Search results for 'peace' (4)
May I share what I see in this verse of scripture? I would like to describe the thought that I receive from this saying in the Bible this way--“When a man is thinking thoughts that are pleasing to the Lord, he makes even his enemies to cease striving with him.” To be even more definite, let’s put it this way, “When a man observes things as God wants him to, he loses sight of his enemies,” To reverse this thought and see it from the opposite side, it says, “When a man looks at things with the improper emphasis and in the wrong prospective, he loses sight of God and becomes conscious of his problems.” I guess what I really am trying to say is, if you put your mind on God, you won’t have to worry about the devil. The man that is in Christ must remember that his enemies are not people or circumstances, but they that are of his own mind. As Jesus said, “A man’s enemies shall be those of his own flesh (mind of the flesh).” Paul said, “We have been alienated and enemies in our minds against the purpose of God.”--Co1.1:21. A man’s enemies are the thoughts and imaginations (images) that come before his mind--the things that attempt and purpose to move him from selfmastery or self-possession. The man that is in Christ must remember that he no longer has any real enemies for Christ has taken care of them. The believer is victorious! Jesus has already beaten principalities and powers at their own game (Col. 2:15). In the above mentioned verse, the word peace is used. A man’s enemies shall be at peace with him if his ways please the Lord. In this particular usage, the word suggests silence, stillness, a ceasing to be obvious. When a man’s thoughts are pleasing to the Lord, his seemingly apparent enemies become silenced, unheard of--they have ceased to be evident. This is because in order to please the Lord, one must cease being wicked and quit thinking thoughts that are from the wicked one--the ungodly one. The thought of our enemy must pass out of the picture. What picture are we speaking of--the picture screen of the mind. We have all heard the old saying, “Out of sight, out of mind.” If we fill our mind with Christ, the devil will have to leave. The source of agitation and turbulence ceases to hold sway over the mind because we have refused to give it place or acknowledgment. We have closed off every avenue of access and approach that leads to our mind. “When a man’s ways are pleasing to the Lord, his enemies cease to be apparent. If my thoughts are pleasing to the Lord, I will not have to worry about my ways. If I mortify the thoughts of the carnal mind, God says I shall live.” This is when God becomes Lord of the mind. I entertain no thoughts that are dead, therefore, I live (Rom. 8:6). I would like to take another word that is used in the particular verse I mentioned earlier and observe it in a certain light, the word please. When a man’s ways please the Lord--the word please here means to agree, to be in agreement and harmony with, to be equal in value. When a man’s thoughts are equal in value with God’s, He promises that his enemies cannot bother him, Only God’s own thoughts could be pleasing to Him for He alone is good. Our enemies no longer bother us because we have lost sight (undue recognition) of them. We have learned to regard them in the same proportion that God regards them--defeated powerless tools that gain influence only through over-emphasized observation. The man that is in Christ (and Christ is in God) is instructed to take no thought, that is, receive no thought nor regard any apparent enemy significantly enough to believe in his power to manipulate and remove him from God’s Peace. He must remember that Christ is his Peace and nothing can remove Christ for He is Lord of all. Peace has given His Word and declared, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” The man that is in Christ is stable and firmly fixed because he has a well-disciplined mind, and he has learned not to regard the appearance of evil. He has learned to close his mind to all that does not edify him. He will not acknowledge or recognize any spirit that purposes to place him in the defensive attitude. His equilibrium is properly established because he knows where the emphasis belongs and where he stands. As a result of this knowing, evil can no longer find its place with him. He is no longer tricked and deceived, no longer tossed to and fro, no longer under its dominion. The man that is in Christ must learn to think as God thinks. He must become familiar with the mind God has given him. His enemies have no power over him because he knows that God is his Life and there is no greater power. How does God approach the subject? He says, “I am and besides me there is no other.” No other what? There is no one to challenge or contest Him for He regards Satan and the works of Satan as nothing--only that which He has already defeated in Christ.” It is apparent that man’s ways (thoughts) must be as the Lord’s ways before he can rest and cease from his struggles. It is a known fact that God does not struggle for He regards no real opponent to contend with. He is not on the bottom end of the totem pole, striving to get to the top, and in His mind neither are His children. He sees them as being where He is. I know this because that is what Jesus prayed for as recorded in John 17, “Father that they may be with me where I am.” That which appears to be opposing me is not at peace with me when my thoughts are not pleasing the Lord because to not please the Lord is to over emphasize and acknowledge the existence of that which does not suggest Peace. Consequently, we reap the nature of our thoughts. God does not want us to mind or give place to anything that does not beget Peace.” “To be Spiritually-minded is Life and Peace, but to be carnally minded is death.”--Rom.8:6. I would like to consider a sobering question. Are we not to observe the things that touch our life as God sees them? Can we be happy any other way? Whichever way we choose to observe things will determine what kind of fruit we reap and what kind of wages we will be paid. This fruit will be in direct proportion to our faith. We must observe the Lord only and as Jesus said, “Simply believe.” This was a singular command to acknowledge the things that beget faith alone and to shut one’s mind to all else that intrudes. If we will do this, we will find that our enemies are made to be at peace with us even as God has said; for we would have learned to lose sight of all that distracts, closing the door forever to that which kills, steals, and destroys. We will recognize the existence of that which opposes us only to the extent that we may learn good from evil, follow after that which is good, and refuse the bad. “Who is blind but my servant or deaf as my messenger that I sent? Who is blind as He that is perfect (mature) and blind as the Lord’s servant? Seeing many things but thou observest not, opening the ears, but he heareth not.” “Butter and honey shall He eat that He may know to refuse the evil and choose the good.”--Isa.42:19-20. This is true Spiritual balance. It is the result of having closed forever the door of our mind to that which cannot enter the Kingdom of God with us now.
