Entering Into Rest — Hans R. Waldvogel

The Apostolic Call to Prayer and Dependence on Christ

When the early apostles said, we will give ourselves continually to prayer, they simply meant to express that without Him they could do nothing. Their job was very, very clear. Jesus Christ had said, you have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, now raised from the dead, now entered into His glory.

Christ’s Suffering, Resurrection, and the Witness of Scripture

He entered into His glory for us, like He expressed it to those two disciples on the way to Emmaus. He said, not Christ to have suffered these things. The entire Old Testament is full of that witness that the Son of God should come as the Son of Abraham and bring about the great change in the world and open the door of salvation.

They should have known that. The Scriptures, He says, they testify of me. Moses wrote of me. And all the Old Testament prophecies point to that great victory which man was not able to accomplish, but God had to accomplish by sending His only begotten Son into the world.

Why was it that they were such fools and throw hard to believe? They weren't ready to receive Him. And now it says He had to enter into glory, and He entered into glory for us. And He said, it's good for you if I go away.

Living Moment by Moment in Fellowship with God

I'll be able to do for you what I cannot do now. And so He's working today from heaven, and that ought to inspire us to pray without ceasing, literally without ceasing. We've heard that teaching for many years, that the true inwardness consists of living moment by moment.

Moment by moment is a great call, but it's a very, very wonderful call. Why? It opens the door into fellowship with the Son of God and with the power of His resurrection. And that's why He says the life of faith has come, and without faith it is impossible to please Him.

I'm not pleasing God if I live a natural life, no matter how spiritual it seems. I must live in heavenly places. My conversation must be in heaven. My fellowship must be with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

I must walk in the light as He is in the light. And it is possible. It isn't something that God demands of us and doesn't offer us. That wonderful possibility, the Son worketh hitherto and He works in us, and we have experienced it again and again, that as soon as we make a little effort to draw night to God, He draws night to us.

What would happen if we really gave ourselves continually to prayer? I don't mean to wait upon the Lord like we do when we have weeks of prayer, but I mean if we prayed without ceasing, if we labored to enter into an inward life like God has said, every Christian is called to live.

Moment by moment I'm kept in His love. Moment by moment I'm life from above. The Lord said to me one day, now that's really hard. I was glad that the Lord expressed it that way. He said in the house, the city, every feeling, every word checked by the will of the vessel in the love of God is a hard job, the Lord has said, because you don't have much help from within.

And as I pay attention, loving attention to Jesus Christ, why He springs forth and lives within me. And that, of course, is the doctrine of the New Testament. And the Lord might say to us, O fools and slow of heart to believe, promises are given, exceeding great and precious promises are given to us by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

Christ’s Resurrection Power and the Church’s First Love

That's where that fountain flows. The exceeding greatness of His power is to us who do believe according to the working of His mighty power when He raised Him from the dead and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named not only in this world but also in that which is to come and gave Him to be head over all things to the church.

Now supposing the church had believed that. Supposing the church of Jesus Christ returned to that first love. Why, it's impossible. God has got to start something new and He is working at it. He is baptizing many people in the Holy Ghost and among that great multitude that are today being baptized with the Holy Ghost and speaking in tongues, there's going to be a small nucleus, a small number that will wake up.

They'll wake up to the wonder of Jesus Christ dwelling within them. That's the call, He shall give thee light. And that's why I say we ought to wake up and we ought to father worketh hitherto and I work the little of me.

Surrender, Stillness, and the Indwelling Life of Christ

And me, my morning in the bread of life, which is very interesting, it says, it's like a paper that's to be all the paper has to God and that stillness of soul surrender. Now have thine own way. And if I really surrender myself to God like that, by living faith and by simple childlike faith, God Almighty must, He will.

That's another thing the Lord has said to me one time, which has stayed with me. Jesus Christ cannot help Himself but live out His own life within a soul like that. Now why is it that we don't get there?

It's because we still try to help ourselves. We're so conceited, we think that we can do something. It's a hard job. It's a hard job to strip ourselves of our nature. We cannot escape it until we really love Jesus Christ and crucify the flesh with the affections and lusts.

