Leaning Upon Christ, His Governance Alone and His Peace

“...and the government shall be upon his shoulder.”

- Isaiah 9:6

There is a sweetness in Christ Jesus awaiting us, which we find when we begin to learn to lean upon
Him. It often takes circumstances that are difficult which stir us from our own comfort to find this place of
leaning on and trusting the Lord Himself.

Today, I responded from my heart with joy to this verse as an intimate element of my life and heart,
finding Christ Jesus as my governor, my personal overseer to care for me. My leaning upon Him, even
upon His arm, His shoulder, as I walk. (*Sigh!)

There is a yoke we find in Christ that He calls us to enter into, a covenant place yes, a place of teaming
up, of cooperation with Him, and it can be resultantly found by way of a challenge to us in our emotional
disposition of how we handle life. There is a crossing of our will to get into that yoke. There is an
equating of letting Him lead as an oxen team has a lead oxen and a following oxen; guess which one
we are called to be.

Jesus said His yoke was easy and His burden light, and He said in the same breath, “learn of me”
(Matthew 11:29,30). We find there is no other way to learn but to relinquish what is necessary and called
upon by Holy Spirit to be fitted into His yoke with Him.

As the many sorrows of this life and the many ways our moments do not go as expected as we traverse
(I say it poetically to suspend the truth for a sliver of a moment that life can be downright awful and
people ugly towards us)...

We have in Christ a place in the presence of our Savior and Lord Who sees all things,
A place for leaning upon Him.

So to focus on the rub of my realization:

My leaning on Jesus is upon His shoulder, upon his arm, even where the government or governing of
His ability takes place. Yes, this is too near His heart to hear of how He feels about me, but near upon
His ability to govern over me.

The word govern may sound cold, but it is not at all with Jesus.

Here it is in scripture…

“Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved?”

- Song of Solomon 8:5

Look at Isaiah 9 again, next verse #7,

“Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end...”

In His governing is His Peace. This is the shalom of God, the provision by His hand to His own. It is as
simple as no good thing withheld from us. It is as complex as no lack, and the absence of all things
terrible, destructive, criminal, and corrupt.

To be in the place to receive these benefits is our call, to be with Christ in His righteousness before God
is for and to the end that we receive all the blessings God has for us.

Surely, as we can see the chosen maiden in the Song of Solomon, as her walking out is from a desolate
place, a place of being alone with Christ, we can understand the course of our learning is to lean upon
our beloved in a unified walk of His intention.

Do we yet see even this as we should? That we are chosen and that Jesus wants to be alone with us,
to alone influence us, to bring us into a place of knowing who He is by way of our weakness, by way of
our neediness being exposed to us, and then in the midst, by offering us His arm which we take far
more readily if we truly have seen who we are, and then Who He is.

Leaning denotes a loss of strength, a need to lean, a choice to, a need to press upon the strength of
another, and to rest to some extent in the arms of another -- of Jesus.

Jesus is the head of all things to the Church, yes, to His Bride, to those who He has called and chosen.
He is the Prince of Peace, having made peace for us, peace with God. Again, that which is shalom is
the provision of all things goodly with nothing withheld.

He is these by faith to us, but He is often not these things to us *until and unless we have been brought
*into the position of receiving these by way His governance.  

So we learn to lean upon Him. We learn to lean upon Him more and more.

As He able to govern, to be Who He is: Lord of all things towards us, even designing all things as Lord
of them and not just our Saviour aware of what we go through,...

He proves that He is leading us to Himself, to the positioning of dependence upon Him along,
...even utterly, with no defense mechanisms left in us,
...pride broken, trophies lost, no testimony but Christ in us...

He is our Peace, which we eat of. The Bread of Life is Jesus, and He is our Peace.  

We entirely find in the wilderness that we are hungered for Him, and only Him.

We are what we eat. If we eat of Christ as God’s Fruitful Bough, even the dry branch that bloomed,
Aaron’s rod -- do you see Him here too? -- we become like Jesus, that is, of the same substance,
of the same life.

We are chosen to become His in every way, readied for the Brideship, so that on that day we see Him
face to face, we shall be like Him. Made for Him. Recognized by Him.

-- “...but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.”

- 1 John 3:2b

How can this be except that we learn to lean and to receive of Him as He is?

For surely all these things working together we have no ability to sort out nor control.

Truly we are at a loss in God’s will and His work in us to transform us into who He has declared.

...Therefore, lean on Jesus.