Entering Your Rest

We have more labour saving devices than any previous generation in history, yet many still do not have rest. Work always expands to fill the available hours in a day unless each one designates a time for rest. Rest originated as a gift of God, but we have a choice whether to receive this gift.

The Bible describes two kinds of rest: Sabbath rest and Dominion rest.

Sabbath Rest

It is a time of rest when you cease from normal work and experience physical, emotional, and mental respite. God’s will at creation was to rest one day out of seven. It was so important to God that the weekly Sabbath was included in the ten commandments. (Exodus 20:8).Failing to keep a Sabbath is as much a violation as killing, stealing, or committing adultery.

The New Testament teaching on Sabbath is in Colossians 2:16, “Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath.” In other words, do not be judgmental or legalistic in your observance of Sabbath or how others conduct its observance. The goal of this teaching is to restore Sabbath to its covenantal purpose: to be a blessing from God. There may be times when you must work on a Sabbath. People may need your help on a Sabbath. That is why Jesus healed on the Sabbath. However, if you continuously miss your rest, you are missing a blessing. You lose your joy, your creativity, your strength. The essence of Sabbath is this: if God created the universe in six days, He is strong enough to oversee your life for one day while you rest and enjoy His blessing.

Mark 2:28 Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath

Dominion Rest

The term is not used specifically, but the concept is clearly taught in Scriptures. Its rest that comes when you have taken dominion of your appointed inheritance.

Sabbath rest is a time of rest, but Dominion rest is a place of rest.

Dominion rest is the enjoyment of your personal inheritance, which may include an actual physical location or your ministry, your calling. Dominion rest is your call, your destiny in the earth. If your call is to be a parent, you experience Dominion rest in that sphere when your children are established and growing in the Lord. If your call is to help establish a church, Dominion rest comes when the church is established and the next generation of leadership has been raised up. If your call is to build a successful business, Dominion rest is when that business is flourishing. When you have taken dominion over the things God has promised you, there is a time of Dominion rest.

Examples of Dominion rest

Joshua 21:44 And the Lord gave them rest on every side just as he had sworn to their fathers. Not one of all their enemies had withstood them, for the Lord had given all their enemies into their hands.

1 Kings 5:4 (Solomon) But now the Lord my God has given me rest on every side. There is neither adversary nor misfortune. 

1 Chronicles 22:18 (David) “Is not the Lord your God with you? And has he not given you peace on every side? For he has delivered the inhabitants of the land into my hand, and the land is subdued before the Lord and his people.

Entering Dominion Rest

Unlike Sabbath rest, Dominion rest is not entered by ceasing from activity. It is entered through warring, labour, and at times struggle.

Hebrews 4:11 “Let us therefor be zealous and exert ourselves and strive diligently to enter that rest.”

You only experience Dominion rest when your enemies are defeated. Possessing an inheritance always requires a battle.

In Psalm 95:10-11 God swore that the Israelites who turned back from the promised land would never enter His rest, because they were not willing to fight to possess it. They refused to take dominion of their inheritance and forfeited the right to possess their promised land. As a result, they died wandering in the wilderness.

We lose Dominion rest through unbelief, disobedience, refusing to war for your promise as in Psalm 95, and through generational issues not dealt with in families and lineages.

Enjoying Sabbath rest while striving for Dominion rest

God established the interworking of Sabbath rest and Dominion rest at creation.

Genesis 1:27-31 Dominion rest

Genesis 2:1-3 Sabbath rest

Both were meant to go together.

In Genesis 2:15 the Lord “put” Adam and Eve in the garden. This word “put” literally means “rested.” In Hebrew it is the word "nooak" which means “to dwell in safety and peace.” The garden was man’s place of Dominion rest. He was to cultivate this land for increase. There was work to do and productivity expected even before the Fall. Even Adam and Eve had to work to enter rest. From the garden they were to take dominion and enlarge their place of rest until it filled the whole earth. In the New Testament, this same truth is brought out in Jesus' commission to His disciples in Matthew 28:18-20 "Go, and make disciples of all nations" or literally "to the end of the earth"

Hebrews 4 is the New Testament counterpart to Genesis 1 and 2.

In verses 1-3 the word for rest is “katapausis”, which means a “dwelling place” or “an abode.” This is Dominion rest. But in v9, the word for rest is “sabbistosmos” which is Sabbath rest. Here again, as in Genesis 1 and 2, they go together.

We must work (war) to enter Dominion rest. But while we are in the process, there is a Sabbath rest. We enter Dominion rest through our work (trusting God and relying on Him). We enter Sabbath rest through His work.

You will not gain your inheritance without war and diligence. An entire generation of Israel turned back at Kadesh Barnea thereby wandering in the wilderness and never experiencing the fulfilment of Dominion rest in the promised land.

If you do not stop to observe a Sabbath rest each week as you battle for your Dominion rest, you will not have the strength to win the war.

One of the reasons Israel went into 70 years of captivity in Babylon was that they did not observe the Sabbath. They lost their place of Dominion rest because they did not enter their Sabbath rest. The two must go together.

Gods plan of blessing is always generational. As one generation secures their inheritance, the next generation can enlarge it even more. One generation may also lose the blessing of Dominion rest, thereby the next generation needs to war to recover what has been lost.

As believers, when we link our weekly Sabbath rest with Dominion rest, the joy of the Lord will be our strength as we experience the victory of walking in our destiny.