“So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want.” Galatians 5:16-17

Is it natural for mankind to be at peace or to experience true peace?

According to the passage above, no.

The Apostle Paul wrote that our human nature leads to “hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, murders…” (Gal. 5:19-21) Not peace.

The only peace our world knows is shallow and unfulfilling. Rather than living life peacefully amid hardship, trials, and severe dissensions, we presume peace is the absence of troubles. Most people pursue peace as an attempt to escape problems. Unfortunately, these attempts lead to further sin of the flesh by acts of sexual immorality, impurity, envy, lustful pleasures, wild parties, and drunkenness-more of what Paul speaks to in Galatians 5. [Read NIV, AMPC, and NLT versions for an array of descriptions. More about ‘what is sin?’ another post.]

Worldly peace, as we know it, is a pointless pursuit.

According to scripture, Jesus is named Prince of Peace. (Isa. 9:6)

He is peace.

God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are the same Godhead so the Holy Spirit, whose dispensation is at work right now in the life of believers, is also Peace. It is through the power of the Holy Spirit, then, that followers of Christ, filled with the Holy Spirit, bear witness to His Peace.

Honest Transparency

As I’ve suggested before, the content of this blog is written from a place of honest transparency. More often than not, comfort and consolation for my troubles came after I suffered alone.

My hope and prayer through Transparency in Love is that through my personal stories of honest transparency, I may bring comfort and hope of Christ to you, my friends, in the current season of your life, attesting to the power, grace and mercy of our Savior Jesus Christ.

Scripture says in 2 Corinthians 1:3-4, “praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our trouble, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.”

This passage is written with the present-tense word “receive.” Suggesting to us that while we receive comfort from God, we are to give to others the same comfort we are receiving (at the same time) to others. Scripture doesn’t suggest it comes after- after we rise from the ashes; after we see the victory; after we have suffered for a while; or after we feel strong enough to console others.

Unfortunately, I understand too well the burdens of the lie of the enemy telling us that we 1) can’t be comforted by others in our dark, difficult seasons and 2) we shouldn’t be open and transparent with others amid our hardships because we will be burdensome, after all, others have their own troubles. We sometimes believe the lie that if we purge all our troubles onto another, we’re going to emotionally drain them, or worse, they’re going to turn away from us because now they know all this dysfunction about us.

But James 5:13-16 says, “Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.”

“Bear (endure, carry) one another’s burdens and troublesome moral faults, and in this way fulfill and observe perfectly the law of Christ (the Messiah) and complete what is lacking [in your obedience to it]. (Gal. 6:2)

Time and again scripture denounces the lies that we are to suffer by ourselves and/or that we are to keep comfort to ourselves until after the hardship of others is over.  

So, with that, I must be transparent in saying, I have struggled writing this study on Peace.

Struggling, not because I don’t believe what I’m learning or sharing with you, but because I have struggled allowing the Fruit of the Spirit of Peace to be active and alive in my life. I am being awakened to a new understanding I had not yet walked in and it’s both disheartening and enlightening, discouraging yet hopeful!

I’m not perfect, nor do I claim to be. I do, however, struggle with unrealistic expectations of myself to be able to do more than what I’m capable of, especially by myself, in the flesh. This is the beauty of sanctification though. Sanctification is a “big church word” that basically means the heart of a believer of Jesus Christ is being renewed, and through the power of the Holy Spirit, is becoming more holy, or more like Christ.

Internal Peace vs. Pluckable Peace

Through preparing this study, I am beginning to wonder that perhaps the Fruit of the Spirit of Peace is less a fruit that is evident above the ground; it may not actually be a fruit pickable for others. Rather, it may be a deeply, interweaving root system or nutrient-rich food that supports the foundation in which we are planted.

Love is the foundation for which everything else will flow, but in my study on Peace, I am also convinced that Peace may be the fertilizer that keeps our roots growing steady, and the fruits above the ground growing strong and firm.

It’s an enlightening perspective I am learning about Peace.

With that, I write the following about the Fruit of the Spirit of Peace with utter humility as I, myself, need to learn and grasp what this Fruit looks like. I need the roots of Peace to grow deep and wide in my life, sprinkling nutrient-rich fertilizer on the ground in which I am planted in Christ, so that whatever comes, I know that I know that I know who I belong to and who holds me in His arms.

The Prince of Peace himself.

Maybe you need to know this too.

Eirene

Pronounced, i-ray’-nay, eirene is the Greek word used for peace in Galatians 5:22 when listing the Fruits of the Holy Spirit.

We’re week three in studying the Fruits of the Holy Spirit. If you need a refresher as to what those are, see Fruits of the Spirit.

Important note: this word, eirene, is not to be mistaken for the “little g” goddess of Greek mythology, Eirene. God the Father does not contend with little g gods. He is the Beginning and the End, the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords. Nothing and no one come close to His mighty power and authority.

The Greek word Paul uses here means “peace between individuals; harmony; security, safety, prosperity (because peace and harmony make and keep things safe and prosperous); the tranquil state of a soul assured of its salvation through Christ, and so fearing nothing.”

