As we discussed last week, joy and peace will become increasing hallmarks of those who are building their lives on the kingdom of God and living their lives in the kingdom. It will be by their peace and joy that true Christians will begin to be distinguished. As these grow in their lives, so will their love of God, their love for one another, and love for their neighbors. In a world of increasing fear and confusion, Christians will be going about casting out fear with the power of the love of God manifesting itself through them.
True peace and true joy are found at the cross, and they are the result of the cross having done its work in our lives. They are the result of seeing and trusting in the cross, which manifests the love of God and having that love do its work in our lives so we live a life of sacrifice, taking up our crosses daily, for the sake of the Lord and others.
When we go to the cross, it washes away all of our failures and the remorse that we have from them, giving us a good conscience before the Lord, not because we are good, but Jesus Himself and His atonement becomes our righteousness. Our peace and joy are founded upon the knowledge of who He is. The better we get to know Him and the more we come to trust in His work at the cross, the more peace and joy we will have. It is not just about who we are in Christ, but about who He is in us. Our peace and joy are in the Lord. The more clearly we see Him and the more closely we follow Him, the more peace and joy we will have.
The world and Christians who depart from the path of life seek their peace and joy in temporary things. As everything that can be shaken begins to shake, their peace and joy will also be shaken. If you become the most wealthy, powerful person on this earth, you will be increasingly anxious in the time to come. The stress of maintaining your wealth or your power is a terrible bondage without Christ. However, those who are "growing up into the Lord" are in pursuit of the Lord, Himself, and our life's pursuit is to serve and please Him. If we are stewards of Christ, all that we are entrusted with remains His. We will have peace and joy which is based in serving the Lord, not wealth or power.
This is why we are told in Philippians 4:7, "And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." We should not ever lose our peace! It is what guards our hearts and minds and keeps us in Christ Jesus. If we have lost our peace, we have somehow departed from the path of life, which is the path of following the Lamb wherever He goes. Following anything or anyone else will cause us to lose our peace, and by this we know that we have departed from the way. If this has happened to us, we must go back to where we missed the turn and get back on the path. That is called "repentance."
As we covered earlier in Romans 14:17, "...the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." True peace can only be found when we are abiding in the righteousness of God. When we do this, we will not only have peace, but true joy as well. There is no other true and lasting source of either peace or joy. If we are not right with God, we can have everything and still be a dreary, fearful, and tormented person.
The most basic principle of building our lives on the kingdom of God is to "seek first His kingdom and His righteousness" (see Matthew 6:33). That is, we seek the purposes of His kingdom first when making every major decision in our lives. That is the key to building our lives on the kingdom that cannot be shaken and having true peace and joy in our lives.
If we are true bondservants of the King, we do not spend our lives in pursuit of the things we want to do; we spend our lives seeking to do His will. If that is the focus of our lives, we will have far more peace and joy than we could ever have just doing the things we want to do. The cross is the instrument by which His righteousness is imputed to us, and those who are abiding in His righteousness take up the cross daily. It is a life of sacrifice, not self-seeking. However, there will never be a greater peace and joy than what we receive from doing and being in His will.
We know from the clear prophecy of Scripture that the end of this age will be the hardest times the world has ever known. At the same time, we also know from the clear prophecy of Scripture that they will be the most glorious for those who serve the Lord. For those who abide in the Lord, who have built their lives on His kingdom, there should be no fear of things to come. In fact, the hard times are birth pangs that will ultimately result in the birth of the kingdom of God on the earth. The "mother," through which the birth will come, will be the church.
The church is the "Jerusalem above," or the spiritual Jerusalem, who Paul said "is our mother" (see Galatians 4:26). The church will go through the great changes that the world is about to go through and will enter into the life and power of the age to come in many ways as a precursor of the coming of the kingdom. For this reason, the church is the main thing that God is doing on the earth today. If we want to serve Him, we will begin to do it in and through the church.
The messenger who goes before the Lord to preach the gospel of the kingdom and to prepare the way for the Lord is the church. If we are going to be a part of what the Lord is doing to prepare the way for His kingdom, we must do it from a position of being in our place in His body. For this reason, the next few weeks we will spend a bit of time looking at what the church is, how this is different from what it is called to be, and how we get there from here. This is an essential revelation for those who are going to be a part of the purposes of the Lord in the time we are now entering.