· How do we experience the peace Christ gives?
o
First and foremost, we receive His peace only
through a relationship with Him. He calls
us to come to Him, we who are weary of work and burdened down by care, and He
would give us rest (Mt. 11:28). I
believe this is the essence of being filled with the Holy Spirit. If the Spirit controls us, then that means we
are focused firmly on Christ. Let me
give you just a few passages to think about on this matter (we could give many
more but this should suffice):
§
Eph. 5:18: Here is the command to be filled with
the Spirit.
§
Col. 3:16: Here is the “twin” passage in
Colossians, which brings about the same “results” as Eph. 5:18. Paul in Colossians says, Let the word of
Christ dwell in you richly, rather than calling them to be filled with the
Spirit.
§
John 16:15: The Spirit always glorifies
Christ. That is His role in the Godhead. This is born out by 1 John 4:1-3: the mark of
the Holy Spirit, as opposed to all other spirits, is that He confesses the
truth about Christ.
§
Now, there are numerous passages that tell us
that the Christian life (walking in the Spirit) is a life filled with
Christ. Gal. 2:20: The life that I
now live I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself
for me. John 15:4-5: Abide in Me,
and I in you. … without Me you can do nothing. Col. 3:3: Christ, who is
our life. Rom. 13:14: Put on the
Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts. Heb. 12:1-2: Let us run with endurance the
race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus. Remember, Jesus is our “forerunner” (Heb.
6:20). The word means He is the first
one to run the course; we run with our eyes on Him.
§ The
Scriptures are clear in this. To
victoriously live the Christian life we must set our minds on the things of the
Spirit (Rom. 8:5-15). Our relationship
with Christ is quickened as we meet Him daily in the Scriptures.
o Second,
we again call our attention to the necessity of prayer. Except, this is not “second.” We are still talking about a relationship
with God. We walk in the Spirit by
setting our affections on Christ. In
prayer we come in Jesus' name to our Father.
We have noted Phil. 4:6-7 and its encouragement to prayer that results
in the peace that passes understanding.
1 Peter 5:7 does the same when Peter tells us to cast our cares on
Him.
§ Why
did the early Church endure such heavy persecution without resorting to a
contentious attitude toward their persecutors?
Fox’s Book of Martyrs gives us an important answer to that question that
should encourage us:
It has
been said that the lives of the early Christians consisted of persecution above
ground and prayer below ground. Their
lives are expressed by the Coliseum and the Catacombs.
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