In John 3:3 (Amplified) we read, "Jesus answered him (Nicodemus), I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, that unless a person is born again (anew from above) he cannot ever see (know, be acquainted with and experience) the Kingdom of God."
2Corinthians 5:17 (Amplified) says, "Therefore if any person is (ingrafted) in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation ( a new creature altogether) the old (previous moral and spiritual condition) has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come."
The "rest" that I speak about isn't an extension of who you were, but a new person altogether. We keep trying to be who we were with a better outlook on things. Our outlook on things now, is an inward look at who we are. It's not the old man doing better, but the new man doing right. Paul said that there is no good thing in our flesh and that's why our flesh had to die. We now live by our born again spirit and its leading and wisdom from the Holy Spirit.
We still try organizing everything the way we did before. We try, mostly by our old nature, treating people better, no longer cursing and appearing holy. These are still deeds of the flesh and willpower.
We don't need willpower. We need to do like Jesus did when He said, "Not My will, but Yours be done." When we surrender our will over to His will, we walk in His rest. We're constantly trying to make up for the past mistakes and failures of our old lives. These things are dead and belong to the old man who died.
We can never make up for the wrong things we've done. Only Jesus' death on the cross could do that. Jesus has gone to the cross, was buried and raised and so were you. We're no longer living on the side of the cross where Jesus died and was buried, but on the side of His resurrection. All of these things are new and all these things are of God.
As long as we continue trying to live on the "dead and buried" side of the cross, we are still trying to do it by our own works. Only the resurrection side of the cross can produce new life. That's what Jesus meant when He said that "we cannot see God's Kingdom unless we're born again." Why? Because flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God.
Only your spirit can see into the new life that we now have. Even after a man is born again, he cannot see or experience God's Kingdom unless he allows the Holy Spirit to reveal it to him. 2Corinthians 2:14-15 (Amplified) says, "But the natural, nonspiritual man does not accept or welcome or admit into his heart the gifts and teachings and revelations of the Spirit of God, for they are folly (meaningless, nonsense) to him; and he is incapable of knowing them (of progressively recognizing, understanding, and becoming better acquainted with them) because they are spiritually discerned and estimated and appreciated." Verse 15 goes on, "But the spiritual man tries all things (he examines, investigates, inquires into, questions and discerns all things) yet is himself to be put on trial and judged by no one (he can read the meaning of everything, but no one can properly discern or appraise or get insight into him)."
When we allow the Holy Spirit to reveal the Kingdom to us, we can see and enter into the promises of the Kingdom. The carnal Christian puts off the Kingdom for when he dies and goes to heaven. The spiritual Christian will see and receive and bring heaven down to earth like Jesus did.
It's not difficult to walk in God's "rest" if we only let the Word by Spirit like Jesus said in John 6:63 (Amplified), "It is the Spirit Who gives life (He is the Life Giver) the flesh conveys no benefit whatever (there is no profit in it). The words I speak (truths) to you are Spirit and Life."
We keep rationalizing the Word in our unrenewed minds and cannot see or experience the Kingdom of God because it's not just words, but it is Spirit. This Word can and does enter your spirit once you're born again. But, if we try bringing it up from our spirit into an unrenewed mind, then it makes no sense.
This is why we have so many varying opinions and denominations in the Body of Christ today. The Word of God is not open to opinions or debate. It is Spirit and works from the Spirit. It will invade the natural man's way of doing things because the dead body will receive ability from the Spirit. This body will only be a vehicle for the born again spirit uses for transportation from one place to another. It has very little to do with the born again man except for housing the new Spirit to live in.
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