Study Notes

I.      Matthew 11:27-You can hear the Master saying come over here and let me show you how to live life because you’re working and tired, life has become hard and heavy for you and I want to give you rest and ease

A.    The insinuation is these people are trying to do it in their own effort (take my yoke)

1.       Could that be why it is so hard?

2.       Deception is the worst; people are trying to do it in their own effort and don’t know it

B.     Hard living was never God’s plan; God is interested in injecting ease back into the lives of people who will look to him and do what he says-Psalm 25:12-13

C.    Message Translation

1.       The Father has given me all things to do and to say

2.       You have to be willing to listen

3.       Work with me-Don’t try to do it by yourself

4.       Watch how I do it-Don’t try to reinvent the wheel (I lived a life of ease so do it like me)

5.       Learn the unforced rhythms of grace

a.      Learning insinuates you paying attention to somebody teaching

II.     In the life of ease, God has a part and we have a part-(Matt11MSG-“Work with Me”)

A.    This is co-laboring, working with God; He has a part and we have a part-1Corinthians3:9

1.       John 5:17-Jesus said I have a part and my Father had a part

B.     John 14:10-It was not Jesus’ part to do the works or to figure what to do or what to say

1.       John 5:19,30,8:28,38-Jesus’ part was to look to the Father and allow the Father to show Him what to do and say and then do it and say it

a.      The reason he lived his life with such ease, so freely and lightly is because he never tried to do the Father’s part or carry the Father’s load

b.      Jesus knew he could do nothing of himself so he just looked to the Father and did what he saw and said what he heard and it kept his life free, light, simple

2.       The Father’s part was to do the works (the healing, the delivering, manifestations)

a.      John 14:10-According to Jesus he healed no one, he delivered no one, he multiplied nothing, he fixed nothing; it was the Father who did it

3.       If we are going to do the works that Jesus did we are going to do them the same way he did them; see and do, hear and say, and then stay in faith

C.    Life gets extremely hard, heavy, and burdensome when we try to do God’s part and bare the brunt of His responsibility

1.       When we try to work things up in our own effort life gets hard and void of fun

2.       EX: You’re going to make it happen with your faith, your prayer, your principles…

3.       Manifestation is God’s business; it’s my business to do what he said and then trust him enough to shut up and rest and stand back and watch expecting something marvelous to happen

D.    In the life of ease this is a key revelation that you must get, “I can do nothing of myself.”

1.       The only thing you can do is to do what you saw from the Father to do and to say what He told you to say and that’s it

2.       Anything beyond that is your labor, your effort, and your attempt to accomplish something in your own power, might, or ability

III.   Our part as believers in this life overflowing with God’s grace and ease is the looking, the seeing and hearing, and the yielding

A.    The first issue is that we haven’t even been looking to see or to hear; we’ve dove headfirst into our principles, we go hours on end and never look to God

1.       We’ve fallen in short in this revelation: I can do nothing of myself

a.      We thought we could just do what we learned without the Holy Spirit’s help

b.      We’ve gone about just picking things, even spiritual things to do, and they don’t work because it’s just flesh and then we are confused and discouraged

2.       Wisdom/direction/the leading of the Spirit is designed to bring an ease to your life by allowing God to get involved and help you

a.      The word says wisdom is the principle thing; it hasn’t been anything to us-Prov 4:7

b.      The problem has been we do all we know to do, instead of doing what see saw and heard from him to do; when we do all we know to do and nothing works, then we start seeking for wisdom

3.       Pride has kept us from looking up and looking in for direction

a.      Humility is I have to see and hear first or I can do nothing, meekness is doing it and these characteristics added and ease to his life

1)       When you truly recognize you can do nothing of yourself, you’ll look up

b.      This failure to look as cut us off from the grace of God and brought toil back into our lives to the point that some of us our toiling with the tools of spiritual principles in our hands while we totally ignore the leading of the Spirit

1)       A failure to look is the result of pride and pride will get you resisted when it comes to the grace of God and when grace is missing life will be hard-1 Peter 5:5, James 4:6, Proverbs 3:34

c.      Looking and yielding (humility and meekness) are the two ingredients what will tap God’s grace and produce and ease on your life

1)       Jesus simply heard and spoke and saw and did and then the Father would work and great things would happen; these are the unforced rhythms of grace

2)       He got this grace because the first thing he did in every situation is he looked up and he looked in because he knew he could do nothing of himself

3)       A life of looking and yielding will be one full of grace and ease

d.      Grace will be absent where meekness and humility are not present; where there is no looking and no yielding, there will be no grace

1)       If meekness and humility are removed grace is lifted and life will be hard (Adam)

e.      When you begin to live a life where you so dependent on God that you look to Him before you do are say anything and then do what He says, you will tap His grace in such a way that you’ll experience a supernatural ease, in the midst of the hardest situations

1)       Just how much will you look up? it will determine the amount of grace you see

2)       Your grace/your anointing will never be any greater than your humility

3)       Your grace/your anointing will be capped by your humility

B.     The second issue is the not seeing and hearing; This is the insensitivity to voice of the Holy Spirit and lack of spiritual skill in being led by Him

1.       Matthew 13:13-15-God can be saying something to you and you not hear it and He can be trying to show you something and you not see it

a.      1Tim4:2,Heb3-Your conscience can be seared; your heart can be hardened

2.       This is God talking to you and endeavoring to show you something and you not hearing it, seeing it, and recognizing that it was Him

3.       If we want grace and ease and to do the works that Jesus did we have to become better seers and better hearers

C.    The third issue is that you have seen and heard, but you don’t yield; this is the result of no meekness, no faith, not trusting-John 8:28

IV.   We have been so underdeveloped in looking, seeing, and hearing and yielding

A.    When you face a situation you need to be developed and looking inside seeing what God wants you to do hearing what God wants you to say and having enough faith and spiritual guts to go do what he says

1.       When our principles have failed we’ve either thrown our hands and said it must not be God’s will or run back to get more principles

B.     We’ve prayed for years asking God to do something when we should have been praying God show me what you want me to do and to say so that you’ll have an avenue of faith to move in by your grace and get this thing done

1.       It’s rare that you ever heard Jesus pray to the Father in the manner: Lord do something; However he must have been praying and making himself available for the Lord to show Him what to do b/c he always knew what to do and got results

C.    Eyes that are lifted reveal humility of heart and those same lifted eyes will always see God’s grace being poured down; People that looked up saw grace and ease and victory

1.       John 11, Matthew 14:19-Jesus

2.       2 Chronicles 20-Jehosaphat

3.       1 Samuel 17-David

4.       Judges 6-Gideon

5.       Luke 5-Peter

D.    This whole thing come down to being led by the spirit

1.       You look to Him, hear him and yield to Him and He is grace and He is your helper and the more of Him you have the more grace you have the more help you have the easier life becomes

2.       John 2-It’s the gateway to the life of ease