KINGDOM BIBLE STUDIES 

"Teaching the things concerning the kingdom of God..."

THE KINGDOM OF GOD

Part 37

THE PEACE OF THE KINGDOM 

            “For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost” (Rom. 14:17).

            The Kingdom of God is peace — peace in the heart, peace of soul, peace with God, peace between men, peace between nations, peace everywhere, under all conditions, and at all times.  What is peace?  Is peace real?  What is its appearance?  Have you ever seen peace?  Is it long or short?  Is it fat or skinny?  Ah, peace is spirit.  You cannot see peace apart from its effect upon people and circumstances.  You can know when peace is present.  You can sense peace, but you cannot touch or handle it.  There is more than one level of peace.  There is a physical peace that people experience in the absence of any discomfort or pain, when the body is well and full of vitality.  There is a soulish peace which men experience in a psychological way.  It is a peace generated out of the conditioning or influencing of the mind, will, emotions and desires.  It is the peace attained on a restful vacation, in the silence of the evening watching a sunset, on a psychologist’s couch, hiking a mountain trail, in religious exercises like transcendental meditation, or by taking Prozac.  These and many other things give peace — but none of them have anything whatever to do with the Kingdom of God!  The Kingdom of God is not just peace — it is peace IN THE HOLY GHOST!  It is God’s peace.  It is heaven’s peace.  It is divine peace.  It is peace that passeth understanding.  It is peace that rules our lives and keeps our hearts in the very midst of calamity, pain, disappointment, trouble, problems, persecutions, difficulties and testings.  It is a peace so deep that it comes only out of the spirit.  It holds us steady, calm and confident in the blasts of hell.  It is peace in the Holy Ghost.  It is the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Heaven!

            Jesus Christ, the firstborn Son of God, is the Prince of Peace.  Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, resides within His elect, the body of Christ.  Comfort does not make peace.  The peace that we experience in the absence of conflict is not Kingdom peace.  Anybody can have peace when all is going well and there are no cross-currents, opposition, trouble or conflict.  Learn this and you will know a great truth: Peace is more than the absence of war!  The peace of God is unaffected by any external conditions.  If your peace flees in the face of trouble, agitation, or calamity, what you have is not peace — it is merely the calm between storms.  Because you are not being blessed by HIS PEACE, but are satisfied with a sense of comfort which you perceive to be peace, you speak peace but are totally uninvolved with those situations which prove peace.  You don’t want to be disturbed.  You have no desire to be challenged.  You don’t want anything to disturb your “peace.”  But there is one in the  midst of us, in our very midst, within, who has abundance of peace for every situation.  It is Christ who is our life.  The Christ within is the Prince of Peace!  Christ will arise in you and minister out of you in the face of any pressure, displaying His power and victory through you.  Oh, yes!  You will be blessed as the embodiment, expression and revelation of Kingdom peace and all men will rise up and call you a son of God!

            Some time ago I read the story of an artists’ colony that had a contest to see which artist could paint a picture that would best represent peace.  Many artists entered the contest.  There were three pictures that were outstanding, and the judges went back and forth among these pictures.  The judges stopped in front of one which they admired.  It was a picture of a meadow, a peaceful meadow.  In that meadow was a flock of sheep, mirrored in a placid lake nearby.  They said, “My, that certainly is a picture of peace.”  Then they went to the second picture which was of the sea with a sheltered harbor  in which was a sailing ship.  The sails were down, the sea was calm.  It was peaceful.  The vessel had come through the storm and was now in the harbor, and all was peace.  What a picture of peace!  Then they came to the third picture, which had as its background a mountainside.  A storm had broken on the mountain, winds were howling and tossing the trees to and fro.  Out of a rock grew a little stubby bush.  In this bush was a nest, on which sat a little bird.  Winds were swaying that little bush, but the bird was sitting on the nest in perfect calm and peace.  The judges stood there for a few moments, then said, “This is the one that should win.  This is peace — peace in the midst of storm!”

                                                      If a wren can cling to a spray a-swing

                                                          In a mad May wind, and sing and sing,

                                                      As if she’d burst for joy, why cannot I

                                                          Contented lie in HIS quiet arms,

                                                      Beneath His sky, unmoved by earth’s annoy?

            Among the many visions given to Annie of Argentina is this one in which she witnesses the blessed and awesome throne of peace in the Kingdom of God.  She relates, “As I drew near to Him in the Cloud, the ineffable peace which continually and totally controls everything within the Cloud as it reigns in power and great sovereignty, and which is the essence and substance of God, filled my heart completely.  Resting in Him in that place of peace, I came into such peace, both in my mind and in my inner spirit, that worlds could have collapsed all around me, and I wouldn’t even have felt the slightest disturbance.  Later, He took me into another place of great peace which was in the midst of violent commotions.  Both the place of peace and the environs of violent commotions that surrounded it were a part and substance of His spiritual being.  This center of peace which was concentrated in essence and power was relatively small in comparison with the stormy commotions and violence, so tremendously filled with energy, which surrounded it; so it appeared like a heart of peace within a place of stormy excitements.  In fine balance and harmony, these two total extremes were dwelling side by side, and seemed to feed one another.”

