Peace in Every Storm E-Book

Bill & Beni Johnson

• Herausgeber: BroadStreet Publishing Group, LLC
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Seitenzahl: 131

Beschreibung

Peace is the inheritance of every believer, but we often face challenging circumstances that threaten to bring chaos and conflict. Let Peace in Every Storm reveal how to strengthen your faith, lean into the goodness of God, banish fear, and trust the Lord in the midst of any crisis.   Each week, this devotional presents a portion of Scripture with an empowering teaching to help you establish your life in the peace of heaven. As you meditate on the teaching, reflect on several thought-provoking questions that can be used as journal prompts, group discussion starters, or simply a chance to think through what God is stirring in your heart. A bold declaration and additional Scripture helps affirm God's truth over your life and grounds the teaching in His Word.   As you read this devotional, you will gain an assurance that you are being held in the faithful hands of the Father. Reorient your focus away from the conflicts that surround you and back onto His perfect love. You may be facing a storm, but you can rest in God's peace, knowing He is in control!  

Leseprobe

BroadStreet Publishing Group, LLC. Savage, Minnesota, USA Broadstreetpublishing.com

PEACE IN EVERY STORM

© 2021 by Bill & Beni Johnson

978-1-4245-6191-9

978-1-4245-6192-6 (eBook)

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. zondervan.com. The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc. Scripture quotations marked (NASB) are taken from the New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1972, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. Lockman.org. Scripture quotations marked (ESV) are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked (NKJV) are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked (AMP) are taken from the Amplified Bible, Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. Scripture quotations marked (MSG) are taken from The Message. Copyright © by Eugene H. Peterson 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. Scripture quotations marked (TPT) are taken from The Passion Translation®. Copyright © 2020 by Passion & Fire Ministries, Inc. Used by permission of BroadStreet Publishing. All rights reserved.

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Contents

The Final Say

Reduced to Strength

Peace Is a Person

Love vs Fear

Prayers of Authority

Denying Influence

Faith in Crisis

The Mind of Christ

Biblical Meditation

Strengthen Yourself in Him

To Do the Impossible

Keep Dreaming

Prepared for Victory

The Decision Point

Invitation for Breakthrough

Beyond Understanding

Pain and Disappointment

Radical Generosity

Strength Found in Joy

Strongholds of Thought

Other Side of the Storm

A Superior Truth

Living with Mystery

Eyes on God

Supernatural Courage

Sheltered in His Goodness

The Power of Trust

From Our Knees

Contending vs Resting

Abandoning Introspection

Family First

Confess and Declare

The Father of Faith

Worship or Worry

Gates of Praise

Continual Devotion

Fruitfulness in Praise

Winds of Adversity

Faith-Filled Heart

A United People

Rejoice Always

In the Shelter of the Almighty

Supernatural Hope

No Other Option

Divine Purpose

Hidden in Him

Sowing Seed for the Future

Beauty for Ashes

The Peace of God

Call Upon the Lord

Peter’s Prayer

God of Abundance

When a storm is raging around you, it can be easy to feel overwhelmed. As you read these pages, our prayer is that you would find an anchor of God’s goodness, His faithfulness, and His protection no matter what your circumstances. God is with you. He is for you. He is not intimidated by the size of the waves that surround you or the howling winds that threaten to shake you.

Psalms says that His “wrap-around presence is our defense” (84:9 TPT). And Jesus promised that His Spirit would bring us comfort and truth. We have been given His peace—a peace that surpasses our ability to understand—to safeguard our hearts and minds (see Philippians 4:7).

As you read these entries and meditate on the Scriptures, let His voice become the loudest thing in the room. Hide yourself in His strength. You can be confident that you’ve been given the grace for victory in everything you are facing. God is fighting your battles. You are His beloved child, and He is eternally worthy of your trust.

