"For we who have believed do enter into the rest.. although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. For He spoke in a certain place of the seventh day in this way: "And God rested the seventh day from all His works." ..there remains a rest to the people of God. For he who has entered into his rest, he also has ceased from his own works, as God did from His." (Hebrews 4:3-10 MKJV)

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Union life => The master stroke of the New covenant is the union of our spirits with that of Christ to create a new spirit of "Christ as us". We therefore have the same spiritual nature as Christ and assume the legal identity of Christ. All that can be said of Him, can now be said of us and all He has, becomes ours. Our new life in Him is therefore about manifesting this Christ life in us, as we walk in the revelation of this new reality. Like the branch on a vine, we simply abide and trust Him to do the rest. Moving, only in response to His working in us. He supplies and directs, we simply obey, knowing that it is He working in us. We no longer have any limitations, as we submit to His superior abilities working in us. We thereby live that surrendered life of obedience that the glory and excellence may be of God. The rest therefore is us being God's means of manifestation on the earth. Since He is love, we become a conduit through which He pours out Himself(love) to others. He loves, we respond, we overflow His love to others. The struggle is over, eternal life is here and now.

1. "..he being joined to the Lord is one spirit." (1 Corinthians 6:17 MKJV)

2. "You were baptized into union with Christ, and now you are clothed, so to speak, with the life of Christ himself. So there is no difference between Jews and Gentiles, between slaves and free people, between men and women; you are all one in union with Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are the descendants of Abraham and will receive what God has promised." (Galatians 3:27-29 GNB)

3. "And if we are children, then we are heirs; heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ; so that if we suffer with Him, we may also be glorified together." (Romans 8:17 MKJV)

4. "I am the True Vine, and My Father is the Vinedresser..Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it remains in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the Vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing..If you abide in Me, and My Words abide in you, you shall ask what you will, and it shall be done to you. In this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, so you shall be My disciples. As the Father has loved Me, so I have loved you; continue in My love." (John 15:1-9 MKJV)

5. "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor your ways My ways, says Jehovah. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts." (Isaiah 55:8-9 MKJV)

6. "My response is to get down on my knees before the Father..I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit..that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you'll be able to take in with all Christians the extravagant dimensions of Christ's love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God. God can do anything, you know--far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us." (Ephesians 3:14-20 MSG)

7. "..You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men, it having been made plain that you are the epistle of Christ, ministered by us, not having been written with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not on tablets of stone, but in fleshly tablets of the heart. And we have such trust through Christ toward God, not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God; who also has made us able ministers of the new covenant; not of the letter, but of the spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit makes alive." (2 Corinthians 3:1-6 MKJV) But we all, with our face having been unveiled, having beheld the glory of the Lord as in a mirror, are being changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Lord Spirit." ( Corinthians 3:18 MKJV)

8. "..He is, so also we are in this world." (1 John 4:17 MKJV)

9. "You put him in charge of everything human So he might give real and eternal life to all in his charge. And this is the real and eternal life: That they know you, The one and only true God, And Jesus Christ, whom you sent." (John 17:2-3 MSG)

10. "Remember, our Message is not about ourselves; we're proclaiming Jesus Christ, the Master. All we are is messengers, errand runners from Jesus for you. It started when God said, "Light up the darkness!" and our lives filled up with light as we saw and understood God in the face of Christ, all bright and beautiful. If you only look at us, you might well miss the brightness. We carry this precious Message around in the unadorned clay pots of our ordinary lives. That's to prevent anyone from confusing God's incomparable power with us." (2 Corinthians 4:5-7 MSG)

11. "..when we were baptized into union with Christ Jesus, we were baptized into union with his death..just as Christ was raised from death by the glorious power of the Father, so also we might live a new life. For since we have become one with him in dying as he did, in the same way we shall be one with him by being raised to life as he was..Since we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that Christ has been raised from death..and now he lives his life in fellowship with God. In the same way you are to think of yourselves as dead, so far as sin is concerned, but living in fellowship with God through Christ Jesus." (Romans 6:3-11 GNB)

"Christ's life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not "mine," but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. " (Galatians 2:20 MSG)

Selah

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