We’ve all been in situations where we gave something our best effort and worked hard to accomplish an objective. There’s nothing wrong with that, as long as we’re not misapplying our efforts and diligent work. What trips us up is when we try to do something that God has already done. Because of the finished works of Jesus Christ, God’s Old-Testament requirement to “do” has been replaced with His New-Testament request to “believe.”
Everything that needed to be done for us to enjoy successful lives has already been done; we can therefore abandon our self-efforts and simply rest in what Jesus did. Our faith takes the finished works that grace made available to us. Constantly and consistently working this faith eventually brings manifestation.
Faith is more powerful than we realize. It’s not just a cliché, but the way we take hold of what Jesus has finished. Healing, deliverance, and prosperity aren’t future promises; they’re done deals. Employing faith brings what’s waiting for us in the supernatural realm into the natural realm.
Everything that pertains to life and godliness has already been supplied. Useless striving on our part is unnecessary. The question now is, how do we get what’s finished to show up in our lives? It’s simple: we believe for it, we receive it, and we rest in it.
Believing isn’t just saying, “I believe I receive.” Genuine belief shows up in our thinking, our words, and our attitude. We carry ourselves, speak, and rest like it’s done, because it is. “And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him” (1 John 5:14, 15). Confidence means we’re settled—with no worry and no panic—because we know it’s done.
However, God’s will doesn’t automatically come to pass. His Word is His will, but our conscious decision to believe Him plays a big part; unbelief blocks what God wants to do for us. “Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world” (Hebrews 4:1-3). If we’re not cautious and aware, we can miss out on something Jesus already paid for.
Rest and a refusal to worry or fret is a sign that we’re really believing. Rest is the evidence of faith. If we’re still worrying, still questioning, still speaking against what we say we believe, then we haven’t entered into rest yet. Authentic faith brings peace, confidence, and a posture that says, “It’s done, and I’m not moved by what I see.”
We speak what we believe. “For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith” (Mark 11:23). Paying attention to this connection is critical. Clinging tenaciously to God’s promises and refusing to be moved by what we see brings breakthrough.
