Pray Until the Sigh of Rest Comes

Have you ever had to make a camel kneel down and rest?  Turns out it can be quite a process.  They battle.  They groan.  They yank against the tug of its handler.  They stubbornly resist the one attempting to get them to rest. 

Hmmmm… a beast of burden that requires assistance from its handler to lie down and rest.  How far of a stretch is it for you to relate to your struggles in prayer?

The image and visuals of a camel came about when I looked up the word rest from Isaiah 11:2. 
Isaiah 11:2-3
The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him–
    the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
    the Spirit of counsel and of might,
    the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord–
and he will delight in the fear of the Lord.

Rest is to settle down, lay, remain in a place of quiet from burdens, work, or enemies.  The Brown-Driver-Briggs definition also references the camel as a picture of rest for Hebrew word #5117, to make a camel lie down on his breast and the resting place of a camel.

Related to promises of God, what is so exceptional and misunderstood about God is that He brings rest to anyone who willingly responds to the visitation of His Spirit.  His rest comes to us!  The Spirit of the LORD comes and settles down, lays, remains, indwells within for a continual lifting of burdens, relief from striving, and protection from all enemies.  He is a Holy Spirit that comes in the fullness of Jesus; you need not do anything except give in to the Holy Handler and repose in God’s presence in Christ’s name. 

Yet, far too often we respond to the handlers who are the external and rough forces burdening us with expectations or tempting us to satisfy flesh.  Before we know it, we run around like chickens with our heads cut off.  All the while the Spirit of Jesus says, “Come with me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest”, Matthew 11:28.

“Come, I will give you”, Jesus says.  Rest is a supernatural gift Christ gives.

You do not find your own sustaining rest.  God alone gives continual rest. 

Psalm 23:2- He makes me lie down in green pastures…

Phrase of emphasis- HE makes me

If only people realized how much God wants to bring relief from the burdens of the daily grind of this life, and especially from the burdens of our soul.  

Read Isaiah 11:2-3 again and look what He gives when He rests upon you by His Spirit.
Supernatural wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, knowledge, healthy reverent awe invoking fear of the LORD leading to delight in Him. 

None of those can be purchased or acquired by any human effort.  It is Holy gift.

Isaiah 11:2-3 is one of the first scriptures I memorized 21 years ago, the year I initially became a Christian.  I prayed it over myself constantly, and use it very often when praying for others.

Try it, pray it over yourself- May the Spirit of the LORD be upon me, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD, that my delight should be in the fear of the LORD. 

If you don’t know God or if there is another who does not know God, pray this scripture over them also.  The nature of the Spirit of God is to hover, speak, and create.  It is what the Holy Spirit did in the beginning at the command of God. 

Genesis 1:2- “Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters”.

Hovering over the waters… 

The Holy Spirit is still hovering to create by speaking, “Let there be light.”  Jesus says that the Holy Spirit is not just active in believers, but in the world to convict all people of sin, righteous, and judgment. Do you know what that means?  What is great sin #1?  #2?  Who stands condemned? Check to see if your answers line up with Jesus in slides below, and read end of blog below-

So the rest God offers will never come from our effort.  God is good and offers supernatural rest that He alone provides.  How much energy are you wasting with “How come this, and how come that?”  Those aren’t prayers that lead to rest!

True rest leads to sighs, sighs of relief.  You are to experience a response of the soul that is deep with conviction, deep in comfort and repose by the help of the Holy Spirit.

When you spend time with God may you regularly have deep soul sighs.  Listen for them.  Listen to the sigh of burden.  Is it transformed to relief in God’s presence?  Initially our sighs should often be a sigh that communicates we are heavily burdened.  Maybe we are sorry about something we said or did, maybe we regret something that can’t be undone. It’s good and healing to feel sorry, to regret!  The Lord can work with a soul that wants mercy!  That is the place He will come and rest!  Unburden and tell Him, ask for tender mercy.  Be transformed by the LORD’s grace and mercy.  Then that precious sigh of relief, of comfort, of supernatural, inexplicable consolation comes and you rest in His presence.  He knows we are merely dust, find rest in Him.  Blessings!

Hebrews 4:15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. 16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.