Full Transcript

0:00:01 – Tammie Southerland
You can push yourself mentally, you can push yourself emotionally, but whenever you hit a wall spiritually and you’re continuing in the flesh, you won’t even know it until you crash. And then he began to teach me what I already thought I knew. Isn’t it funny how he does that? He began to teach me about a covenant that we have access to, called rest. So what I want to share with us tonight is something that I call my now testimony. So a lot of people minister from where they’ve been. They don’t know, a lot of times minister from where they are, and I think it’s important to acknowledge that. We’re in this place where we’re growing from glory to glory, and God’s teaching me something in a season about rest that I honestly don’t think I’ve ever really understood before, and I’m gonna talk to you tonight about the covenant of rest.

About four weeks ago, all the things piled up. My oldest daughter was graduating, she had her prom. My middle daughter was finishing the eighth grade graduation thing and we had recital and recital practice. And I’m working on a book and I’ve got like hard deadlines and it seemed like all in like two days. Everything piled up to the point that it was like I physically did not feel like I could handle all the things. And then, on top of that, my husband’s side of the family and my side of the family decided that they were all gonna come into town and they all needed a place to stay. And we don’t have a small family and in my ability I am like this hardcore driven person I’ve always been able to sit in the place of rest and take stress and kind of like cope with it. I would have told you that I was able to take stress and I don’t respond to it, but I’ve learned that I was coping with it and I could push it back and I could abide in the spirit and I began to cut things out, take things off my plate, right, that were stressing me out these two days. I did not have a choice. I couldn’t take anything off of my plate. I could not press pause. There was nothing that I could remove. It was all good things, it was all God things. And so in my hardcore grit and barrette, I got up and said, okay, I’m not gonna tell my parents they can’t come stay at my house. That’s just not cool, can’t do that. I’m gonna grit and barrette, I’m gonna get the upstairs of the house cleaned and then have a place for everybody to stay and we’re gonna throw the kids all in the floor on mattresses. I’m gonna do the thing. And so I started moving fast, working hard, doing the thing, and I was multitasking.

Women, you know how this goes. You’re like doing 12 things at once. You grow extra arms. All of a sudden I’m multitasking. I’m throwing something in the trash, I’m fluffing the pillows on the bench as I’m twisting to turn to go back and wipe something on the countertop. And I stood up and I hit my head and hit the floor and I was home alone and as I’m falling listen, if you guys know me like I work out and athletic I do all the things. As I’m falling, I’m going, I have no control over this. I have no control over this Boom. I could not stop myself from hitting the floor and I got knocked out. I come to 15, 20 seconds later, I’ve got blood running down on my hand. Well, right before hit the floor, I’m multitasking.

One of the 12 things I was doing was messaging my sister in law, and so as soon as I got up, I’m like I just hit my head. I got knocked out. I’m okay, we still got to do what we got to do. You know that was my response. Okay, I’m telling you all this for a reason. So I hit it hard.

The rest of the day, I did what I needed to do, got to the recital, sat down and the Lord speaks to me and he says this to me. He says you know how to rest, but you do not know how to abide in my covenant rest. And I was immediately convicted because, in the midst of all this, my character was wanting to fall too. Right, I’m getting annoyed by things don’t typically get annoyed with. I am I’m not responding the way that I would typically respond.

I get into the um, into the recital, and like all the seats are taken and there’s not enough seats for me and my family, and I’m getting into that like self righteous Christian mode, right, like we need seats and that’s not my typical character. And as it’s happening, bothering me, I’m like Lord, this is not me. And soon as I sat down, that’s what he said to me fast forward the next day. Um, I get up to get the girls ready to go. I think we had to go somewhere Get the girls ready. And I was up for 15 minutes and I sat down and I passed out and I slept for six hours and it scared me and I found out I had a concussion.

And in that process the Lord taught me you can push yourself physically, you can push yourself mentally, you can push yourself emotionally, but whenever you hit a wall spiritually and you get a concussion and you’re feeling like you’re going to be in a concussion, you’re going to be in a concussion. And then he began to teach me what I already thought I knew, and it funny how he does that. He began to teach me about a covenant that we have access to, called rest, and it’s not lack of, it’s not a lack of doing things, it’s not a lack of pain, it’s not the absence of activity, it’s a dwelling place, it’s a realm that we’re supposed to live in. And tonight I want to give you keys, and I have gone in and out of this. I’m going to tell you that this is what bothered me so much.