No man can look to himself and find the way of peace. When man looks to himself, he becomes locked within the realm of his senses. When he looks only to the flesh, there is no answer--no way out. That’s why God brought us a thing called salvation. The Lord says, “Look to me all ends of the earth and be saved.” One can be saved only by doing this. The carnal mind is a prison to the spirit of man. Before salvation came, man was locked within the sphere of the flesh and its mind with no escape. The Bible says to be carnally minded is DEATH, but to he Spiritually-minded is life and peace. No one could become Spiritually-minded until salvation was brought by Jesus Christ. As long as man looks to his own mind and what the Bible calls his “own understanding,” the way of salvation will be hidden from his eyes. When he looks to Jesus, the author and finisher of his faith, his eyes will he opened. On a personal basis, if I keep looking to my own carnal mind for the answer, I too will not find the way. That’s because the mind does not know the way of life and peace. Jesus is the only way, the only life, and the only peace. The Bible says that the way of life is above to the wise that he may depart from hell beneath. The carnal mind is hell! Jesus says, “Come to me all of you who are heavy burdened and I will give you rest.” Yet man goes right on trying to solve the problem with his own mind. It will never happen! Jesus is the only way of salvation. All we need do is come to Him. If we acknowledge Him in all our ways, He promises to direct our path. “What looks impossible today can be a reality tomorrow,” so the mind says. But Jesus says, “Today is the day of salvation.” Why wait until tomorrow? No believer has to wait for salvation, He is already free. All he need do is acknowledge and confess it. But he dare not look to his mind or the things around him. He must look only to Christ. The mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace. I want life and peace. How about you?
Conditional you say? I thought that God’s peace was given without condition! Where did you ever get that idea? If that were true, you could live any old way you wanted and still have the peace of God. But to enjoy the things that God gives, you must live where God lives. According to the Bible, you must live and walk in the Spirit to posses the things of the Spirit. After all, God lives in the Spirit because He is Spiritual Life. The things of the flesh produce death and destruction while the things of the Spirit bring life and peace. I’ll give you the conditions God has set forth in His Word in order for us to have and enjoy His peace: “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee.”--Isaiah 26:3 “To be carnally minded is death, but to be Spiritually-minded is Life and peace.”-- Rom. 8:6 So, there are your conditions. Are you willing to meet them? We can’t have our thoughts and God’s thoughts too, because God says, “My thoughts are not your thoughts.” We can’t have our will and God’s will too because God says His ways are not our ways. We can’t have our life and God’s Life too because God is Spirit and apart from Him we are but flesh. God’s Word says, “They that are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit if so be the Spirit of God dwell in you.”--Rom.8:9. That is why we have had a Spiritual birth so we could have God’s Life. So, it sounds like the only way to please God is to believe Him and live in His Spirit. We can’t live and think in two contrary realms and still please God. If we want the things of God, then we must meet His conditions. That is why I call it the “conditional” peace of God. Paul said that if our real Life is in and of the Spirit then we are to walk in the Spirit. He also said that if we walk after the flesh we shall die. So it sounds like we have the things of God only if we are willing to meet His conditions. It’s up to us--God always does His part. The real question then is very simple: Are we willing to meet His conditions?
