The Shoes Of Peace
Last week we went over how to protect yourself against the Devil’s attacks and how to set a guard around your hearts. This week we continue learning how to use the shoes of Peace.
Spikes for standing firm
Have you ever felt that Satan is trying to drive you away from the will of God in your life? Those times and things just seem to get so overwhelming that you just don’t know how you will continue following the course the Lord has set for your life.
Has God spoken to you and told you to stand on a certain Bible promise, only to hear Satan telling you that it will never come to pass, and that you will fail? Have you ever been assaulted by the enemy this way?
Maybe you are believing for a miracle of God in your life, and the Devil is trying to put your faith down and keep you from moving into that blessing. When you have the shoes of Peace on your feet “a herd of elephants couldn’t move you or knock you down!”
God gives us supernatural peace to plant our feet firmly on the ground. This enables us to say, “Regardless of what I hear or what I see, I am not moving!” I don’t care how hard it becomes the peace of God will keep me, I am not moving until the work of God is done in this area of my life and it is finished.
In other words, the peace of God gives you a firm footing. The Devil may attack and attack, but someone who has the peace of God working in their lives will be unmovable. That peace will hold you in place.
Someone who has the peace of God actively functioning in their lives is like a palm tree in the midst of a hurricane. Although when the storm comes against that palm tree and it bends once the storm passes it stands upright as before the storm. That is because the roots of that tree held it firmly in place. In Ephesians 6:14 the Holy Spirit, through Paul, said, “ Stand therefore…” In 1 Corinthians 16:13, Paul urges us, “Watch ye, stand fast in the faith…” Then, in 2 Corinthians 1:24, Paul says, “ … For by faith ye stand…”
Have you ever tried to stand for faith? Have you ever tried to stand for a miracle? Have you ever tried to stand for a financial situation to turn around? Or have you tried to stand in faith for a relationship to be healed? There is a whole lot more to “Standing” then first meets the eye.
It is interesting to note that the majority of the verses in the New Testament dealing with the subject of “Standing” also have to do with faith. When you stand in faith the enemy will try and remove that faith, knowing that if he removes your faith you will be brought to defeat. The enemy doesn’t want you to maintain your stand of faith.
What is going to keep you in place as you seek to stand in faith? What is going to enable you to maintain your ground when a storm comes against you?
The peace of God will hold you in place just as the roots of the tree held it in place, so will the peace of God hold you in place.
Perhaps you have a relative or friend who is terminally ill. The doctors tell you that he or she has only a short time to live. Others tell you to “accept it” and work through the emotions of loosing a loved one. Satan whispers in your ear and tells you that he or she will not recover.
At that particular moment – when you are deciding to stand in faith or not to stand in faith – every opportunity in the world will come to move you out of that place of faith. You must plant your feet firmly in the word of the Lord and declare, “I don’t care what the medical reports say, I don’t care what the devil tries to whisper to me – God is going to move in his or her life. We are not moving until he does. We are going to maintain this stand on faith.
Only the peace of God will keep you in that place of confidence. Why? Because every other thing you hear will only try to remove you out of your faith and the promises of God’s word.
Perhaps you are facing a financial crisis. Maybe you’ve been believing God for a miracle to turn your situation around and the Devil has been saying to you, “You are going to go bankrupt. You are going to loose your witness in the community. Everybody is going to talk about you. God isn’t going to come through with this miracle you’ve been praying and believing to receive!
I know you have sowed money to the church, but you should have held onto that money. Now you really need it. If you hadn’t given that money to God you wouldn’t be in this mess right now!”
When the Devil comes to accuse your mind like this, what is going to keep you in the middle of God’s will? What is going to hold you in that place of faith? What is going to keep you standing in faith on the word of God? The peace of God!
When the peace of God is operative in your life, it puts spikes on your feet and holds you in place. The supernatural peace of God makes you immovable.
The reason so many believers do not receive from God is because they don’t walk in the peace of God.
The first time they are hit with a challenge, or the first time the Devil hits them with a slanderous thought, they give up and throw in the towel. They say, “ Ok Satan, you can have that ground I have been trying to take with faith, you can have it. That’s right, Satan, my relative will never be healed. That’s right Satan; I’m going to go bankrupt. I’ll just give up right now. I guess your right, I shouldn’t have obeyed the word of God and given my tithes and offerings to the Lord.”
Know this, Satan will always try to tell you that the reason you are in a financial mess is because you gave money to the Lord. He will always remind you of the $10 that you gave as if that $10 would have changed your situation.
There are plenty of situations and opportunities for you to hear the slanderous accusations of the enemy during the course of your Christian life. Therefore you must learn how to plant your feet firmly into the soil of God’s word, and by faith stay right where you are – unmoved and unhindered by Satan’s threats and lies.
Peace is a divine weapon that will insulate you from these vicious attacks. The peace of God will keep you when Satan tries to shove doubt into your mind. The peace of God will guard your heart and mind even when Satan is trying to make you loose your mind. The peace of God is a keeping peace.
