How to have peace . . .

Today Chambers says, “There are times when our peace is based upon ignorance . . . .” because we are oblivious to the stuff that we are doing against the will of God.

This reminds of those who ask me if or when I’m going to go after a doctorate degree. My most recent response was, “I am not ready to learn more —I haven’t caught up to what I know now.”

Ignorance can be bliss. A pastor friend used to say, “What I don’t know won’t convict me.” This was tongue in cheek, but it is true. If God had shown me all the sin in my life when I was first saved, I may have committed suicide!

Being convicted of sin is painful for those of us who love Jesus and want to reflect His goodness and purity. We are not proud of our sinful old nature. However, there is a cure for the pain of guilt. Besides confessing, repenting, and cleansing God speaks of in 1 John 1:9, Jesus offers an inner peace that is beyond understanding and does not rely on ignorance.

In fact, this peace is for those who have awakened to the facts of life. Our ignorance has been chased away by the Word of God and the Holy Spirit. God has used the experiences of to increase our awareness of reality as well. Regarding His peace, two passages come to mind:

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” (John 14:27)

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6–7)

The interesting thing about this wonderful peace is that it no one can snap their fingers and create this wonderful peace. It is an amazing sense of God being in control — and because that is true, then we do not have to be anxious or fearful about anything. This peace comes from Jesus Christ and is put into my heart and mind — yet at the same time, it requires my cooperation.

Jesus says, “Let not your hearts be troubled . . .  or afraid.” Some people actually enjoy being in a dither. It is their lifestyle. I’ve experienced this in a small measure and if my memory is right, I was in that state as an attention-getting device. Others may do it for different reasons, but regardless of the motivation, Jesus says I need to be willing to let go of worries and fears, rather than allowing them to fuel me up with distress.

The other requirement is prayer. Worry does not go away by itself. I must pass on to God the things that upset me, trusting Him to take care of them and expressing that trust in thanksgiving. Then He pours His amazing peace into me, amazing because it does not make sense to have peace when life is full of so many anxiety-creating circumstances. But it does make sense because Jesus also said:

“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)

The peace of the world depends on being in an ideal situation. The peace of Jesus Christ depends on abiding in Him, full of faith and being filled with His Spirit — who graciously gives His children His almost unexplainable peace.

Spiritual fruit and serving God

My mother often told me, “You are never happier than when you do things for others.”

For a time, I wondered if that was a selfish reason. We had a neighbor who said, “I love doing things for others because it makes me feel good.” I realize now that is not what my mother meant.

Loving others is how Christians show their love for God. It is also tied to being filled with the Holy Spirit and bearing fruit. Like a tree does not bear fruit for itself to eat, so also do Christians not bear fruit for themselves. His “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Galatians 5:22–23) is for others.

While bearing fruit does feel good, biblical love is a sacrificial love; I don’t do it for myself just as Jesus sacrificed His own life for the sake of humanity. That means that bearing fruit has an element of sacrifice in it and is closely tied to loving other people. These verses show that connection:

“No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another.” (John 15:15–17)

Yet, as Jesus points out, bearing the fruit of the Holy Spirit is not about serving God as a servant (the Greek word is bond-servants or slaves), but as His friend. Fruit-bearing and loving others are about relationships of love, not servitude.

I remember getting up in the middle of the night to take care of one of my children who just threw up in his bed. That is not the action of a servant! I was motivated by my love for that child. As Jesus indicates, we love and serve others because we love and serve Him — as friends who love each other, not as ‘me master, you slave’ with emphasis on making a sacrifice to do the serving.

Actually, if I’m feeling like what I’m doing is a sacrifice, I’m very likely not filled with the Spirit and bearing spiritual fruit. From what I know about it, Spirit-filled fruitfulness is not a chore, not something I would ever resent or consider difficult, or measure by how much I had to give up to do it.

This is why Chambers can talk about “the joy of self-sacrifice” and why it happens to those who absolutely abandon themselves in devotion to the Lord. “The final aim of self-sacrifice is laying down our lives for our Friend. When the Holy Ghost comes in, the great desire is to lay down the life for Jesus; the thought of sacrifice never touches us because sacrifice is the love passion of the Holy Ghost.”

Jesus delighted to do the will of His Father. What He did for God the Father was never about slavery or servant-hood, but about their relationship. This is how it should be for me too, that I walk with Jesus as my friend, the One that I love and the One who knows and loves me more than any other.

Chambers rightly says that this friendship is based on the new life created in us and has no affinity with our old life. It is humble, pure and absolutely devoted to God — because it comes through the power of the Holy Spirit who lives in me.

If it is not there, then I am walking in the flesh and need to repent.

Our good God hears and answers prayer

The Bible has much instruction concerning prayer. The basics include these truths . . .  

One, God hears my prayers.

Two, He always answers in one of three ways: Yes, No, or Wait.

Three, if the answer is No, then it is either not His will for me, or I am blocking the answer with unconfessed sin in my life.

When I read a passage about prayer, it points to at least one of those basics. The following words from Jesus point to the fact that God will give me what is good according to His will.

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:7–11)

Today, Chambers says this passage illustrates prayer as a “good child asking for a good thing.” While it is true that these instructions are for His children, and that confessing our sin is important, this is not what the passage says. Several other passages fit his theme much better:

“If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.” (Psalm 66:18)

“Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.” (Isaiah 59:1–2)

“We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him.” (John 9:31)

“You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.” (James 4:3)

I can pray very selfish prayers, ignoring sinful behavior like spats with other people, pride in myself, defiance toward God’s commands, greed, and all sorts of unconfessed junk. When I pray without paying attention to those things, God has a priority: clear them up first. (See 1 John 1:9)

However, I can also pray with uncertainty. Does God care about what I need? Will He give me something good? If I ask that His will be done, will He bring total misery into my life?

