The Peace Process

UV 2727/10000 The Peace Process
The LORD hath taken away thy judgments, he hath cast out thine enemy: the king of Israel, even the LORD, is in the midst of thee: thou shalt not see evil any more.
Zephaniah 3 v 15
A man is not aware of his snoring except he wakes up before the sound dies out. Likewise, a man is not aware of sinning except he wakes up spiritually. In the course of our lifetime, we commit many wilful sins or acts that militate against the written and unwritten law placed in our hearts by the Spirit of God. But when we first believe and receive Jesus into our hearts, our slates are wiped clean, our judgements are “ taken away”, cancelled as it were. All judgements for our acts of omission and commission of all humanity, past, present and future, in spirit, mind and body were piled on the shoulders of our divine “scapegoat” or Lamb of God, Jesus on the cross. After our first confession of faith in the sacrificial death and victorious resurrection of Jesus, we still sin given our propensity to sin as we are creatures both of flesh and of spirit. Now, we have recourse to confession for individual sins and repentance. The first confession and repentance is generic, covering all of our past offences while the ongoing confession is for specific acts.
Freed from the consequences or the power of sin but not the presence of sin, we have a bright and blight-free future. The Lord has plans to prosper us, to cause us to succeed, to bless us with hope and a future in eternity. The enemy has plans and weapons to harm us, to rob us, to kill us, to destroy our hope and our future in eternity. Which of these plans succeed depends to a great degree on which plan we chose to implement in our lives. The enemy gets his power over our souls by reminding us of our sins that hold us in his captivity. But the Lord has cast the enemy out of our lives, he has no more power to harm us. The Lord not only has obtained victory for mankind once and for all, He continues to be with us in the form of the Holy Spirit. The king is in our midst. We need to combat the presence of sin with the presence of the king. This is why Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is in you and amongst you.”
The enemy has been dethroned from our hearts. Now it is the Lord who rules in us and rules the world through us. His kingdom has come to our hearts and lives. We need fear no evil any longer. We experience instead Shalom- the peace that passes human understanding and wisdom, the peace that surpasses anything the world can give us, the peace that signifies blessing, holistic prosperity and good success as well as continual joy. The success that the world can give us or the enemy can give people for mortgaging their souls to him is a pyrrhic victory- a victory that is disguised bitter failure and misery, a success whose cost is self destructive. It is the kind of success or glory that Jesus turned down when the enemy attempted to tempt Him in the wilderness.

Prateep v Philip