by Pastor Dana A. Holmes
The world is always looking for peace. Among the nations, they are talking about peace. Israel and Egypt and some of the other Arab nations conduct peace talks. But still there is no peace because you can’t have real peace unless you have the Prince of Peace. Jesus is the Prince of Peace; and except we have Him on the inside of us, we will not experience the real peace of God. Unfortunately, there are those who are in Christ and have the Prince of Peace on the inside of them, yet they are not at peace.
They do not live lives of peace because they are affected by the turmoil surrounding them. If there is turmoil around them, their whole apple cart is upset, so to speak. People who are ruled by their emotions are very weak people. Now emotions have a place in our lives of course, but they should not rule our lives. Strictly emotional people are also endangered people. They are open to all sorts of attacks and are easy prey for the enemy.
The Bible says, The Lord will give strength unto his people; the Lord will bless his people with peace. (Psalm 29:11) There is a connection between strength and peace. When you have the peace of God, it will make you strong. When you have peace about a matter you’re not worried. You can’t worry and have peace at the same time. A person who is living in peace at all times can hear terrible news and it will not upset them.
We will look at a few scriptures and see what the Bible has to say about peace. Philippians 4:7 says, And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. You can have an inner peace that is so strong, and so powerful, and so amazing, that in the natural, your mind will wonder, “How is it that I are so calm? How is it that I am so relaxed under these circumstances?” Well, that’s when the peace of God rises up.
This peace is one of the many spiritual blessings promised to us as born-again believers. Galatians 5:22 simply tells us that peace is a fruit of the Spirit. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace… When do you get the fruit of the Spirit? When you get the Spirit. When do you get the Spirit? When you are born again. It’s a package deal.
And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding… You can’t comprehend this peace with your mind. It’s the peace that passeth all understanding. The world says you react to whatever happens around you. If something goes wrong in your life, you react to that. You get upset. You pump yourself full of pills so that you can get to sleep at night. Then you’re so groggy in the morning you take some speed so you can pep up and get your job done. But now you’re so wired for sound until you need to take some sleeping pills to calm down again. And so you live a life of pills. You are a walking pharmacy—as opposed to living in peace.
We must be determined to live in peace. There are people who make a determination to be in peace like they make New Year’s resolutions. They will say, “I’ll tell you one thing, I’m going to be in peace.” And they are still not in peace. They will say, “I’ll tell you one thing, I am not going to worry about anything else.” Yet, they still worry. So you see, determination only is not enough. Although it does take some, I don’t mean determination, just so. It does take some determination, but this determination is in connection with your getting in the Word like you should, and determining that you are going to yield to the Spirit of peace that lives on the inside of you as a born-again believer.
Let’s look at Philippians 4:5,6a. Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. Be careful for nothing… The King James Version is a little blind to us. It is actually saying don’t worry about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. When you are able to do that, the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, will keep your heart and mind through Christ Jesus.
What is it I must do? First of all, decide I am not going to worry about anything. And then, in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let my requests be made known unto God. I am in communion with God, not complaining, but with thanksgiving. I don’t mean thanking him for bad things that may happen to you. Some people say you are supposed to praise God for everything. Well, that’s a little stupid to me. Besides, it’s contrary to the Bible. If you take scriptures and compare them, you will see that this is incorrect. If you take this scripture out of its setting then you can make it say that you are supposed to give Him thanks for everything. But we are to thank Him for the privilege to speak with Him. Thank Him for the victory. Thank Him for the answer. Thank Him that He’s God and beside Him there is no other.
I remember needing some money one time. I just simply said to the Lord, “Lord, I thank you for someone putting some money in my hand this weekend.” I thanked him. You see I made my request known with thanksgiving. That weekend someone walked up to me and said, “I have something for you.” In fact, two people approached me. One person didn’t say anything. They just shook my hand and put some money in it. The other person said, “I have something for you. I know your birthday is coming up soon and here is a blessing.” They gave me an envelope and it had a large sum of money in it. So you can see that the Lord met my need.
John 14:27 says, Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. That word let implies that you have something to do with whether or not your heart is going to be troubled or afraid. Another way of saying that is permit not, allow not, or suffer not your heart to be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Don’t allow the things you hear to get into your spirit—and they can. You will get all worked up about things unnecessarily. Sometimes, just a thought will get you upset. I am going to give you an example from a personal experience.
I was conducting some seminars in Beaufort and Sumter, South Carolina. I was talking to someone about the trip we were about to take to Trinidad. I was telling them that I had gone to Haiti in 1981, and when I thought about it, I said to myself, “That was 1981.” Passports only last 10 years. That means I have to get another passport. I knew that I had used the passport to Trinidad in 1989. I figured because I had let two years go by, that 1991 was past, and my passport was no longer good. Just from that thought, I went through all kinds of changes.