THE PEACE OF CHRIST

            “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you” (Jn. 14:27).  It was a very sorrowful night when these words were spoken, and the hearts of Jesus’ disciples were troubled, these men who for three years had lived with and loved the Master.  He had told them that He was going to leave them, and was going up to Jerusalem to suffer and die. He was about to pass through His agony in Gethsemane.  He was about to pass through the pain in the Praetorium; to be taken from Herod to the High Priest, and from the High Priest to Herod; then back to Pilate, then scourged, mocked, and crowned with thorns.  It was all before Him, to bear His cross to Calvary, and then with His expiring breath to cry, “Tetelestai! — It is finished!”  To depart into the world of spirits, and His body to be wrapped in grave clothes and laid in the darkness of the tomb. They were greatly perplexed, they who had thought of Him as the Triumphant King; they who knew His power to be absolutely without limits.  Had they not seen Him chain the lightnings, still the storm, and say, “Peace, be still!” to the angry waves of Galilee, rebuking the power of the air that stirred the little lake and so terrific a storm.  They had seen His elemental powers; that He held the thunderbolts in His hands, the winds in His fists, and the waters were just as a drop in the hollow of His hand.  They had seen Him open the eyes of the blind.  They had seen Him feed the multitudes.  They had seen Him raise the dead.  They knew Him to be the Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.  And when He talked about dying, about going up to Jerusalem to die, they did not understand.  They were perplexed!  They were not very wise men.  They were not very well educated men.  They were not even very spiritual men.  They were honest and ignorant, but Jesus had been teaching them for three years, and they thought they knew all about Him and His gospel of the Kingdom of God.  And now He says to them, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you.”  This was Christ’s last will and testament.  This was His only legacy.  He had nothing else to leave.  He was the poorest of the poor.  He had no material possessions or wealth of any kind to divide amongst the men He loved.  So He bequeathed to them the one thing which was in His power to give.  He gave them HIS PEACE!

            Well did George Hawtin write, “The world proclaims peace when no peace exists either in their hearts or in the world.  The sages tell us that peace is the absence of war, and many other such clever and eloquent things, none of which even remotely describe His peace that flows like a river amid the wilderness of this warring world.  The calm assurance that let Jesus sleep when the violent storm was swamping the boat, the godly confidence that gave the rest of a dreamless sleep to Peter as he lay between two soldiers, awaiting death on the morrow, is the peace that Jesus gives.  Love, joy, and peace — the fruit for our personal blessedness, growing richly on the branches of the true and living vine!”

            Words are but a poor vehicle, at best, for the glorious truths concerning the things of the kingdom realm of God.  The peace of God is not a finite attribute, which can be glibly defined by human speech.  It is known in all its blessed fullness only by those who live in union with the Lord Jesus Christ.  Paul, in that wonderful statement in Philippians 4:7 says, “And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”  What kind of peace is this that Paul speaks of here?  I must admit that I do not know, I cannot comprehend what that peace is.  If you were to ask me I could not tell you.  Were I to fast and pray about it for forty days I still would not be able to explain it.  If I could tell you what kind of peace it is, then it would not be that kind of peace, for it is the kind of peace that passes understanding — therefore you cannot describe it.  If it passes understanding, that means that you cannot get it in college.  You can’t get it in seminary.  You can’t get it from the professor.  You can’t get it from the psychologist.  You can’t even get it from the preacher.  But I have experienced that peace, I know that it exists!  In God there are many levels of peace, but this transcends them all!  It is far above anything that the natural man can imagine, but those who trust in God and walk in the Spirit experience it — though they cannot explain it to another.  And it keeps the heart of all those who follow on to know the Lord.  It is the peace of the Kingdom of God!  “For the kingdom of God is...peace...in the Holy Ghost” (Rom. 14:17). 

            It is the peace of God that passeth understanding.  This peace is God’s very own nature transmitted to those who are born of God.  The dwelling place of a son of God is in the Father and the dwelling place of the Father is in the sons.  There is where peace is known.  The natural mind cannot understand such a truth as this, for it has become so distorted by its human ways of looking at things that it discards everything that is beyond the realm of its petty comprehension.  Only the mind enlightened by the Spirit of God can understand the deep significance of the wonderful message of the heavenly angels on that blessed night of Christ’s birth in the Judean hills at Bethlehem.  “Glory to God  in the highest; and on earth peace, good will toward men” (Lk. 2:14).  Such was the song of the celestial choir heard by the shepherds of the Judean hills.  And never has there been any greater song ever sung within the hearing of human ears.  Like music, its words have wafted down to inspire men through nearly twenty centuries of sorrows; and still it bears its note of highest triumph in spite of wars, rumors of wars, the overturn of dynasties and kingdoms, and many other grave problems that face humanity at this very moment.

            The question follows: Why did not the birth of Jesus, the Prince of Peace, bring “peace on earth”?  We all know it did nothing of the kind.  As a matter of fact the world at large knew nothing about the birth of Jesus, the Son of God, until a long time after His sojourn on earth.  To be sure, a good many heard  of Jesus, the miracle-worker in Israel, during His brief ministry there; but at best they simply took Him for another prophet or teacher, if they seriously considered His mission at all.  The whole world of that day could not well fit Him into its affairs.  And they still can’t today! 

            The Amplified Bible gives a beautiful rendering of the angelic song which is a precious aid to understanding.  It reads, “Peace on earth, among men with whom He is well pleased.”  What a word that is!  We have no right to lift “peace on earth” out of its context.  God is “well pleased” first of all with His firstborn Son.  And that firstborn Son is now the Prince of Peace.  The greatest truths of God are always simply stated and easily understood by those who have an ear to hear what the Spirit saith.  “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased,” the Father witnessed by His voice out of heaven.  And in the moment that God is given the throne of our life and is glorified in His sons, at that very moment, straightway, God begins to be well pleased with His sons. 

