MY PEACE I LEAVE WITH YOU

 John 14:27 says, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give you. I do not give as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” 

Ezekiel 37:26-27, “I will make a covenant of Peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant. I will establish them and increase their numbers, and I will put my sanctuary among them forever. My dwelling place will be with them; I will be their God and they will my people.”

Peace; what is Peace? And who is Peace? 

The fall of man in Genesis chapter three opens the door to the truth about he secrets of the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is Righteousness, Peace and joy in the Holy Ghost (Romans 14:7). And these are matters of the heart. Jesus said; the thief comes to kill, steal, and destroy. But I have come that they may have life and life more abundantly (John 10:10). 

When man sinned and disobeyed God, he became like what Ezekiel describes in Ezekiel 37 ‘a valley of bones’. God had instructed man not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and if he does, he would surely die. And he ate and he surely died. It is understood that all of the parts of man; body soul and spirit were affected and man as a totality became guilty before God and was now in bondage to sin. After his disobedience, he realized that he was naked and ashamed having become aware of his surroundings. So, he sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for himself and the woman of course. 

On this journey called matters of the heart, I introduce you to a dearest friend who was there from the beginning and when man sinned, we lost him. He is Peace. The bible is full of scriptures about the promises of God on Peace from Genesis to Revelation. And until you find him, you cannot rest. Why? Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” He asks, who, - Jesus; “Come to me who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).Why does he say burdened and weary? He continues in verse 29-30 to say, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your soul. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Why does Jesus say take? Some of us have come to Jesus indeed because that’s the first step. But have we taken? That is the question posed to all of us. What does he want you to take? Jesus knew and he still knows the moment you find and take, you find the rest that the heart yearns for. And so you have to seek and pursue it, just like Matthew 7:7 says when you seek with all your heart, you find. 

God has made everything beautiful in its time. He has set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from the beginning to end. (Ecclesiastes 3:11) People have equated peace to driving nice cars, fat bank accounts, a wife or husband, a good house, a job, to mention but a few. Instead that is just as Adam sewed fig leaves to cover his nakedness and shame, but that is not Peace. What the sewed figs do is to expose the emptiness within your heart leaving you lonely and more discontented. 

Peace is not that. Peace is not a plan of man but a plan of God. The heart yearns for something deeper. The heart wants what it wants; you can’t bribe it with worldly things. Jesus said “I don’t give as the world gives.” He for sure knew that’s not what our hearts wants and helped us to distinguish between the two. But like David says in Psalms 42:7 “Deep calls unto deep in the roar of your waterfalls, all your waves and breakers have swept over me.” Proverbs 17:1, Better a dry crust with peace and quiet than a house full of feasting with strife. When you find favor with God, you find Peace (Luke 2:14). And the bible says we should let the Peace of Christ ‘rule in our hearts’ since as members of one body, we were called to Peace (Colossians 3:15). So what is Peace and who is she? 

Who is peace? 

Peace is a fruit of the Holy Spirit. And God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground (heart), trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. (Our food as Christians is the word of God.)In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The bible says in Luke 6:43 a tree is known by its fruits. “No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree is recognized by its own fruits.” When Adam disobeyed God and ate from the tree he was told not to, he died not because he ate, but because he disobeyed God. The sin was disobedience. Why, because God tests us to know what is in our hearts. Deuteronomy 8:2-4 says, “Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years ‘to humble you and test you in order to know what was in your heart whether or not you would keep his commands. He humbled you causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna which neither you nor your fore fathers had known ‘to teach you that man does not live on bread alone’ but on ‘every word’ that comes from the mouth of the Lord.” John 1:1 answers this very well; “In the beginning was the word and the word was with God, and the word was God.” Even when Ezekiel was told to prophesy to the dry bones, he was told to say to them, “Dry bones; hear the word of the Lord!” In other words, we need to only hear and listen to the word of the God. But Adam disobeyed and did not listen to God’s word that the breath of God left him and so did Peace because Peace is a fruit of the Holy Spirit and we all know the breath of the God is the Holy Spirit. God felt the pain of his disobedience that he says in Isaiah 48:18 “If only had you listened and paid attention to my commands, your Peace would have been like a river; your’ righteousness like the waves of the sea.” If only had he listened!! That is how God can be grieved with us too when He sees that we pay attention to what kills the soul and the heart instead of choosing to seek life and life abundantly. 

