PEACE WITH GOD: A WEAPON OF OUR WARFARE

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PART ONE

It’s Hard to do Laundry with Bullets Flying Over Your Head

Pretend for a moment that you’re a woman living in a war-torn country. You know—like all those women we see on TV—hanging onto their babies, running from madmen with assault rifles. What do you think you would long for most?

The obvious answer would be peace.

The lack of peace would affect everything around you.

It would be almost impossible to focus on anything but the enemy trying to destroy your home, your family, your very life. You would have no time or energy for anything else.

How could you plant a garden or sell goods at the market with bullets flying over your head?

You wouldn’t have the weapons to defend yourself, so you would constantly be trying to evade the enemy. You would give up territory that rightfully belongs to you because your adversary has moved in and claimed it as his own.

We may not live in a third-world country, but we are at war. The devil is our adversary, and he’s trying to prevent us from living focused, intentional lives. Like the women in those war-torn countries, we need peace.

Do you sometimes feel like you have bullets flying over your head?

Can you identify an area of your life where the devil is attacking you? Write it down, please.

How is that attack affecting your everyday life? List the ways.

Please read the following scripture:

Isaiah 54:10 (ESV) “For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed,” says the Lord, who has compassion on you.

Please answer the following questions:

What does the scripture say will not depart, even in such terrible circumstances?

What does the scripture say will not be removed?

God has made two promises to us in this scripture. (write them down please)

Satan is at war with us, and the battle is being fought in our brains. If he can keep us concentrating on the bullets flying over our heads instead of God’s steadfast love, and His covenant of peace, he can keep us from living productive, victorious lives.

God has promised us peace!

For further study:
John 14:27 Romans 5:1 Philippians 4:7

PART TWO

There’s a Difference Between the Peace of God and Peace with God.

We need the peace of God in the midst of Satan’s attacks, but to get it, we must first have peace with God.

What is peace with God?

I would say the obvious answer is: being at peace with God is not being at war with Him.

Before we were born again, we were natural enemies of God. We set ourselves against Him. It might have been more obvious in some of us than others. The apostle Paul persecuted the early church. He jailed Christ-followers. He was a blatant enemy of God’s Son until He met Him on the Damascus road. Acts 9:1-6. But being indifferent to the sacrifice God made of His Son on the cross would put us at enmity with Him just as well.

Jesus said it Himself.

Matthew 12:30 Whoever is not with Me is against Me, and whoever does not gather with Me scatters.

When we became believers in Christ, we ceased to be at war with His Father.

According to Thayer’s Bible dictionary, the definition of peace is as follows: . . . the tranquil state of a soul assured of its salvation through Christ, and so fearing nothing from God, and content with its earthly lot, of whatsoever sort that is.

What are the three indicators of peace in this definition? Write them below, please.

Do you think your salvation depends on what you do?

Are you afraid God might revoke your salvation if you sin?

How does that affect your peace? (list the ways)

 

True peace is to be assured of our salvation through Christ. To know that God will never forsake us. He will not accuse us. No matter what we’ve done. That’s why Satan works so hard to make us doubt.

PART THREE

We are Guiltless Because God Says So

God corrects us and guides us, and sometimes allows us to feel pain, but we have no eternal retribution to fear from Him.

Why?

Because our soul is assured of its salvation through Christ! What peace that knowledge brings! Satan has nothing to accuse us of, because our sins are covered with the precious blood of the Lamb.

So if we have peace with God, we can have the peace of God when we’re in trials. We can trust that God’s not holding a grudge. Not out to get us. He’s not giving us what we deserve. This is the most wonderful, amazing, freeing knowledge.

We are saved from the wrath of God through the blood of Jesus! He bought and paid for our peace. It’s a gift. We don’t earn it. We have peace with God. All the time! The problem is, we don’t always feel it. And when we don’t feel it, it’s hard to believe it.

But we have to believe it if we’re going to fight the devil!

Do you still feel guilty over sins you’ve sincerely repented of? Write them down, please.

Do you believe the blood of Christ is more powerful than your guilt?

Take a red pen and mark through every sin, thanking God for the blood.

 

Romans 5:9 (Amplified) Therefore, since we have now been justified [declared free of the guilt of sin] by His blood, [how much more certain is it that] we will be saved from the wrath of God through Him.

Write down your answers to the following questions.

What do you think it means to be “declared” free of guilt?

What do you think the “wrath” of God is?

How does the blood of Christ save us from the wrath of God?

We have been declared free of the guilt of sin. Declared?

Do you mean God has simply declared us not guilty? Even though there’s more than enough evidence to convict us? We will be saved from the wrath of God?

In the Greek, the word “wrath” means punishment or anger. Not only does God not punish us. He’s not even angry with us.

When Satan accuses you again, remind him of that!