            God is not well pleased with the godless masses of China, Russia, Africa, Europe, or the United States of America  today.  God is not well pleased with the world of believers who are all too willing to proclaim the praise of God with their lips and raise their hands in seeming consecration, even while they wear the gaudy garments of Babylonish religion, running greedily after the error of Balaam for gain, and prostituting the holy truths of God with the unholy methods and techniques of the world.  God is well pleased with those who seek only His will, His ways and His glory.  God is well pleased with those who reject the fleeting pleasures of sin and the worthless glitter of the prestige and position of this world.  God is well pleased with those who forsake the excitement and noise of the crowd, who abandon listening to all manner of fantastic oratory, who in their hearts are no longer entertained by man-made programs, soulish concerts, so-called Christian television shows, and carnal schemes of a church system that has forsaken the leading of the Spirit of God.  The Father is well pleased with those who see His hand in all the happenings of their lives and give no place or glory or credit to the devil.  The Father is well pleased with those whose only desire out of a pure heart is to please Him and apprehend that for which they also have been apprehended of Christ Jesus.  The Father is well pleased with those who put first things first and walk daily after the spirit and not after the flesh.  The Father is well pleased with those who stop seeking gifts and start seeking the Giver.  God is well pleased with those who stop seeking things and start seeking the Lord Himself. 

            If the people of God today would stop following after preachers and personalities, turning a deaf ear to the slick advertising of unscrupulous men who love to promote themselves, if they would forget about revivals and crusades and supposed signs and wonders and begin to turn the knob of their prayer closet door, seeking not to run here and there, and do this and that, but seeking to enter into harmony with the mind of Him who worketh all things after the counsels of His own will, to do only those things they see the Father doing, to speak only those things they hear of the Father, then all the world would know that the Father is glorified in His sons even as He is glorified in His Son.  Let us seek God that He might fashion our lives according to His eternal wisdom, that in us He might be well pleased!  When the Father is well pleased with us as His very own sons then shall the heavenly mystery of “peace on earth” be fulfilled in us.  The essential thing about peace is not what happens outwardly.  There cannot be “peace on earth” in the sense of freedom from war, fear, oppression and exploitation until there is peace among men in whom the Father is well pleased.  Ah, that is the foundation of peace!  When the Father is well pleased in us, there is then peace  in our earth, peace between us and God, and peace between us and all men.  The firstfruits of His peace in the earth is the MANIFESTED SONS OF GOD — the SONS OF PEACE.  Ah, peace is coming to this earth and the whole world!  It is coming through a people that is peace.  They have surrendered all their problems, doubts and fears into the hands of the One who they have learned can be fully trusted.  He has revealed His love and His power to them and they have rested in it.  They are becoming channels for His grace and glory to flow through unto all the ends of the earth.  They are peacemakers and they are called the sons of God.

WHERE THERE IS NO PEACE

            The sons of God are the sons of peace, for only those whose lives are established  in the righteousness, peace, and joy of the Kingdom are qualified to rule and reign in power in the Kingdom, to minister peace unto all mankind.  Have you ever wondered what it is that causes emotional and psychological problems, including anger, rage, and depression?  It is lack — lack of peace and joy!  Any honest psychologist or psychiatrist will tell you that most people come to them saying, “I am disturbed.  I am at unrest.  I am miserable.  I cannot get along with others.  I am very unhappy.  Life is wretched.  I cannot face my problems.  I cannot handle my responsibilities.  I cannot control my feelings and emotions.  Living in this world is unbearable.”  Translation: “I have no peace.  I have no joy.  Hence, I have a multitude of overwhelming problems!”

            How does a son of God have real and complete peace and joy?  Oh, what peace we often forfeit because we seek peace instead of seeking the Prince of Peace!  “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you.  Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” (Jn. 14:27).  What poverty we must endure because we seek peace instead of seeking Him!  When will we ever learn the secret of these words: “For He is our peace...”  Everything, my friend, is in Jesus, and Jesus is everything. 

            We are living in an hour when our stressed-out world and many worldly Christians are seeking peace on the psychologist's couch.  Do you really believe that there is some person who out of his carnal knowledge and experience can add something to your spiritual life that the power of Jesus Christ and the spirit of wisdom and revelation from God leave out?  That is what lies at the heart of all error and cultism.  That is what is at the heart of all the mind-sciences — as if some man could add something to Christ — a man such as Carl Jung, psychoanalyst, or Sigmund Freud — great intellectual minds with a certain show of deep soulical perception and knowledge, but not enlightened by any means by the spirit of Truth in Christ Jesus, merely intellectual postulations about the mechanics of old Adam’s life.  Some of them are very wise things, perhaps, on a carnal, human level, but completely void of the wisdom and power of Christ.  The men who spawned the theories of psychology, psychiatry and psychoanalysis, were for the most part unbelievers, humanists, agnostics and atheists. I do not hesitate to tell you that these theories were birthed out of the incredible darkness of the carnal mind and there is one thing of importance that we must clearly understand: “The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God!” (I Cor. 3:19). 

            Therefore, how can one expect those systems developed out of the realm of the  carnal mind and out of the godless wisdom of this world to add something to the understanding and ability of the Christ within?  Christ Himself is the way, the truth, and the life.  Furthermore, He is the only way, the whole truth, and the fullness of life.  How, therefore, could anything outside of Christ minister life to us?  If there is any life to be obtained outside of the Lord Himself, then there is no reason to come to Him that we might have life, and have it more abundantly.  We are called to maintain our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, the firstborn among many brethren, the Pattern Son, and the Head of the body, and grow up in Him into a spiritual dynamic, transforming reality by the power of Christ — not through carnal formulas or science falsely so called.  Psychology is able to analyze the nature of old Adam, but it offers no solution to the problem, because the  solution can be found only in the power of the Kingdom of God!