Eirene is translated 92 times in scripture with words “peace, one, rest, and quietness.”

It is formed from the verb word, eiro, which means “to join or bind together that which has been separated.”

The Fruit of the Spirit of Peace is ultimately, then, the binding or joining together again that which has been separated to perfect harmony with security, safety, and prosperity.

In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word for peace is Shalom. Shalom means “to be safe in mind, body, or estate.” It speaks of “completeness, fullness, wholeness, well-being, and good health.”

Peace is a way of living life with God and with others through everything, in harmony.

Peace is not the absence of trouble, but harmony despite the presence of trouble. When we are bound together as one in Christ, His Peace is what bridges the gap of separation between us and our Heavenly Father.

I read once this description, “It is as if God were on one side, we were on the other side, then Christ filled the gap, taking the hand of God and the hand of man and placing them together into the same grip. We have now been brought together through the blood of the cross of Jesus Christ.”

We were once separated from our Father and had not been reconciled to Him; but Jesus, the Prince of Peace, was our eiro, binding and joining us together again by the sacrifice of His blood on the cross.

Peace & Hope

“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.” Rom. 5:1-11

“Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord. On the contrary: ‘If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.’ (referenced Prov. 25:21-22) Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Rom. 12:16-21

“Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” Phil. 3:12-14

“Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble. Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing. For, ‘whoever would love life and see good days must keep their tongue from evil and their lips from deceitful speech. They must turn from evil and do good; they must seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.’ Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. ‘Do not fear their threats; do not be frightened.’ But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. For it is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death I the body but made alive in the Spirit.” 1 Peter 3:8-18

The Nature of Peace

God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though
the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart
of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their
surging.

There is a river whose streams
make glad the city of God,
the holy place where the Most High
dwells.
God is within her, she will not fall;
God will help her at break of day.
Nations are in uproar, kingdoms
fall;
he lifts his voice, the earth melts.

The LORD Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.

Come and see what the LORD has
done,
the desolations he has brought on
the earth.
He makes wars cease
to the ends of the earth.
He breaks the bow and shatters the
spear;
he burns the shields with fire.
He says, ‘Be still, and know that I
am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.’

The LORD Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.

Psalms 46

This song speaks to the hope and trust we should have in God; encouraging us with a reminder of His power and security, even in the worst of times.

In verse 10, the music director quotes God by writing, “Be still, and know that I am God…”

To be still is often interpreted as to be quiet or silent in God’s presence. But the word still is derived from the Hebrew word, rapa (raw-faw’), a verb, meaning to “sink, relax, sink down, let drop, be disheartened; to withdraw; to let go.”

This form of the word is used 46 times in the King James Version with words like “feeble, fail, weaken, alone, idle, stay, slack, forsake, cease.”

Perhaps, therefore, we can understand peace less about being quiet in words but in actions. Perhaps we should understand it as us needing to stop or cease or slacken our frantic activity during hard times in an effort to stay afloat, and to let down and sink into the strength of our Lord, knowing He is all powerful and our refuge; and to be still or work idly.

Idle, as a verb, means “to spend time doing nothing; run slowly while disconnected from a load.”

Do you see the symbolism here!?

Why would the original Hebrew text of Psalms 46 use a word like idle when reminding believers to “be still, and know that [He] is God…”?

Before I answer that, let’s look at the meaning of the phrase, “know that I am God.”

Know, in this instance, means to properly ascertain; acknowledge; in order to know. Ultimately, “to know God” means to “surrender in order that I might properly ascertain…” who God is!

By seeing God for who He is and acknowledging His power in the midst of hard times; being idle, running our race of faith slowly while disconnected from the load (or burdens) of life and surrendering them to the Lord, we submit to His Fruit of Peace because He is: omniscient (all-knowing), omnipresent (present everywhere, all the time, 24/7), omnipotent (all-powerful), Holy, Sovereign, Faithful, Just, Infinite and Good.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfector of faith.” Heb. 12:1-2

A Peace that Surpasses All Understanding

Peace, as referenced in scripture, suggests an objective peace (dependent on our relationship with Christ, like I mentioned above) and subjective peace which is reflective of your experiences in life.

Jesus is speaking to his disciples when He says, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” John 14:27

In this passage, Jesus speaks to a subjective peace. It’s a peace that surpasses our understanding and our circumstances; it is the conviction that allows our “feet to be fitted with the readiness” as Paul refers to our Armor of God in Ephesians 6:15.

I once read a description of God’s peace this way:

“It is peace that is aggressive; rather than being victimized by events, it attacks them and gobbles them up. It is a supernatural, permanent, positive, no-side-effects, divine tranquilizer.”

As one who battles walking in God’s Peace and who works frantically trying to make do with the circumstances in my life, being ensnared by many things of my past, I can relate to this description of God’s Peace.

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Phil. 4:6-7

The word guard used in most translations is the word keep in the King James Version, which is derived from the Greek word, phroureo (froo-reh’-o).

