The Impact of Peace in Action part 1

Have you ever had a ‘BIG IDEA’ come into your mind or heart that you haven't shared with anyone yet? Maybe it was so big and so scary that you're afraid everyone would just say 'You're crazy.' 'That's impossible.' 'Are you sure that's what God told you to do?'

Maybe it was a huge change of career that would put a financial strain on your family, and were afraid to tell your spouse. Maybe God was going to have you give up your construction business to go into ministry full time and move away from your family to DuBois, PA to hang out with a wonderful group of people (hint, hint, that's you L&L fam.. true story). A big idea but you weren't ready to tell everybody yet.

We have to choose what we do with those big ideas. Big ideas have no impact until we take them public. In the same way that the Word of God will have little, if any, impact on our lives unless it's activated in our hearts, big convictions have little impact until we confess them to someone else.

“Therefore CONFESS (tell someone) your sins TO EACH OTHER and pray for each other SO THAT you may be HEALED.”
James 5 : 16

Some of us share our convictions just to sound spiritual to others and feel spiritual ourselves, but we do nothing to activate that conviction to get victory in that area. We are all talk and no action. However, once you go public with that conviction or with that big dream, you have to own it and put it into ACTION.

Over the next two weeks are going to learn to go public with the peace that you have with God, with yourself, and with others—putting peace into ACTION. Being a person of peace...these are three characteristics of peace in public. Ask yourself as you learn about these characteristics if you truly walk these things out in your everyday life.

1. Love your enemies.

The Apostle Paul's description of love applied to our enemies in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8
Message Version…

Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.
Love doesn’t strut,

Doesn’t have a swelled head,
Doesn’t force itself on others,
Isn’t always “me first”,
Doesn’t fly off the handle,
Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn’t revel when others grovel,

Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.

We have a lot of social issues that our enemy is leveraging as ammo to cause division. For example: politics, religion, race relations, gender, human sexuality. They and more are our common enemy makers. What would happen to those topics if they came from a spirit of love instead of hate?

How do we become filled with God's love?
Stop listening to and viewing hate. Stop being drawn into anything that peddles hate or division towards individuals, groups, organizations, institutions, and even other points of view or opinions. You can tell that your love is growing cold if you have suspicion and cynicism towards others. Cynicism is when you struggle with doubt. Doubt lead to deception, then to unbelief, and eventually turns to atheism. There are a lot of people who are coming to Jesus because life is hard. However, there are a lot of Christians who are falling away from their faith because life is hard.

Another way we can tell that we are growing cold in love is by being indifferent. Lukewarm, having no interest, sympathy, or concern. Ignoring and abandoning the world is not an option for followers of Jesus. If God is still active in the world and we are the co-laborers with Him then we join God in being active in the world.

‘In the Last Days there will be a GREAT FALLING AWAY OF THOSE WHO HAVE PROFESSED TO BE CHRISTIANS’ (1 Thess. 2:3)

If you are not seeking God, your love might have grown cold.
Go back to your first love and SEEK GOD. Get to know His heart and let Him flow through you. God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. We need the love of Christ to love our enemies.

Luke 6 : 27 – 28, 35 – 36

27  “LOVE your ENEMIES, DO GOOD to those who HATE YOU,
28  BLESS those who CURSE YOU, PRAY for those who mistreat you.

35  Love your enemies, do good to them, and LEND TO THEM without expecting to get anything back. THEN your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High
36  BE MERCIFUL, just as your Father is merciful.

Loving our enemies does not mean that we ignore all of our feelings or that we deny our observations. When we are resisting evil or stopping injustice you may have to dish out some righteous anger just like Jesus did in the temple. But remember, his anger came from a heart that was marked by grace and love. He was working for the good of His Father and for the good of every person. He was acting. Not reacting in an out-of-control way.

“Each of us occasionally gets angry and loses our sense of inner peace. The spiritual growth we see does not erase our humanness; rather, it puts humanness in a NEW CONTEXT – Namely, one in which WE are ACCOMPANIED as humans by the person and work of the HOLY SPIRIT, who PRODUCES FRUIT IN US.”
(‘Deep Peace’ by Todd Hunter)

The anger, frustration, or conflict that we feel towards an individual or group should never cause us to sin. A person of peace can be direct and outspoken without being bitter. As Angel taught us, whatever spirit they come at you with, come at them with the opposite spirit. Listen, you cannot do this without the help of the Holy Spirit! So listen to Him. Get to know His heart!

2. Being an agent of unity.

“Make EVERY EFFORT to KEEP the UNITY of the Spirit THROUGH the bond of PEACE.”
Ephesians 4 : 3

Our perfect picture/model/display of peace is the Trinity. The way and manner in which God the Father, Jesus His Son, and the Holy Spirit love and honor each other is the answer for us in wiping out the constant strife we have with each other. It is crucial for us to study and learn from them in order for us to not allow such earthly and petty things to divide us.

Splitting up into camps is not for the believer. We have been deceived into thinking that this is to make each one of us feel special, valuable, and desired. But in reality, the only thing that it has done is divide us. We are all precious in His sight. God already decided that when He knit you together in your mother's womb! So let's start CELEBRATING each other and stop allowing society and the government to pit us against each other. Peace will grow among us when it grows within us.

3. Practice Civil Discourse

This one is about… putting peace into action when you feel like you are supporting or defending what you believe. It seems like when we feel like something is important we must yell the loudest and spit the most venom. How far have we gone from the Heart and the Word of God when now 'Christians' are the ones launching or joining in on mean-spirited assaults? The goal of peace among people is that any feeling that we express should be for the ultimate good of others. Our feelings and expressions are leveraged to cherish and serve our neighbor and our enemy.

Luke 6 : 37 – 38

“Don’t pick on people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults — unless, of course, you want the same treatment. Don’t condemn those who are down; that hardness can boomerang. Be easy on people; you’ll find life a lot easier. Give away your life; you’ll find life given back, but not merely given back — given back with bonus and blessing. Giving, not getting, is the way. Generosity begets generosity.”

This is the difference between a peacekeeper and a peacemaker:

A peacekeeper is a person or group that maintains or restores peace often by smoothing over or avoiding conflicts. Peacekeepers may create boundaries to push others away and minimize conflict, canceling others out of their lives to make peace. They often function from weakness and are content with allowing them to seem falsely peaceful on the surface.

A peacemaker is a person or group that tries to make peace, often by working together to find solutions to suit all parties involved. They may enter into conflicts with confidence and engage and dive deep to uncover the source of the problem instead of ignoring it. They may also function from strength and will articulate what they need to cultivate respectful interactions.

Peacemakers shall inherit the earth. If you want to have a big impact on the earth - spread peace. The Bible says that we are to be peacemakers. We are not to be peacekeepers.

Pray with us today:

Father, today our prayer is for you to make us peace-makers. To be agents of love. To be agents of unity. To be people who dont just react to our emotions but we respond according to the word of God. Will you help us to know when to speak and when to shut up. When to engage and when to hold it. Give us the gift of discernment. We want to bring unity to the kingdom, not division. We no longer want to entertain gossip and slander. We want to entertain your thoughts, your love, your peace. Lord help us today, and thank you for this incredible word. Amen.