How Peace Thinks Pt. 2

Cornerstone Borger

How Peace Thinks Pt. 2

How Peace Thinks

Pt. 2

I am discussing How Peace Thinks, How Peace Talks and How Peace Acts.

So far, we have discovered that Jesus bore everything that had the power to take your peace away when He died on the cross. Isaiah 53:4-5.

First, He has borne our griefs. He bore our anxiety, calamity, disease and sickness. These are enemies of your peace.

Second, He carried something away from us. He carried our sorrows. He carried away our anguish, affliction, grief and pain. Again, these are enemies of your peace.

According to Isaiah, He bore and carried away anything physically or emotionally harmful to your soul or body. Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities;

After bearing and carrying all the harmful powers that were against us and controlled us, He paid for us to possess a greater POWER so that we would never have to be dominated by anything He bore or carried. His peace is our weapon that keeps guard and protects us. The chastisement FOR OUR peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.

By the power of peace, we can discern attacks, know that they are disarmed and walk in victory. 2 Cor 2:14 (MSG) In the Messiah, in Christ, God leads us from place to place in one perpetual victory parade. Col 3:15 says, (NKJV) 15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts. “Rule” literally means umpire and it lets us know if we are “safe” or “out” of the will of God.

Last week, we looked at the first part of How Peace Thinks. We discovered that our peace is dependent on what we allow in our minds.

Romans 12:2 (NLT) 2 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. The newness of our new person being manifested is equal to the degree of the newness of our thoughts.

Rom 12:2 (NKJV) And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. The word, “transformed” comes form the Greek word, “metamorphoō,” which means to “change” and “form.”

Continued:

Our thoughts change and form the shape of our brains. Each thought has the ability to be life producing. It will either be life leading to life as God designed it or life that produces death. Each thought breathes life into existence, either the God kind of Life, which is called Zoe, or life into death.

The good news is that our free wills get to choose what our brains think on. Our thoughts can think about life-producing things or death-producing things. In Deuteronomy, God commanded Moses to relay this truth to the Israelites. Deuteronomy 30:19 (NKJV) 9 I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live. God totally left the decision up to them.

Jesus also intends for you to walk in the life that He came to give you. John 10:10b (NKJV) I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. Our rewiring needs to be done according to His specifications, not the devil’s.

One of the ways we win or succeed at choosing life is to first win and succeed in choosing right thoughts. We will never win at living in God’s life if our thoughts aren’t His. It’s impossible to think one way and live another.

You can’t think depressing, hurtful, complaining, frustrating, hateful, vengeful, irritated, mean, stressful or fearful thoughts and walk in His peace, which is our guide that umpires our life according to His plan.

If it’s not love, power and soundness, it’s not of God! 2 Timothy 1:7 (NKJV) 7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

The word, “sound mind” doesn’t mean that you will automatically have a sound mind. It means that God empowers you to choose to have a sound mind. The words “sound mind” literally mean “discipline or “self control.”

What this means is that we have POWER to choose LOVE resulting in a sound or self-controlled mind.

Neuroscience research is confirming that what we think daily becomes a physical reality in our brains and bodies. This effects our mental health, or state of mind, and our physical bodies. So, our quality of life is not as much a matter of genetics, but that of our thoughts. Remember, just like the Israelites, God gave us a choice to choose life and it begins with choosing the right thoughts.

According to Dr. Caroline Leaf, “This state of mind is a real, physical, electromagnetic, quantum, and chemical flow in the brain that switches groups of genes on or off in a positive or negative direction based on your choices and subsequent reactions. Scientifically, this is called epigenetics; spiritually, this is the enactment of Deuteronomy 30:19, “I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live.” The brain responds to your mind by sending these neurological signals throughout the body, which means that your thoughts and emotions are transformed into physiological and spiritual effects, and then physiological experiences transform into mental and emotional states. It’s a profound and eye-opening thought to realize something seemingly immaterial like a belief can take on a physical existence as a positive or negative change in our cells.”

Our cells really obey our thoughts. How important is it to then to think on good things?

Philippians 4:8 (NKJV) 8 Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.

Philippians 4:8-9 (Living Bible) 8 And now, brothers, as I close this letter, let me say this one more thing: Fix your thoughts on what is true and good and right. Think about things that are pure and lovely, and dwell on the fine, good things in others. Think about all you can praise God for and be glad about. 9 Keep putting into practice all you learned from me and saw me doing, and the God of peace will be with you. Your peace is connected to putting into practice right thinking!

Fixing our thoughts on what is true! John 17:17 (NKJV) 17 Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.

Noble things or honest things - everything in harmony with justice and righteousness.

Just things.