Bill & Beni Johnson

THE FINAL SAY

“Everything I’ve taught you is so that the peace which is in me will be in you and will give you great confidence as you rest in me. For in this unbelieving world you will experience trouble and sorrows, but you must be courageous, for I have conquered the world!”

JOHN 16:33 TPT

The last chapter has been written, and we win!

There is no permanent victory for the devil. Ever. Imagine Satan’s response, thinking that he’d won a final victory when the Messiah was crucified only to realize the trouble he was in three days later. There are a couple of things that are guaranteed to you. First, every situation where you have ever experienced the devourer—the one who kills, steals, and destroys—will be worked for your benefit (see Romans 8:28). Did God design your suffering? No. It wasn’t His idea, but He’s so big that He can win with any hand. He will take any situation that comes into our lives with affliction and turn it around for our blessing.

Here’s the second thing: our God is the God of vengeance (see Psalm 94:1). There’s no such thing as the devil having the final say in anything. That beast will be silenced and there will be absolute vindication for every moment of infirmity, affliction, torment, pain, and temptation you’ve ever experienced.

God draws near in judgment (see Malachi 3:5) not to condemn us, but to judge the powers of hell. There will be vindication. Even if you don’t see it all in this world, there’s just a thin veil that separates this world from eternity. You will have the pleasure of seeing the vindication of God for every single bit of loss you’ve ever experienced.

Finally, Romans 8:18 (NASB) says, “The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” It is not worthy of comparison. Whatever difficulty you have experienced or are currently experiencing, it cannot be compared to the glory that will be revealed in you, on you, and through you. Like Bob Mumford said, “I read the last chapter, and we win.”

When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”

1 CORINTHIANS 15:54 NIV

Have you seen God redeem situations in your life in the past? List them out, remembering His faithfulness. If you were to write a final chapter of your life—filled with God’s vindication—what would it look like?

REDUCED TO STRENGTH

Then the LORD said to Gideon, “There are too many people with you for Me to hand over Midian to them, otherwise Israel will boast [about themselves] against Me, saying, ‘My own power has rescued me.’”

JUDGES 7:2 AMP

God will reduce me to my place of strength.

Gideon had an assignment from the Lord. He was to leave his hiding place and lead Israel’s army into battle with the Midianites. God brought an army of men to him, but almost immediately He began to send people back home. The strength of Gideon would not come from the number of his troops. God often prunes us back to a place of strength and health found in our dependence on Him. It’s not pleasant, but our comfort is not His main concern.

Israel had 32,000 soldiers. With those numbers, they could have taken credit for the victory God had for them.

God was going to reduce the army to a mere 300 men. First, He sent home the 22,000 men who were fearful. Fear makes people unstable and more likely to take glory for themselves. God is jealous for His glory, and fear turns the attention away from the greatness of God and back onto our own ability.

With 10,000 people left, God had one more test; He was only going to select the men who drank water in a specific way. It would be so nice if every time God gave us a test we knew what the goal was. If the king who only hit the ground with the arrows three times had known God’s goal in testing him, he probably would’ve hit the ground a million times (see 2 Kings 13:18).

But God doesn’t do that. He puts us in the middle of a test, and He tests for something that we can’t fake—character. When the 10,000 went to the water, 9,700 drank directly from the river and 300 scooped the water into their mouths, staying alert. God chose the latter.

The Lord could’ve won that battle on His own without any army, so He wasn’t demonstrating that He could be victorious with only a few men. He was showing that He would bring victory, no matter how many in number, with those who weren’t fearful and who were alert. Now Gideon’s army was ready. God had reduced them to their place of strength.

He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

2 CORINTHIANS 12:9-10 NIV

Where have you experienced the reduction of God? How has that caused you to depend on His strength even more?

PEACE IS A PERSON

“Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”

JOHN 14:27 NKJV

God’s peace prevails over every situation in my life because the Person of Peace lives within me.

