“I’m really gonna give you a peace of my mind!”

Please note: This is another one of those days when the Holy Spirit
takes over in the middle of things and changes the direction of this
writing. Hey, it’s okay by me...

“I’m really gonna give you a peace of my mind!”

Notice I said “peace” and not “piece” in the bold headline above.
That’s what I want to talk about. You don’t have to fight for peace (that’s an
oxymoron). Peace was a supernatural gift that was given to us by our Savior
immediately prior to His return to Heaven. Inner peace is a powerful key to
receiving from God. Like salvation, all we have to do is receive it by faith
in order to reap its benefits. It’s not about us having to get our act
together before we can receive the flow of kingdom living. No way.
Jesse Duplantis puts it well: “A great price was paid to give you that
peace, so never take it lightly. Jesus poured out great drops of blood and
sweat at Gethsemane for your peace.”
But too often, many of us leave our gifts from Heaven under the
Christmas tree after the season is over. Why? Because we think they are too good to
be true. We either think that we don’t merit it, or we are convinced that we
have to “work” for it in order to accept the gift. C’mon, that’s Old
Testament thinking.
Under the Old Testament, you first had to achieve before you could
receive. But under the New Covenant, you first receive and then achieve by the
power of the Holy Spirit. It’s a heck of a lot easier that way. And it works
every time.
Let’s just suppose that next Christmas morning my wife Linda hands me a
box that contains a priceless solid gold Rolex watch, guaranteed to last
forever. It’s wrapping looks like dazzling white linen, and the ribbon and bow
look like a shining golden sash. But as soon as I open it, I am overwhelmed
and quickly hand it back to her saying, “I don’t deserve this! I’ve done
nothing good enough to earn it..”
Linda then hands it right back to me, saying: “I’m giving you this gift
because I love you and want you to have only the very best that I can give
you. Please accept it.”
I pause, and after a short while I tell her, “Okay, but only if:
(1) I fast and pray for 60 days, drinking only water and taking vitamins in
order to stay alive;
(2) I renounce any connection with people who are not holy;
(3) I give all my money and faded jeans to the poor;
(4) I memorize the 10 commandments in Spanish, forwards and backwards.”
Linda is surprised and disappointed. She already knows I’m a little
strange to begin with, but she would probably drop a little tear anyway because
I didn’t accept her sincere offering with no strings attached.
The above is the mentality of too many people who don’t
fully understand the uncompromised GRACE (unmerited favor) that Christ
provided for us when He shed His blood. All the countless benefits of the Cross
are already ours (according to the Word) because the price has been paid in
full. There is nothing more sad to me than to watch my Brothers and Sisters
as they beg God for what they need and desire. We need only to receive by
faith, and even that has already been given to us (Romans 12:3).
We must learn to be who we really are: sons and daughters of the most
high God...sitting with Jesus at Father God’s right hand (Ephesians 2:4-6).
Too many of us are ultra-busy “doing, doing, doing” in order to curry God’s
favor. But we need to be spending more time “being, being, being” who we
already are: offsprings of the Almighty and joint heirs of the kingdom of God.
My personal goal is to operate from the perspective of having already won
the war (through Jesus), as opposed to having to fight more battles in order
to get what I need.
Also, I’m a huge adherent of Psalm 19:7 which says that the Word of the
Lord makes the simpleton to be wise. Hey, I’ll claim that one for myself. By
the way, I am fluent in 3 languages: English, Spanish, and Praying in the
Spirit.
Look, when we received salvation by accepting Jesus Christ as our Lord
and Savior, we were born again and grafted into the Holy Family. God is the
farmer who plants the vineyard, Jesus is the vine, and we are the branches
that grow because we are attached to the vine. Let’s quit struggling to become
a vital part of God’s kingdom and system. We already are because the
heavenly “sap” that flows from the Father through the vine (Jesus) must, by
design, flow to the branches (that’s you and me!).
The key is not to restrict that blessed flow by walking around in
unforgiveness, fear and unbelief, unrighteous anger, ignorance of the Word of
God, self condemnation, plus other “blockers” that we ourselves construct. If
we will simply surrender (by faith) all this nasty stuff to the Holy Spirit,
we can revitalize the flow of the supernatural that comes down from the
Father, through His Son, and then to us.
Incidentally, we don’t conjure up faith...we simply become ONE with
Jesus and believe what the Word of God teaches. Like the Apostle Paul, we should
live every day on this earth by the faith of Christ (Galatians 2:20). But
as part of our faith, our hearts must be saturated with the inner PEACE that
it takes to accommodate and sustain the flow of the GRACE of God
(Philippians 4:6-11). This is so crucial, and I will talk more about that shortly.

