26 Dec Devotional Thought – The Path To The Spiritual Peace
“And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” John 20:22
What had Jesus said? The Savior’s statement is found in the previous verse. “Peace to you! As the Father has sent me, I also send you.” It wasn’t until after Jesus made this statement that He breathed on them. You see, before He gave them the great gift of the Spirit’s peace Jesus had to tell them exactly what kind of peace they could expect. If not, they would likely have been disappointed. He had to explain to them that His peace is what the world considers to be the opposite of peace – sacrificial surrender, “As the Father has sent me, I also send you.”
That raises the question, “How had the Father sent Him?” The scriptures tell us that Jesus was sent from Heaven to Earth, from the heights to the depths, from the greatest to the least, from joy to sorrow, from life to death. The powerful peace that the Father gave to the Son was a peace that could descend into the lowest valley, face the greatest darkness and even bear the unbearable burden of the cross.
The Savior’s statement says that I must be prepared for such a peace before I can receive it. I must, in fact, learn of Him and His mission must become my mission. What was the Master’s mission? It certainly wasn’t some sort of exercise in extravagant self-indulgence. In fact, it can best be described by His beatitude, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.”
I will only receive the Lord’s peace by moving and finding my being in Him. His peace came to Him by going where the Father sent Him. You see, Jesus did not first find peace and then enter Gethsemane. It was in Gethsemane that Christ found the Father’s peace as He surrendered fully and finally to Calvary. Divine peace came by doing the Father’s will. It came by persistent personal struggle. It came by a divine determination never to yeild or shrink back from what He had been sent by the Father to do.
The same must be true in my life. The Lord will not give me His peace until He first places me on the path of sacrifice. I will not climb the Mount of Olives until I first go by Calvary. His will must precede my reward. I must serve Him before I can rejoice in Him. For there to be liberty, there must first be obedience. The cross first, then the crown. The wilderness, then Nebo. I must first surrender to sacrifice before I can breath the free wind of the Spirit. He will breath His peace into my soul when He has sent me where the Father first sent Him.
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