Following on from my previous blog on overcoming fear I also would like to share some thoughts on walking consistently in Gods peace or abiding in the covenant of peace.
When Oral Roberts went home to be with the Lord in Dec of last year a prominent prophetic voice in the USA revealed that his passing from this earth was not a coincidence but a sign that as he died at the age of 91 and as he had lived and walked as a man of faith all his adult life,so his life and passing represented that psalm 91 was going to be crucial for the body of Christ to walk in, as we progress into this new decade .
Many of the challenges and upheaval's that our society is facing cannot rightly be discerned through the prism of natural sight but only by the word of God which must become our template and plumb line in evaluating everything.
Additionally many of the personal challenges that we as Christan's have faced and will undoubtedly face cannot be understood apart from the time frame that we are living in, that is that there are times and seasons set by heaven that affect the activity of the earth.What does this mean for us? It means that we must learn to possess our spiritual possessions as never before.
I was struck recently while rereading the parable of the house that is built upon the rock vs the sand that both categories were those who heard the sayings of Jesus.
In other words it was not to the world on the one hand who had never heard the word of God,and to Christians on the other hand who had but to two groups of people both of whom had heard the sayings of Jesus but only one group had consistently practiced what they heard.
The covenant of peace spoken of in Isaiah 54, is synonymous with the new covenant which is established and made secure for us by the blood of Jesus.
There is a little phrase in the book of Hebrews chap13 v20 which says now may the God of peace Who is the author and giver of peace Who brought again from among the dead our Lord Jesus,that great Shepherd of the sheep,by the blood of the everlasting covenant strengthen you in everything good to do his will.(amp version)
Notice the phrase by the blood of the everlasting covenant .That is a striking phrase,the blood of the everlasting covenant which brought up our lord Jesus from the dead. Wasn't it the almighty power of God that brought up Jesus from the dead? yes it was. What was it about the blood of the everlasting covenant that is attributed with securing his resurrection? what does this phrase blood of the everlasting covenant mean?
The bible speaks in the book of genesis of the blood of Abel crying out to God, for the Lord said to Cain in his conversation with him," The voice of your brothers blood cries out to me from the ground"(genesis 4v10) In other words all of heaven could hear the cry of Abel's blood shed in a violent and hateful death crying out for justice.
This theme is reiterated in the book of revelation in the sixth chapter where john the apostle gains glimpses into heaven and sees the souls of those who have been martyred for their faith and faithful testimony of Jesus Christ and he hears their voices cried out "how long, OLord ,holy and true ,until you judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on earth".
The implication is very obvious,that their blood requires Gods justice to respond, and justice will be given to them.
Now when the blood of the son of God was poured out unto death it was because he had willing embraced death for one reason to become mankind's substitute. He became the sin bearer ,sickness bearer, curse bearer, suffering bearer, anguish bearer and torment bearer for us ,so the cross is a revelation of a great exchange. He took all of the above to freely offer to us his life and righteousness and health and peace and eternal presence ,to offer to us himself. When Jesus died the bible says that he tasted death for everyone. But the bible also says that it was impossible for death to hold him .He died as our substitute having been made sin with our sin, however he died completely innocent as to never once having committed sin. So if the blood of Abel and of the righteous martyrs cries out for Gods response how much more the sinless blood of Jesus the innocent lamb?
The word of God declares in Heb12v24 that Jesus blood now speaks better things that that of Abel's.What is it that Jesus blood speaks and what is it that demanded that Jesus be loosed from the captivity to death? Simply this, that when Jesus gave up his spirit on the cross and Gods perfect justice was satisfied his blood cried out that the sinless spotless son of the living God had satisfied the perfect claims of Gods eternal justice and now death and sin were forever destroyed and rendered powerless over Christ and all who would believe in his offering of himself for them.
But the blood of Jesus still speaks and is speaking in the present tense.For the bible tells us also that it was necessary for the vessels of worship in moses tabernacle to be cleansed by the blood of animal sacrifices but the heavenly things with better sacrifices than these Heb .In other words that in the spirit world Jesus evidently carried his own blood into heaven itself and sprinkled it on the vessels of heavenly worship where it speaks day and night and night and day and testifies that those who have put their hope on Christ have been eternally redeemed.
Just think for a second and try to imagine the scenario that every time that the heavenly father thinks about the body of Christ he sees us with that sprinkled blood of Christ on the heavenly mercy seat, and the eternal witness of that blood is ever before his face and has hold upon his heart and affects every thought and inclination of his heart and soul towards us, and speaks of
Gods eternal love, His reconcilation and of His peace towards men.The blood of the everlasting covenant is massive to God and it should be to us also.And it is that blood that is the foundation of our covenant of peace.
The 54 chapter of Isa says the following " For the mountains shall depart And the hills be removed,But my kindness shall not depart from you, Nor shall the covenant of my peace be removed Says the Lord who has mercy upon you." This is much more then a mere token of Gods peace, it is a covenant of peace. We must learn how to skillfully walk in it.
