​“Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.“  Matthew 11:28-30

We must come to Him if we are weary, tired, exhausted from toil or effort, burdened with the things we cannot seem to get on top of.
When we come, He will give us a place to recover, to collect our strength and be refreshed.
He will bring us into a place where we can quiet our spirit, restore our soul and body.
But we must come, we must choose to walk away from our labors and burdens and seek him out.
In the place of rest we get a perspective that allows us to see more clearly, do discern the things that are significant and those that aren't.
We have a tendency to take on burdens that have no kingdom value, those things that tire us and wear us down with worry.

He is not telling us that we will not labor, but that the labor will not be difficult.
We are told to take up his yoke and watch and learn from him and in so doing we learn to live from a place humility and quietness of heart.
When we do, we will come to rest.
The yoke, the submission to his guidance in the work of the kingdom is easy, since he labors with us.

We are not alone, He is with us to lighten the load, a time of putting our shoulders together to move the kingdom into the world.
The joy of working together with a close friend who is taking the lead and the weight of the work. It is a time of close fellowship.
His yoke is easy, it does not grind us down and the burden (there will be a burden) is light. He knows our strength and our endurance and will not impose more than we can handle.
Once we learn to share His yoke, we can then do it for others.

“Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.”  Galatians 6:2

The Power of Doubt
    Doubt: it is the place where understanding and faith collide, where spiritual chaos is created.

    Doubt that is contemplated is always destructive to your spirit.

    “When John, who was in prison, heard about the deeds of the Messiah, he sent his disciples to ask him, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?” “Matthew 11:2-3

    It seems like an unthinkable question from a man whom Jesus called, “Greatest man born of women,” Matthew 11:11.

     Prison was John's place of restraint, a place where he had to endure and was powerless to act.  
​     All he had was time for contemplation, time to ponder, and he began to doubt.

    “Should we expect someone else?”

    What a forlorn question.

    “No!” would not suffice; he needed evidence to put his doubts to rest.

    Jesus gave him balm for his spirit - the words of Isaiah,  "…the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised us, the poor have the good news preached to them."
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    If you look for Messiah or the Kingdom through your interpretation or how you want it to appear, you miss the King. 

    Even though John had a revelation that Jesus was "The One,” his expectation of how the Messiah must look and behave were a stumbling block to his belief.

    "Are you the one who is to come…" 

    What a desperate plea from a man who spent his life announcing and preparing for the moment of Messiah’s revelation.
     When Jesus  began to reveal God's nature, it was not what he expected, and he doubted.
    
    The world had decided what Messiah would look like. Not looking beyond their expectations, they missed the moment of visitation. 

     Jesus did not and does not conform to the expectation of man.

    They were looking for someone who fit their understanding of God, and their understanding blinded them to the very one who would give them sight and hearing. 

    Even John, the herald of the new king and kingdom missed it.
    
    “Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. And I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ I have seen and I testify that this is God’s Chosen One.”
John 1:32-34

    When you question and become uncertain, not unlike John, you will lose the heavenly perspective and rely on an earthly view of what Jesus the Messiah would do and look like, and you move into doubt.

    That which is of the flesh is limited to the flesh and open to doubt.
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    Unless you are empowered by Holy Spirit to see things differently, you do not have the ability to do otherwise. 
     You must be born of the Spirit to see things in the Spirit.
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The Enemy Within, The Fear that Shapes

     You are shaped by your thoughts - those internal beliefs and ideas taught by parents and teachers and formed by circumstances and the fears that often result from painful encounter with others.       

     There is a warning about this kind of fear:
     "Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe.” Proverbs 29:35

     Your driving force soon becomes, “What will people think?  The snare is now set.

     This creates  great distractions in your life. 

     Criticism, rejection or failure, opens the door to the fear of man and occupies your attention and fills you with anxiety.  
     As  the fear grows, your mind comes more and more under its control. 
     You soon find that this fear creates most of the problems you face in life. 

    When your fear is magnified, the offenses and problems in your life will also increase.
    
    Your words and actions reveal the fear that now influences and shapes your life.
    As long as you leave God out of the solution, you will find that your problems grow as you submit to their claims. 
         
    The level and power of your anxiety is inversely proportional to your faith and trust in God.
    Whenever you believe and embrace a lie about God, you move into anxiety.
    
    Magnifying, thanking and praising God greatly reduces the fear and the control your problems have over you.
   You must recognize that the problem is not with God, but with the influences, attitudes and beliefs you now carry.


    Ask yourself, who taught you to think the thoughts you have about yourself, others and God?  
    Were those thoughts life-giving?

   Your thoughts are mostly the result of someone else’s influence, which is often not life-giving,  but is the worldly pattern of thinking.
    
  What is the familiar voice in your life: “You are a failure, a sinner?” or is it the truth, “You are more than a conqueror, a child of the most high God?"    

   Magnify God, not your fears.
   The voice you listen to will open the door to your identity and destiny, either death or life.
    You choose! 

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