I’ve gone in and out of this revelation for years. I’ve learned in seasons how to abide in this place and I’ve seen God do signs of wonders and miracles when I’m abiding there, because it’s not about me, it’s about covenant with Him. But then I’ve gone out of those seasons because I have a natural bend towards being a doer. Even though I’m a Mary, I also have a lot of Martha in me and that natural bend towards being a doer will sometimes take over and I think that I’m still in rest, but I’ve actually began to get in the flesh.

And so I want to tell you this this covenant rest that we have with Him is the Ephesians 2, 6 seat. So we’re going to look at that a little bit closer. But Ephesians 2, 6 says that we’re seated with Him in heavenly places. So that seat that we sit in is above, whereas he seated above the principalities, pillars, rulers of darkness of this present age. He’s seated above those things. He’s seated in the place where we’re casting our crowns in our song right. That’s where he’s seated. It’s also where we’ve been given access to sit down with Him in this covenant, and from that place we are above the fleshly warfare as well, as we’re above demonic warfare, and I’ve talked on that before. But this is another level. And so if we can learn how to sit there, we also learn how to access oil, we learn how to access anointing, because we’re learning that he is the branch, he is the anointing, he is the oil, he is the one that brings forth signs, wonders, miracles, all of these things out of the place of covenant.

And our covenant with Him is abiding in Him. What does he say? Abide in me, and I knew, and you’ll bear much fruit. Without me You’ll do nothing, you can’t do anything. And so if we begin to connect these dots and these understandings, then we begin to understand that it’s actually a realm that we’re invited into. It’s not necessarily a knowledge, it’s an understanding of the knowledge of God, but it’s an access to a realm outside of this dirt that we live in.

And so if you think about realms of the spirit, you can think about the center realm. You’ve heard first, second, third heaven right, we’ve heard of that, but I think about it more like a circle. So the center is the throne of God, and that’s the third heaven, it’s the heavenly realm where he seated. The next outside layer of that may be like the spiritual warfare, the angelic angels, demons, the functionality of all of that, and then the outside layer would be the crust of the earth. So it’s like where we sit, we are created for dominion in the earth, but in our fall, in man’s fall we stepped out of the place of covenant rest, right, adam and Eve had dominion in rest. They had dominion over everything, including the lives of the enemy. But they fail. They had dominion over everything in the covenant with Him.

In that place of walking with Him. It says that they walk with Him in the cool of the day. That word in Genesis, where it says they walk with Him in the cool of the day in the garden, is not talking about temperature, is talking about ruach. They walk with Him in the ruach, the breath of the day. They walk with Him in the spirit, and so they lived in the realm of the spirit while they were on the earth, and so the hindrance to that was sin. That’s where they fell away, that’s where death entered. So what happened? They didn’t physically die that moment, they spiritually died and the death process began. What came with the death process? Fear, anxiety, worry, knowledge of evil. Right, it wasn’t just the knowledge of good, it was the knowledge of evil. So they took of the knowledge of evil and they stepped out of the breath, they stepped out of the place of dwelling in the realm of God, both in heaven and in earth. So they were, they dwelt in both places at once.

So if you look at scripture, when you approach scripture, always approach scripture with original intention in mind. And so the original intention of God for man was to abide in Him and he in us, and for us to rule and reign, yes, in this dirt called the earth, from intimacy with Him, in the spirit. And so when I say realms, I’m talking about realms of the spirit. I’m talking about this also being that what we can taste here, here, touch, see with our physical senses, you also have spiritual senses. So, real quick, let’s look at, before we go fully into the rest, I want us to look at Ephesians two, and again during worship, I might, lord, I feel I don’t like to preach out of the place, that I feel like I’m just tapping into this Again. I’ve been in and out of it for years, but it’s like I feel like I’ve finally learned how to sit in it, like the inner peace is incredible.

So, ephesians two, six you were dead in the trespasses and sins. Sorry, I’ve started with verse one. You were dead in the trespasses of sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Now pay attention to that Among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body, the mind, and were, by nature, children of wrath like the rest of mankind. So stop there. Before we get to the seated place, so where we were, where we abide outside of covenant, outside of him, we get or given over to the nature of the flesh, the fallen nature.

