(John 14:27 AMP) Peace I leave with you; My [own] peace I now give and bequeath to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. [Stop allowing yourselves to be agitated and disturbed; and do not permit yourselves to be fearful and intimidated and cowardly and unsettled.]
Yesterday I introduced you to this passage, where Jesus is preparing His disciples for His impending departure (i.e. death, burial, and resurrection). The disciples were obviously disquieted by the mere thought of life without Jesus and their frustrations were expressed through the always outspoken Peter. To calm their cares Jesus did not perform any miracle, He did not lay hands on the disciples, He did not setup a prayer line, nor did He teach/preach a long lesson/sermon. All Jesus said was: "Don't let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in Me" (John 14:1). That's it!
With that statement Jesus was acknowledging the fact that the disciples were stressed, troubled, and perplexed, but He was also acknowledging the fact that they did not need to be. Faith is a choice, just like fear is a choice. Trust is a choice, just like worry is a choice. The disciples had allowed their hearts to be troubled. In other words, just like they had the power to allow trouble to enter into their hearts, they also had the power to resist it, to cast it down, to force it out, and to step back over into faith, peace, and trust.
Understanding this is paramount because countless believers give satan too much credit for what goes on in their lives. The disciples' stress was not caused by satan, but rather by their emotions and while it is understandable, the Word of God teaches us how we can rule over our emotions.
Emotional Christians are tossed to and fro by every change of life. Guess what? Life is full of change. You cannot grow without changing and you cannot change without choosing to let go of the 'kung-fu grip' you have on your past.
Jesus was attempting to graduate the disciples to the Holy Spirit stage. In the rest of this chapter He teaches them about the Holy Spirit. In verses 16-20 Jesus said, "I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever-the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you."
Okay, Jesus was going to have to leave, but what He was offering was actually better. While He was alive in the earth He was external to them, but He was offering THE SAME type of fellowship, relationship, and guidance, but rather internally instead of externally. This conversation goes on for a while. Two chapters later Jesus said, "Because I have said these things, you are filled with grief. But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you" (John 16:6,7). Once again, they did not need to be filled with grief, that was their choice.
So what does this mean to you ? A few things:
1. God has given you the power to rule over your emotions, but YOU must do so.
2. If you allow your emotions to rule you, you will live an unstable and possibly unfruitful life.
3. You cannot grow without changing and you will not receive tomorrow holding on to yesterday.
4. Once you accept the change you can overcome the stress and get excited about your future!
Father, I thank You for this teaching. I now realize how I have allowed myself to be frustrated over things that I should have been excited about. Life is full of change, and I cannot grow without changing, so I accept the progressive process of my development in You. I won't allow change the cause negative stress, but what I will do is get excited about what You want to do in my life and as I change, as I grow, as I develop, and as I mature in You, I will become more and more like Jesus in the earth. So that I can boldly declare that as He is, so am I in this world! In
Jesus Name Amen!!
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