Come Up Higher - God is Peace

So today we will journey through God’s love story the Bible and explore another aspect of God’s character, and that is peace. A peace that is the very essence of God Himself. For God is peace. God’s heart for humanity never changes. Therefore He continues to invite us to come up higher. So that we can know and experience His peace more and more each day.  As you listen be blessed, empowered and transformed in Jesus name.

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Transcript

00:00 Intro music and voice over.

Welcome to jesus loves the world podcast. For more information and free resources visit our website jesuslovestheworld.info Be blessed empowered and transformed in Jesus’ name! 

00:21 Speaker

Following on from last week, we discovered that God continues to invite us to come up higher. To know and experience His pure delight toward us. That is His joy of being enjoined with us.

A joy that is a calm delight of the God Himself. His joy is not something that can be manufactured. It is a joy we can know, experience, receive and carry deep within ourselves. This joy is a gift of God Himself. 

To live in the reality of this joy is a daily journey of surrender to Him. For the joy of God is a fruit of His Spirit, an aspect of His character.

So today we will journey through God’s love story the Bible and explore another aspect of God’s character, and that is peace. A peace that is the very essence of God Himself. For God is peace.

God’s heart for humanity never changes. Therefore He continues to invite us to come up higher. So that we can know and experience His peace more and more each day. 

His peace is in joining together, becoming as one. Dwelling as one in quietness and rest. Where the creator and His creation become one once again. Heaven and earth are in complete harmony and rest. In quietness and peace the divine and mortal become enjoined. Where peace, God’s peace, rules and reigns. 

Until that day when Jesus returns and we enter into the fullness of God’s peace, He invites us to come up higher. To know and experience His peace more and more living in this world damaged by evil. Being enjoined spiritually with the divine.  

Throughout the Old Testament, God explains that in choosing who or what we worship, is effectively being enjoined as one. In rejecting God, the creator of heaven and earth and all things good, is to align oneself with evil. Be enjoined with evil. 

Conversely, in receiving God and giving total allegiance to Him, is to be enjoined with Him in His everlasting covenant of peace.

The first mention of God’s covenant of peace is in Numbers chapter 25. The situation was this. There were those of the Ancient Israelites who had committed spiritual harlotry. They bowed down to the gods that were made of human hands. Those having chosen to enjoin themselves with evil came under the same judgement of that evil. As a result 24,000 people died. 

In amongst all this, God declared His everlasting covenant of peace to the descendants of the one who was zealous for Him. His name was Phinehas. 

Phinehas was from the tribe of Levi, 1 of the 12 tribes of Ancient Israel. The tribe of Levi were set apart for God and were a lineage of priests.

Numbers 25:10-13 Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying: “Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned back My wrath from the children of Israel, because he was zealous with My zeal among them, so that I did not consume the children of Israel in My zeal. Therefore say, Behold, I give to him My covenant of peace; and it shall be to him and his descendants after him a covenant of an everlasting priesthood, because he was zealous for his God, and made atonement for the children of Israel.’ ”

So God made an everlasting covenant of peace, intertwined with a promise of an everlasting priesthood.

A priest’s role in the Old Testament was to represent a rebellious people to God and minister in God’s presence on their behalf. The priest was in a covenant of peace with God. 

In the New Testament, Jesus became the eternal High Priest and the only way to God’s eternal covenant of peace. In becoming human, yet still fully divine, Jesus the Son of God, as the High priest for all people, gathers together every people and tribe, nation and tongue. Jesus brings together  those who are close and those who are afar off. 

God in Jesus reconciles to Himself all who are willing to receive Him and give total allegiance to Him. Spiritually bringing us close into God’s presence and holy space. Where we are set apart in a covenant of peace. Spiritually being enjoined with the creator of heaven and earth and all things good. Immersed in His presence in a covenant of peace. The peace of God Himself.  

Ephesians 2:14-18 For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.  

Bringing together as one all those who have said yes to God, yes to Jesus. Who have accepted His right to rule and reign and given total allegiance to Him. 

All those of Jewish lineage and those who are not of Jewish lineage are reconciled to God through Jesus. Each one equal and set apart, immersed in His holy presence,  enjoined with Him. Dwelling as one in quietness and rest with Him. 

