Joyce Meyer - Seated in Christ - Part 2

Seated equals rest. The Amplified Bible of Matthew 11 says, "Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy-laden and are overburdened, and I will give you rest. [i will ease, relieve and refresh your souls.]" God gives our soul a vacation and that's what we need, we need internal rest. We need to rest inside. You can work a lot harder on the outside if you're at rest on the inside while you do it. Are you tracking with me? You getting it? Let's just say you have a job, and you don't like your job, you don't like your boss, you don't like your job, you don't like the people you work with. Okay, so, this is just for you. And so, you go to work every day and you sit in your office chair, but you're not seated, in Christ.

You... probably not you, whoever you are that said that, but "some people," not anybody here, they sit at the lunchroom table and complain and gripe with all the other "unsaved" employees, and they're mad about everything, and angry about everything. Well, you gonna be three times more tired when you come home, than somebody who was able to go seated in Christ with their soul on vacation. Eight hours of worry is equivalent to 40 hours of hard labor. Eight hours of worry! And I'll tell you what, I won't do it anymore, I can't do it. I don't have any time or energy to be angry. I forgive you before you even do it, I'm not doing it. I can't do it. I did it for too long, and trust me, it will wear you out and you will eventually have big problems from it. What do you wanna stay mad at people for? Forgive 'em. Get rid of that stuff. Let it go. Get some rest in your soul. Sit down. Have yourself a seat.

That's what you need to tell your soul once in awhile when it starts to... You need to just say, "Soul, sit down". Cause you know when you sit you take the weight off of yourself, and it all goes on what you're seated in. Dave tells me I should sit more when I preach, but I get excited and gotta run around up here. But, see, when we're seated in Christ and all the weight goes on him, and off of us. Amen? Release your burdens, release the weight of them, cast your care. You know, one thing's for sure, if you give your problem to God, if God can't fix it, you sure can't. So, the work of the high priest was never finished, because it was a system of the law. So, it's very significant, especially to the Jew, that God kept saying that when it was finished, the law was fulfilled, that he sat down at the right hand of God. I got very excited when I first saw this years ago, because there are so many wonderful things hidden in the word that we just read past, and don't even understand.

And so, now, every time I see that he was seated, I understand it. I get it. I mean, I can't even imagine trying to live under the laws that they lived under, I read Leviticus last year, and I was completely worn out just trying to read it. I mean, it exhausted my mind, let alone what Jesus has done for us is absolutely amazing. You can actually make a mistake and not have to be mad at yourself, and not feel guilty and condemned. You can just say, "I'm sorry about that Lord, please forgive me". And just, and go right on. Oh my gosh, how many years I suffered with guilt and condemnation, because when you finally get around to trying to walk in God, every time you make a mistake, then comes the guilt and the feeling bad, and all that. And you know, babies fall down all the time and they'll cry for a little bit, and then get back up and do it again. And we need to learn how to do the exact same thing.

Our high priest sat down, he entered the rest of God, because the work of fulfilling the law had been finished and accomplished by him. So, legally and positionally, we are seated in Christ. Now, let's just say for the sake of just having an example, that this Bible here, is Christ, and this is me, now I'm in Christ, okay? So, how many of you know that whatever happens to the Bible, happens to me? If I were to put this in water, not only would the book get wet, but I'd get wet in there. If I put this, if I give this a place of honor in my home, and I set it up somewhere where everybody can see it, then my little card in here that we've called, "Joyce," gets the same honor.

See, everything that he has, we have, and everything that he did, we did, when he died, we died, when he was raised, we were raised. "The same power that raised him from the dead dwells in us, and it will quicken our mortal bodies". He has authority over the principalities and powers, all things are under his feet, and all things are also under our feet, wait a minute, as long as we stay in him. As long as we stay in Christ, the enemy, and when I say that, I mean by faith, I know that I'm standing here, but I'm also seated in heavenly places. Do you understand that I'm actually enjoying this work that I'm doing? I'm enjoying this, and this is several thousandth time that I've done it. Wouldn't you love to be able to do your work, from now on, and just rest while you do it?

Drive to work, "I hate driving in traffic. I hate this traffic. Ugh, I hate this traffic, and I hate my job, and I hate the people I work with". Well, why don't you just go ahead and be worn out all day long, just completely exhausted and worn out. Amen? Alright, God worked six days and on the sixth day he created man, and on the seventh day he rested from all of his work. At the end of the sixth day, he stood back, and the Bible says that, "He looked at all that he had created and he said, 'it is good'".

Now, I don't believe that we need to follow an Old Testament sabbath, but I do believe that we need to have a sabbath once a week. You can do something you enjoy, something that's restful, relaxful, spend time with family, you can go to church, you can lay on the couch all day and do nothing, but you should have one day a week where you don't work. Amen? And it's something that we, where we're at in our society today, we have to do by faith, because you have to believe if you take that one day, that God can help you get done in six, what you would have gotten done in seven, if you honor his principle of rest.

Now, we're talkin' about outward rest, for a minute. And people don't do that anymore. We just go from thing, to thing, to thing, to thing, to thing. Matter of fact, I read a book recently, by Robert Morris, and he was talking about this subject, and he said that he believes that we owe our body one day a week. And there's no tellins' how many thousands of sabbaths some of you owe your body. And if you don't rest outwardly, you will, one day, pay the price for it.