Pure things - holy things.

Lovely things.

Things of a good report.

If we have not trained our brains to think these things, the good news is that we can rewire our brains! Our brains are neuroplastic! This means they can change and regrow!
A very interesting scientific discovery is that God built in the principle of neurogenesis - the birth of new daily nerve cells. It was once believed that you were born with all the brains cells you’ll ever have, but new cells are being birthed daily.
This is amazing news! It means that you have a fresh start every day and new cells to program with God’s word! What a mercy that God designed us to not have to live with the thoughts and mistakes of yesterday. Lamentations 3:22-23 (NKJV) 22 Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not. 23 They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.

If we realized how powerful our thoughts are, we would never again think a negative thought. Thoughts are real, physical things that occupy our real mental state.
This means, it’s not circumstances as much as it is your thoughts that produce your quality of life.

How Peace Thinks Pt. 3

How Peace Talks Pt. 3 I am discussing How Peace Thinks, How Peace Talks and How Peace Acts. If you have been tracking with us for the past while, you should be fully convinced by now that Jesus absolutely wants you to live in His peace and be totally free from anything that would try and steal it from you. What He died to give you, He fully expects you to live in and use. In Isaiah 53, is says, The chastisement FOR OUR peace was upon Him… Jesus didn’t die to give you the illusion of peace. He gave you His peace. John 14:27 (NKJV) 27 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. We saw that our peace is dependent on what we allow in our minds. Our minds are the avenue of change, both emotional and physical. Science has discovered that our thoughts are physical and take up mental real estate in our brains. They change or form the pathways of our brains and send signals to each cell in our body in a negative or positive way. God designed it this way and chooses the avenue of the mind to change you into looking and thinking more and more like Him! Romans 12:2 (NLT) 2 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. The newness of our thoughts will determine how much of the newness of God’s life you will walk in and enjoy. Rom 12:2 (NKJV) And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. The word, “transformed” comes form the Greek word “metamorphoō,” which means, to “change” and “form.” Since our cells respond to our thoughts, it makes it more abundantly clear and important to think on “good things.” Philippians 4:8 (NKJV) 8 Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. In other words, if it’s positive, think on it! God wants our thinking to be totally saturated in the Word. Col. 3:15 says, (NKJV) 5 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts. It says in verse 16 to (NKJV) 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. The ability to experience His peace is equivalent to the richness of His Word in you. In other words, if you don’t have much Word in you, you won’t experience much peace. Matthew 4:4 (NKJV) 4 But He answered and said, “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’ ” Every part of our born-again life consists entirely in His Words. You cannot live any part of the born-again life apart from His Words. God wants His Word in us because what’s in our heart comes out our mouths and our mouths set the course of our lives. Luke 6:45 (NKJV) 5 A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks. There is good treasure and bad treasure. The word “treasure” in the Greek means “deposit.” We are constantly making deposits into our hearts, either good or bad. The Greek word for “heart” in this passage literally means “thoughts, feelings and mind.” So, we could say, we place either good or bad deposits in our thoughts, feelings and minds that produce either good or evil in our lives. This sounds like we have some control over what kind of fruit, or life, we get to bear and enjoy. Luke 6:43-45 (NKJV) 43 “For a good tree does not bear bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. 44 For every tree is known by its own fruit. For men do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they gather grapes from a bramble bush. 45 A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks. The whole point is that deposits bring forth something! You can’t deposit a thorn bush seed in the ground and expect to reap a fig from it. You can’t deposit a bramble bush seed in the ground and expect to gather a grape from it. What God is saying is that it’s impossible to get a grape from something that is not a grape vine and it’s impossible to get a good outcome from a negative thought or deposit. The deposits you make bring forth the life they contain, whether good or evil, life or death, blessing or cursing. It will become evident what kind of deposits are in our minds by the kind of life they bring forth. How do we bring it forth? For out of the abundance (surplus) of the heart (thoughts, feelings and minds) his mouth speaks. Speaking is the power God uses to release the surplus of His heart, thoughts, feelings and what is in His mind. Speaking is the power that releases the surplus of our hearts, thoughts, feelings and minds. God knew what was deposited in our thoughts would come out of our mouths and shape and direct the destination of our lives. This is why He wants His life-giving Word, to “dwell in you richly.” He wants His Word to come out of you richly, for you to experience it richly and for others to become richly blessed by it! He said, John 6:63 (NKJV) The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. In order to produce life, you have to first deposit life. His peace is the umpire of our hearts that will guide us into healthy deposits and sound the alarm to help us stay away from thoughts, feelings, and negativity in our minds that bring forth negative things in our lives. Our peace only focuses on positive, life-producing deposits.