            Of a truth I know that there is only one answer to every question, the very same answer to every question is Christ, for Christ is All.  If we will cease trying to work our way out of our problems by trust in human wisdom, and instead ask God for His wisdom, and seek Him with all of our heart, He will give us His wisdom, and thus shall the mind of Christ begin to dwell in us and operate in us.  If God dwells in His people, then we must begin to live with that knowledge foremost in our hearts, depending no more on the solutions of the carnal mind.  Where peace is needed in any situation, we must steadfastly draw upon the peace that He is within ourselves.  Where joy is needed, it must flow forth out of His life within us, for peace and joy are the fruits of His Spirit within.  We must know that Christ Himself from His riches in glory is the supplier of all our lack.  With Him we are the possessor or all things.  Seek Him while mortifying yourself.  Let His mind dwell in you while casting out your own.  Recognize His hand in all the happenings of your life.  It is in those who draw their all from His presence that Christ lives and moves and has His being, and all such live and move and have their being in Him.

            Even when saints follow Christ’s bidding, they will face hardships and testings.  For example, Jesus’ disciples were doing God’s will when they took Him across the lake, for He had commanded them to do so.  Yet they were buffeted by a dreadful tempest, and they seemed to be in danger of drowning.  A storm — and Christ on board!  It seems a contradiction.  Wouldn’t His presence assure a peaceful journey?  Wouldn’t His very presence keep the winds and the waves from their violence?  Not at all!  Life frequently becomes more difficult after a person has entered into relationship with Christ, and the further one goes in God, the more severe the testings!  But a storm — and Christ asleep!  That even deepens our perplexity!  Our Lord’s silence, the frustrating delays, the mysteries of His dealings — these are too profound for our natural minds to understand.  Yet we can be certain that His purpose in testing our faith is to strengthen it.  How He does this in each of us is His business.  If we were choosing our route to perfection, I’m sure we would select an easier path, protecting those very things that need to be dealt with.  God will surely fulfill His plan for us through our struggles, and His deliverance will lead us to new dimensions of faith and victory. 

            Needless fears beset the disciples because they did not trust Jesus’ words.  If they had just thought for a moment, they would have remembered that He had said, “Let us go over unto the other side.”  He didn’t say, “Let us go to the middle of the lake and be drowned.”  They should have been saying to the raging waves, You can do us no harm, for Christ the mighty God is on board!”  And today we are passing over!  We are passing over the sea of life, passing over from death to life, from mortality to immortality, from fear to faith, from the carnal mind to the mind of Christ, from corruption to incorruption,  from being the sons of men to being the sons of God.  And what a stormy voyage this is!  But Christ the Lord is in our ship and He will bring us safely to the other side!

            The word of the Lord declares, “Thou rulest the RAGING OF THE SEA: when the waves thereof arise, THOU STILLEST THEM” (Ps. 89:9).  Many centuries ago the Spirit of God inspired these beautiful words of promise, “The floods have lifted up, O Lord, the floods have lifted up their voice, the floods lift up their waves.  The Lord on high IS MIGHTIER THAN THE NOISE OF MANY WATERS, yea, than the MIGHTY WAVES OF THE SEA” (Ps. 93:3-4).  Praise God!  He rules the inner raging of the sea and He stills all its tempests!  That unstable nature within, so quickly moved by the storms created by the carnal mind, the torrents of passion, the streams of vain imaginations, the waves of frustration and fear, the winds of doubt and unbelief, the turbulent emotions of body and soul — all are quieted by the Lord, the Spirit, who arises within in peace, confidence, trust and faith to rule the raging of the sea.  And then follows the calm, the state described by Paul, — “that we be no more tossed to and fro with every wind...but may grow up in all things into Him who is the Head, even Christ” (Eph. 4:14-15).  The Spirit of God within is great peace, overflowing joy, unfailing love, unwavering righteousness and omnipotent power.  It is only necessary then to gain the conscious awareness of the presence and life of God as the essence of our being, to know that this life is the law of our reality.  As we come to know the spirit of our life in Christ all inner and outer tempests are stilled, the sea is calmed, and the dragon in the sea vanishes over the horizon.

            When the beloved John beheld in vision the unveiling of Christ — Christ the Head and Christ the body — he also saw “a throne set in heaven” with Christ upon the throne.  “And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal...” (Rev. 4:1-6).  In contrast to this we read, “The wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt” (Isa. 57:20).  Now we come to an amazing word which  may be hard for the natural mind to interpret, but when men seek the face of the Lord He sends His Holy Spirit to dispel the darkness of the carnal mind that He may reveal the things that pertain to the Kingdom of God.  The promise is made, “In that day the Lord with His sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent, and HE SHALL SLAY THE DRAGON THAT IS IN THE SEA” (Isa. 27:1).  Truly this is the serpent that dwells within all mankind, the bestial nature within the Adamic man, the inner force which opposes the spirit and tries to bind us to earthly things, keeping us from seeking those things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God.  My soul rejoices with joy unspeakable in the blessed knowledge that God has promised deliverance for all mankind as this sea-dwelling beast is slain with the mighty, strong sword of the Lord — THE WORD OF GOD! As surely as the raging sea represents multitudes of restless, clamoring, surging, sinning humanity (Rev. 17:15), so does the exquisite sea of glass before the throne of God represent an assembled throng of quickened and transformed saints IN WHOSE HEARTS THE PEACE OF GOD RULES.  This great sea of redeemed men is calm and serene, tranquil and quiet, transformed “even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”  The sea-dwelling beast has been dealt with.  The inner nature of man has been transformed and the sea is now like glass!

