So you want me to tell you again how you can really know if/when the ‘peace of God’ comes on you? That’s an easy one: You will know it! I don’t mean to toss out trite phrases to questions like that, but I’m telling you the truth. There’s something about God’s peace being ushered in to our lives, whatever the circumstances…and all of a sudden, the clouds dissipate, the darkness flees, and there is clarity of mind and thought; not to mention a racing heart being stilled and at rest.

And once you find yourself enveloped by it, you should make it your goal to never lose or leave that place again; seriously!

“The Lord blesses His people with peace.” (Ps. 29:11); and He also ‘grants peace to our borders’ (Ps. 147:14). Not only are we exhorted to ‘pursue peace’ …but we are supposed to continue walking in it, given that is how the Holy Spirit leads and guides us. (Heb. 12:14; Luke 1:79; Col. 3:15).

If you remember from yesterday’s message, we touched on that incident in Mark’s gospel where Jesus and His disciples were crossing over the sea and a fierce storm rose up and nearly swamped the boat.(Mark 4:35-41). Jesus, of course, stepped up and calmed the storm in an instant; and actually…what He really did was He ‘rebuked the wind’ (39). There is more to that word ‘rebuked’, but we don’t have time to get in to that today. I do believe though that this incident that took place on the water was merely an ‘icebreaker’ of a lesson to what the disciples were about to really learn. And this begins in the following chapter, if you care to turn there – Mark 5.

I had never really made this connection before until recently, between what occurred on the water in that boat, and Jesus calming the storm…and then that other ‘storm’ He was about to calm on the land…for a very tormented man. You can read vs. 1-5 on your own to gain a better understanding to the condition this man was in. The first thing we are told up front is this man had ‘an unclean spirit’. We will learn shortly that there was more than just a ‘few spirits’ working in him too.

I know it’s easy to hear a Bible verse quoted so many times that it can seem to lose its impact on our thinking, but Ephesians 6:12 tells us quite explicitly that we ‘wrestle not with flesh and blood, but with spiritual forces of darkness and spirits of evil and wickedness’.

Can anyone tell me at what point in history this no longer was the case? Was it when we got all smart and educated and started coming up with fancy medical terms and labels to describe a slew of symptoms? Or was it after companies discovered they could get wealthy selling all kinds of medicines to ‘treat people’ for their ailments without ever seeing them ‘healed’, or dare I say ‘delivered’ and ‘set free’? But now I digress….

What we do know is Jesus was about to calm the storm in this tormented soul since this is what He was anointed by God to do, which was to ‘heal those oppressed by the devil’ (Acts 10:38; 26:18; Luke 4:18). Tell me again when Jesus supposedly stopped doing things like this?

Friends…do you know what it is like to be consumed with fear and anxiety? Have you ever been eaten up with jealousy and resentment? Ever found yourself drowning in a sea of darkness, despair or depression, to where you thought you would never find your way out? Know anyone whose lives seem to be driven by a ‘spirit of lust or anger or rage’, to which they seem incapable of controlling or bringing under subjection? Do you really believe we are dealing with just ‘body chemistry…run amuck’? When did we stop believing that just maybe…the same ‘root problem’ this afflicted man in Mark 5 was contending with…is the same ‘root issue’ many today are battling with, and it’s not ‘flesh and blood’.

One of the first insightful lessons we learn in this story is despite the obvious control these ‘spirits’ had over this man who was clearly not in his ‘right mind’…is the fact that when he saw Jesus ‘from afar’…he ‘ran…and worshipped Him’ (6). No demon in hell can keep a person from turning and running to Jesus. That would include you as well.

And the next thing we witness…is this man’s ‘problem’ is resolved, the demons are gone…and when the townspeople hear about it, they come out to investigate and find this man not only fully clothed…but in “his right mind” (15). This, my friends…is what the peace of God does when we find ourselves immersed in it; it brings clarity of thinking and sight. But what you do with that moment is up to you. And don’t you find it interesting that ‘spiritual entities of darkness’…can affect the way we…think? After this man was delivered, in a brief moment as opposed to years of therapy…we are told he was in his ‘right mind’.

I wonder if that is why we are encouraged to ‘set our minds on things above and not on the earth’ in Col. 3:2; and why the promise of ‘perfect peace’ is given to those whose ‘minds are stayed on Him’ in Isa. 26:3. Or how about that passage that talks how we are ‘transformed by the renewing of our mind…so that we can prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God’ in Romans 12:2? And what are those who are ‘spiritually minded’ assured they can experience, in Romans 8:6?

One last thought for today, and it has to do with this idea of Jesus still being able and willing to calm storms, rebuke winds, and to bring genuine and lasting peace into our lives. He has not changed, and He is still ‘healing those who are oppressed by the devil! (Mal. 3:6; Heb. 13:8; Acts 10:38). But the prescribed order for such benefits is one must first ‘come to Him’, which is where I am convinced we have yet to fully grasp what that entails (Matt. 7:21). But let’s talk for a second about this idea of people still needing to be ‘freed from spiritual oppression’. How many people today sit on their church pews weekly and are under the impression that because they are ‘in church’…that demonic or ‘unclean spirits’ have little effect on them? Were you under the impression that the ‘stained glass’ keeps them out?

Take a quick look at the story recorded for us in Mark 7:24-30. A woman came to Jesus with a pressing need, begging Jesus to ‘cast a demon out of her daughter’ (26). We are told that she was a Greek, Syrophoenician by birth, implying she was not a Jew and therefore ‘outside of the covenant’. That means she was not ‘eligible for benefits’ in the kingdom of God at that time. Those who were non-Jews and not walking in covenant with God were often referred to as ‘dogs’. I know, it sounds a tad derogatory, yet that was the culture back then. But this should help explain the response from Jesus, when He seems to deny her request, implying that such a request for deliverance/healing…had to do with the ‘children’s bread’. What children was Jesus referring to in that moment? It would be the ‘children of God’…who were, and still are…in need of healing and deliverance.

This woman was not asking for the whole loaf…just a few ‘crumbs’… so her and her daughter both… could find some peace; and because of her faith, Jesus demonstrates once again, the mercy of God and granted her what she came seeking from Him…peace.

But she first had to come to Him. More tomorrow, Lord willing.