I'm giving you my peace. And I'm not giving it to you in the same way that the world gives. Do not permit your heart to be made ill at ease.

Neither let it be insecure and fearful. 2 Timothy 1, verse 7 says, For God did not give us the spirit of insecurity and fearfulness, but of dynamic power, and of agape love, and of self-confidence. You probably never heard those scriptures quite that way before.

And the reason for that is that I've just freshly translated them. Recently I released a new app for mobile devices that I've been working on for some time. And in that I've included the GBM translation of the Bible, which is a translation and ongoing work that I am doing.

And included with that was an access to the languages that lie behind the original text, text of the scriptures in Hebrew and in Greek. A man by the name of Strong, many years ago, put together a very good dictionary and lexicon, which helps us to understand some of these things without us having to be big Hebrew or Greek scholars. And so I felt that every believer, and especially those who have a love for the word, should have the freedom to be able to tap into some of these.

And so as I was reading last night, just a regular passage. This is one of my favorite verses. The original says, Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you, not as the world gives, give I unto you.

Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Like there's even a song being made out of it. But as I looked into the original Greek in which that was written, I saw some shades of truth.

As I compared how often some of these Greek words have been used and what other scriptures they've been used in, I found some amazing things. And so some of the translation you've heard today has come as a result of me digging into that. Now perhaps you've reached the stage where you got a bit bored with the word.

You've read it so many times, there's nothing new there. Well, I'd like to invite you to download my app. It's available right now on Android.

It will be available soon on iOS as well. And eventually we'll also have it on Windows and Mac laptops. But get into the word and try and get some of those deep shades of truth of what God wants to tell us in His word.

And the word will come to life. And so as these passages came to life to me last night, I thought I've got to share them with you today. And so I'm going to share with you some principles that God showed me from these scriptures.

These are principles I'm already aware of, but I've been able to see them in a fresh way now by understanding these scripture passages in a fresh way. We live in a world that is full of turmoil. There's conflict and strife wherever we turn.

But the greatest conflict of all is the conflict that takes place not out there, but inside of us. We have no peace within. And I would say that is a bigger problem than all the problems of the world.

And everybody out there is speaking about world peace and trying to create world peace. But Jesus has promised us something better. He said, I'm going to give you a peace, but not the way the world gives it.

Because the world's got it all wrong. I'd like to share with you today how do we experience that true inner peace which is available to us as believers. Sometimes because of the circumstances of life and the conflicts that we face, we find a restlessness within us.

It drives us. It drives us to do all sorts of things. Some people work really hard to try and satisfy that inner restlessness so that somehow they'll feel a sense of accomplishment that they've done something in this world.

That they've accomplished something. It's an attempt to satisfy that inner turmoil. Sometimes we crave food.

We want something tasty. We think that if from without we can satisfy our appetite, it will somehow satisfy that deep hunger crying out that's taking place in our spirits. Sometimes we turn to the bodily passions in the hope that somehow that exhilarating feeling will satisfy that inner restlessness and conflict within.

And so we try many different things in different ways. We try all these external ways of bringing peace within, of calming down that bubbling restlessness that's inside of us that we can't explain, that we can't control. In the end, these things only bring temporary relief.

Some people turn to alcohol or drugs, and they may feel great while they're under the influence, but when it wears off, the problem's still there. The restlessness still lies within. Now, what causes our lack of peace within? What is it that produces these things, this inner restlessness, this ill-at-ease feeling inside of us? Well, probably one of the greatest things is the experiences of life.

Now, each of us, we go through different experiences in life, and it would be wonderful if they were all good, but they seldom are, because it's a sinful world out there. And people are selfish, and they are sinful, and there's strife, and there's hatred, and there's all sorts of selfishness in this world. So it's inevitable that as we go through this world and experience life, we're going to have experiences that are going to steal our peace, they're going to take away our joy, and cause us to feel restless within.

Sometimes we have experiences, and although they're gone, and perhaps even forgotten over time, they're actually sitting there deep in our memories, waiting to be brought back by a process that we call a trigger. All it takes is for you to re-experience something very similar, a similar set of circumstances to what you were in back there when you had that experience, and suddenly you find something begins to rise up in you, beyond your control, unwanted, suddenly your feelings begin to change, and you can't explain why you feel the way that you do. You just experienced the trigger.

And once again, it was caused by external circumstances. Now we can't escape this. Some people think that they can go and hide in a monastery.

Some of these monks think that they can hide away from life, and escape some of these things. See, but you can't escape the past, you can't escape what's in your heart. Some people perhaps have not had such bad experiences, and they don't have as many of these.

Some people have had an horrendous life. And again, some who have had a horrendous life, they don't always necessarily have the same inner conflicts. So we can't always blame the external.

We can't go back and blame it on the way our parents treated us, on the way society treated us, and what people did. We get bitter and twisted, and angry, and that actually doesn't bring any peace within, does it? So although external circumstances can bring that restlessness, we don't get rid of it by dealing with external circumstances. Probably the most important and main cause of inner restlessness and conflict is the way you view yourself.

