Can you Imagine Peace?

Introduction

Good morning Sisters and Brothers. I am Robert C. Swanson, a servant of God and a Slave to Jesus Christ. I am called by God and because of Jesus Christ, I am the righteousness of God. I surrendered my will to His and I must do this daily to remember who HE is and who I am. I work to cultivate my relationship with God everyday, and yet on my own I still fail, but Christs Blood which I stay under, justifies my weaknesses. I thank God continually for his Grace and mercy. I learned to have a relationship with Him and learned Who I am, whose I am and what I have been given as a result of my faith in the Son. I’m going to identify myself as a spiritual identy coach, sent by God as a messenger to help us identify Who we are and whose we are and what we can have when we have a relationship with the Creator and learn Him as Abba Father.

Scripture have a lot to say about our thoughts because God knows the power of our minds. The more time we spend focusing our thoughts on God and His word the more our hearts will be kept in peace. That in it self, if you really think on it is powerful, especially in a world that is constantly looking for peace and unity. I”m here this morning brothers and sisters in Christ, to tell you God says the starting point for this peace is trusting in Him. We must come to Him trusting in who He is, and having faith in what He has already done for us. We say we know God is Good and Just, But do you believe it in your heart? God loves us so much. When we really learn and believe how much our father loves us, then we will see that we are accepted and loved by Him, That we have access to Him and His presence. Perfect peace is available to those who consistently trust in God, and fix their thoughts on Him. If this is so, Then why if we know these things do we find ourselves at times anxious, worried and depressed. Especially when we exprience a tragedy or loss?

Do you know our thoughts actually is what makes us more anxious, happy, fearful, or content. What we spend time thinking about has the power to affect our mind, emotions, our actions and ultimately our character. Our thoughts are the most powerful things about us.

I have expierenced Joy in my life and I have experienced pain. I’ve had hurts and loses like many of you here this morning. We are gathered here today by the grace of God and His desire for us to be in relationship with Him and each other. The enemy dont want that. He want to steal the peace God has promised us. This foe attacks our mind and try to prevent us from becoming Who God calls us to be and have His peace.

The power of Thinking

Isaiah 26:3 says, “You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You.”

God has been preparing this messag for months while the enemy was messing with my mind. I allowed the enemy get in my head and take my focus off God and I struggled to see the peace available from our Father. I know I went through this to make me stroger now, but at the time I was hurting, fighting to keep it from my wife and everyone around me. I felt like a failure and God had not called me. I continued to seek God though and listened to Pastor tell us to stay in the face of God. It seemed as if I kept facing trails and tribulations, wondering what was I doing wrong. I know I struggle still and fall back into my flesh so I stayed humble. I kept learning and reading scripture and the enemy messed with my mind to make me feel at times i had arrived. sometimes satan use pride to make me feel or think i”m more than I am at times, and at times he made me think I am a fraud. Not worthy to teach the Gospel. I read Romans 12:3 “For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.” I am no better loved by God than any other of His creation. I tried to stay humble and listen to God and every time I felt I was getting stronger the enemy beat me down but I Stayed in Gods presence. The enemy told me to give up and I wanted to several times. I wanted to throw in the towel and give up I didnt tell anyone. And as I was praying, God lead me to His word Psalm 34:19 “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the Lord delivers him out of them all.” I am righteous and through Jesus. Jesus suffered for us so we could be righteous. Then God gave Pastor Mims the message for us on why we have storms. I was in the midst of what seemed like longest storm of my life, at a time when I was trying to do right and surrender my will to the will of God. I had to learn, Storms comes to make us depend on God, to totally surrender to Him and when we do we learn Gods character and how Good He is, it is as it say in Romans 2:4 it is Gods goodness that leads us to repentance.

So there are things we can do as believers to get in closer to relationship with God. It is not Gods will for us to be sick, anxious, depressed, or worried. It is the enemy that want to get in our mind and make us doubt God. Doubt is the counter actor of Faith. Our relationship with our Heavenly Father is our way to perfect peace. God gave us a helper to help us have that peace but we must grow our spirit to allow us to move to spiritual maturity and truly become the ministers of reconciliation.