Up until now we have primarily dealt with the defensive nature of peace. Now we will see peace as an offensive weapon. In Romans 16:20, Paul said, “ And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly.”
Notice, first of all, the word “bruise”. It is taken from the Greek work suntribo (sun-tri-bo), and it was historically used to denote the act of “smashing and utterly crushing” grapes into wine. Have you ever accidentally stepped on a grape and ever felt it squish between your toes? It’s rather messy, isn’t it? This is precisely the idea of the word “bruise”.
The word “bruise” (suntribo) was also used to denote the act of “snapping, breaking, and crushing bones.” In fact, this is the picture of breaking bones so terribly, that they can never be mended or healed.
With this in mined Romans 16:20 basically says, That Satan’s only rightful position is under our feet – where he is completely subdued, squished like a grape, and crushed to pieces!
It is important to note that this “smashing and crushing” of Satan is done in cooperation of God. Alone you are no match for this archenemy. Remember, he is a fallen angel, even in his fallen state, he has maintained much of his original intelligence. He is very smart, cunning, crafty and extremely strong.
This is the reason Paul says, “… The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet…” in other words this is a joint partnership with God and you. By yourself you could never keep Satan subdued. But with God as your partner, the devil has no chance of ever slipping out from under your heel.
Jesus completely destroyed Satan’s power over you through His death and resurrection. Satan was utterly smashed, crushed, and bruised by Jesus’ victorious resurrection from the dead. Our mission now is to reinforce the victory already won and to let Satan know just how miserably defeated he is.
The enemy may try to lord himself over you, and may attempt to exert influence in your life; however most of these are empty threats and illusions that he is using to feed fear into your mind. If he can get you to believe in these hellish schemes your faith will dwindle, and your strong stand waver. He will truly begin to take a temporal position over you that does not belong to him.
The only peace that belongs to the devil is that itty-bitty space of ground that’s directly under your feet!
The victory is already yours! Your healing, your miracle, your financial blessing, it is already yours! Jesus accomplished a total, and perfect work at the cross of Calvary and his resurrection from the dead!
Let me remind you of something extremely important. In Joshua chapter 1 God freely gave the children of Israel the Promised Land. However in order for them to possess and enjoy this privilege they had to go and put their feet on that ground which God freely gave them. God gave Joshua, “Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given you…” (Joshua 1:3)
Yet the land God promised was infested with giants and opposition. In order to possess Gods’ promise they had to do some walking and some fighting. They had to fight for the kingdom AI, the city of Jericho and so on. These infestations did not want to give up their ownership and surrender to Gods people. Yet in time the kingdom of AI was destroyed and the walls of Jericho fell utterly flat. And God’s people prevailed because God was on their side.
It may be that there are areas of your life, which seem to linger on and defeat you. There may be habits that have held you for a long, long time, or personal hassles that seem to be impossible to overcome.
At the cross of Calvary, every single one of these were resolved, and their power over you utterly shattered.
Now it is time for you to do some walking! Just like the Israelites, freedom is yours, now you must go in and possess the land. If the devil is foolish enough to stand in your way, remember God is right there with you! This is a joint partnership between you and Him! Therefore march on and claim what is yours. If the devil refuses to move, then crush him like grapes beyond recognition! This is your chance to demonstrate his defeat. With the God of peace on your side, you are bigger then the devil. So throw your shoulders back, hold your head up high, dig your feet down as deep as you can, don’t listen to the devil and if he whispers in your ear, wiggle your feet down a little further and remind him he’s not coming out from under your feet.
Paul continues to say, “ and the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly.” Notice Paul ends this powerful verse with the word “shortly”. The word “shortly” is taken from the word tachos (ta-chos) the word tachos (“shortly”) depicts the picture of a large group of soldiers marching down the street the word describes how they marched. These men of war were taught to take very hard, short, heavy steps when they marched in formation therefore when a large group of Roman soldiers came marching downtown, their noise could be heard everywhere as they stomped and pounded on the pavement of the street.
All this stomping upon the pavement, served as a warning to the community. You see, they were taught to stop for no one! If a little old woman fell on the ground in front of them, that was her problem, not theirs! She should have known better then to get in front of Roman soldiers.
In such events, they were instructed to keep marching – all the while stomping, pounding and clapping their heavy feet and spikes upon the pavement. Imagine what the poor old woman would have looked like after they marched through.
Now Paul uses the same illustration to portray our victory through Christ. By using the word “shortly” he is giving us an extremely graphic scripture.
If the devil wants to stand in front of you and oppose you and the work of God in your life, then Do Not stop and ask him to move! Keep marching! Just keep stomping and pounding as you move forward to obey the plan of God for your life, and as you move forward in faith do as much damage to him as you possibly can! As Paul said, “ and the God of peace bruises Satan under your feet shortly” Romans 16:20
There’s no doubt about it, the peace of God is an awesome weapon.