by Del Hungerford

Your seat of rest sits on top of the "mountain of your life." Jesus taught using parables. In a sense, that's exactly what I'm doing with the various "kingdom concepts." I'm using every day things that you understand that others are also using. I do this so we have a cohesiveness between what's being spoken so there's less confusion. With that, let me continue painting a picture, which you can imagine...

Your life is like a mountain where you're seated at the top. That view gives you a perspective of seeing everything below you and anything that comes toward you. It's "high level" viewing from a strategic place. On this mountain, seated in Perfect Love (with Christ) is your seat of rest - or the throne of your life. You'll see the picture above gives you a starting point. However, your throne will be unique to you and may look nothing like this one. Your surroundings may be different, too. Why? It's all unique to you and your individual process of engaging with God. 

The more you "rule and reign" over your life from this elevated position, the better your life will be. If you look at the picture below, you'll notice that the inner self is where your heart resides - the castle of your heart (as the children's song says so sing along now...). This is your inner self where you meet with the Trinity in the garden of your heart. This is your temple and dwelling place in the kingdom realms. You'll hear many people speak about getting on your seat of rest when things go haywire around you. Well, this is what they're talking about. It's a visual to help you understand your positioning of ruling and reigning. 

Notice that the throne is sitting in Perfect Love. The Bible says God is Love (1 John 4:8-16) so this is where you're seated "IN HIM." The more we learn to function from this position, the more at rest we'll be despite the circumstances around us. 

What I’m seeing is that when we’re on our seat of rest, we’re in the presence of God. And, we’re operating out of First Love (our first gateway) because in that place, we are “in Him.” Basically, one touches the other with our throne (our seat of rest) between the two. When we’re “in Him,” what’s in First Love then flows directly into the spirit. Then, from the spirit, it flows down the mountain in and through the soul and body gateways. What others see in us should come directly from the Throne of Grace that flows in and through all our gateways.

When we function out of soul, we’ve essentially cut off the top portion of the mountain. The closer we are to the bottom of the mountain, the further we are away from the presence of God. But, when we function from that position of rest, it allows the golry of God to completely envelope everything below it. At any time, we can move around IN that position of rest and walk down the mountain bringing the Glory and Light of God with us or… IF we’re functioning out of soul, our function only goes at the level we’re behaving out of. Example – let’s say someone says something to totally torque you (make you super mad). You decide to gripe about it and hurl some interesting words towards that person. At that moment, you’ve just gone down to the soul level and aren’t giving the First Love and Spirit Gateways any say. That’s where the griping and interesting words come from… a soul that’s in control. But… when we bring our seat of rest with us, our reactions to these types of things are different. I think that’s one way we know where we’re at. Our first response to the crap that goes on around us generally tells us which set of gateways we’re functioning out of.

As we learn to walk in that place of rest, I think that it’s much easier to actually divide the soul from the spirit because we’re doing it from being in the presence of God rather than trying to do it on our own (soul). Through the above picture, I’m getting a better visual of how functioning from the spirit works. When the soul bows down to the dictates of the spirit, our spirit is in control. When we function out of our spirit, the soul and body come under that alignment and are then subject to the dictates of the spirit. A meme that I made recently says “a soul in control stops the flow of the spirit.” I find this very true because the human DNA part of us rules by feelings, emotions, and actions. If you look at the soul and spirit gateways, you’ll see the difference between the two.

In “The Final Quest” by Rick Joyner, he talks about going up a mountain and the closer he gets to the top, the further away the attacks are. He can see them from the top but they can’t reach him because of his position. As long as he stays at the top of the mountain, he’s good to go. What I’ve learned from this is that if we constantly look at what the enemy is doing, it takes our eyes off Papa. As we stay in that place of rest IN HIM, what the enemy does is irrelevant. The enemy truly is under our feet!

Conclusion and Activation!

This “exercise” for the Mountains, Gates, and Castles course is about functioning from a place of rest no matter what goes on around us. Practicing the presence of God is all about pursuing God with all our strength and might. Our flesh (soul) doesn’t like that because it’s been allowed to rule and reign for as long as we’ve been alive. Like anything else, it takes practice to weed out the “stinkin’ thinkin” that tends to clog our minds. In a sense, it’s like weeding a garden so what’s going to produce fruit will overtake the non-fruit-bearing growth. I don’t know about you but I’d rather have beautiful roses in my garden than dandelions!

Here's a short version of the activation to get you started until you can purchase the course:

• Print off this page so you have a copy of the gateways (see picture below).
• Find a quiet place away from distractions.
• Grab a journal and be prepared to write what you see, hear, sense, and feel during your quiet time. In case a negative memory comes up, write it down. This will help you identify situations to work through. 
• See yourself go into your heart garden, which is at the top of your mountain. That's where your seat of rest resides. It's sitting in Perfect Love so in this place, you're seated "in Christ." 
• Feel the emotions of Love and gratitude. Once you feel those emotions, continue to the next step.
• See Perfect Love flow down the mountain into EACH spirit gate. Visualize what that looks like. Write what you see, hear, sense, and feel, especially if something sticks out to you.
• Allow Perfect Love to flow from the spirit into EACH of the soul gates. Visualize each gate and see Love flowing into it. Write what you see, hear, sense, and feel, especially if something sticks out to you.
• Allow Perfect Love to flow from the soul into EACH body gate. Visualize each gate and see Love flowing into it. Write what you see, hear, sense, and feel, especially if something sticks out to you.
• Repeat for at least 60 days straight. The more you do this, the more revelation you'll receive concerning things that need adjustment so the gates that need more cleaning can be dealt with. "Dealing" with a gate often means some trauma is stuck there. As the Lord shows you the trauma, ask Him how you're to deal with it.
• In the Mountains, Gates, and Castles course, I walk you through a more detailed and longer version of this activation. 

Seat of Rest Declaration

Here is another practice opportunity! As I've said throughout these articles, I created my own exercises based on teachings I'd listened to. After all, why listen to something and not put it into practice? That's how we mature - by find a way to practice what we're learning. With that, here's my declaration that I spoke (and continue to do so as I feel led) about the seat of rest. Feel free to say this often...

Jesus, I choose to have you seated on the throne of my life. I take my place of being in your in that place of rest on the throne of my life. I rule and judge from my spirit in you and say that my body and soul gateways are subject to the dictates of the spirit as I function in you out of that seat of rest. I choose to lean on you, Jesus, despite what may be going on around me. I take my seat on my throne and govern my life to bring governmental authority into and around my life. In you, I command everything to be subject to the realm of God's kingdom. I say that the kingdom of God is manifested in my life as I function out of rest. 

Blessings and happy practicing!

Del