            The “sword of the Lord” is the Word of God, the living and energetic Word, the almighty Word by which He slays the dragon in the sea.  When the bestial nature which once brought forth raging waves of the sea is conquered, the sea of man becomes peaceful and serene, expressing the peace of the Kingdom of God.  In the earth today there are two companies of “sea people” — those of the troubled sea and the sea of glass people.  Thank God, amidst all the trouble, distress, sorrow, problems and pressures of this world system there is a sea of glass, a people abiding in the peace of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth!  These are “before the throne” — willing subjects of the Lordship of the indwelling Spirit.  The first mark of the Kingdom of God is Christ as King.  If Christ is the Prince of Peace, then peace is a dimension of the Kingdom of God. 

            The mark of what a kingdom is, is to be seen in its king.  Christ now reigns on the throne of the Father, and that throne is individualized as the power of His presence in the heart of every saint.  There is an embodiment, a manifestation of the Kingdom; its power is seen in the lives of those in whom it rules.  The Christ lives and dwells and rules within our hearts!  The blessed firstborn Son proclaimed to those called to be His many brethren: “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you.”  As you acquire peace in your heart from God by the spirit of sonship, I have good news for you!  You have received a dispensation of the Kingdom of God, for that is what the Kingdom is.  As the peace of God reigns in your heart, in the midst of all the problems and pressures, in a world of turmoil and fear, the Prince of Peace has ascended His throne and reigns.  Peace is spirit.  The Kingdom of God is spiritual because God is spirit, and never forget, my beloved — spirit is REAL!  Peace is REAL!  The Kingdom of God is a spiritual dimension available to men upon this earth.  It is within you as the righteousness, peace, and joy of the Spirit-rule in and through you.  Even now God is bringing many sons to walk in the conscious awareness of the Kingdom and minister its glorious and eternal reality to all mankind now and in the age and the ages to come until the whole earth and the universe and every man and every creature in all realms is filled with the peace of His Kingdom.  Hallelujah!

            How the world needs this peace!  Men’s hearts are failing them today for fear in looking after those things which are coming upon the earth.  The land is filled with violence, moral breakdown, broken homes, corruption and evil men in government, wars and rumors of wars, gang warfare, drugs, drunkenness,  rebellion, ever-increasing degradation, sin, sorrow and death.  Ah, the TROUBLED SEA!  How often the raging waves of that sea beat with fury within our own breasts in the form of doubts, fears, frustrations, anxieties, sorrow and confusion.  Thank God, there is another sea, the sea of glass, the power of the Lord’s Spirit within us to minister peace  in the midst of the tempest — a strong and mighty Word of the Lord to slay the dragon in the sea.  When the work is finished in us we shall stand upon this sea of glass having the harps of God, singing a new song before the throne, with the Father’s name written in our foreheads, forever redeemed from the earth and from the sea of Adam’s life, with no guile in our mouth, the firstfruits unto God and the Lamb.

LET PEACE RULE

            One of the most instructive admonitions about peace is found in Colossians 3:15 wherein Paul says, “And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body.”  The Amplified Bible expresses the original even more clearly, “And let the peace from the Christ rule — act as umpire continually — in your hearts, deciding and settling with finality all questions that arise in your minds — in that peaceful state to which as members of Christ’s body you were also called to live.”  Let the peace of God “act as an umpire” — that is the word in the Greek — in your hearts.  How beautiful!  That peace is within the heart of every son of God.  Ah, my beloved, when you find it necessary to decide between two or more courses of action, let the peace of God act as the umpire and make a ruling in the matter!  This is a blessed principle of the Kingdom of God.  It is the rule of God by peace! 

            Sometimes there are decisions to make, actions to take, doors open before us, and one is in a quandary as to which way to go.  Do I go here or there, do I do it this way or that?  The Spirit doesn’t speak a clear word, there is no dream or vision, no prophet to say, “Thus saith the Lord!” and no word of knowledge or wisdom from any source.  But if you will look to peace — let peace act as the umpire — the peace of God in the depth of your spirit will tell you what to do.  When considering some of your options there will be unrest in your heart, question marks, and a red flag in your spirit telling you that is not the way.  But there will also be a way that genders peace.  Examine your heart — do you have peace in your heart?  Listen to peace!  Let the peace of God act as the umpire and decide the issue.  And never violate this rule of peace.

            Sometimes a course of action looks reasonable, sounds like the intelligent thing to do, and may even appeal to the senses of the soul, our own desires.  Don’t listen to you head — listen to your heart!  Let the peace of God rule in your heart.  That is the word.  Go with your heart — for out of it are the issues of life!  When we ignore the heart, when we do something just because it looks reasonable, appears profitable, or because there is pressure from without, we will usually regret it.  Many times people are talked into something when they don’t really have peace in their heart about it.  It pays to go with your heart!  The peace of God in your heart will act as the umpire, deciding and settling all questions that arise in your mind and emotions.  If there is no peace in your heart, wait until peace comes.  Just wait!  The umpire will eventually show up!  Let peace rule and peace will be the outcome.

