Thursday 31 January 2019

He Held His Peace!


Scripture: Mark 14 v 61 - 62:" But He held His peace, and answered nothing. Again the high priest asked Him, and said unto Him, Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed? And Jesus said, I am: and ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven."

The peace that Jesus has is far beyond any Earthly peace. He is known as the Prince of Peace, which is the highest authority on peace in the universe. That is the peace He gives to His followers - the ultimate peace experience.

When He releases His peace, demons are defeated and total calm comes down. While He was on trial before the High Priest for blasphemy, He knew His hour of sacrifice had come. He could easily have stopped it by releasing the power of His peace to them. He chose to hold His peace in.

He had to consciously rein in His very nature or they would never have condemned Him to death. He had a quality that was valuable and which could be transmitted, it was His perfect peace. They would have been caught up in His peace and been unable to do violence to Him.

At His birth, 33 years before, the angels sang, Peace on Earth, goodwill to all men". The Prince of Peace had arrived. When we make Him Lord of our lives we feel the peace that bypasses our minds into our hearts as our sins are forgiven. The stress of guilt, fear and shame is dissolved by the peace of Godly acceptance.

We do not have to hold this peace in! We can transmit the peace of Jesus into troubled situations. There is turmoil in people's minds and by laying hands upon them and allowing your peace to touch them they can be calmed and helped.

Into all kinds of chaos we can project peace through prayer. The more peace we have, the more it can flow outwards and will be replaced by even deeper peace. Jesus said, Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall see God. They shall see God in action by the results.

Jesus calmed the turbulent sea through His peace. Through releasing His peace the thief on the cross next to His was saved and went to paradise. Paradise was also called Abraham's Bosom, a place close to Hell, where believers went to await the Messiah.

My fertile imagination sees that born again thief bouncing into Paradise yelling with absolute joy "Guess who is coming right behind me!" The One they had patiently waited for was coming. He had not wanted to be crowned King of Israel to fight against Rome but when He got to Paradise He unleashed His kingly power against Satan and utterly overthrew him.

In Corinthians it is written, He made a show of them openly. He beat the Devil to a pulp in front of all his demons, and those sinners in hell. Jesus stripped them of their power, weapons and took the key of hell and death away from Satan.  In 1 Corinthians 2 it says, if the princes of this world had known God's plan, they would never have let Jesus be crucified.

They did not factor in that God could resurrect Him in all His kingly glory, and get themselves defeated by Him so soon  after they had gloated over His death. He gave them hell. So all those who follow the devil and his evil ways should realise their ultimate end. They have all been deceived into thinking they will have eternal power with their Master the winner. An eternal party. Hoodwinked into eternal fire.

But we who follow the Lamb have everlasting peace in us already. If you do not have peace, find out why not! Jesus conquered death and hell so you would have His peace, His sinless life, His love and joy. It is His legacy for us to inherit.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, the inner peace that comes from Jesus is so profound and powerful. No tranquilliser can ever equal it. Lord fill us with Your peace so we may transmit it into troubled lives and see them transformed. Your peace in us can calm storms and stop wars. Help us to use it correctly. In Jesus' name. Amen.