Blog In Audio:
Greetings,
We are now in 2022. We had a great week here with all the family together. We ended the year with lots of snow and lots of family fun. Our new year transitioned with a day of playing in the snow and enjoying being together. Yesterday was a great day in church with many words from God for the new year and the new season.
My word for this year is peace. I believe I understand some of this, but I also know that God is leading us into a greater understanding of things that we thought we understood in the past. Peace is not merely an emotional state of being. It is not the absence of conflict. It is a connection to God and a connection to God’s house. In the New Testament Scriptures, peace is in the same category as grace and mercy. The salutations of the apostle Paul, the apostle Peter, and the apostle John included a call for the mercy, grace, and the peace of God to be made known to the churches that they each addressed. The apostle Paul addressed his churches with grace and peace (1 Cor. 1:3, 2 Cor. 1:2; Gal. 1:3; Eph. 1:2; Phil. 1:2; Col. 1:2; 1 Thes. 1:1; 2Thes. 1:2; Phil. 1:3). Paul’s greeting to Timothy and Titus included grace, mercy, and peace (1Tim. 1:2; 2 Tim. 1:2; Tit. 1:4). The apostle Peter addressed the believing Jewish church with a prayer for grace and peace to be multiplied to them (1 Pet. 1:2; 2 Pet. 1:2). The apostle John addressed the church in his care with a blessing of grace, mercy and peace (2 Jn. 1:3;). He appealed to God for the seven churches in Asia to receive the grace and peace of God (Rev. 1:4). These seven churches prophetically represent the church that was at the time of John’s prayer, the people of God that were ever before, and the ongoing generational church to come.
God’s mercy is new every morning, thus it is something that never runs dry. God is rich in His mercy. Grace is something that multiplies and transforms our lives to greater measures of His glory. Peace is also something that multiplies in our lives. It is not just a one-time gift in Christ, but a growing gift because of Christ.
Much of my life has been about knowing God’s mercy and grace. Much of the life of the church has been about an understanding of mercy and grace. Mercy is a quality of God and the state of His being that justifies us to live. It is the expression of His love for us that is the love of a Father for His children. It is not based upon anything that we deserve, but upon the substance of His heart. God’s mercy is the judgment that frees us from an administration of the knowledge of good and evil and invites us to find the administration of God’s grace in our lives. God’s grace is the administration of His Holy Spirit in our lives that changes us inside and out to be testimonies of being sons and daughters of God. Mercy justifies us to live, but God’s grace empowers us to live. God’s mercy is the door to our salvation, but God’s grace is the working of His Holy Spirit in our lives that exercises and reveals His salvation in our lives in any and every situation and circumstance of our lives. God’s grace empowers us to reign in life.
Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. 10 For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
Romans 5:17 For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.
I believe that God’s peace is the substance of the life of God that exists in His house. When our house becomes His house, His house becomes the available substance of life to our house. It includes the safety, wellness, happiness, friendship, welfare, health, and all manner of prosperity that exists in His house in heaven. I believe we could envision that substance as everything that is in His cupboards, His refrigerator, His closets, and in every space in every room of His house. Grace is the power of His presence in our lives, but God’s peace gives us the substance of everything in His house that Holy Spirit uses to perform His work of grace in our lives.
Romans 5:1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
When we hear God’s voice in our hearts, we receive His invitation for us to boldly come to Him. This is the testimony of faith. As far as God is concerned, Jesus is fully enough to reconcile us to Him and to give us access to His throne room of grace. His peace puts us on friendly terms with God our Father and grants us an invitation to come to Him with access to all that He is and has. God’s peace is not only God’s permission for us to live, but also the substance of all that He is and has for His Holy Spirit to work in our lives. Both the Hebrew and the Greek words for ‘peace’ reveal much more than merely a place of tranquility for our souls.
Isaiah 53:5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.
The Hebrew word for peace is the HSRN 7965. שָׁלוֹם šâlôm; or שָׁלֹם shalom; and it means: safe, i.e. (figuratively) well, happy, friendly; also (abstractly) welfare, i.e. health, prosperity, peace.
The root word of shalom is the HSRN 7999. שָׁלַם šâlam; a primitive root; to be safe (in mind, body or estate); figuratively, to be (causatively, make) completed; by implication, to be friendly; by extension, to reciprocate (in various applications).
The Greek word for peace is: GSRN 1515. εἰρήνη eirēnē; probably from a primary verb εἴρω eirō (to join); peace (literally or figuratively); by implication, prosperity.
The peace of God in our lives is a joining to Him in His prosperity. The peace of God is the substance of all that He has because there is no gap between us on earth and Him in heaven. He has granted us access to His house because He has put our house on friendly terms with Him. I believe that we are entering a season where we will know not only God’s grace multiplied in our lives, but also His peace. God’s peace will reveal His safety, wellness, happiness, friendship, welfare, health, and prosperity in our lives, even in the midst of conflict and challenging times.
Blessings,
Ted J. Hanson
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House of Bread Ministry
3210 Meridian St.
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