Over the past week we have addressed a warrior’s mentality, respect verses terror and the impact of how current world events should NOT oppress us despite what appears to be a world headed for chaos. The important thing for us to keep in mind is that world events have significance and they can tell us generally where we are on God’s “calendar” but world events have nothing to do with our eternal destiny. Therefore, we must maintain an attitude that keeps us from anxiety and allows us to focus on what is important – a joyous and peaceful existence. Today, I would like to focus on that concept of what that mindset is like.
As a believer, you know the dark spirits will do everything they can to strip you of your hope and demean your character. It is their calling and role in the grand scheme of things. Your victory against the darkness depends on your ability to answer one key question: “Where can I go to get a continuous, uninterrupted source of hope so my character can remain intact?” The answer lies in one of the Biblical names for God – Jehovah Shalom.
The name means I AM your contentment and peace. Peace, however, is a secondary definition for the word, not its primary concept. Shalom essentially means a state of “completeness because of a soundness of character, thereby ensuring one’s welfare according to Strong’s Concordance. In other words, the knowledge that you are irreversibly predestined for completeness should cause you to rest in a state of peace. (Romans 8:28, Ephesians 1:4, 11) Shalom conveys a sense of being without worry or concern, in the midst of trying circumstances. For the child of God, this completeness and accompanying peace is a state of mind. When you rest in the shalom state of mind, you cannot help but deepen your relationship with each member of the Trinity.
This is how it works. Every need you have now or in the future has already been calculated and prepared to be sent as gifts to you ahead of time! Your job is simply to receive the gift each time you have a need. Basically, what you lack, is waiting for the asking! The Spirit supplies the direction, people, and circumstances to deliver these gifts whenever you need something. Your responsibility is to receive what you need, not everything you want. As you receive each of these Peace Offerings you will learn to be content, and you will have taken another step toward completion.
God has always provided a way for His people to have peace and freedom—then and now. The Hebrews of the Old Testament did not have the indwelling Holy Spirit to help them grasp and adopt the proper mindset. Instead, they completed a sacrificial ritual to ensure their position before God. Today a believer’s relationship with God is different because of the Spirit. Your peace and hope survives and thrives when you grasp your completeness in the presence of Deity. Only then can both you and Deity feel the freedom of open and intimate communication.
We now understand that God’s sacrifice of Christ on the cross for all of us made the Hebrew’s practice of animal sacrifice no longer necessary. Through Christ’s sacrifice, we now have access to an unending supply of completeness and peace by request from the indwelling Holy Spirit. The Spirit reminds you of The Father’s grace, even when you turn your back on Him through conscious sin. Most often, the problem is that we create a barrier to God in our hearts when we rationalize away our sin. All of us grieve the Spirit and create distance. But thankfully the Spirit never does this back to us; there is never a time that it wants anything less than rich, open communication between both parties. When you sin, you must live with the consequences. Yet, it is also true that we are viewed by Deity in our completed state. Through God’s promises, a repentant heart can still commune in peace with God. (1 John 1:9) When we realize that God never sees us as incomplete, our joy will not fade.
Love Dad