BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

Jesus' Peace Is Yours Study the Gospels and you'll see Jesus has always been against sickness. When He was ministering on earth, everywhere He went, if people would receive Him and believe the Word that He preached, they got healed and delivered. Some of them had been sick and in desperate conditions for years and had no hope at all in the natural, yet when they put their faith in Jesus, they were made whole. Take, for example, the woman with the issue of blood in Mark 5. In addition to having su ered physically for 12 years, she'd su ered fi nancial devastation. Desperate to get well, she'd spent all her money on doctors, but instead of getting better she kept getting worse. Then something happened in her life that changed it forever. She heard about Jesus! What did she hear? She heard He was healing people, and she believed it. She didn't shrink back in doubt and think, Well, I might not qualify for healing, or I'm too far gone; even Jesus probably couldn't heal me. No, she declared, "If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole." Then she acted on her faith. She pushed her way through the crowd that surrounded Jesus and touched the hem of His garment. What happened? She got exactly what she said. "Straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague…. And [Jesus] said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague" (Mark 5:29, 34). In addition to receiving healing, I think that woman received fi nancial restoration as well. Why? Because according to Jesus, her faith had made her whole. And as I've already said, scriptural wholeness (or shalom) includes fi nancial prosperity. Jewish people in Jesus' day understood this. That's why the statement He made to His disciples in John 14:27, when He was about to go to the Cross, carried so much weight. "Peace I leave with you," He said, "my peace I give unto you." The disciples knew the Hebrew language. So, they understood what Jesus meant better than most Christians do today. He was saying, "My shalom, My wholeness, My completeness, I leave with you. My protection, My deliverance, everything I am and everything I have which makes for your highest good, I give you!" Jesus said that because it's the heart of our heavenly Father. He doesn't want anyone left broken. He doesn't want anyone left sick or in lack. People in some Christian circles have taught that He does, but they're mistaken. They have a di erent picture of God than the one the Bible presents. It doesn't portray Him as harsh and demanding, as someone who is stingy with His blessings and hard to please. It says God's nature is just the opposite. That "the LORD is gracious, (or disposed to show favor) and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy. The LORD is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works" (Psalm 145:8-9). God is not hard to please! You'll never catch Him on a bad day. He is good and He wants good in your life. He does require you to do things His way, but that's because He knows best. Everything He wrote down for us in His Word to believe, say and do, was written for our benefi t. The only reason He commands us to listen to and obey Him is because His way works. The world's ways, on the other hand, do not work. Under the dominion of sin and the devil, the world is in the dark. If you walk in darkness (or in disobedience to God) there is no way you're going to be whole. Things will always be missing. Things will always be broken. If, however, you walk continually in the light of God's Word, there's no way you can stay broken. As you keep living according to the light you have and seeking more light, like the woman with the issue of blood, you will be made whole! It's your choice. You get to decide. What do you want to do? God has already made His choice. He wants you to take Him up on all His exceedingly great and precious promises. He wants you to enjoy all that's yours in Christ Jesus, walk in His covenant of peace, and keep increasing in every area of life. For you to do that, though, you must delve into that covenant and fi nd out what belongs to you. Otherwise, you'll be like someone who has money in the bank but doesn't know it. God said about one group of His Old Covenant people that they were "destroyed for lack of knowledge." But you don't have to be like those people. You can put God and His Word fi rst place in your life. You can open your Bible every day and read His promises and His life-giving instructions. You can hearken continually to the voice of the Scriptures and the voice of His Spirit in your heart that's saying: "Peace belongs to you. Healing belongs to you. Deliverance belongs to you. Everything that makes for man's highest good belongs to you. Believe it. Say it. Act on it." Go in peace and be whole! B V O V : 3 1 POINTS TO GET YOU THERE: 1 God used the word shalom to describe to His Old Covenant people the marvelous new covenant He would establish with us, as believers. (Isa. 54:10) 2 Salvation means the same thing shalom does and in Christ it's available to all. (Titus 2:11) 3 Jesus paid the full price for our salvation, which includes pardon from sin and deliverance from its power, healing, prosperity, restoration, soundness, and wholeness. (Isa. 53:5, AMPC) 4 As a believer, you can walk in the same peace Jesus did when He was on earth. (John 14:27) 5 "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge"(Hos. 4:6), so open your Bible every day and fi nd out more about your covenant of peace. (John 8:32)

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