This specifically talks about carrying out the passions and the desires of the flesh, but it’s the body, the mind and the nature of the children of wrath. Specifically, it’s living in the dirt and responding to the dirt without heavenly reality. That’s what he’s talking about. So this is what we’ve been born again or removed from. We used to be enslaved to the world and its desires and Satan, the prince of the power of the air. But God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together in Christ. By grace, you’ve been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

So when we look at Hebrews three and four, we’re gonna look at the covenant of rest. I want you to remember, when it’s talking about Jesus as the high priest, that Jesus is seated in heavenly realms and he still has full authority and all of his work has been finished. And while you were still dead, while you were still unrestful, while you were still full of anxiety, while you were still given over to your flesh, he made a place for us. He said I’ve gone to prepare a place for you in my father’s house. There are many rooms and if this were not so, I wouldn’t have told you. He went. And he prepared a place for us while we were still sinners, because there was a greater covenant for us.

If you understand the book of Hebrews, it’s written to the fill in the blank Hebrews. They were literally the Hebrew people. Okay, so they understood old covenant, they understood the law, they understood the slavery of the law, they understood how they couldn’t fulfill it. And when we’re reading this covenant in just a minute, we’re gonna understand that he’s prepared a place for us that is in a covenant of rest, not under the yoke of slavery, not just to the law, but to the flesh. We’re not enslaved to the world, its passions, its desires or our own natural carnal tendency towards anxiety, worry, fear, rebellion, sickness, disease all of these things are encompassed in this truth. So this is how A it teaches us to pray. B it teaches us how to abide. And it teaches us also how to rise above circumstances and situations that are outside of our control, which is what most of our struggle is.

I didn’t know I had such a hard time rising outside of situations and circumstances that were outside of my control. I’ve never thought that I was that person until 35,000 things piled up on my plate all in one day and I couldn’t do anything about it, and I wanted to honestly, just go get in my hot tub and hide under the water and baptize myself about 12 times. I’m just being real. That was my day. I was like I just need to. I need to get baptized. He’s calling us to enter into this place Now.

I also want to tell you prophetically where we are. We are coming out. We’re a transitionary generation. Okay, so we’re transitioning. Every generation brings us closer to the return of the Lord. When Jesus returns and he sets up his millennial kingdom, what do you think people? How do you think people are gonna function? Are they gonna function from anxiety, worry, fear. Are they gonna function from constant punch in the air, warfaring, fighting Satan? No, they’re gonna function from this place of covenant rest. And so we’re this transitionary generation where we’re learning now on earth, as it is in heaven. We get to learn how to abide with him, and so it’s not all floating on clouds, it’s actually learning how to handle what’s going to come at us and have righteousness, peace and joy in the midst of trial, trauma and tribulation. Okay, are you following me? So learning how to live here is so important.

So if you look at I’m not gonna try to go in all of Hebrews three and four, but if you look at that all in context, it’s so important. So Hebrews three is talking about Jesus is the high priest. It’s talking to the Hebrews. He’s talking to the Hebrews who understand the priesthood. They understood that a high priest would come and serve in the temple, he would go in and he would make atonement. They understood these things. They understood that Moses and the Israelites were wandering in the wilderness. He’s going into that. He’s talking to them about the fact that the Israelites did not get to enter into the promise and the rest because of their unbelief. So I basically just summed up Hebrews three for you. So I’m gonna look at. We’re gonna kind of skip around just a little bit here because it’s important.

But covenant rest equals priesthood. Okay, listen to that. Covenant rest equals priesthood. Jesus is the high priest. We’re seated with him as priest in Kings. It says in 1 Peter we are a royal priesthood, we’re a holy nation, we’re God’s own possession. And so when we look at covenant rest, we have to also understand who we are in covenant with Christ, as priests and kings who are able to sit with him, hear what he’s saying, do what he’s doing and bring his will. How did he say pray, your kingdom come, your will be done on the earth as it is in heaven. These are all very spiritual principles. They’re not just head knowledge.

I grew up Methodist. We quoted the Lord’s prayer every single week monotonously. But there’s power in it and it’s not just talking about you saying his kingdom come. He’s talking about you sitting with him as a priest and a king, as a son and a daughter, to be able to restore what Adam and Eve lost back to the earth as it is in heaven. But if we don’t understand covenant rest, we will continuously war with the anxieties, worries, fears and circumstances around us. So it says let’s just do Hebrews seven I mean sorry, hebrews three versus seven.