The consequences of this disobedience on man were pain, enmity, painful toil, struggle, slavery that affect him even today. Peace, that day left the heart of man because he had listened to a woman and the woman had listened to the serpent. Who was to blame? That is not the question. Are we any different? That is the question! The questions we should be asking ourselves are; who am i listening to? What do i really want in my heart? What is my purpose? And what am I after, God’s heart or man’s heart? Even Jesus said, my sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me (John 10:27). That God-given Peace that transcends all understanding to guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus talked about in Philippians 4:7 that made them not ashamed yet were naked left through the window and just like God said, the ground (heart) started to produce thorns and thistles, hatred and pain, pain, pain, and more pain. 

And Jesus also said in Matthew 10:34-36, “Do not suppose that I have to bring Peace to the earth. I did not come to bring Peace but a sword. For I have come to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother in law. A man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.” Why would Jesus say that? Remember in Isaiah 9:10 He is referred to as the ‘Prince of Peace’ Because He knew from the beginning of Adam’s time, man will listen and pay attention to what fellow man says most especially the members of his own household other than what God says. So He came to bring a sword because “The word of God is living and active; sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow: it judges the thoughts and attitude of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12). He further says in Matthew 10:37 “Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.” Jesus knows that whoever loves Him wholeheartedly will listen to Him and Him alone because He is our ‘First love’ and in everything He should be first. 

David says in Psalms 27:10 that “Though my father and mother forsake me, the lord will take care of me.” That comes from a heart of a man who was after God’s heart because he knew that even before he was formed in his mother’s womb, God was there; before he met his earthly father, God was there first. So who should he listen to first? That confidence he had when he spoke with all assurance in his heart is Peace. If I have God, the rest doesn’t matter. 

What is Peace? 

Psalms 29:11 says, “The Lord gives strength to his people; the Lord blesses his people with Peace.” This means that Peace is a blessing. When God cursed the ground, He said in Genesis 3:19 that “By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground(heart) since from it you were taken; (created in the image of God) for dust you are and to dust you will return.” The Peace man had was taken away because Peace is a fruit of obedience. 

In Isaiah chapter 66:2 God says, “This is the one I esteem; he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word.” In verse 5 he says, “Hear the word of the Lord you who tremble at his word” and in verse 12 it says, “For this is what the lord says: ‘I will extend Peace to her like a river and the wealth of nations like a flooding stream;” in other words Peace is a blessing for the obedient. When God extends Peace to you as a blessing, this is what happens as per Psalms 8:4-8: God is mindful of you, He cares for you, you take back your position of being a little lower than the heavenly beings and God crowns you with Glory and Honor, You again become a ruler over all the works of His hands; because He puts everything under your feet: all flocks and herds and the beasts of the field, the birds of the air and the fish of the sea, all which swim the paths of the sea.” This is because the blessing of God makes rich and adds no sorrow with it (Proverbs 10:22). Just like Proverbs 16:7 says, when the man’s ways are pleasing to the Lord, he makes even his enemies live at Peace with him.

In John 14:27 Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you; my Peace I give you. I do not give as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” Luke 24:36, Jesus said, “Peace be with you”. In Isaiah 9:6, Jesus is called the “Prince of Peace”. Peace is His name. In John 14:13, “And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so the son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.” So when He said Peace I leave with you, My Peace, He was giving and leaving us His name. He assured us that whatever we asked for in His name, the father would do. 

