BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

For hundreds of years after Adam, God was continually on the lookout for a man who would receive all He had to give him, including rest in the earth. Along the way He often spoke through His prophets about His plan—that His people would one day receive the fullness of the blessing and establish the earth as God’s Garden. Some caught God’s vision and connected with Him. God revealed His plan to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses and David, and they all lived in the plan for a season. Then, either they or their descendants would get off course and God’s people would end up back in a wilderness of one form or another. Generations later, God spoke through the prophet Isaiah about what He had envisioned for the earth and its people. He said, “Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him. For the Lord shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody” (Isaiah 51:2-3). God has always planned to make the whole earth like the Garden of Eden—a place for His man to flourish in His rest. Through the faith of Abraham, a portion of the earth actually was delivered and turned into a garden of the Lord for his descendants. Abraham received that land, called it his own, and fulfilled God’s planned relationship between man and earth in his land. As Abraham’s family history unfolded, his descendants abandoned their land and their blessing, and took generations of their family into bondage. But God never gave up. He never stopped talking to His people about His plan to bring them to their place of rest and no more toil. The Day Is Here The prophet Ezekiel spoke on behalf of the Lord to His people, looking forward to the days of His unfolding plan. "Thus saith the Lord God; In the day that I shall have cleansed you from all your iniquities I will also cause you to dwell in the cities, and the wastes shall be builded. And the desolate land shall be tilled, whereas it lay desolate in the sight of all that passed by. And they shall say, This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden; and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are become fenced, and are inhabited. Then the heathen that are left round about you shall know that I the Lord build the ruined places, and plant that that was desolate: I the Lord have spoken it, and I will do it" (Ezekiel 36:33-36). Well, here we are—in that day! We are in the greatest day of His plan! By the precious blood of His Son, Jesus, God has cleansed us of our iniquities. He has delivered to the Body of Christ the blessing Jesus regained for us! Glory to God! And now we are getting in on all that means to us, His people—His children. He is causing us to dwell in our cities and build the wastelands in them. Our desolate lands and desolate people are being replanted and are flourishing again as He intended for the Garden of Eden. And as Ezekiel 33:36 declares, the people around us who don’t know Him will see clearly He is the One doing it all! Can you see it? It’s just like in the beginning—just like the original Garden. He said it and He is doing it! God said let there be…and there was. It’s all His plan, it’s all His Word, and it’s all His doing! We’re at Rest—No More Toil! As His people get on board with Him, walking in His plan, taking hold of His Word, and allowing Him to do what He says, we are at rest—no more toil! “So, does that mean we just sit around and do nothing?” someone may ask. No, but what the Lord calls us to do, we can do without toil…the toil that Adam worked under. We do the good work of God He created us for in Christ Jesus, resting in Him and apart from the kind of toil that brings pain to body and mind (see Ephesians 2:10). We get out there in our communities and in the world, resting in the blessing—declaring His Word and completing His plan to reveal His Garden wherever we are! Jesus demonstrated time and again the kind of work God intends us to do. Peter had “toiled all night” to catch fish, but when he heard the word of Jesus, he just threw out the net and took what may have been the biggest haul of his life (Luke 5:1-7). That’s how our work for the Lord should be. More than once, thousands of people sat down to hear Jesus preach and decided to stay for lunch. The disciples began to toil (be pained in their minds) about how they would feed the multitudes. Jesus picked up a piece of bread, thanking God for it, and gave some to each of them. He said, “Here, do this, get out there among the people, break the bread and pass it out.” No toil, just follow the example. That’s how it should be for us. And we’re seeing it happen. 26 : BVOV

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