How To Live In Perfect Peace—Really

Jan Smith

As a very wise friend says, “Not every thought you think you thought is a thought you thought!”

That phrase may be a bit of a tongue-twister, but it’s also a true statement. Some thoughts we “hear” in our mind come from outside of us.

The apostle Paul understood the truth of that outside influence when he wrote in chapter 6 of his letter to the Ephesians, “For our struggle is not with flesh and blood but with the principalities, with the powers, with the world rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens” (Ephesians 6:12). Meaning: every person on earth is in a battle, but not in the physical (flesh and blood) sense. We are at war against satan and his demons, and the battle is being fought in our minds.

Among the weapons of spiritual warfare which Paul lists is “…the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God” (Ephesians 6:17). Paul’s teaching lines up perfectly with the way in which Jesus was able to stand against satan’s efforts to tempt Him.

Jesus’ very first instruction to us – found in chapter 4 of the Gospel of Matthew – was a real-life demonstration of how to use the truth of God’s Word as a weapon against the lies of satan. The encounter began with this exchange:

³And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” ⁴But he answered, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’” (Matthew 4:3-4)

You remember the story: satan tried to tempt Jesus two more times. With each attempt, Jesus responded, “it is written…”, and then quoted a statement of truth from Scripture. In so doing, Jesus gave us Heaven’s battle plan for success in spiritual warfare: the battle is against satan, the battle takes place in our minds, and we win the battle with the Word of God.

Someone will say, “Of course it worked for Jesus. He’s God. But it won’t work for ordinary people.” Satan would love it if you’d believe that. Here’s what satan doesn’t want you to know: it will work for us, and I’ll tell you why.

In the Gospel of Luke, as Jesus was preparing to send out seventy men to preach the Word, He began by saying to them, “He who hears you hears me…” (Luke 10:16)

The meaning of that phrase is this: when you speak the Word of God, it’s actually God Himself speaking through your voice. Your obedience in allowing yourself to be used as part of the Body of Christ causes your mouth to become in that moment the very mouth of God. And as God has said right from the beginning, the Word that goes forth from His mouth shall accomplish His purposes:

¹⁰“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,
and return not thither but water the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,

¹¹So shall My Word be that goes forth from My mouth;
It shall not return to Me void,
But it shall accomplish what I please,
And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.
(Isaiah 55:10-11)

When you speak God’s Word against Satan’s treachery, you are bringing the power that spoke the universe into existence to bear upon your problem. This is the same power that raised Jesus from the dead. It’s the power that parted the Red Sea for Moses, shut the mouths of lions for Daniel, and allowed Peter to walk on water. This is the same power that promises those who have put their trust in Him that He will “… rebuke the devourer for you…” (Malachi 3:11).

James 4:7 says, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”

That verse could take on all the trappings of a “try-harder” teaching, if all you saw was the second sentence. Trying to “resist the devil” by your own strength is like trying to push your car to work in the morning by your own strength. But notice the order of the steps

The first thing you must do is to submit yourself to God. You do that by speaking His Word over the problem, instead of doing what “common sense” would have you do — focus alll your effort on the problem. That makes the second part easy. Once you’ve submitted to God, He will work through you to banish the devil just as Jesus did.

Remember, Peter was able to walk on water as long as he kept his eyes on Jesus. It wasn’t until he started focusing on the storm that he begin to sink.

“How Shall We Then Live?” (Ezekiel 33:10)

In Ezekiel 37, God has given us what amounts to a veritable outline for how to put His principles to work in everyday life.

¹The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD, and set me down in the midst of the valley; it was full of bones. ²And he led me round among them; and behold, there were very many upon the valley; and lo, they were very dry. ³And he said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord GOD, thou knowest.” ⁴Again he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. ⁵Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. ⁶And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the LORD.” ⁷So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold, a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to its bone. ⁸And as I looked, there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them. ⁹Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, Thus says the Lord GOD: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.” ¹⁰So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great host.

(Ezekiel 37:1-10)

We could outline the passage like this:

You’re in a valley of despair (and we’ve all been there)
The situation seems as impossible as dead mens’ bones coming back to life
Through His Word, God tells you what to “prophesy” over your situation
In obedience and complete trust in God, you “prophesy as commanded” by speaking God’s Word into your situation.
God keeps His promise and does the part you could not possibly do.

There’s the outline. Now, how about some concrete illustrations. This is the take-away. Here are three examples of how I’ve been using God’s Word in real-life situations.

“…Take Every Thought Captive” (2 Corinthians 10:5)

Has anyone ever challenged you by saying, “Don’t think about a pink elephant!”? The harder you try, the more it seems impossible to stop thinking about a pink elephant, right?

In the same way, there’s not a person alive who hasn’t found themselves entertaining an unwanted thought, and suddenly wondering, “Where did that come from??” And isn’t it interesting that such unwanted thoughts often come during unguarded moments such as when we’re half-awake, when our defenses are down, when our mind is wandering or as our gaze falls on something. Our adversary is evil, but he’s not stupid. Satan is a bully, preferring to attack us during our weakest moments.

Well, now we know where the unwanted thought comes from. But how to get rid of it? Paul gives us exactly what we need:

“We destroy arguments and every proud obstacle to the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5).

