The Beginning of Forever!

Can you rest? I mean really rest. Stop what you are doing. Stop thinking about what you will be doing next and simply rest. Cease all activity? If you're like me, that almost seems like an impossibility because we live in a very busy and fast paced world. Technology hasn't made things easier, it has made them more busy. We can't even turn that off.

So what does it mean, when the Bible says to "rest in God?" It simply means to give up on trying to do things yourself and instead trust in Him. We can have that peace in knowing that God has it all figured out despite how we may feel about anything, because our feelings can lie to us. Don't believe me? Think about the last time you worried about anything. More than likely you took all those "What if's..." and filled in all the proverbial blanks of what could happen. Looking back however, you realize how silly most of those were because they were so far from happening, even though they could have. Yet it drove us mad during that time. Our enemy is so great at working that into our lives in any situation, even when everything is going great, he'll toss a few worry arrows in just to stir things up.

As believers in Christ, however one day all that will come to an end. Be it the day you die and step into the very presence of God with your final breath on earth, or when we are raptured and wind up in heaven with God. That will be the very beginning of forever, when we see all this world and its sin nature and evil end once and for all. Won't that be great?

We need to set our hearts upon the presence of God because of what He shall reveal to us.

Revelation 22:4 ~ "They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads."

Remember how badly Moses begged God just to see His face? You can read about it in the opening chapters of Exodus. But God knew that for that to happen Moses would die. So God takes Moses, stuffs him into a crack in the rocks, covers his eyes and passes by him, all Moses saw was the after glow, where God was. He was so glorified by that sight that his face glowed even to the people of Israel when he returned that he had to cover his face, to avoid scaring them. Can you imagine how Moses would feel today if he had a Bible and read this verse today? This is the very heart of man, to see God's face. Moses would have longed for that day.

No one has ever seen God in totality.

1 Corinthians 13:12 ~ "For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known." 

John 1:18 ~ "No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him."

1 Timothy 6:15-16 ~ "which He will manifest in His own time, He who is blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, who mo man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power, Amen."

1 John 4:12 ~ " No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us."

Hebrews 12:29 ~ "For our God is a consuming fire."

Matthew 5:8 ~ "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."

When will we be able to see God face to face? In Revelation 22:4, when eternity begins for all of us!

The issue with the name on the foreheads is quite the honor when you consider it. What does this mean to have God's name on our forehead?

Revelation 3:12 ~ "He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more. I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God. And I will write on him My new name."

Throughout history, tattoos have been a sign out ownership. Even Hitler understood that. Pharaoh and the Babylonians understood the meaning, because to do so was the identity of your god. This was a fantastic even in history and it will be for our future as well.

After the great earthquake of 17 A.D., the Roman Emperor Vespasian ordered the city of Philadelphia to be free from Roman taxation and so for five years it could regain its footing in the empire's economy. The city was so grateful for its tax exempt status, it declared its new name to be Neo-Caesarea ro New Caesar City. In gratitude, the citizens of Philadelphia tattooed "Neocaesarea on their bodies. It was the name, the announcement of ownership.

Isaiah 49:16a ~ "See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands."

Until we get to heaven, we need to rest in the finished work of Christ, because Jesus Christ will never fail us.

Revelation 22:6a ~ "Then he said to me, "These words are faithful and true."

Revelation 3:14 ~ "And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, "These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God."

Hebrews 1:1-3 ~ "God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself, purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high."

John 5:30-32 ~ "I can of Myself do nothing,. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me. If I bear witness of Myself, My witness is not true. There is another who bears witness of Me, and I know that the witness which He witnesses of Me is true."

Hebrews 4:9-11 ~ "There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did fro His. Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience."

God said it, that settles it. Meditate on what He has told you until He returns. We need to rest in the finished work of Christ, because Jesus Christ will complete things.

Revelation 22:6b ~ "And the Lord God of the holy prophets sent His angel to show His servents the things which must shortly take place."

"Shortly" is a compound Greek word en-tachos. It means in haste or in short order, not the word for soon, but the word that means, "once they begin, it will not be long." That is precisely what will happen once the Tribulation period begins, it will move forward without any delay until it is finished.

Jesus Christ will come again.

Revelation 22:7 ~ "Behold, I am coming quickly! Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book."

Notice with me what God thinks about the Bible. So then Christian, rest in Christ, because He will never fail you. He is faithful and true. This here is Jesus' exhortation to every church age believers since the day of Pentecost...always be waiting for me.

To not be waiting is to be spiritually unfaithful. How should the doctrine of imminence affect us today? Why should the doctrine of immanency matter to us today? Who does the doctrine of immanency apply to today? The Bible is very clear it its warning to not add or remove from what God has written in it.

Revelation 1:3 ~ "Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keeps those things which are written in it; for the time is near."

Matthew 5:17-18 ~ "Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. 

2 Peter 1:19-21 ~ " And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts; knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. "

Isaiah 46:9-10 ~ "Remember the former things of old, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things that are not yet done, Saying, "My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure."

Revelation 22:18-19 ~ "For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city and from the things which are written in this book." 

Deuteronomy 4:2 ~ "You shall not add to the word which I command you, not take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you."

Proverbs 30:5-6 ~ "Every world of God is pure; He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him. Do not add to His words, Lest He rebuke you, and you be found a liar."

Galatians 1:8-9 ~ "But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed."

This final verse was written more than 2000 years ago. Just this one verse alone predates the Muslim cult and the Mormon cult and thus renders them helpless and useless.

In the Muslim cult, the angel Gabriel is said to have given Mohammed another gospel from heaven in the year 600-700 A.D.

In the Mormon cult, that angel Moroni is said to have given Joseph Smith, another gospel, The Book of Mormon in 1823.

We are all responsible for the choices we make, so what are you doing to keep the prophecy of this book? If you are....

You would be busy for God, giving to God, serving God, Honoring God, in the Word of God, building the kingdom of God, caring for the things of God, and obedient to the will of God.

That is what you are blessed or happy because you keep the words of the prophecy of this book!