Now that again is based partly on the experiences of life, it's based on what you see in the mirror, it's based on the way you assess yourself, the way you assess your own gifts and abilities, the way you compare yourself with other people, your envy of those who seem to be accomplishing in the world, what you're not accomplishing. Other people seem to have all the success, and you seem to have all the failure. And so you begin to develop an attitude to yourself.

You make statements like, if only I looked different, if only I was older, if only I was younger again, if only I was thinner, if only I was stronger. We're not satisfied with who we are, we're not satisfied with what we see when we look at ourselves. And so the image you have of yourself, that probably is the biggest contributory factor to an inner dissatisfaction and a restlessness within.

And the trouble is, like circumstances of the past, you can't change them, they haven't. Sometimes your current circumstances you can change, but most of the time you can't change them either. So if we are subject to our circumstances, if we are subject to the things that happen to us, if we are subject to our lot in life, we will never ever experience the peace that the Lord has for us.

There'll always be a discontent within, an inner restlessness, a drive for despair, to the point where sometimes we don't want to live anymore. What solution does the Lord offer? Firstly, peace is one of the fruits of the Spirit, mentioned in Galatians chapter 5. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace. That means that the Holy Spirit has the ability to produce this fruit in us.

Now when Jesus spoke these words to the disciples, he was about to leave and send the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, to them. And he said to them, I'm leaving you, but I'm gonna leave peace behind. Not just any peace, but I'm going to give you, I'm gonna give you as a gift.

That word give there is the giving of a gift. I'm gonna give you my peace. How did he do that? Did he wrap it up specially and hand it over to them? See, we read these words, but we don't grasp how does he give it? Well, he said, when I go, the Father will send the Comforter, and I, who have been your Comforter up until now, I will return in the form of the Holy Spirit.

I'm gonna come and live inside of you, and by me living inside of you, I'm going to be able to impart to you the peace that I have as a very essence and part of my being. Giving you my peace. I'm not gonna give it the way the world does.

See, the world gives nothing for nothing. The world is selfish. The world says, I will stop conflict with you if you obey me.

If you give me what I want, I will give you what you want. The world is very selfish. Jesus said, I'm not gonna give you my peace that way.

I'm giving it to you in grace and in love. And I'm giving it to you freely. Absolutely freely.

And then he said, do not permit your heart to be made ill at ease. The Greek tense there, the voice that's used is the passive voice. Now, we don't have to get complex into grammar, but grammar and active voice is something that I do, and a passive voice is something that gets done to me.

So what Jesus said is, don't allow anybody or anything to bring these things onto you. Don't allow yourself to be made ill at ease. So you have the ability to resist that temptation.

You have the ability to stop. Somebody said concerning motivation that the key is not to motivate yourself, but to stop people from demotivating you. See, and the key is not to try and get peace, but to hold onto the peace that you have and to stop people and the things that Satan uses in this world to rob you of your peace and to bring that inner conflict.

Don't allow it. And then he said, don't allow your heart to be insecure and fearful. Now, fear is a word that can have many connotations.

And so the original here says, don't let your heart be filled with fear. I looked that up in the original and I found out there are many different Greek words that are translated fear. One of the most common is the word phobia, from which we get phobias and fears.

See, the fear that's spoken of here is not raw, intense fear the way we know of fear. It actually speaks more of like timidity and insecurity. And that's why I translated it, don't allow yourself, don't let your heart be insecure and fearful.

Because that's what the world wants to do to you. They want to squeeze you and tell you you are inferior, that you are not good enough, that you don't come up to their standard. The Lord said, don't let that happen.

But unwittingly we do. We go out there and we, in confrontation with people, seem to have everything and we don't have it. And when we stand next to them, we feel less than them.

We feel inferior, we feel insecure and lacking in confidence in ourselves. Now the peace, which is the fruit of the Spirit, firstly will bring an inner confidence and an inner lack of turmoil. Restlessness will stop when you experience the fruit of the Spirit.

But Jesus promised His own life inside of us. He said, I will come and live inside of you. Now Paul tells us in the book of Colossians, chapter 1, verse 26.

He speaks about a secret that's been hidden. He said, the secret that was hidden away through the ages and generations but now has been unveiled to His holy ones, the saints. To whom God wanted to make fully known what a wealth of splendor there is in this secret, in the nations of the world.

It wasn't just for the Jews, it was for everybody. That secret is Christ in you. The positive expectation of honor and glory.

Positive expectation. Because you have Christ in you, you can expect to be exalted and lifted up and honored and noticed. I'm afraid it's not taught much out there.

We're taught that we've got to be humble. We're taught that we've got to be nothing. See, but Christ in you wants to be something magnificent.

But until you let Him live in you, He can't show His magnificence. And that's why you're walking in insecurity and inferiority. Because you're trying to do it on your own.

And when you do that, you will fail because the competition out there is too strong. But when He stands in you, the King of all kings, and the Lord of all lords, who can compare with Him? So you must change the image that you see of yourself. Because you are made to be exactly like Jesus.

And I'll show you that again from the Scripture. Romans 8, 29, Paul says, For those He knew ahead of time, He also decided ahead of time, that they would be made into the same likeness as His Son, leading Him to become the first prototype amongst many of the same family line. See, you belong to a family where Jesus is the prototype.

