Wednesday, December 22, 2004

A Benefit of Salvation: Peace

“And the peace of God, which passeth understanding, shall keep your hearts, and minds through Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:7

The peace of our Father that passes understanding shall keep our hearts and our minds, now that is some kind of peace! God, Who is Omnipotent, Who is Omnipresent, Who is the Beginning and the End, and Who is not afraid of anything, has given us His peace and He shall keep our hearts! Our Father has made everything that has been made, so what can threaten Him? The devil led a rebellion with a third of the Angels and our Father just threw them out of Heaven. There was no Heavenly War I that our Father was required to lead the troops into to put the rebellion down. There was no bloodshed when satan was kicked out and there was no disruption in our Father's Authority or His power! He just spoke, sent over Michael, and satan was flung from Heaven and like a lightning bolt he came crashing to the earth! Our Father does not have to concern Himself or take thought for sickness, debt, fear, work, fellowship, or anything, He’s at perfect peace with Who He is and what He is and how He is. His peace is the perfect peace that passes all understanding! That peace, the perfect Omnipotent peace of God, now keeps our hearts and our minds!

We are born from the peace of God! We are now members of His body and we are now His Temple! Our Father has no threats, none whatsoever, and He sent Jesus to die for us so that we could have and enjoy the fruits of peace, and not just any peace, we enjoy His peace, and that is the peace that now keeps us. God doesn’t say that our peace will keep us. He doesn’t leave the responsibility of such a powerful life force to chance, He takes care of it Himself; we now have God’s very Own peace keeping us. We can see the power of our Father's peace in action with Paul and Silas. They were beaten and cast into the innermost part of the prison and shackled, and even though they were wrongly accused, they sang praises to God at midnight, and our Father delivered them.

“And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailor to keep them safely: Who having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in stocks. And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them. And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all doors were opened, and all bands loosed.” Acts 16:23-26

Paul and Silas were beaten and shackled. Yet they had God’s peace keeping their minds and their hearts during it. So they were strengthened and able to sing praises unto Him, and they were loosed, and if you read on, they won the jailor and his family to Christ. They didn’t do this on their own, they did it because of God, and they did it because God’s peace kept their hearts and their minds! Remember in Psalm 18 how we studied how our Father reacts when we are in trouble and call upon Him? Well, here is a New Testament example of the reality of God’s nature!

Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” John 14:27 Jesus gave us His peace, and Jesus’ peace is God’s peace. Jesus is God and God is Jesus and everything that Jesus has, He gave to us. There is nothing in the world that can equal Jesus' peace and we now have it keeping our hearts! Think about Jesus’ peace and the immense power of it. He is God, He has been God from the beginning and He freely gave up His godly state to come to earth as a man. He came to take on every sin and sickness that the world and all of its inhabitants would ever have. He knew that those whom He had created would kill Him and He knew it would be by the horrific act of being crucified on the Cross. Jesus knew that before He would be crucified that they were going to beat Him so badly that He will not even be recognized as a man. He knew He was going to be thrown into Hell. And yet the greatest thing that Jesus knew, was that He had been given the perfect peace that He would be raised from the dead and restored again to His former glory and honor in Heaven with God. “And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine own self with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was.” John 17:5

Jesus also had the peace that He wouldn’t mess up while He was here as a man, even though He was going to be tempted in every way that men could ever be tempted. “For we have not an High Priest which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” Hebrews 4:15 Now this is some kind of peace and Jesus gave it to us, this is peace that passes all understanding and we now have it! And we have the Holy Spirit within us insuring we grow to full maturity in it!

“These things I have spoken unto you, that in Me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” John 16:33 This world and all of its systems offer no peace, none, governments cannot give it, insurance cannot provide it, and jobs and family are incapable of securing it. Yet we have the peace of the One Who overcame the world. We have His Holy Spirit within us teaching and strengthening us in all things. We have the peace that we are healed by Jesus' stripes. We enjoy the perfect peace that Jesus came that we might have an abundant life. We have the peace that Jesus rebukes the devour for our sakes, that there is now no weapon that has been formed against us that will prosper, and that our needs are now met according to His riches and glory. Anything and everything that pertains to life and to godliness we now have through Jesus, these Truths are now the peace that keeps us! It doesn’t matter if we understand it. The peace of God passes understanding and the blessings of our Father overtake us, because we have been empowered to accept Jesus as Lord and we are a chosen generation and we are a royal priesthood!

Every bit as sure as Jesus was that He was going to spend eternity with God; we now have His exact same peace. Peter had this peace, read Acts 12:2-7. Herod had killed James and the Jewish masses loved it. So Herod decided that he was going to kill Peter as well. Herod threw him in jail, surrounded him with guards, and Peter just slept. He slept and was at peace even though just the day before James was murdered. Peter slept so soundly that when the Angel of the Lord came to rescue him, he had to strike Peter to wake him up! Now that is an assured peace that only God can give! This peace is for each and every believer, there is no circumstance the world has that can move or shake it, and it’s for us all and it shall keep us! “The Lord is on my side; I will not fear: what can man do unto me? Psalm 118:6

“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.” 1 John 4:18 OUr Father is love and we are born of Him. “He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.” 1 John 4:8 We are born of perfect love and we now dwell in perfect love, because we are born again of God. We now dwell in God through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior and God is perfect love. The love that our Father had for Jesus now abides within us, John 17:26, so we have the perfect love of God abiding within us that casts out all fear from us! Fear has torment, so our Father gave us Himself to cast out all torment. God gave us His peace, so that in a world of tribulation, we could stand without fear as He rebukes the devourer for our sakes! Our Father gave us a new heart and a new mind, so that we could accept and walk in these Truths that pass all human understanding! God’s peace passes all understanding and that peace now keeps us! We are now strong in the power of our Father's might!

God is not a man that He should lie, He said these things regarding our peace, so they are Truth. Our Father will lead us in the paths of righteousness. So even if we are immature and not able to fully understand these Truth’s, our Father is right here walking with us, through the valley of the shadow of death. Because we are now born of God and because He is now within us and we are now within Him, we will fear no evil! For we have not been given a spirit of fear, but of love, peace, and a sound mind! Our Father has provided it all for us, and He will Author and Finish the faith needed to walk in and live in His full and complete peace, His perfect peace! We may not understand it all, God’s peace does pass all understanding, but that doesn’t matter, it will keep us. Our Father's perfect love has cast out all fear for those who have accepted His salvation through Jesus Christ!

Consider all of the benefits that we have studied so far about our salvation through Jesus: eternal life, abundant life, health, direct access to our Father, peace, Truth, God’s protection, whatever we do prospers, safety, and all of the other of His glorious benefits. Everything that would bring fear, has been done away with and our Father has taken care of it. God has brought us into a place in Him that we are able to take no thought for our own lives, just as Jesus takes no thought for His life. That is probably the greatest and most peaceful thing of all, just knowing that our Father has us in His hands and that no man and no thing can take us out of them, and knowing that we will be with Him forever! That is the peace that allows us to clearly and lovingly share Him with every creature. The same peace that Jesus had to come and serve is now the peace that we have to serve, and we now dwell in perfect love of God that casteth out all fear!

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