Audio： Entering into Rest — Hans R. Waldvogel

The Apostles’ Calling to Prayer and Christ’s Ascension

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 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 so 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 Faith

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. It's 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 an eye to God, He draws an eye to us.

The Call to Continual Prayer

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 and around the city, moment by moment to please God is really hard.

Every feeling, every word checked is a hard job, the Lord has said, because you don't have much help. The only help that comes is from within. And as I pay attention, loving attention to Jesus Christ who dwells within, why He springs forth like a grace liveth in me.

The Promises and Power of Christ’s Resurrection

And that of course is the doctrine of the New Testament. And the Lord might say to us, oh fools and slow of heart to believe. Promises are given, exceeding great and precious promises are given to us.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 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 power, might and dominion in 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.

Awakening the Church to Christ Within

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's working at it. He's 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. Then Christ shall give thee light. And that's why I say we ought to wake up and we ought to wake up. My Father worketh hitherto and I work for me.

Both of us. And me, myself exposed. I read this morning in the Bread of Life, the article is very interesting. It says it's like a paper that's to be still. And what we have to do is to present ourselves to God in that stillness of soul, that absolute surrender.

Crucified with Christ and Surrendered to God

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. Crucified with Christ cannot help. Jesus Christ cannot help Himself.

Now why is it that we don't get there? It's because perhaps we don't believe God or we don't understand. We still try to help. Conceited, we think that we can do something. It's a hard job to strip ourselves of our self-esteem and to us.

It's 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 less than before us the other day.

Laboring to Enter into God’s Rest

Labor, therefore, to enter into rest. What a strange contradiction. Enter into rest. And what does it mean? Salvation with fear and trembling because it is God that worketh in you. 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. God will take over. Before I came into the ministry, I had to work hard to belong to a denomination among the people. 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, God took everything out of me. And He wouldn't allow me to teach me this lesson that nothing that we do is acceptable in the sight of God. Whether it be secular labor or spirit, to sleep over my car, I've done that for years.

Never takes you to do it. Mrs. Robinson used to, any typist. But she says, your letters are much better when you type them yourself than when you dictate them to somebody. But it's a wonderful thing to find God really takes charge much more.

Your life is published in you and by you and through you. Dr. Simpson was talking about that one when he tells. And he tells how God led him into silence, into stillness. He said, it was an awfully...

Hearing Christ’s Voice in Stillness

He was such a busy man and he had such a busy mind. Until his mind was quieted and he got real still. And then he said he began to hear the voice of Jesus in the depth of his soul. It was like a delicious oil flowing in the depth of his heart.

And he recognized it as the voice of Jesus. And I heard him tell this himself. 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 God would supply. He had to edit papers, 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.

Christ as Head of His Body

Or they do not let God control them. I 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 of Christ. 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.

Abiding in Christ to Bear Lasting Fruit

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. The glory which... And what is that 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. God really takes over. Now I tell you, we've discussed these things many, many times and we always ascend to it.

Waiting on God Rather Than Self-Directed Activity

This is true. This Bernard Durant, he says, he says, the great imperfection of souls is 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.

Now it says the real secret is to do nothing of what you receive. Why, that would make you enter into rest and to know that you're all and in all. Meaning is in that direction. My mistakes have been made.

Saints Who Let God Work Through Them

But many saints have found out this great secret and from their lives there's the Church of Jesus Christ and slaves of that type, Adam Guyon, Ter Stegen, Martin Luther, Savannah Rowland. These men that were not satisfied with 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 and Trusting God’s Power

Divine healing. How did... 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 and fulfilled his word. But never mind. If we don't fulfill as sure as we're sitting here God is finding a people that will.