PEACE ON EARTH

            Peace!  What a strange ironic ring that word has in these days in which we live!  Peace, the dream of man in all ages, like a will-o’-the-wisp, beckons now here and now there, only to vanish in the clouds of powder smoke.  Able men, great men, and wise men have tried to bring a lasting peace to the nations of earth, only to see their peace go up in blood and smoke.  The universal cry of the human heart in this hour at the end of the age is for peace — not merely a cessation of hostilities for a time, not merely an armistice, which is but a breathing spell for the next battle, but an abiding and lasting peace, when the wealth of the nations shall not be dissipated in vast arms races, but be used for the good and betterment of mankind.

            The ministry of the sons of God will bring to earth universal peace.  The scriptures are very clear about this, and we have the blessed witness of the Holy Spirit within ourselves that this is truth indeed.  For two thousand years the only “peace on earth, goodwill toward men” has been experienced by a small minority of earth’s teeming millions, born-again saints of God who have walked in the Spirit.  The history of the world has continued on in the wrath of man, filled day and night with sounds of strife and sights of blood.  Instead of God’s hush of peace, the world has heard the clash of arms and the explosions of war, hell, and destruction, many of which have been religious wars fought in the name of Him who is the Prince of Peace!  History faithfully confirms what I say when I insist that the greatest instigator for war has been religion all down through history.  The Moslem fanatics, the Jewish zealots, the Christian crusaders, the Roman Catholic Inquisition are but a few.  The whole Middle East is at this time a religious time bomb.  Jerusalem is its fuse.  And the recent conflicts in Bosnia, Serbia, and Kosovo were religious conflicts which have been going on for hundreds of years between the Orthodox Christians and the Moslems in Eastern Europe.

            Instead of “goodwill” on earth, every generation has heard the shout of conquest, the groan of torn and dying men, and the sob of bereaved loved ones.  The earth, to which the firstborn Son of God was sent, has been stained with the blood of millions and still the war-cloud hangs dark and heavy over all nations.  How mankind has sought and longed for peace!  A recent article that came across my desk states, “High ideals are expressed by the statue outside of the United Nations headquarters in New York City.  Former U.N. Secretary-General, Dag Hammarkskjold addressed a gathering at the ceremony for the unveiling of the bronze statue by Russian sculptor Ergieniy Vuchetich.  Commenting on the event, the U.N. Office of Public Information stated, ‘The statue is in bronze and represents the figure of a man holding a hammer in one hand, and in the other, a sword which he is making into a plowshare, symbolizing man’s desire to put an end to war and convert the means of destruction into creative tools for the benefit of all mankind.’  The heroic figure of a man beating his sword into a plowshare was inspired by the words of Isaiah.  The vision of peace that he saw showed that the nations would ‘beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks’ (Isa. 2:4)  How ironic that this statue was presented as a gift to the United Nations by the then Soviet Union who would be one of the biggest threats to worldwide peace of the 20th century!  Luxembourg also sent a gift to the United Nations.  It was a revolver with a twisted knot in its barrel”   — end quote.

            The greatest monument to future peace is not the statue at the United Nations.  No, it is the peace of God now being formed in the lives of God’s elect!  Peace on earth will only come when every man is quickened and transformed by the power of God through the Sons of Peace!  It is when “the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains” that the prophetic mysteries spoken by the prophet shall unfold before our wondering eyes and “He shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they (the nations) shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore” (Isa. 2:2-4). 

            Has that prophecy been fulfilled?  Even in times of peace today the nations do not stop “learning war.”  Even so-called Christian America has its West Point and Annapolis and continually tests new war machinery and implements of destruction.  War does not bring peace!  The opposite of peace cannot produce peace!  The carnal mind does not understand this simple principle.  Such knowledge is too high for it.  I tell you today by the word of the Lord that there never has been, nor can there ever be, a war to end all wars!  It is a contradiction.  It is an absurdity.  It is an impossibility.  War and peace are irreconcilable opposites!  The seeds of the next war are always sown in the last war.  Only peace can make peace.  Peace IS!  “My peace I give unto you.”  Only the ministry of the Sons of Peace can bring peace to earth.  Peace shall not come through war — it shall come through the mighty, overwhelming outpouring and dispensation of the peace of God into the life of mankind.  God has brought us to the Kingdom for such a time as this!

            The notion that man by war can establish peace on earth is one of the most profound stupidities of the carnal mind.  And the idea that man apart from the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost can bring peace to the world is another human error no less astounding.  These efforts have been earnestly and fervently pursued by many great, powerful, influential, eloquent, and able men in every generation and age, but never has one been able to accomplish it!  In the following words of a well-known preacher, penned shortly after the First World War, we see manifest the folly of the ill-founded hope of establishing peace apart from the regeneration of every human heart.  He said to a crowd on Thanksgiving Day, “And what abundant reason we have for gratitude because of what has been done by the peacemakers since last we observed this day.  Not since the World War ended has the prospect of peace been so bright and heartening as it is at this hour.  Since 1918 the path of peace has been as the path of the just which is ‘as a shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.’  Since then seven milestones have been set up along the way to peace on earth and good will among men.  I have not the time to linger by each of these milestones.  I but name them and let them speak for themselves.

            “The milestones are: (1)  The League of Nations, 1920, with its fifty-five members among the nations of earth.  (2)  The Disarmament Conference at Washington, 1921. A friendly gesture in which America showed her faith.  (3)  Locarno, 1925.  (4)  The World Conference of Christians at Stockholm, 1925, with thirty-seven nations represented.  (5)  The oversea flight in 1927 of Colonel Charles A. Lindbergh, the Lone Eagle who came like a good angel from the skies, a messenger of peace and goodwill to Europe.  (6)  The Pact of Paris, 1928, when war was declared an outlaw and the greatest nations of the earth through their representatives affixed their signatures.  (7)  The recent friendly conference between President Hoover and Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald.