Phroureo is often used in a military sense meaning “to guard, protect by a military guard, either to prevent hostile invasion, or to keep the inhabitants of a besieged city from flight.” It means to be a watcher in advance; to keep protected.

The Body of Christ, or the believers, are inhabitants of a besieged world. When the Peace of God, the very nature of Christ, is our guard, nothing hostile can invade us. Nothing of the enemy or his minions and nothing due to the Fall can come against us.

Isn’t that a beautiful image for us as believers!? Ugh, it gets me.

The peace God gives, guards our heart and mind, and allows us to focus on that which is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and admirable.

Greatest Desire

This subjective Peace of God, a fruit of the Holy Spirit, rooted in the sacrificial objective peace of Christ Jesus is what we as believers should be walking in.

Believers yearn for “A peace that deals with the past, one where no strings of conscience dipped in the poison of past sins, tear at them or torture them hour by hour. They want a peace that governs the present, with no unsatisfied desire gnawing at their hearts. They want a peace that holds promise for the future, where no foreboding fear of the unknown and dark tomorrow threatens them. And that is exactly the peace through which the guilt of the past is forgiven; by which the trials of the present are overcome; and in which our destiny in the future is secured eternally.”

“May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.” 1 Thess. 5:23-24

“Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.” Heb. 13:20-21

Take Back the Gift of Peace

I recently discovered through a two-day intensive marriage therapy session that many sins, committed to me and self-inflicted, created strongholds in my life that robbed me of the Peace of God which was planted in me as a seed when I came to know Christ as my Savior. There are patterns to this day that trigger feelings of unrest, lack of safety, discontentment, and anxiety.

The enemy is sneaky like that. I don’t want to get into spiritual warfare too heavily in this post, but it’s exactly what the enemy does- he tries to convince believers that what we receive in Christ is conditional; he tries to convince us that the freedom we receive in Christ isn’t authentic, that it isn’t for us- after all we have all this baggage weighing heavy on our shoulders, how could Christ take all that away? It’s a lie. It’s always been a lie. It will always be a lie.

In an effort to take back the ground that was prepared for me by Christ for the Fruit of the Spirit of Peace to grow, I had to renounce the things, people, and sins of my past that the enemy hung over me and forgive them and myself so I could accept the grace and mercy extended to me by Christ to join His Spirit in sanctification, particularly the process of walking in His peace. It’s not “instafication”; it’s a process. But it’s a process I am proclaiming over my life in Christ now so that I may walk with the Peace that scripture says I can have.

You can have it too.

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33

Peace is Yours

I love the parallelism that the New Testament stories use to point to the coming of Christ in the New Testament; to Jesus our Savior.

Leviticus 26:3-13 says, “’If you follow my decrees and are careful to obey my commands, I will send you rain in its season, and the ground will yield its crops and the trees their fruit. Your threshing will continue until grape harvest and the grape harvest will continue until planting, and you will eat all the food you want and live in safety in your land. I will grant peace in the land, and you will lie down and no one will make you afraid. I will remove wild beasts from the land, and the sword will not pass through your country. You will pursue your enemies, and they will fall by the sword before you. Five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand, and your enemies will fall by the sword before you. I will look on you with favor and make you fruitful and increase your numbers, and I will keep my covenant with you. You will still be eating last year’s harvest when you will have to move it out to make room for the new. I will put my dwelling place among you, and I will not abhor you. I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people. I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt so that you would no longer be slaves to the Egyptians; I broke the bars of your yoke and enabled you to walk with heads held high. But if you will not listen to me and carry out these commands…”

Do you notice? God says, “IF YOU…” than “I WILL…”

God will do what He says, if we do what we are supposed to do. Don’t mistake my words though as a challenge that if we follow some conditions, we will get what we want or the same exact blessings as others. That’s not at all what I am saying. God’s love is unconditional, we read that in The Greatest of These.

What I am saying, however, is if we follow His ways and walk in His will, He will indeed do what He promises according to His will and plan for our lives. When we walk and sow in the Spirit, we understand more of God’s will for our life; we can more easily walk in His ways and not be swayed by our circumstances; we are fitted with the feet of peace.

It doesn’t mean we will be exempt from hardship. It doesn’t mean we won’t battle the flesh. It doesn’t mean we won’t fail and must ask for forgiveness five hundred times; it means we submit to His authority and commandments.

It means we fit ourselves with The Armor of God. It means we will have steadfast minds because we trust in the Lord forever (Isa. 26:3-4). It means we will have a renewed strength because we hope in the Lord; we will soar on wings like eagles (Isa. 40:31).

It means we will never stop praying and asking God to continually fill us with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that His Spirit gives. It means that we will strive to live a life worthy of the Lord, pleasing Him in every way, because He rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son whom he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. (Col. 1:9-20)

When we do this, then we will see His mighty works in our lives.

When we let the Prince of Peace rule our life, then we will see how the fertilization of the Fruit of the Spirit of Peace has a led us to a place to hear our Father say, “Well done, good and faithful servant!” (Matt. 25:23)

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Rom. 15:13

Peace. Be Still.