Therefore, just as the Holy spirit says today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as when they provoked me, as in the day of trial and the wilderness where your fathers tried me by testing me and saw my works for 40 years. Therefore, I was angry with this generation and said they always go astray in their heart. They did not know my ways and I swore in wrath they will not enter my rest. The heading in my Bible says that peril of unbelief. Take care, brethren, that there are not, there’s not any evil in you. Believe sorry, take care, brethren, that there not be any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God, but be encouraged. But encourage one another day after day. Skip down just a little bit Verse 14,. For we have become partakers of Christ until we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end.

While it is said today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as when they provoked me. For who provoked them? When they had heard? Indeed, did not all those who came out of Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was he angry for 40 years? And was it not those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but those who were disobedient? So we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief. Remember when the scriptures were written? They were not breaks in the chapters.

Go to chapter four, verse one. Therefore, anytime you see it there for in scripture, always look above, look at the scriptures before it. Therefore, let us fear, if the promise remains of entering his rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it. For indeed, we have the good news preached to us, just as they did also, but the word they heard they did not profit them because it was not united with faith with those who heard. For we who have believed entered that rest, just as he has said Paul’s listen, I want you to hear the language. We who believed can enter, entered. This is so important, just as he has said. It is so important. Two things Ephesians two we are seated. Hebrews four three we have entered. What did Jesus say on the cross To telesteye? It is finished. So there is a finished work in covenant with Christ, that we have been seated in and that we have entered.

What’s the problem? Why and I asked the Lord this on the way here, I was like Lord what was the problem with the Israelites? Why was it such a harsh judgment that they could not enter the rest that was promised them? And of course we see it there in scripture. It says because of their unbelief. But the Lord also said to me he said it wasn’t just because they didn’t believe. He said it’s because they could not get unbelief out of them.

Despite his cloud by day and fire by night, despite the thundering voice on the mountain, despite the law that was given to them and the second opportunity, they continuously came back into the place of a lack of trust. They did not trust Yahweh. Who was Yahweh revealed to Moses? As Do you remember, I am. So what is I am? I am that I am. I am everything you need, at any place and time. I will be fire for you, I will be a cloud for you, I will be provision for you, I will be health to you. I will be everything you need. But at the same time, they could not get the unbelief out of their DNA. So, while Moses is on the mountain. They’re creating idols because they have a better control over something that they can make themselves, something that looked like the past, something that looked like the earth. Then they could control the circumstances of fire and lightning and thundering, and a voice that came from heaven saying I am your father.

The lack of belief wasn’t just they couldn’t believe it’s, they couldn’t receive and trust that he was indeed and is I am. Are you following me? It’s as simple as believing. See, we have such a struggle, especially in American culture. We want everything to be logical, we want everything to make sense and unfortunately, that’s what leads us to build golden calves, something that, listen. They took all the provision given to them, egypt, through all the gold, all the things, and just threw it out of them and told them to get out. They’d been in bondage for 400 years. I was telling my daughter this morning that’s longer than our nations and existed.

And if you look at the state of our nation, we’re no different. We quickly become the wicked and unbelieving generation that seeks after a son. You see, unbelief will cause you to say no, I don’t believe that you’re the Messiah unless you prove it to me again and again and again. It’s not about signs, wonders and miracles. He will manifest himself with signs and wonders and miracles If you believe he is Messiah, because he wants to use you to bring healing to the earth. But the wicked and perverse generation is still so stuck in unbelief that it’s a scoffing hardness of heart that says I will not believe you are the I am until you do something for me again. But then again is not good enough. I need you to do something else for me. And it’s not about being healed, delivered and set free. It’s about you prove to me who you are again. It’s the scoffing, it’s the scoffing heart. That’s the unbelieving heart. Do you know?

Elsewhere in scripture it also says, when the disciples went out to heal the sick and bring deliverance, that there was a situation where they could not bring deliverance and the boy was brought to Jesus and Jesus’s response was these only come out by prayer and fasting. Right, they ask, why could we cast it out? These only come out by prayer and fasting. I believe fully that he was talking about. These only come out whenever you set yourself apart and you get delivered of your unbelief.