            “I dare to dream a dream.  It is the year 1969, and I see a veteran of the Great War, a member of the American Legion, holding on his knee his first great-grandchild.  It is World Peace Day, the anniversary of the day when the last nation became a signatory of the treaty outlawing war.  Flags are flying, bands of music are playing.  I hear the little boy asking questions, a habit of little boys everywhere.  ‘Granddad,’ he asks, toying with the old man’s military medal, ‘were you really in the war, that last great war?’  ‘Yes, my boy,’ the veteran replies.  ‘It seems as a dream that men once fought one another like wild beasts, but it can never happen again, and some day you’ll read the story how brave men and true fought the bloodless battles of peace.  It was a long, hard fight, almost as hard as the fighting by land and sea where men suffered and died host upon host.  A glorious company of heroic men, gave their lives pioneering for peace, and a like company of noble women  went to early graves that peace on earth might come”   — end quote.

            Only a few short years after this optimistic sermon was delivered the hellish fury of the Second World War broke out on planet earth!  This man’s hopes were cruelly dashed to pieces on the rock of reality.    He speaks of a peace that comes by the efforts of unregenerated men through the sacrifice of war followed by the nations outlawing war!  But He says nothing about Christ and His peace, nothing of the peace of the Kingdom of God, nothing of the things that bring peace into men’s lives — salvation, deliverance, regeneration, the work of the Holy Spirit, transformation into the image of God, and putting on the mind of Christ.  Ah, the silence is deafening!  He is like the woman in the song who is “looking for love in all the wrong places.”  Of a certainty I know that peace does not come by heroic men giving their lives on bloody battlefields!  History proves in eloquent and unrefutable terms that war breeds more war.  Never forget it, write it forever upon the tablets of your mind, and let it be as a frontlet between your eyes, my beloved — peace does not come by war or by force or by the earnest efforts of natural, carnal, sinful Adamic men.

THE SONS OF PEACE

            To be filled with God’s peace, to be fully at peace with God, with ourselves and others, to have peace in every situation and circumstance of life, and with everything else in this world and throughout the unbounded heavens is the goal of sonship.  That is what the Kingdom of God is all about in our lives!  If there is any one thing, within or without, that troubles us and denies us His peace, then the Kingdom of God is not fully established within us.  The Lord is now establishing peace among His elect in Zion.  He is now publishing peace and salvation in Zion, and is bringing good tidings of great things to us, by His Spirit.  “Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem...how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!” (Isa. 52:1,7). 

            In Hebrews 12:22 we read that we are now come unto mount Zion.  To correctly unlock the great revelation and reality of this mount Zion we need to go back and look at the shadow.  Israel was God’s land, the whole nation of His people.  In Israel there was the city of Jerusalem, the capital city, the seat of government comprising all the ruling class.  Yet in Jerusalem there was only one who, with his household, dwelt on mount Zion.  He was the king.  Mount Zion is the highest mount in Jerusalem, and David the king established his throne there.  His was the highest pinnacle of glory attainable.  But that Zion was only a shadow of the true mount Zion to which we are come in the Spirit.  David was king over natural Israel.  Christ is King over spiritual Israel.  David dwelt on the natural mount Zion.  Therefore Christ dwells on the spiritual mount Zion.  And this spiritual Zion is composed of those who in union with Christ the Head have reached the very highest pinnacle attainable in the heavenly Jerusalem, those who have followed the Lord all the way to His throne.  “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in His throne” (Rev. 3:21). 

            In Revelation 14:1-5 we find a company of 144,000 standing with the Lamb upon mount Zion.  And this company standing with their Lord can represent nothing other than those who have followed the Lamb all the way from death on mount Calvary to the glory and exaltation of mount Zion.  God has but one throne, and those who share that throne share it in the heights of the spiritual mount Zion.  “The Lord shall reign over them in Zion, from henceforth, even for ever” (Mic. 4:7; Isa. 24:23).

            All who are dwelling in the high and holy realm of Zion, are hearing the voice of the Son of God!  Good tidings of great things, of full salvation, of perfection of holiness and power, the reign of Christ, and the peace of the Kingdom of God, are now being declared in Zion.  “For the Lord hath chosen Zion; He hath desired it for His habitation.  This is my rest for ever: here will I dwell; for I have desired it.  There will I make the horn of David to bud: I have ordained a lamp for mine anointed.  His enemies will I clothe with shame: but upon Himself shall His crown flourish” (Ps. 132:13-14, 17-18).  “Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of His holiness.  Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King.  As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God: God will establish it for ever.  Let mount Zion rejoice...walk about Zion, and go round about her, tell the towers thereof.  Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces...” (Ps. 48:1-2, 8, 11-13). 

            When that word becomes life to us by the Spirit, the Lord then fills us with the joy, peace, holiness and power of mount Zion.  Then those qualities, including His peace, shall flow out of us to fill, first, the city of God, then the whole land of God’s own people, and finally the whole earth and all nations.  Haggai prophesied, saying of the glory of the latter house, the spiritual temple of living stones, each stone a quickened, living son of God, “And in this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of hosts” (Hag. 2:9).  When the peace of God has filled the house of the Lord, His peace shall then flow out of the house, bringing true and lasting peace to all the peoples and nations of the world. 