Everyone in that family is made to be like Him. So what we see in Jesus, and there was nothing insecure about Him, Jesus could stand up in the crowd and say what needed to be said, though everybody would turn their back on Him. Though they'd try and throw Him off a cliff for what He said.

He didn't care what people thought about Him because He knew who He was. See, when you carry the name of Jesus, you represent Him to the world. And you have nothing, nothing to be ashamed of, nothing to be insecure or inferior about.

Nothing. Because you carry the highest authority in this universe. And He's living inside of you.

And we need to tap into His peace. And so we do that firstly by choosing to walk in the Spirit. Sounds simple, but yet at the same time seems so complicated.

How do we walk in the Spirit? I've taught on it in so many places. Walking in the Spirit is a very simple thing. It means firstly learning to hear His voice on the run, during your day-to-day life.

Then simply obeying that voice and follow His leading. That's all walking in the Spirit is. And when you do that, He takes control of your life.

He's living inside of you. He's talking 24 hours a day. You need to stop your talking long enough.

You need to shut up a little bit. You need to stop all your work and your effort and your striving and your pushing. You need to stop long enough to listen to that small inner voice that's talking deep inside of you.

And before you open your big mouth, before you reach out your hands to do anything in this world, the first thing you should be doing is saying, OK, Lord, what do you suggest we do here? We don't do that, do we? We get in there, we struggle, we battle. Man, I've been battling with this thing for hours now. I just can't seem to get it right.

And then this little voice, deep within says, Would you like some help? All right, I might as well ask you for help now because I've tried everything, it doesn't work. Ah, boy, we are stubborn, selfish people, aren't we? You know, if you did that at the beginning, and then he says, Well, have you thought of trying it that way? You say, Actually, no, I haven't tried it that way. Let's give it a try.

Oops, it all falls into place. And then you could kick yourself because you could have done that two hours ago already. And you wouldn't have had, in that restlessness and conflict, you wouldn't have been swearing at the thing that you're working at and using bad language, you know you shouldn't have.

You wouldn't have been getting angry with all the people around about you. Your blood pressure would have stayed down. Your pulse would have remained normal.

The Lord said, Don't let that happen to you. Don't let yourself be made ill at ease. Don't let it.

Don't let your heart be filled with insecurity. You should be filled with confidence in him because he's living inside of you. When the spirit takes control, all inner conflict will disappear.

So, ask Jesus to live his life through you. It's a very simple process. Very simple process.

You stop right where you are and you say, Lord, I'm gonna do my best to live just like you. And some people, they wear this thing, they say, What would Jesus do? And they try and figure out what would Jesus do. And they work as hard as they can to try and do what they thought Jesus would have done.

See, that's not what we're talking about. It's not what Jesus would have done, it's what he wants to do now. It's not what Jesus would have done if you saw him.

It's what Jesus wants to do in you right now. We need to take away with what would Jesus do. Make it, What will I let Jesus do? What will I let Jesus do? Make some new bands there.

What will I let Jesus do? Because that's the key. It's letting him do it. So, it starts with submission.

Lord, I give up, I've tried it, I can't do this. I give up and I submit to you and I ask you to do it through me, to live your life in me. See, and then you'll hear his voice and you'll feel something new rise up in you.

And you know the amazing thing is the peace will come just like that. You've been struggling, you've been battling, you've been agonizing and just like that, instantly, it just comes to peace. Because you've handed the problem over to somebody else now.

You don't have to carry this anymore. Now you become aware of his presence within and you say, I can do it. Now what would you do? Because I want to do what you want to do.

Now I'm ready to let you do, through me, what you want to do. And then you just do what he tells you to do. See, that's what walking in the Spirit is.

There's nothing really complicated about it. Actually, it takes seconds to stop where you are and to just let him take control. Jesus promised us his peace.

To experience it, all you need to do is to submit to him and reach out by faith and claim what is your inheritance. I'm leaving you with peace, he said. I'm going to give you my peace.

Not in the same way as the world. I'm going to give you my peace. Don't allow your heart to be filled from without with things that are going to bring restlessness and conflict within.

Rather let your heart be filled with confidence. Total confidence in who you are in him. And then when you stand before others in this world, instead of viewing them with envy and jealousy, your approach should be, do you know how blessed you are to meet me today? Because I have something you don't have.

I have something that I can give to you. Now you may have many talents, you may be beautiful, you may have strengths that I don't have, but I've got something greater. And I'm not ashamed.

I'm not ashamed to stand in that power and that authority and I'm not ashamed to share it with the world. Because it's Christ in me. Positive expectation that he's going to lift me up, he's going to honor me, he's going to exalt me in his way.

And I'll continue to walk in that peace, that total assurance knowing that he's in control of my life. For in that everything I touch is going to prosper. Everything I touch will succeed.

That's God's plan for you. If you're a believer, if you've not been experiencing this, and you haven't because I haven't either. We've all been this way.

We experience it every now and then by accident. Let's not make it an accident. Let's make it happen on purpose in our lives by just giving him the opportunity to give to us the things that he wants to give.

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