The God Of Peace

 

The God of Peace

1 Thessalonians 5:23 "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."

When a people claim to worship God but do not know the God they claim to worship, they do themselves wrong and will not enjoy the good that is meant for them. On the other hand, when a people claim that there is no God when even nature itself is pointing to the fact the whole world is created by someone who deserves worship, there is an error in this. Even much more error is there if everything is pointing to the fact that there is God who is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent but a man or a people choose to serve something else or create another God of their imagination. These errors need to be corrected.

Whatever may be the case, there is a God who deserves our worship but the worship is worthless if we do not know Him and the same worship should be done in His terms.

Who is this God? To know God, we have to learn from Him who He said He was and who He is. Because His ways and His thoughts are higher than our ways and thoughts, we get to know Him by who He said He was. Men and women in the past had encounters with Him (God) and the revelation they encountered about Him changed their perspective of who God was. From Adam to the Apostles in the Bible, is a record of the God we are talking about. Take Moses for example, the man who lived almost without God at a point in time but after his encounter with God, his life (Moses) never remained the same again. Once Moses got it right, God used Moses to help the people of Israel to get it right. Moses wanted to know how to introduce God to the people of Israel and God gave Him the approach.

Exodus 3:13-14

"And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them?

And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you."

So Moses had something to tell the people about God because he was told what to say. Moses was ready to tell them that 'I AM' sent Him. Is 'I Am' a name if you may ask? When a man or woman meets God, whatever God says, it has power by itself to reveal the person of God. For God to introduce Himself to Moses as 'I AM', Moses was empowered by that name to speak on behalf of God.

"...And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you."

'I AM' is in the present tense and could have deeper meaning at any point in time and could give a little different understanding at another point in time. 'I AM' at one point in time could be 'I AM the healeR' while another point in time could be 'I AM THE DELIVERER'. Man can understand God a bit at a time and when the time comes for man to understand God at that bit, the understanding of that bit becomes deeper and much more meaningful and useful for the man. We can see and understand God a bit at a time as He reveals Himself to us.

When God reveals a bit of Himself to us, we are enriched if we worship and serve Him with the understanding we have of Him at that bit. Let us take a bit of Him and appreciate who He is to us today.

God of Peace

"And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." Thessalonians 5:23 

Apostle Paul who had great revelation of God saw God at a time as the "...God of Peace...". With this understanding, he communicated to the Thessalonian church at a time that God was and is the "... God of Peace...". The 'I AM" was then seen as "... The God of Peace...". If they saw Him as the God of Peace, what do you think the outcome will be? The God of Peace will give them peace. The outcome will be 'PEACE'. When a man sees God as the God of Peace, the man will have peace when he approach this God in prayer. The chaos in the man will be over. The confusion in the man will come to an end. The same goes to a people. When they (the people in question) see God as the God of Peace, the rumblings and wars among them will be over because, the God of Peace will give them peace if they will meet the terms God will give them.

"And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." 

The God of Peace sanctifies (cleanses) a man or a people from anything that causes lack of peace. When the work is fully done, the man in question, will have peace completely. This complete peace will satiate the man in his total being i.e. soul, spirit and body. In the inner unseen part of the man will have peace and the outer seen body of the man will have peace. The man will be an embodiment of Peace.

2 Thessalonians 3:16 "Now the Lord of peace himself give you peace always by all means. The Lord be with you all."

If you will today you will take God as the God of Peace, He will give you peace in your total man by all means. If you will retain this knowledge of God, this peace in question will be with you by all means. 

Peace By All Means

"...the Lord of peace himself give you peace always by all means..."

The "...Lord of peace ..." suggests that He has surplus of Peace to give. There is super abundance of peace from God to go round everyone who will accept Him as the God of Peace. He Himself will give the peace. If the peace will come from Him, the peace will be genuine and not contaminated peace. The peace will not be diluted with selfishness. He Himself will give the peace. It will come down from heaven from God and will not be mixed with selfishness of man. It will not have hidden agenda. How long the peace will last and by which way it will come?

"...peace always by all means..."

The peace will always be there so long you retain the knowledge of Him as the God of Peace. 'Always' means all the time. You shall have peace all the time. This will place a demand on you to retain God in your knowledge. The way the peace will come is by all means. '...BY ALL MEANS...' suggests that God will release all His arsenal to cause the peace to come to pass.

Jesus As Prince of Peace

Isaiah 9:6 "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace."

God gave the world peace in Christ Jesus. God introduced His dimension of peace in Jesus. The coming of Jesus is the introduction of a highest dimension of peace. Jesus is the prince of Peace. Let Jesus take the center stage and you will see peace beyond description. This is what Jesus have to say:

St. John 14:26,27 "But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

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."

As prince of Peace, Jesus not only had peace, but had (and is having) super abundance of peace to overflowing. This peace will overflow to us if we will retain the knowledge of God. 

"...my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you..."

That is why this peace is crucial. It is pure peace sandwich in the love of God. The world system will give polluted peace based on selfishness and greed. The peace from Jesus is pure uncontaminated peace. You will not regret having this kind of peace. Because His peace is not selfish, you will have it and it will overflow to others. Your cup will be full to overflowing.

Today, see God the 'I AM' in your life as the God of Peace through Jesus Christ and you will have peace and this peace will last so long as you retain the knowledge of the 'God of Peace' in your understanding.  The Holy Spirit will help you to do just that.

Pray:

The 'I AM' God, today I approach You knowing You as the God of Peace. Be my peace. I drop any other knowledge that is contending or might be contending with the peace that will come to me from You. I receive peace from You and I drop the struggle. This I do in Jesus name. Amen!