If we look around us at the circumstances—political, economic, social—the enemy has succeeded in raising up voices that best represent hopelessness. It doesn’t take much. We can simply turn on the news to immediately hear all that is wrong with the world. It is hard to find a voice of hope and easy to find hopelessness. Some give it a different name, calling it discernment, realism, or intelligence. But, whatever name it’s given, hopelessness is not a part of God’s kingdom. His intention for this world is to fill it with His presence. The angels declared, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!” (Luke 2:14) That is the will of God.

Peace is the prevailing substance of the atmosphere of heaven, and God has given us His shalom—everything coming into alignment with Him—as our inheritance. Peace is not the absence of something. It’s not the absence of war, fear, or noise. True peace is the presence of Someone. It’s the Prince of Peace who crushes the powers of darkness under our feet when we become permeated with Him. It is Peace Himself who offers Himself as the Comforter so we might never need to be afraid. It is for peace that God gave us His Son so we might taste of eternity. How could we know that and choose to live without hope?

Though we can look at the circumstances of the world and feel overwhelmed, we are not here to announce the enemy’s victory; we are here to announce his defeat. The same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead dwells in us. Hopelessness has been defeated. His peace—that which touches us spirit, soul, and body—tames every opposition. God’s peace prevails over every situation in our lives because the Person of Peace lives within us.

Now, may the Lord himself, the Lord of peace, pour into you his peace in every circumstance and in every possible way. The Lord’s tangible presence be with you all.

1 THESSALONIANS 3:16 TPT

Where do you see the world’s greatest need for the Person of Peace to invade? List some of the breakthrough that would result from heaven invading these situations.

LOVE VS FEAR

“Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, I will also help you, I will also uphold you with My righteous right hand.”

ISAIAH 41:10 NASB

What I fear will influence what I worship, and what I worship will be proven by what I trust.

“Do not fear” is the commandment repeated more often than any other in Scripture. By repeating the commandment so frequently, the Lord reveals the primary tactic the enemy uses to disengage us from our life source. The devil can’t cut us off from God; he’s not that powerful. But he can tempt us out of alignment with our Creator. Like a dislocated arm that no longer has full mobility, we can become disjointed, not functioning in our intended authority. And fear is what does that.

Fear is an agreement with the enemy. Any time we believe a lie, we empower the liar. We don’t want to become devil-focused, but as Paul writes to the Corinthians, we can’t be “ignorant of his schemes” (2 Corinthians 2:11). When the Lord says, “Do not fear,” He is never trying to shame or expose us. Rather, He’s revealing to us that the grace to be victorious over fear is within our reach. He is inviting us into a partnership. When He gives commands, He enables us to do what we previously couldn’t do. That is the empowering nature of grace.

There is grace to deal with whatever comes against us. Experiencing fear is not a sin, but partnering with it—embracing fear as though it were truth—is a violation of God’s design. This doesn’t mean we ignore the reality of our circumstances. It means that, in the midst of our circumstances, we recognize there is a higher reality. Jesus has taken care of every problem we could ever face. We now walk in His victory, aligning our minds with His. What we fear will influence what we worship, and what we worship will be proven by what we trust.

Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

PHILIPPIANS 4:6-7 NLT

How has fear tried to disconnect you from God’s goodness, power, and vision for your life? Take some time to remind yourself that God is bigger than any fearful smokescreen the enemy could throw up before your destiny. You have a powerful destiny and calling on your life.

PRAYERS OF AUTHORITY

The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.

ROMANS 16:20 NIV

I can only release peace over a storm through which I can sleep.

Jesus and the disciples got into a boat to cross the Sea of Galilee. As they were crossing, they ran into a storm so strong that the disciples knew they’d most likely die. They were terrified. They woke up Jesus, the Son of God, and pleaded with Him to do something to save them. They cried out just like many of us pray when we’re in the middle of a crisis: “Don’t you care if we drown?” (Mark 4:38) But Jesus rebuked them for their lack of faith.