The concept of taking every thought captive really works! In these situations I begin to repeat, “Take every thought captive… take every thought captive… I am taking every thought captive…” As I do that, I can literally feel God’s spirit drawing me to Him and the undesired thought is just… gone!

Speaking of being tempted by what we see:

“I Have Made A Covenant With My Eyes…” (Job 31:1)

This application is especially for men. Ladies, you probably won’t fully comprehend what this is all about. But every guy who reads this… knows exactly what I’m talking about.

God has hard-wired men to respond to the beauty we see in a woman. He meant for us to use it within the boundaries of marriage. But satan has made a career out of taking the good things God has given us and tempting us outside of God’s boundaries.

Opportunities to indulge that urge are everywhere. They happen as you’re driving down the street, when you’re at the gym, and while standing in line near the magazine racks in the checkout lane at the grocery store. Sadly, there have even been times when provocatively dressed women sat in front of me in church. The temptation to let your eyes linger is strong, but God’s Word is stronger. Writing through the pen of the Apostle Paul, God’s Word says:

¹³”No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.” (1 Corinthians 10:13)

God promises to provide a way to escape any temptation. In the case of temptations toward lustful thoughts, I escape Satan’s trap instantly by drawing Biblical strength from this verse in the book of Job:

¹“I have made a covenant with my eyes; how then could I look upon a young woman?” (Job 31:1)

The very instant I found that verse, I made such a covenant. I find that by saying, “I have made a covenant with my eyes. I will not look lustfully at a woman!”, God supernaturally removes the urge to look, or stare, or indulge in a little fantasy. Those things might seem quite harmless. But realize this: once those images are in your mind, they stay there. Satan will parade those images across your mind when your defenses are low, hoping to get you to at least think about it. Such thoughts could be the beginning of a process that leads to sin. It all begins with letting your eyes linger.

Make a covenant with your eyes. Do it right now, then use Job 31:1 to thwart Satan’s attack on you.

“…This Finds Favor With God” (2 Peter 2:20)

Years ago I drove to California to visit relatives. On the Sunday before I was to head back to Minnesota, my uncle and I took my car to his favorite service station to get the oil changed, the grease fittings greased, and in general check the car’s roadworthiness. From there, we drove across the street to a car wash, hoping to clean off the layer of bugs and road grime.

At the car wash, a worker hooked a chain onto [supposedly] the frame at the front of the car. The machine pulled it slowly through the washing bay. When my car emerged from the other end, part of the steering linkage was dangling below the front bumper.

When I protested that they had hooked their chain onto the steering linkage, the worker replied, “Oh, no! I didn’t do that. Your car must have come in that way.”

I pointed across the street to the place where, just minutes earlier, the mechanics there had greased the fittings on the ends of that very same piece of broken metal. We all knew they were lying. I could easily have won in small-claims court. But I was leaving in the morning, and they knew it. All they had to do was stick to their lie, and they were safe.

Long story short: my uncle walked down the street and found a mechanic who replaced the broken part right there in the car wash driveway. And who ended up paying? I did. It wasn’t fair!

For a long time the injustice of that incident bugged me. It wasn’t until years later that I found wisdom in God’s Word that showed me how to let Him handle those unjust situations for me.

“… But if when you do right and suffer for it you take it patiently, this finds favor with God. (1 Peter 2:20)

I’ve used that phrase – “this finds favor with God” – more times than I can count. What God says to us through that verse is, “Yes, I saw what happened. I know all about it. Let it go. Don’t expect justice in this life. Instead of focusing on that injustice and allowing it to rule you, release it to Me. I’ll handle it. In exchange, I’ll give you My peace.”

Of course, Satan would prefer me to focus on each injustice, get into a big brouhaha, lose my temper, perhaps even do something stupid. But long ago I made a decision to take orders from God, not from Satan. Therefore, I now choose to do what is pleasing to God even when it costs me something in the short term.

“In Perfect Peace” (Isaiah 26:3)

Those are just three examples of how I’ve been wielding “the sword of the spirit which is the Word of God” in my daily battles against satan. When I began writing this article, I also began compiling a list of the Scriptures I use this way. My list is approaching 100 entries, and I’m certain there are hundreds more. Every time I find myself using one that I don’t have written down yet, I add it to the list. These are promises from God, and they work every time. God doesn’t lie. When we do our part, He keeps His Word by doing for us the part which we cannot do.

Having a worldview that isn’t based on the truth of God’s Word is like sending soldiers into battle without any training, without weapons, and without even knowing they are soldiers and are going to be in a battle. Well, we as Christians are the soldiers in God’s army. Our battle isn’t being fought with guns and tanks and bombs. It’s a battle of things such as ideas, attitudes, and priorities. The good news, which many don’t seem to realize, is that Christ has already won the battle for us. All we have to do is stand firm and not be drawn away from God by the enticingly baited hooks satan dangles in front of us.

The payoff is God’s promise of peace, even in the midst of the storm:

“Thou dost keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusts in thee.” (Isaiah. 26:3)

Two words: “perfect peace”. You need it. God offers it. Until we get to heaven, it doesn’t get any better than that.