Sadly too many Christians live as those who are harassed, stressed ,tense, fearful and worried much of the time. I know because I have lived like this myself for to long but thank God, last year I drew a line and have committed to walking in all that the heavenly Father has provided for me and my family,and the peace of God has returned to its place of ruling my heart and mind again.Thank God.
We must do more than theorize these truths,we must embrace and believe them with bulldog tenacity ,otherwise we are being robbed of a great blessing in our own lives and of a powerful witness to the world which has no peace that we are walking in fellowship with the living God who is the God of peace.
It is fascinating to me that the word for peace in the Hebrew is shalom,and like many Hebrews words carries with it a whole concept of a manner of life in order to define it accurately.The best sense of what shalom means is "completeness, wholeness or wellness of being, nothing missing nothing lacking and nothing broken". Consequently when we speak of the God of peace being with you, or the God of peace sanctifying you wholly, we are saying far more then may you have an absence of anxious thoughts. It certainly would include that. But in reality we are saying may the God of all shalom, all completeness and wholeness and wellness of being bestow on you and increase in your life his wholeness and wellness and peace so that there may be nothing missing and nothing lacking and nothing broken within. Of course the Jewish people would typically use the word shalom as a form of greeting and a blessing when meeting one another,and still do,as they understand all of its connotations.
So why do so many people in the church walk in a manner inconsistent with this covenant of peace? We know that Jesus bled and died to give us permanent access to this covenant of peace, and that in john14 v27 he said" Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you.......do not let your heart be troubled neither let it be afraid" So he has purchased for us this peace given it to us as a gift to be received and declared that it is left with us in this earth for us to walk in and enjoy(some people I think only imagine that this quality of peace is to be enjoyed in heaven but then he would not have left it for us in this world)
Like any gift it has to be received and cherished in order for us to benefit from it. Notice that Jesus said that we are not to let our hearts be troubled or fearful so evidently that is something that we can make a choice about. It is our responsibility. And that is where most of us have failed when we have failed,we either choose to do what God tells us in his word or we choose to hold onto our fears and worries, the ball is very much in our hands so to speak.
Philipians chpt 4 v6 tells us exactly how to accomplish this, we start by making a choice before God not to have anxiety or worry about anything. Does that sound unreasonable? If it does it just serves to prove that our minds need to be submitted to the word of God and renewed to what he has told us to do.
Where ever we are anxious or worried we make a choice every time and in every way and in everything to lay that matter before God in prayer and deliberately roll the care and anxiety of that concern onto the Lord.Then we draw a line and refuse to touch that again in our thought life. And believe me it shall come knocking again upon the door of our thoughts wanting our urgent attention. But we refuse it and say" no that's already been dealt with I have rolled the care of that onto the Lord and I refuse to take it back again" And if we do find ourselves thinking about and worrying about that issue then we simply repent and roll the care again onto the Lord and take our stand again. The promise is that as we do so the peace of God will mount garrison over and guard our hearts and minds in Christ (amp version)
Someone may say "well I tried that and it didn't work." Did you attach thanksgiving to your prayer when you laid that issue before God? It says in phip 4 to present our prayer requests with thanksgiving. Be precise if you want precise results. Imagine a scientist conducting an experiment with a slipshod attitude,leaving out certain elements in the precise formula? Would he expect the desired results. So to when we roll our cares deliberately onto the Lord and lay that issue in prayer before Him and do so with a prayer of thanksgiving peace is on its way!
As a final thought there is one further element that I have discovered is of vital importance to abiding in the covenant of peace,and that is in our having a strong sense of our righteousness before God.
The bible says that their is no peace for the wicked, but for those who are righteous before God the opposite is true. If you have made the Lord Jesus Christ the Lord of your life then you are not only righteous before God but you have also been made the very righteousness of God in Christ 2corn 5,21 It is so essential that this truth becomes more than something theoretical or only theological to us rather we must become established in it, for to the believer their idenity is now defined only by Jesus Christ not by adams transgression and sin. The work of God in Christ and the application of that work of grace in our lives is infinately more powerful then satans work in adam in sin and the fall.
We as christians have received the gift of Gods righteousness that now defines who we are in the sight and in the presence of God. Is that who we are in our own sight? It is no surprise that it romans 5 it says Having been justified by faith (and the same word translated as justified here is the word for righteousness) we have peace with God...
We could translate this as easily having been made righteous or declared righteous by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
We have entered this covenant of peace because God has given to us the gift of His righteousness and the abundence of His grace.
Let us never lose sight of these things .I believe that walking in this covenant of peace is going to become essentiall for where we are going in these next few years.I for one am determined to walk in the light of every heavenly provision that my heavenly Father has made for me .And to walk in these things to the uttermost of my faith and spiritual hunger.My prayer for my friends and family is that they also would do the same.May you be blessed in 2010 more than ever before.
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