Even in Ephesians 2:14-17, the bible says, “For he himself is our Peace…For he preached Peace to you who were far away and Peace to who were near; for through him we both have access to the Father by one spirit.” In other words, Jesus was leaving and giving us His name, the name above all names. Even the Holy Spirit the Father was to send was to be sent in His name. Peace is a matter of the heart. 

One day, the Holy Spirit told me that “I cannot know the true worthiness of a gift, unless I open it.” It took me a very long time to understand this. What did it mean? Until recently, I got to realize that having the gift (Jesus) is not enough, you have to open it and opening meant using it. In the process of using it, that’s where the true worthiness of it is. God gave us Jesus, His one and begotten Son as the gift, and Jesus left us Peace His name willingly that’s why in John 17:11-12 Jesus prays for disciples; “Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name- the name you gave me so that they may be one as we are. While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me.” For us to open the person of Jesus we have to use the gift. But are we using it or we are just having and keeping it? Jesus knew the only time when our hearts would not be troubled was when it Peace. That is why he said, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have Peace. In this world, we will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world (John 16:33).” It is this Peace in Jesus that helps us not self condemn ourselves like man did but instead get closer to God in true repentance. Matthew 13:44, illustrates this; “the kingdom of God is like the treasure hidden in the field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then went and sold all he had and bought that field.” 

In Ecclesiastes 3, the bible says there is a time for everything and a season for every activity under heaven. A time for war and a time for peace and so it was a time for peace. God said I will reconcile with man with an everlasting covenant in one nation under one King. Ezekiel 37:26-27, “I will make a covenant of Peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant. I will establish them and increase their numbers, and I will put my sanctuary among them forever. My dwelling place will be with them; I will be their God and they will my people.” Having met Peace and now know who he is and what he is; Jesus said the Counselor the Father was to send in His name was to be with us forever. “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come and make our home with him.” (John 14:15-23) 

So what’s my point? 

The story of the dry bones in Ezekiel 37 is a replica of us today. We are like the dry bones; some of us have come to life but there is no breath of God in us because we have not allowed Him to work on us. He knows the process, we have to trust and have Peace in Him. To have Peace in him is to rest in Him, and to rest in Him is to believe. And to believe is to obey all His commandments. Ezekiel 37:3, God asks Ezekiel, “Son of man, can these dry bones live?” It is the same question I am asking all of us; can the dry bones live? Why did God have to ask Ezekiel in the first place? The choice to answer that is in our hearts. God has put eternity in the hearts of men yet they do not fathom what he has done from the beginning. John says that “the light shines in the darkness but the darkness has not understood it” (John1:5) Why, because we have allowed the worldly desires to rule our hearts; yet it should be the Peace of God (Jesus) to rule our hearts. We have life because we have Jesus in our lives but God expects us to have abundance (John 10:10). Even the dry bones needed not the just word but the breath of God. If we let God work on us like He did with the dry bones, we will behold His glory, the glory of the one and only one who came from the father, full of grace and truth. And then like Isaiah says, we will rise up and shine for the glory of God had risen upon us (Isaiah 60:1). So what went wrong? Do you desire more? Jesus said, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him” (John 7:37-38). To get there, we need to allow the Holy Spirit work in our lives because Jesus promised that God’s Holy Spirit would satisfy the thirst, or the deepest longings of all who believe in Jesus Christ. However, many of us Christians do not understand the Holy Spirit or how to experience Him in our daily lives. And it starts with us seeking God. Psalms 27:8 says, “My heart says of you, seek his face, your face I will seek” and Matthew 7:7 says when you seek you find. It is my prayer for you that you would want to know him more and more; because the more you know Him, is the more you want to know Him, Jesus more of you!. 

Revelation 3:20, “I stand at the door and knock. If any one hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him and him with me.” 

John 6:63, “the spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.” Let us allow the Peace of God reign in our hearts because it is only then that we might see with our eyes, hear with our ears, understand with our hearts and turn and be healed (Isaiah 6:10).

Peace be with you, Amen.