I went and got my passport photo. I called Washington, DC. I called all over trying to find out how I could get a passport in a hurry. I had to have it in 10 days or so. I absolutely had to have it. I was going through all of this because that one thought came into my mind. Now way down deep inside of me I had a peace. I could not get worried or upset about it.
I went home and looked in the drawer and there was my passport. Not only was it in the drawer; it didn’t expire until 1997. I had already discarded the one I used when I went to Haiti and had gotten a new one. But just a thought from the outside caused me to go through all of those changes.
That happens on a daily basis in the lives of many Christians. It just happens in a different way. They get worried and worked up about something that happened when they have the answer sitting in the proverbial drawer. It’s just sitting in there waiting on you to get it. God has the answer, but you don’t have the peace to wait on it.
Without peace you don’t have patience because peace works in patience. Patience is the ability to remain the same under all circumstances. Patience is peace ruling. Most people are not at peace. Peace is not ruling them because they are running to and fro frantically trying to come up with their own answer to their crisis situations. One of the problems is that people do not do what they should during the calm. So when the storms come, they can’t handle them. Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you.” You would think that He forgot to leave it with some Christians.
Jesus never worried about anything. Jesus told His disciples, “…Let us pass over unto the other side.” (Mark 4:35) I guess He hadn’t bothered about turning His TV on to listen to the weather forecast. So He and His disciples got into the ship. Jesus was tired because He had been ministering. So He went to the back of the ship, lay down on a pillow, and went to sleep. After awhile, before reaching their destination, a big storm arose. It was a bad storm. Waves were coming into the ship and the disciples thought that they were going to die. So they went to Jesus and woke Him up. They screamed in fear, “Master, Master, carest thou not that we perish?” Picture this. Jesus is asleep. They woke Him up and the first thing they said was, “Hey! Don’t you care that we are going to die?” They wanted to know how Jesus could sleep in a time like that.
Well, there are people today saying that same thing to the Lord. They get in a crisis situation and say, “Carest thou not that I perish? My God, what am I going to do? Don’t you see what I am going through? Don’t you see what this situation is doing to me? Don’t you see how broke I am? Don’t you see how sick I am? Carest thou not?” How does He answer? “Peace I leave with you.” What did He say when the disciples woke Him up? After rebuking the disciples for their lack of faith, the next thing that came out of His mouth was, “Peace.” And then He said, “Be still.” He didn’t say, “peace be still”, as in telling peace to be still. (Mark 4:35-40; Matthew 8:23-26) He was declaring peace, and then telling the waves and wind to be still. In Psalm 46:10a He said, Be still, and know that I am God… I am God in spite of what you are going through. I am God whether you see that I am here or not. I am still God. I don’t change. Your own situation may change but I am still God. Be still and know that. When you realize that God is still God, you can be still. You can relax because you will be at peace.
Isaiah 54:10 says, For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee. When the mountains depart, the hills be removed, or as we say sometimes, all hell is breaking loose in your life on every hand, God said, “I am not going to depart from my covenant of peace with you.” If He can tell that to those under the Old Covenant, how much more can he tell it to us under the New Covenant, which is built or established on better promises?
Let’s look at John 16:30-33, Now are we sure that thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee: by this we believe that thou camest forth from God. Jesus answered them, Do ye now believe? Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me. 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. There should be a difference between you and those that are not saved. Our peace is one of the things that should draw unbelievers to Christ. We tell people, “Give your life to Jesus and all your problems will be solved.” That’s one of the biggest lies the devil ever told. If you want to tell the truth, tell them, “Give your life to Jesus and get ready for some stuff (challenges) because the wicked one is going to come after you with everything he has.” We need to let them know that we experience things just like they do. The only difference is we don’t get under the care of it because we have something on the inside that they don’t have. It’s called the peace of God.
How do you experience this peace? We said earlier you must make your request known, and refuse to worry. Isaiah 26:3 says, Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. The Old Testament word trust is the equivalent to the New Testament word faith. Well, you could say, “Thou will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because he has faith in thee.” Where do we believe, from the head or from the heart? We believe from the heart. If I believe from my heart, it will keep my head straight. The peace of God will garrison my heart and my mind. It will build something around it. It will guard against outside intrusions.
Suppose you received a bad report from the doctor. How should that affect you? It shouldn’t. How does that change what God said? It doesn’t. He doesn’t get upset and He’s not taken by surprise. While some things catch us by surprise, in a manner of speaking, it should be as though we are not surprised because Jesus told us, “…In the world ye shall have tribulation (test or trials): but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33 [Emphasis mine]) He will keep us in perfect peace if we keep our hearts and minds stayed on Him. Then and only then will we know what it is to LIVE IN PEACE AT ALL TIMES!
Maranatha!