastically and in that year, and I came to appreciate certain things that I didn't appreciate before. So anyway, all of this to say I, now I'm to a place where I'm realizing I still don't have the right Sabbath rhythms in my life. Because there is much that God is wanting to give the body of Christ. And he's saying, Rod, I want to do this through you. But you've got to spend time with me, you can't just be doing administrative stuff in the ministry. You've got to be spending time with me in order to get this. And so back to what I said before, I used to believe it was most important, you know, what we were doing or what we were accomplishing. And it's not, it's not about how much I can do. It's about the people that God will impact through our lives, because they can do way more than I can, like in this room right now, all of you guys, you can do way more than I can do, right? Everybody in this room can do way more than you can do, right? Is that not true? And so how many lives will you impact? It's not about how much you can do. It's about how many you can affect how many of you can impact because God wants His whole body to be doing this. Amen. Amen. All right. That's probably good. We'll go into our sharing time, but I'll close with the recording now. And we'll go into our sharing time. Amen. Thank you for joining us today. Aaron ova is raising up spiritual leaders in many nations through our spiritual enrichment events, syndicated NetCast international prayer Council network, and numerous international seminary scholarships. 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