God Gave us the Holy Spirit

In the OLD testament, the holy spirit would come upon a select people for a specific purpose before returning to the Father. Since the day of Pentecost the Spirit of God has been sent to indewll all who receives Jesus. As we develop our relationship with God and renew our mind to the mind of Christ which is in every believer, we will can gain more confidence in our Father. We have the same power in us that raised Jesus from the dead. We were crucified with Christ but doubt is and is our hinderance. We can’t have the peace of God at all times until we and believer, we truly have a father that never leaves or forsakes us, even when we leave Him, God is waiting for us to come back to Him. We will have peace when we keep our mind stayed on Him.

How you may ask is it, that we keep our mind on God in this world with so many distractions. Some of you may feel you’re no different from when your confessed faith in Jesus and you try and try and still dont have that peace. We still have these things attacking our minds. That is where the enemy deceives us. He make us focus on what is physically in front of us and Rob us of peace.

Prayer is one way we keep our mind on God.

Thankfulness is a filter to see the world through. When we are a grateful person, we look at things differently. We can say a simple prayer, Jesus, Thank you! 1 Thessalonians 5:18 says, “in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” It is easy to be thankful in good times but God says be thankful in all things. I know from experience it is hard sisters and brothers, to be thankful and joyful in pain. But the prophets in the Old Testimony, the ones that were closest to God Cried out ABBA Father. In Jonah 2 it says, “Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the fish’s belly. And he said: “I cried out to the Lord because of my affliction, And He answered me. “Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, And You heard my voice. The God we serve is always listening to His Children for our Cry. But our problem is we go to the things of the world before crying out to Abba Father. That is why God tells us inhospitable delight is in the law the Lord and in His law He meditates day and NIGHT. Nevertheless, believers are the children of God, and God is our defense. The enemy uses lies and deception to cause us to be double-minded and led by the flesh. The enemy will use the economy to cause fear, and the politicians will pit us against each other and cause us to hate one another. Yet Jesus tells us Love is the way the world will Know we are His Children, By How we love one another. Everything the world tell and show us is a lie, and temporary, and we must keep our minds off the world and on God's word. Isaiah 40:8 "The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever." The enemy needs a means and a mode to do anything on earth. He uses non-believers because they are his children. They aren’t the enemy they are either natural or Carnal. Natural man is spiritual dead and carnal man is a believer that never renewed their mind, developed their relationship with God and stay living according to the Flesh. Romans 8:5–8 “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” Colossians 3:1–3 says, “If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” We must be intentional about our relationship with God and learn how to hear the leading of the spirit guide and keep our mind on God and in the Spirit so we can have the mind of God that’s in us and experience the Peace of God.

The need for spiritual Parents

We all need spiritual leaders to love on us and nurture us encouraging us to grow in our relationship with God. Spiritual parents help us learn to study the word of God and get a routine of daily time with God. We need as much time in the presence of God as we can. The enemy will always make us think we are too busy so we need to learn to Give God the first moments of our day to God. Spiritual parents helps us be accountable and we help our spiritual parents as well because we never get to a place where we dont need to be studying Gods word. We need to attend Sunday School and bible study as well as Worship on Sunday. We need small study groups that we can be relational in and show love and support to each other. It is hard to be relational and show love when we dont spend time learning others and to trust them. We have to put The word of God in our heart and so it is apart of and and we will have peace that surpasses all understanding., we need to pray the prayer Paul Prayed for the in Colossians 1:9–12 for the new converts and babes in Christ, “For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and long suffering with joy; giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.” This should be a prayer we pray daily for all believers.

God Has called us to Three things and they will lead us to relationship that give us peace.

We have three calls from God as children of God, Salvation, Sanctification and Service.

Salvation is our Call to relationship as I stated earlier. We must get an intimate relationship with God and we can have good relationship with God and Man as we get closer to God, We will be better in all our relationships. The love of God and how he constantly forgives us will give us compassion for others but it is a slow process and we must stay committed. Love is a commitment we must make to do and not a feeling. Jesus love for is didnt feel good to Him, It killed HIm so we could be free. The least we can do is get to know Him that is all we bring to the table and We come as we are.