For us today, we can experience this spiritually. When Jesus returns, this dwelling in quietness and rest will not only be spiritually, but also a total reality physically. Dwelling in His presence with a renewed heaven and earth. In perfect peace and harmony. Where selfish desires have no place. Evil is totally eliminated having been sent to the eternal lake of fire and torment. 

Centuries before Jesus waked the earth as a man, those of Jewish lineage who received God and His right to rule and reign were given a promise of God’s covenant of peace. This promise is realised through receiving the one shepherd who will lead them. 

He is the good shepherd, God Himself who will lead them. Lead them to a safe place to dwell deep in quietness and rest. Leading them deep into the holy place, into God’s presence. Deep into the heart of God the Father. 

Ezekiel 34:25-31 “I will make a covenant of peace with them, and cause wild beasts to cease from the land; and they will dwell safely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods. I will make them and the places all around My hill a blessing; and I will cause showers to come down in their season; there shall be showers of blessing. Then the trees of the field shall yield their fruit, and the earth shall yield her increase. They shall be safe in their land; and they shall know that I am the LORD, when I have broken the bands of their yoke and delivered them from the hand of those who enslaved them. And they shall no longer be a prey for the nations, nor shall beasts of the land devour them; but they shall dwell safely, and no one shall make them afraid. I will raise up for them a garden of renown, and they shall no longer be consumed with hunger in the land, nor bear the shame of the Gentiles anymore. Thus they shall know that I, the LORD their God, am with them, and they, the house of Israel, are My people,” says the Lord GOD.’ “You are My flock, the flock of My pasture; you are men, and I am your God,” says the Lord GOD.

Dwelling in safety, knowing and experiencing the living God. No longer carrying the shame of having chosen to reject God and His right to rule and reign. In rejecting God is effectively  choosing to align oneself with evil, and worshipping gods made with human hands. 

God’s covenant of peace is intertwined with His presence. Dwelling safely together in peace and harmony. Totally at ease and at rest knowing and experiencing Him. Having received God and His right to rule and reign are enjoined with the divine. Knowing that the creator is there with them and they with Him. He is their God and they are His people. 

God’s covenant of peace is fulfilled in Jesus. Jesus is the good shepherd, God the Son who will lead them. They simply have to receive Him as their shepherd and king. 

God Himself makes peace and brings complete harmony through Jesus. When Jesus became human, God Himself and His fullness thereof dwelt within. In Jesus’ sacrifice of His human life on the cross, He makes peace.  

Colossians 1:19-23 For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight— if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.

All the fullness of God dwelt in Jesus’ mortal, human body. So that all creation would be able to be reconciled to Himself. All those in heaven and on earth who have chosen to receive God and His right to rule and reign are reconciled. In giving total allegiance to Him and worship only Him, are presented holy and blameless. In the sight of God, are above reproach. 

For us today, God continues to say, come up higher and see yourself and others through my eyes. As we surrender our selfish desires and the inequality and injustices of this world, we receive more of His character. More of His peace. 

Where we can see ourselves and others through His eyes of equality and respect, love and honour. Dwelling in quietness and rest, safe and secure, in a covenant of peace with God and each other. 

The peace of God makes things safe and fruitful. In quietness and rest He binds up our feet with His gospel of peace. Having received Him, we are immersed in Jesus’ identity and the armour of the Almighty God. Which includes the gospel of peace.

Ephesians 6:11-17 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God;

This peace of God, having received Him, we carry into every situation. Where ever we walk, we are immersed in God’s armour. As we stand, which is to abide, dwell and remain we are enjoined with God in a covenant of peace. 

Living in a continual state of surrender to God, receiving from Him He makes us fruitful. As we receive more of Him and His character, we bear His fruit. One of which is His peace. 

Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. 

So as we enter into this new season, God is inviting us to come up higher. To know and experience Him and His peace more and more. A peace that is dwelling as one in quietness and rest. For it is His covenant of peace that binds us together. As we are immersed in Him and His armour, we carry His peace wherever we go. 

As we take a moment each day, living in a continual surrender to our Father in heaven, receiving from Him, He produces the fruit of His character within. All to the glory of God the Father. For God is and always will be, peace.

19:40 Outro music and voice over. 

For more information and free resources visit our website jesuslovestheworld.info Be blessed empowered and transformed in Jesus’ name!