If I am praying with those questions and fears, perhaps I need to confess a lack of faith, or a lack of believing the promises of God. Regardless of the need for humility, in these verses from Matthew, Jesus addresses those fears. He assures me that God knows how to give good things to His children. This means that God loves me and is looking out for me. If I ask for anything that is good for me, He will make sure that I get what is good for me.

Of course it can take years to learn what I should be asking for — especially when my old nature always wants something that I think is good. That is why the Bible tells me to trust Him when I pray. He knows what I need even before I ask, and even better, He promises to answer — with whatever is good for me.

Prayer is a challenge

One of my friends used to say, “I need to have a quiet time with God every day. If I miss one day, God knows it. If I miss two days, I know it. If I miss three days, everyone knows it.”

Chambers says, “Unless in the first waking moment of the day you learn to fling the door wide back and let God in, you will work on a wrong level all day; but swing the door wide open and pray to your Father in secret, and every public thing will be stamped with the presence of God.”

That quiet time consists of reading and studying the Word of God, and prayer — which includes petition, praise, thanksgiving, and listening.

For me, daily reading is easy. I credit my mother’s example for this habit of a daily time focused on the Lord. Kudos also to my sister who was saved through the witness of a missionary in a country that forbids missionaries. When she came home to discover we were now sisters in Christ, she told me how to have a quiet time. I’d been reading the Bible for years without understanding it, but Jesus came into my life just before she arrived, and my habit soon became as important to me as eating. Her method (read until something jumps out at you, and then write it down) has stayed with me for fifty-five years.

However, prayer has not developed so easily. I realize that my spiritual enemy will put up with me listening to God speak, but not doing what He says, and certainly not praying in His will. This is a mysterious teamwork that ‘moves mountains’ and changes lives — mostly mine. Jesus said this about prayer:

“But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” (Matthew 6:6)

Prayer is about being alone with God. The Bible also says, “Pray without ceasing,” which means having that attitude of communion with God at any time and in all situations, but I can’t pray without ceasing in a closet. However, I’ve learned that praying in that secret place is vital in learning how to pray wherever and whenever.

Yet as Chambers says, this is not as easy as it sounds. My wandering thoughts conflict with my best intentions. Sometimes those wanderings can turn into prayer requests, but most of the time my easily distracted mind wanders to my to-do list, or other responsibilities and distractions.

I also have trouble praying in a static location like a closet. Strange as it sounds, doing two things helps me focus on one thing. So I go for a walk or ride my stationary bike — with my prayer list in hand. The movement keeps me from looking at the sink full of dishes or my craft table with a half-finished project, and if I am outside, I’m not distracted by the phone (even if I don’t answer it) or by the dust on the dresser.

My prayers are not static either. If I pray for missions on Monday, church on Tuesday, and so on, I wind up using rote prayers — praying with my mouth but thinking about something else at the same time. To overcome that distraction, I’ve found a way to keep my prayer list revolving. I’m also learning to listen more so the Holy Spirit pops in pray thoughts that are not on my reminder list.

Besides the names and needs, I use pages with the words of familiar songs of praise. I’m not a great singer, but that is okay — singing aloud and praying aloud helps my focus. If I am outside, I just turn it down a bit.  

Determining to pray without ceasing is like going to war. It is a battle, more difficult some days than others, yet there is that promise that spurs me to continue: “My Father who sees in secret will reward me.” And He does.

By water and by fire . . .

Baptism, according to most Protestant creeds, is a declaration to the world that I have decided to follow Jesus. This is water baptism. Since the Greek word means ‘to immerse or plunge into’ and the biblical narratives describe it that way, many are convinced that water baptism is in a tank or a river, not by sprinkling.

Whatever a person believes about how a person should be baptized, there is another baptism that Christians cannot do. It is the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Since the word used for this baptism is the same word used for what we are supposed to do, the baptism of the Spirit is about being ‘immersed or plunged’ into Him. This illustrates a life that is completely engulfed in the person and power of God’s Spirit, a radical and wonderful experience.

“I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” (Matthew 3:11)

The speaker is John and he is talking about Jesus. John is also living that humble attitude that true repentance brings — and the attitude that happens when spiritual baptism takes place.

Some associate the baptism of the Holy Spirit with a lot of noise and rejoicing, with actions like falling down or speaking unknown languages. Here, John’s words associate it with a sense of being unworthy, a humility that does not draw attention to self. This is a humility that realizes that I have no worth in myself; only because of Jesus can I stand before God, a forgiven sinner.

Yes, John could baptize repentant sinners with water. Yes, I can obey God with certain actions — but only the Lord Jesus Christ can fill a person with the Spirit of God and with fire.

In the Bible, fire is a judgment metaphor that points to the destruction of all that is unclean. Fire speaks about purity and refinement. Because the Holy Spirit baptizes with fire, no one can claim to be filled with the Spirit of God and have blatant unconfessed sin in their life. The fire of God cannot be there without blasting through the human heart and exhuming all that is defiling it.

Chambers uses words like, “When He comes am I prepared for Him to drag into the light every wrong thing I have done? It is just there that He comes. Wherever I know I am unclean, He will put His feet; wherever I think I am clean, He will withdraw them.”

Jesus is not interested in any exalted thoughts I have of myself. His Spirit will show me my unworthiness and utter helplessness. Like John, I know I am not worthy to carry His shoes. It is only by His grace and the power of the Holy Spirit that anyone can serve Him. To get there, He must baptize me. Being immersed in a tank or a river indicates that I have yielded myself to Him, but it does not change my life. Only the power of God can do that.