Then we are called To Sanctification. The Holy Spirit is the gift God Gives is and it brings gifts.

Galatians 5:22–26 says, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.” We need to stay in Gods word to grow the gifts of the spirit so we can Have the Peace that God promise. Right here in the word it say that peace is a fruit the Holy Spirit brought to us when God Indwelled us. Then God calls us to service. God Saved us to have a relationship with us so we can be sanctified, which is a life long process and never stops. So we can partner with God live Holy lives and God don’t expect immediate change and maturity. God knows it is a slow process and he want us to come to Him as we are. We dont need to wait to we change anything. God is the creator of new beginnings and things. We learn to renew our minds and get5 the peace of God when we do as 2 Corinthians 10:5 says, "cast down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ," everything the world shows us is from the enemy, and it is a lie because Satan is the father of lies. Many of us know of someone that COVID-19 took always from us. During that time, many people struggled mentally and many people are still suffering from the effect from that time. Our world don’t look as it did prior to that time. People still suffer from loneliness, heart break but peace is available. We all can have the peace God promises when if we learn to keep our mind on HIm. We will be able to keep a focus on God when we are intentionally thankful. The enemy dont want to spend our Day telling everybody we meet How Good God is, thanking Him and bringing God glory. Why? Because Gratitude releases dopamine, serotonin ands other feel-good neurotransmitters, I learned. I challenge you to practice thanksgiving and see if it doesn’t make you feel happier from within. Psalm 9:1–2 “I will praise You, O Lord, with my whole heart; I will tell of all Your marvelous works. I will be glad and rejoice in You; I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High.” When we spend time with God and feed the Spiritual Man God cleanses us from the inside out and we start changing into as spiritual mature believer and we can be at peace and be fruitful in the Kingdom and partners of God to be His hands and feet in the world.

Can I give personal testimony? As most of you know I recently graduated, but it was a journey where i experienced lots of obstacles. I was had problems with my son, My wife mother had cancer, and my wife tore her meniscus. It was a dark time in my life. I tried to remain strong. I prayed and prayed, every time i thought i had a breakthrough it seemed things were getting worse. I asked God, Why did you wait until I got over 50 with all these issues to send me to school. I complained and grappled and griped. Finally, God reminded me, I ask Him for a sign that if He was really calling me to ministry, send me to school and pay for me to go. God showed me we often place ourselves in situations and then never look back to God for help. We allow the enemy to use circumstances and situation to take our minds of God and lose focus. We have to be strong in our relationship with God and truly get to trust in His word. We have to make our head knowledge become our heart knowledge. And then we will have the peace of God because we trust in Him. I learned first hand we serve an on time God. He dont always come when we want Him, but He will be on time. This is something that If you know, then you know. If you really get to know God personally, you can shout right now because you can see and remember the time he was on time for you. My wife was fired in January, She had used all her sick leave and We put our house on Sale. I didn”t allow the enemy to use her firing to get to me. I was confident in God at that time. The enemy kept coming for me. Philemon 6 says, “that the sharing of your faith may become effective by the acknowledgment of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus.”. I wanted to share my faith with everyone I met. I did not care who I met i shared the message of our risen savior. I still was looking at my problem and not At the hills whence my help comes. I allowed the enemy to still my peace by lettting doubt creep into my mind.

I went to God to see if I had unconfessed sins and tried to see if it was me. Some times we must realize we go though trials because God want us to show others in our dominion how he works in our life and makes us strong. I didn’t feel no stronger. I was taking my mind of God and had no peace. I hope I and helping someone today. I know how it is to feel the weight of the world on our shoulders. Like we will never see the light. We start to feel like God is near. Let me tell you, it is not a feeling. You have to know what you Know and keep trusting God. We learn it is ok not to feel ok. Can I tell you a secret, The devil want us to stay focused on that mountain. He want us to focus on the problem in the physical and not Cry out to God. But. God said in 1 Thessalonians 5:16–18 “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”