            The peace of God can only be ministered to the inhabitants of earth by the authority of Christ in the glory and power of His Kingdom of sons and daughters.  Another prophet prophesied, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, THY KING COMETH unto thee...and He shall speak peace unto the heathen, and His dominion shall be from sea even to sea, and from the river even to the ends of the earth” (Zech. 9:9-10).  Christ our King rules from the top down, from the height of His throne in the heavenlies down to the lowest valley and the deepest hell.  Our King comes first to mount Zion, the sons of God; then to Jerusalem, the true church, the bride of Christ; next to the land of Israel, that is, all the people of God on whatever spiritual level they may be; and finally to the rest of mankind in the ends of the earth. 

            These are the four elements or components in the scope and economy of the Kingdom of God: Mount Zion, Jerusalem, the land, and the world.  Mount Zion was in Jerusalem, Jerusalem was in the land, and the land was in the world.  All things in every realm are gathered  up in those four areas, as typified by the natural Israel of old in the midst of the earth.  In Christ’s coming to Zion to be perfectly and fully formed in the sons of God, the reign of Christ is then evident in the lives of His elect.  When He fully rules and reigns in our lives, the reign of Christ then progresses to spiritual Jerusalem, which is the realm of the daughters of Zion, the true church which is the bride of Christ.  This takes in all those who truly love the Lord, are baptized in the Holy Spirit, and are led by His Spirit in the measure they know, though they are not fully overcoming sons of God.  From there the Kingdom progresses to the whole land which is all nominal Christians who name the name of the Lord, acknowledging Him as Saviour, be they Catholic, Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist, or any other denomination in Christianity. From the land the reign of Christ finally spreads to the rest of mankind, to every tongue, and people, and kindred, and nation, until He fully reigns over all.  During this age it has not been God’s purpose to bring to pass the fullness of the glory and power and consummation of His Kingdom on earth.  During this age which even now is swiftly drawing to a close and merging into the greater  glory of the dawning age, God’s purpose has been centered in His church, in the calling out of the nations of a people for His name.  The gospel has indeed been sent to every nation and every people over the face of the whole earth, but not to save or bring the rule of the Kingdom of God over every nation, rather to call out of each nation a people for Himself (Acts 15:13-18).   This people is formed on various spiritual levels and stages of development all the way from little children to the fully matured sons of God.  They may be classified as mount Zion (sons), Jerusalem (bride), and the land (children).

            In this end of the age the reign of Christ has now come to Zion, to confirm and seal His reign in the lives of His elect, preparing them for power, dominion, authority and rulership as kings and priests unto God after the order of Melchizedek, thus setting the stage for the coming of His Kingdom to the other companies of His people and to all the ends of the earth.  In due time the Lord shall manifest His Kingdom in Jerusalem, to reign in and over all who love Him and love His appearing.  What a day it will be when all the Pentecostal and Charismatic believers in the whole world are cleansed from all their religious and denominational idols, from all the error and false doctrines that have clung to them like a death shroud, from all their carnality and fleshly methods of meetings, programs, and evangelism, and are filled with the fullness of the righteousness, peace and joy of the Kingdom, matured in Christ Jesus, submitted to His Lordship, and put on the wisdom, knowledge, understanding, faith and glory of the wonderful mind of Christ!  Oh, yes!  What a day!  And that, precious friend of mine, will be the next stage in the progression and unfolding of the Kingdom of God on earth. 

            When God’s spiritual Jerusalem has been brought fully under the sway of His Kingdom dominion, it shall then be brought to those who make up the “land,”  all Christians who acknowledge Jesus as Saviour.  And finally, the Kingdom will come to all the kindreds and nations of the whole world who now lie completely outside of the territory of God’s people.  When the reign of Christ has fully come to those who in this hour have received the call to sonship, which is mount Zion, and to all the other truly born-again believers in Jerusalem, which is the bride of Christ, and to all the so-called Christians of the world who dwell in some area of God’s land, then He shall simply “speak peace to the heathen.”  When God speaks, His omnipotent and creative word brings forth that which did not previously exist.  God proclaims by the power of His word, “Let there be!” and the Light of Christ shines to dispel all the darkness everywhere.  God speaks and the hatred, ignorance, vanity, violence and sinfulness of man is forever crushed by the emergence of a new nature of life and transformation within.  By His breath the beast in man is slain, even the dragon in the sea, and the former tyrant masters of the flesh, the world and the devil are replaced with Himself.  When God speaks He sends forth His delivering, quickening, regenerating spirit of power and might and changes everything.  And when God speaks peace to the nations, all the peoples of the earth — the Buddhists, the Hindus, the Moslems, the Communists, and all others, from the least to the greatest — shall bow in humble and worshipful obedience before God’s Christ. 

            When God speaks peace to the nations they shall indeed beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks, neither shall nation lift up sword against nation anymore forever.  This wonderful result will not be achieved through peace conferences or treaties of any kind, nor by any police action or military force either by the United Nations or by the church systems or by Jesus riding out of the sky on a white horse with a sword of destruction proceeding out of His mouth.  Oh, no!  It shall come by the mighty spiritual power of God’s spirit of peace and salvation flowing out of a people in whom this Kingdom peace and Kingdom power has been perfected — the SONS OF PEACE.  We who are spiritually minded are on a path leading to true Life and Peace.  With every experience in Christ we are becoming more like Christ.  We are truly becoming peacemakers in the Kingdom of God.  And we shall, in Father’s time, bring the peaceful state of the Kingdom of God to earth.  Oh, let us  believe God, and expect Him to do great and mighty things in this wonderful new Day of the Lord!

            To be continued...                                                                                          

J. PRESTON EBY