 

PART FOUR

What God Said He’d Do When He Saw The Blood

Let’s go back to the Old Testament where we see the power of the blood first unveiled. This is going to be mind-blowing!

Moses has been entreating Pharaoh to let God’s people go from their bondage in Egypt, where they have been slaves for four hundred years. Pharaoh doesn’t want to do that.

Why would he?

He has a free labor force with which to build his ostentatious cities.

Instead of letting the children of Israel go, he increases their workload, putting an almost unbearable burden on them. Moses warns Pharaoh of one plague after another, but he won’t listen.

By this time, Pharaoh has had blood in his cup, frogs in his bed, bugs in his hair, flies in his face, boils on his body, hail on his head, locusts on his crops, dead livestock piled high in his pastures, deep darkness everywhere—and he still won’t release God’s people.

So God threatens something that would surely cause Pharaoh to let God’s people go.

Exodus 12:12 For I [the LORD] will pass through the land of Egypt on this night, and will strike down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and animal . . . (Amplified)

Some people have a real problem with this scripture.

What kind of God would threaten to kill the first-born of every Egyptian family, including Pharaoh’s?

I’d rather look at it this way: What kind of God would offer mercy and a way of escape to the same people who have held His precious children captive, abusing them mercilessly for 400 years? Romans 9:17-24

Verse 20 says, “Who are you, a mere man, to criticize and contradict and answer back to God?”

I don’t think I’m qualified to get in God’s mind and judge His motives. Instead, I trust because He’s a good God, the end result of all His actions is good.

Do you see any correlation between Pharaoh and Satan? List them, please.

Why do you think Pharaoh refused to let God’s people go?

Do you think God was being fair?

PART FIVE

What Were the Israelites Thinking as the Death Angel Passed Over?

In the meantime, God has given very explicate instructions to the children of Israel about choosing and killing a spotless lamb. Exodus 12:1-12
Sounds awful; doesn’t it?—killing an innocent lamb.

Even worse, he commands them to take part of the blood of the lamb and spread it on the sides and the tops of the doorframes of their houses.

Why would he do that? That doesn’t make sense. Or does it?

Exodus 12:13 The blood will serve you as a sign marking the houses where you are; when I see the blood, I will pass over you—when I strike the land of Egypt, the death blow will not strike you. (CJB)

What did God say the blood was?

What did He say He would do when He saw the blood?

How do you think the Israelites felt when they were told this?

I want you to notice something very important.

Who was the blood a sign to? “. . . when I see the blood, I will pass over you . . .”

The blood wasn’t a sign to the Israelites. They were inside the house. They couldn’t see the blood. Do you think they all had peace? Nope. I don’t think so.

In his book, The Basis of Victory in Spiritual Warfare: the Blood of Christ, James Holly makes an interesting statement about what might have been going on in the Israelites’ minds.

I’m paraphrasing it here, but you should really get the book and read it. It’s amazing.

So let’s imagine:

In one house the Israelites are huddled together shivering for fear of the Death Angel.

Yet they are still protected by the blood.

In another house, someone is wondering just how much blood it takes. Did they apply enough?

Yet they too are protected by the blood.

Others are thinking, But what if the blood dripped off the lintel? Or an enemy washed it off after we came in the house?

Yet they are still protected by the blood.

A woman in the corner is wondering if the blood will even work. It doesn’t make sense.

Yet she is protected by the blood.

Down the street, an Egyptian had watched his Israelite neighbor prepare the lamb and paint his lintel with blood. He imitates him and brings his own family into his blood-swathed house.

He’s not an Israelite. Yet he and his family are still protected by the blood.

And last, in one of the houses, there’s an Israelite struggling with doubt that the death angel even exists.

Yet this doubting Israelite is also protected by the blood of the Lamb.

Everyone who was in a house marked by the blood was safe from the wrath of God.

It didn’t matter what was going on in their minds. God didn’t look at anything but the blood. If our doubts and failings could negate the efficacy of the blood of the Lamb, we’d all be lost. We know we are sinners. That’s what makes us afraid.

But He doesn’t look at our sins. He only looks at the blood. God didn’t do a thorough background check, to see if there were any hidden sins in the Israelites lives before He passed by. He just looked at the blood.

If we are washed in the blood of the Lamb—if His blood is on the doorpost of our hearts, we have peace with God.

We are no longer His enemy.

But do you think if they’d really understood the power of that blood, they might have been able to relax a little?

If we have accepted Christ as our Savior and been washed with His blood, we are safe. Whatever accusation Satan throws at us, we can throw it right back. He has no right to accuse us. We have peace with God. And because of that, we can have the peace of God in our trials.

We are at war with the devil! Peace with God is one of the weapons of our warfare. Satan has no defense against it.
Please read through this Bible study when you’re being harassed by the enemy.

Blessings

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