Because, over and over throughout scripture, jesus does mighty things and the disciples still don’t get it. They’re over and over again saying like whenever he calms the waves, most people don’t realize. When he’s in the boat and he calms the waves, he just fed the 5,000, like 15 minutes ago, and he’s like you didn’t understand the miracle of the loaves and the fishes. So he says to them peace, be still. You still didn’t understand. So we’ve got to begin to ask him for understanding. We’ve got to listen. If I had time I would totally go into the seven fold spirit of God and be begging God to let me teach all that. I just can’t seem to do it. But the five, the seven fold spirit of God, one of those is a spirit of understanding. So we can’t just get revelation, we got to get understanding. Ask him for understanding, I want to understand. That’s the spirit of revelation. By the way, understanding is revealing, it’s unveiling, it’s unfolding it to you.

So if you go on and continue to read, I’m just going to read a little bit more in Hebrews four. So the word that they heard didn’t profit them because they didn’t have faith, for we who have believed have entered that rest, just as he has said. As I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest, although his works were finished from the foundation of the world. For he has said somewhere concerning the seventh day, and God rested on the seventh day from all his works. And again in this passage, they shall not enter my rest. Therefore, since it remains for some to enter it and those who formerly had good news preached to them failed to enter because of disobedience, he again fixes a certain day today, saying through David, after a long time, just as he has said before, if you hear his voice, do not harden your arms. Just think about that. I’m going to keep reading how many times. I want you to count how many times he said that If you hear my voice, don’t harden your heart, for if Joshua had given them rest, he would not have spoken of another day after that. So there remains a Sabbath rest for people, for the people of God, for the one who has entered his rest and has himself also rested from his works, as God did from his. So let us be diligent to enter that rest so that no one will fall through following the same example of disobedience.

Verse 12,. We quote this out of content text all the time, for the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword dividing soul and spirit, both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart, and there is no creature hidden from his sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of him. Who we have to do? Therefore, since we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. He talks about the High Priest who can sympathize with our weakness. Verse 16 says therefore, draw near with confidence to the throne of grace that we can receive mercy and find grace in the time of need. It is so important.

He, over and over and over again, says if you hear my voice, don’t harden your heart. If you hear my voice, don’t harden your heart. If you hear my voice, don’t harden your heart. He’s quoting the Old Testament. He’s quoting the Scriptures. I’ve called it the word that had gone forth to the Israelites. In every generation, god raises up messengers. In every generation, I promise you, if you go back and look through history, god always raises up voices. That will be his voice that will call us back to attention, call us back to repentance and to revelation of the covenant of Christ in every generation. He’s saying to this generation again if you hear my voice, don’t harden your heart.

That says to me that I have some kind of responsibility over my heart and, whether or not it gets hardened, I always have to point the finger back here. Here’s the problem. Whenever it comes to circumstances and anxieties and fears, we cannot control those things. If we do not understand, if we have unbelief and do not gain understanding in the covenant of Christ that we have and the place in which we sit, then we will fall prey to deafened ears and hardened hearts Because we will point the finger instead of at me. We will either point it at him or at them, and so, therefore, our heart will become hardened and it will become calloused Instead of saying Lord, create a new heart, renewal, right spirit in me, do not let me harden. My heart Calls me to come out of unbelief. I need to sit with you in heavenly places and abide with you, where I can rise above the circumstances.

He also says that there was a greater rest than even the Sabbath day, which is what they would have known as Hebrews being Shabbat, being the holy place of rest and peace. Shabbat means be still. Do you know that? That’s what it means. That’s what the Hebrew word for Sabbath means literally stop, and what he’s saying there is. There is a greater revelation than you just stopping all of your work. There’s more, and this is the invitation. There’s more, there’s always more, and what he’s saying is now you have access to the throne of God, where literally everything that is filled with with flesh, demonic activity and anxiety, has to stop, because you have a covenant that is so far beyond this world. You have been given access to eternity. You are actually your spirit. Man is in eternity. Did you know that you are eternal? If you are in Christ, you are eternal, not eternal later, eternal now.

But the problem is we always want to go back to the mortal. We still believe more in the mortal than we do the immortal. We believe more in the anxiety and what we see and feel around us than asking God to cause that old immortality to die with Christ. Daily I’m going to pick up my cross. That old mortality is dying with Christ Think about baptism and it’s being resurrected, and immortality, which means I am not limited to the anxieties of this earth.