But before I go on, I’m being nudged to stop, change the subject, and
share something that happened just the other night that really startled me. It
impacted me bigtime.
I was “really down” at the end of the day because I had not spent more
time praying and communing with Father. I really missed Him. Meetings,
deadlines, and a heavy workload will absolutely rob you of that spring in your
step and the wind in your sails, and also that heavenly “sap” that flows
from the vine and keeps us glued together with eternity.
Usually, when I’m “down” I just get over it, but I couldn’t this time.
Even a “Mexicano” from the barrio knows deep inside that placing the
Creator on the back burner of the day’s agenda is a mucho bad idea. Bad move
(Matthew 6:33).
As I sat down that evening and prepared to pray, Father God quickly
kicked things off by saying, “Son, let’s go to “higher ground.” He had been
waiting patiently for me all day. He always does. But He didn’t give me a
hard time...He never does. And that’s because He loves me and He misses me also
(and you, too). However, He didn’t mince any words, either.
It was a still voice, and it was a small voice, but it reverberated ever
so loudly inside of me: “Robert, you must never lose vital and intimate
contact with Me for any time or any reason. It doesn’t matter what the
circumstances are and it doesn’t matter how you happen to feel. If I am going to do
powerful works through my people, you must never lose my enveloping
presence.”
He continued: “The many promises and the blessings granted to you by the
Blood at the Cross will not manifest on the Earth without power from
Heaven to back them up. And My power cannot flow in it’s fullness unless you
become ONE with Me and you learn to pray in the Spirit unceasingly.”
He was reminding me that there is always a spiritual war going on but it
is not apparent in the physical realm. The Evil One and his cronies never
quit and neither should we. The Devil is a defeated foe but we must be
vigilant in enforcing our victory by putting on the armor of God (Eph.6:10),
especially tenacious, never-ending prayer in the Spirit.
Now that’s the kind of conversation that will take the slack out of your
jeans in a hurry!

(At this point, you are probably asking, “C’mon Robert, does God really
call you by name?” My response is Heck yeah! I am His child and so are you.
Don’t you call your child by his or her name? Would you say to your son, “To
Whom It May Concern, would you please take out the trash today? “ I think
not.)

Well, God’s lesson was just beginning to unfold. Right out of the blue,
Father reminded me of the time when Joshua led the Israelites to battle
against the Amalakites at Rephidim, and Moses went to the top of a hill to see
the fight (Exodus 17:9-13). As long as Moses raised his staff with both hands
high in the air and became ONE with God, the Israelites began to win! But
after a long time, Moses’ arms became weary and started to drop. When this
happened, the Israelites began to lose the battle. But when he raised his
hands high again, the Israelites prevailed. Eventually, his assistants Aaron
and Hur helped Moses to keep his hands high, and by that evening Israel was
totally victorious against great odds..
Our heavenly Father doesn’t waste words. He reminded me of all this
because it’s a type and a shadow of what we are faced with today. There’s a
huge lesson for us to learn from Moses and Joshua’s success:
(1) Moses had to go to “higher ground” (the top of a hill) in order to get
“closer to God” to be able to get direction and correction. We need to do
the same.
(2) Moses had to keep his hands raised “without ceasing” in order to
elevate the “rod of God” and demonstrate that God was with Israel. Today, the
Bible instructs us to “raise holy hands” and pray always (Luke 21:36). But
the “rod” we raise up today is the risen Christ, and the hands we raise are
“spiritual hands” that praise Jesus because he has already won all our
battles at the Cross. We don’t fight to win, we just fight to retain what Jesus
already won!Even in the natural, we raise our hands to invite God’s glory (His
manifested presence).
(3) Moses’ first priority was his face-to-face relationship with God, and
he was relentless in obeying God’s orders. He knew that the enemies they
faced would never quit. It’s the same way now. Today, God is commanding us to
pray at all times and in every season, and to “labor” to enter His presence
and His “rest.” (Hebrews 4:9-11). Christianity is not a part-time endeavor.
(4) Moses’ aids, Aaron and Hur, were right there to “prop him up” when he
could no longer stand on his own. Today, this is a snapshot of what Jesus
expects from the body of Christ: to always be there for the Brothers and
Sisters in time of need. We should be quick to help before we are so quick to
judge!
We have to meld with our Creator. Become part of Him. During this time,
the Holy Spirit will mature us and develop our character so we can overcome
the challenges and temptations that will surely come in the ministry He has
called us to carry out. Indeed, He has given us great authority on the earth
and in the spiritual realm.
Be He won’t let us use it by ourselves until we are ready.

P.S. God willing, I will continue the discussion on “inner peace” in the
next issue.