"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give unto you: not as the world gives give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”--John 14:27 The kind of peace that Jesus gives is different from the kind the world gives. I know this because Jesus here differentiates between the two. I also know that He wants me to have peace because His Word reveals His Father’s desire. He said, “I and my Father are one.”-- John 10:30. He also said, “These things I have spoken unto you that (for this purpose and intent) in me you might have peace:--In the world you shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”--John 16:33 It is always the thoughts of this present evil world that rob us of God’s peace. Sometimes my mind plays tricks on me; and before I know, I have been had. My Father has warned me about this in His Word, but sometimes I am so taken up with my foolish thoughts that I just won’t face facts. You see, there are only two basic kinds of thought. There are the thoughts of God and there are the thoughts of this world (Satan’s). John says, “Love not the world neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is NOT in him. For ALL that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world.”--1 John 2:15-16. James says, “Know ye not that the friendship of this world is enmity (an enemy) with God?” “Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is an enemy of God.”-- James 4:4. That is pretty plain, isn’t it! You see, thoughts can either be your friend or your foe. They can either help you or destroy you. They are either for you or against you. Sometimes I find that I am all too relaxed and friendly with the thoughts of this world. I invite them in, as it were; and before I know it, they bring all of their miserable little friends along. Well, maybe it is true that misery likes company and birds of a feather flock together. When the thoughts of this world come in, the simple truth is that God’s peace goes out. You just can’t participate in two contrary realms at the same time. It is either the Kingdom of God or the kingdoms of this world! Sometimes I am so worried about my acts that I am apt to overlook the nature of my thoughts. I forget that God’s Word says, “As a man thinks in his heart so is he.” Religion has so well trained us to watch our behavior that we have missed the Spiritual truth that God wants us to know. The Bible teaches in the 8th Chapter of Romans that CARNAL THOUGHTS bring forth DEATH. Paul says that the Christian does not war against flesh and blood but against spiritual wickedness in high places. He also said we are to cast down imaginations and every lofty thought that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. It is the carnal mind that is man’s real enemy. Paul says it is enmity with God because it is against God’s law or God’s way of thinking (Rom. 8:6-7). The carnal mind is a friend of this world and that therefore makes it automatic that it is an enemy of God. If it is an enemy of God, it is also the enemy of peace. If the child of God could only realize (real eyes) when he allows his carnal mind to take over, that he becomes an enemy of God in his thinking, he would have a much more sensitive set of values. If God’s Word tells me that I have a carnal mind and that it is death, then I must be honest enough to believe His Word and demonstrate that I do by being on guard against it. When the carnal mind has control, there is absolutely no peace. That is because the Bible says to be SPIRITUALLY minded IS Life and peace (Rom. 8:6). There is no other way to have real peace, but to be Spiritually-minded according to God’s Word. I do not wish to be an enemy of God. I wish to be like Abraham and be called the friend of God. But I must remember the things that made God and Abraham friends. Abraham BELIEVED God and he demonstrated his belief by a change of attitude. The one thing between friends which makes their friendship real is their mutual trust in one another’s Word. I must learn to rest in God’s Word. When He tells me that the carnal mind IS death and is filled with thoughts of spiritual death, then I must demonstrate my trust in His Word by learning to think with the mind of Christ. The carnal mind makes men slaves. The mind of Christ makes men free. No wonder Paul said, “We have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear (spirit of servitude), but the Spirit by which we confess our relationship with our Father God.”--Rom. 8:15 So there is a way of escape. But there is ONLY one way. We can, if we wish, try many other things; but in the end they will not produce the necessities of man’s spiritual demand. They will only end with the pronouncement of spiritual death if they are sanctioned by the carnal mind. “There is a way that seems right unto man, but the end thereof is death.”--Proverbs 14:12 We must learn our lessons and learn them well. God’s Word has been given to us to help. But if we want help, we must accept it on His terms and not our own. If I want peace, then I must learn not to look for it in the things of this present world system. I must look for it in Christ for the Bible says, “HE is our peace.”--Eph. 2:14 No wonder Peter says, “There is not one other name under heaven given among men whereby we may be saved.” To be saved is to partake of the Life and peace of God. I must conclude with the final understanding that the carnal mind--the mind of the flesh, the old creations thoughts-- are thieves and robbers; and if allowed, they will steal my peace and rob my joy. I must learn not to give PLACE to the devil, the father of the carnal mind. Jesus says, “If our eye be single, our whole body will be filled with light.”--Matt. 6:22. We must finally learn that God will not force us to think Spiritual thoughts and that the carnal mind will never, never, never of its own accord, seek after Spiritual things. My mind would keep me out of the Kingdom of God, if it had its way; therefore I must enter in with my heart for it is with the heart that man believes (Rom. 10:10). Christianity is of the heart, not of the mind. I must realize according to God’s Word that the carnal mind is an alien, a rebel, an outcast, an enemy, and a liar from the beginning. There is no truth in it and it recognizes not the truth of God. It is of its father, the devil. Now that I am aware of the evil that my own mind can do, I need not be deceived. I need not blame anyone else for my lack of victory. I must know that Jesus has already overcome the world and He has given that victory to the believer. Now all I need do is to think about this truth and RENEW MY MIND in the things of God.