But the point, your problem was time. You didn’t have enough time, and he was pointing out to me. I kept saying I don’t have time, I don’t have enough time, I don’t have it. It kept coming out of me. Lord, I don’t know how to do all this, I don’t have enough time. They’re on the way. I don’t have enough time. I got to get here, here and here all at the same time. I don’t have time, lord. How am I going to end? It was all about time. And do you know what he said to me? You are eternal, I am eternal, I live in time. Why are you trying to abide in the mortal when I created you? Immortal? It’s a different realm. It’s what Jesus won for us. It’s the greater place of rest. And so, if I don’t have to worry about time, if I know that he’s the Lord of time, he is both the Alpha and the Omega, somehow all at the same time. He is forever existed, yet he’s still Alpha and Omega. But we don’t believe that he can literally speak and everything will be still. And so, as I sat there trying to watch a dance, the Lord’s talking to me, he’s giving me a minor spanking and he’s inviting me into a covenant that I already have. God, like literal eternal rest.

If we could get this, we would also understand that death is a lie for the unbeliever. What is the greatest fear that everyone has? Death, right, terrified, don’t want it. It’s terrifying, it’s terrible. If something would happen to my kids, I don’t know what happened. We’ve been faced with that. Right, we got a miracle, but death is our greatest fear.

But if death is not true, if it’s only a shadow for the unbeliever, do we believe the gospel? If we believe the gospel, then Jesus took the sting of death and then perfect love drives out all fear, because fear has to do with torment. Then if we’re delivered from death and we live eternal life, then we’re also delivered from fear of death because we’re already in eternal life. Therefore, time itself, god, can do whatever he wants to with it If we’ll only trust him. And so even death itself cannot cause us to tremble.

I’m just re-preaching the gospel. This is our covenant, and so when we pray, it says do not pray as the Gentiles that they will be heard from many words, but go into your inner room and shut the door and pray to your father, who is in secret. He will hear you. I believe there’s a greater meaning to that. It means we don’t pray for the purpose of being heard by man, but for our many words and our many anxieties and our many fears. How many of us just pray from anxiety and pray from fear and pray from worry? How often do we pray from that place and we just go on and on and on and worry. He’s saying no, in my father’s house there are many rooms and if you had, I wouldn’t have told you this, if it weren’t true. He’s saying will you come into the room with me? I believe this is a greater thing than just going into private. It’s going into the realm where you’re called to sit in covenant, rest with him and your father, who is in secret, will hear you and he already knows what you need before you even pray it. But you only have to believe it. As long as we’re in anxiety, we’re babbling, babbling, babbling, frustrating, angry, frustrated, angry. And he loves us coming to him. He loves when we’re real to him, will listen. I get real with God. But what he’s saying is if you will, there’s a room for you. There’s a room for you in the heavenly realms when anxiety, fear and worry, circumstance, all these things literally have to stop. But it’s also says that we have to labor in his rest. What does that mean? That means we have to work at not working so hard in this realm. We have to change the way we work.

I wasn’t even going to tell anybody, but I drove. We were at the beach. I was at the beach today. I drove five hours. I’m driving five hours back, but I have no anxiety to worry. I’m supposed to be here right now. And I said I told my daughter this morning. I said it doesn’t concern me. Time means nothing to God. All we do is like he’s.

It says that all of our days were written in his book before one ever came to be. I think a Psalm 127. All of my days were written in your book before one ever came to be. So if I actually believe that he has all of my days written in his book before one ever came to be, he knows the worries, the fears, the trials, the anxieties. He knows what’s going to come at me. He also knows that if I will just ask him what is in his scroll, what is in his book for me today, and I’ll just do that and trust him that he’ll take care of everything else, why does it tell us don’t worry. Why does it tell us, don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow has enough worries? We’re just like, yeah, I know that scripture, but oh my gosh, I’m so worried about tomorrow Because we don’t understand that it’s another room, it’s a different place we go.

We can’t get there from here. We have to get there from here to get there from covenant. We’ve got to change them. We’ve changed the way we’re coming and I’ve been like I said I’ve been in and out of this for several years. But since he said this to me, since he reached in and spanked my behind, it’s been like everything’s stopped and I’m in a season of my own personal life. Right now.

My kids are like growing up, their job of things are changing and graduation and college, and like so much wants to breathe, worry at me, so much wants to make me question whether or not I’ve parented well. Have I done well? Are they going to be okay or is the world going to get them? But then he begins to say no, but they’ve got. All their days are written in the book before whenever came to be.