But that's what happens when we really become desperate and seek the Lord with all our hearts. The other day, the contradiction. When you labor and when you rest, you don't labor and yet God commands us to labor.

What does He mean? Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. In other words, that's my work to let God work. Let Him have His way. He is the potter and I am the clay. And if I have sense enough to read, God will take over.

Letting God Direct Ministry and Daily Work

And many times I said, I could give myself wholly to the ministry. But when the time came that I was able to do that work within me, God taught me this lesson that nothing that we do is acceptable in the sight of God.

Whether it be secular labor or to sleep over my car for years, God tells you to do it. Mrs. Robinson used to like my letters with two fingers. Any typist. But she says, your letters are much better when you type them yourself than when you dictate them to somebody.

The whole thing to find that God really takes charge. How much more your life will accomplish and God will accomplish in you and by you and through you. Dr. Simpson was talking about that one time. Of course you know his story.

Dr. Simpson’s Experience of Quietness and Hearing Jesus

How that he was down and out. And he tells how God led him into silence. Into stillness. He said it was an awfully hard job because he'd been such a busy man until his mind was quieted and he got real still.

And then he said he began to hear the voice of his heart and he recognized it as the voice of Jesus. And I heard him tell this himself. He said from that moment on he didn't have to preach. While the doctor had forbidden him to preach now, new life took hold of him.

And he would preach 15 times a week. And the life of cause he led. God's writing. These are wonderful things. A man cannot receive these things and doesn't want to receive them. I found out since I've been in the ministry that many ministers do things by their own mind or they do not let God.

Christ as the Head Who Produces Lasting Fruit

I've so often heard men say, I think the Lord showed me that so and so ought to be done. And I say, yes, it should be. I saw that it must have been God. And then after a while I'm surprised to find out that not.

How do you dare? You are not your own. You're a member of the body. Responsibility. What a wonderful privilege. We are not the head. Jesus Christ is the head. And when he takes over, everything is different.

Every time I go out to have a convention in Europe or elsewhere, I say, Jesus Christ, you must take over. Everything is different when you take over. And I discovered that in a short while, Jesus Christ accomplishes infinitely more than we could even think of accomplishing.

When we do things by ourselves, maybe we reflect credit on our own intelligence or intuition. But nothing is accomplished. Jesus Christ says, if you abide in me and my words abide in you, you shall bear much fruit, and your fruit shall remain.

It's because Jesus Christ has produced it. He does it. Say the two. Jesus Christ says, Father, the glory, that's the glory, just like the son said, the son can do nothing of himself. Nothing. Isn't that strange?

What humility. That alone is true humility. That submission to God. To the Spirit of God. That makes you know between yourself and God that you can do nothing decently. And you don't have to do anything yourself.

That God dwells within you. And God is the driving force of your mind, of your mentality, of your body, soul, and spirit. And God really takes over. Now I tell you, we've discussed these things many, many times.

Entering Into Rest Through Waiting on God

And we always ascend to it. This is true, and this is the way. Durant, he says, he says, the great imperfection of soul, not to wait enough upon God. The active nature, unsubdued, seizes on fair pretexts to intermeddle and thinks it is doing wonders.

Yet this is what disturbs the purity of the soul, troubles its silence, whence it results in that word of life. Now it says, the real secret is to do nothing of our own. As we receive. Why, that would make you enter into rest.

To know that. He says, that's where, but many saints have found out this great secret. And from their lives there sprung forth a great fountain of life. The church of Jesus Christ lives on that type. Madame Guy and Martin Luther.

But they sought God until God took over. And God began to work in them and through them. And they shaped the destiny of the church. And they brought us to where we are today. Divine healing. How did this, Wait for two years.

He never gave up. He said, God will. When the devil says, you can't. He said, I know I can't, but I know God can. And he never gave up until God took over. And then he didn't have to pray anymore. Then the sick got healed by the thousands.

Even the dead were raised. He had really taken God at his word, fulfilled his word. But never mind. If we don't fulfill the will of the people that will.