And I send my messengers, I send my angels to attend to your children, to bring forth their, the will of God in their life. It’s just believing. And so when we come to him praying, let’s believe what we’re asking him. So Matthew 13, 21 to 23. This is the parable it says. But since he has no root, he remains only for a season.

When trouble and persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away. And in verse 22, the seed song among the thorns is the one who hears the word, but worries of this life and deceitfulness of wealth choke out the word and it becomes unfruitful. The worries of this world will choke this word out of you, not just what I’m speaking, but the revelation that comes. We so quickly can hear something like this, but if we don’t begin to pray it into ourselves, do you know that you need to pray for yourself? Put your hand on your own head and prophesy over yourself. Call out the word of God in yourself. That’s one of the most powerful things I ever learned. For years I used to go to all these powerful conferences and now I speak at some of them, but I don’t feel like I need a word. I need a word. I need a word. I need a word. I’m like bet me Now. It’s like don’t give me no word. I got words, he’s got. I got plenty of them, but I learned how to put my hand on my own head and call out him and me.

You take the word and you call it forth in yourself to learn how to abide in his rest. Simply doesn’t mean stopping everything. You can’t stop everything. You won’t be able to stop it. But if you can take yourself and quote Ephesians 2 6 and study into Hebrews 3 and 4 and begin to take the word and root it deeply in you and ask him do you know what repent means? It means change your mind. It means change the way you think of it. Begin to repent for the way you thought before and ask him to renew your mind every day. That’s how you labor into the rest. You work out of coming out of the flesh into the spirit. It says if you abide in the spirit, you will not be given to the desires of the flesh. So begin to pray. Lord, help me to sit in your presence, stay in your spirit.

Today a particular situation happened to me. One of my hardest things is like I actually reap a generational anxiety thing Okay, without going into details and this thing tries to come at me, all this anxiety from another person, and that is the hardest one, especially when it’s people close to you. All this tries to come at me from another person and that usually would have caused me to feel like I need to kind of help fix this person Right. I need to fix it, I need to stop it, I need to cause the bubble up to go down. And the Lord was like no, you live in the world, but not of it. You can live in this realm, but not of it. And immediately, even as this person was coming at me saying things worries, fears, all the things I literally closed my eyes and I am seated with you in heavenly places. I am in the world and not of it. I am not of it, I am not in this realm, I am not in this anxiety realm. I am seated with you. And as soon as I sat there, peace washed over me and God gave me peace. God gave me perfect words to say, and that particular situation melted like wax Because His words came out of my mouth, not because I responded with anxiety to anxiety. I responded to anxiety with the word of the Lord.

So we’re all learning this together and it’s beautiful, it’s powerful. He’s transitioning in gusts, he’s using us as transitionary people from one generation to the next. We must teach this generation how to come out of anxiety. How many of you on Instagram? This generation takes the word anxiety and wears it like a badge?

We must teach this generation how to abide in the spirit and, yes, a lot of us struggle with it. It comes at us, it is a spiritual thing, it is. It’s demonic. It is demonic, but as the day comes closer to the end of the age, we must learn how to come out of all of that. What does it say in Jeremiah 29? If you can’t run with the footmen, how are you going to run with the horses? The horses are coming. We can’t stop them, but we can rise above them. How do you think people handle persecution? They rise, they rise, they go up.

So, lord, I’m just going to pray us out. Lord, I just thank you that you are giving us a covenant. You have given us a covenant with you called rest. The blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony causes us to abide with you in a place that is not of this world. We’re literally not of this world, and right now I just speak out over those that are watching online, over those that are in the room. Peace be still.

I speak to anxiety, fear, worry, circumstantial concern and I say get out. Bow, bow to the knee, bow your knee to Jesus. King Jesus, one day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess and I just speak that right now. King Jesus is greater than worry, fear, anxiety, concern, trauma and Jesus name. Lord, I just pray right now that you would take us as a generation and pluck us out, like Zachariah 3. Pluck us out of this fiery inferno that says everything around us should be worshiped, everything but you. Fear and worry and anxiety should even be worshiped greater than you. Pluck us out, rebuke the accuser and set us in a place where we can abide in you and bring healing to our land. In Jesus name.

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Thank you for listening to this episode of Burning Messengers. You don’t want to miss what’s coming next week. So if you haven’t subscribed, please do so wherever you listen to podcasts. And if this word touched your heart, please rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts. To connect with Tammy, follow her on social media or visit frontlinefire.org. You don’t have to burn alone.