We begin our journey in Judges 6.24, where we see that Gideon builds an altar to the Lord Yehovah (Messiah Pre-Incarnate), and called it Yehovah Shalom, the Lord Our Peace.
In Judges 6.12 God speaks to Gideon, as Israel is in hiding from the Midianites.
As Gideon is threshing grain in the winepress, trying to hide his activities from the raiding Midianites, the Lord speaks to him.
The angel of the Lord speaks to him and the Lord calls him a ‘mighty man of valour,’ a ‘valiant warrior’!
Hardly what we would expect to describe a man in hiding!
Gideon also replied in disbelief and tells the Lord, “My family is poor, and I am the least in my father’s house.”
At your weakest point, your most vulnerable, remember that you are what God declares you to be, even if we think that we are the least!
I could say, ‘I am the youngest and least in my family’, but if He calls me, He can qualify me.
In today’s testimony, I share the fear I had of public speaking when learning to be an English teacher, as God removed my fears and assured me of His plan.
I may not be the cleverest, but He can still use me.
In me you will have peace (John 16.33)
I’m sure you can recall sometimes when we have met people in life that just emit that peace.
We used to know a couple in the Isle of Wight that had just that, a sense of peace that seemed to fill and overflow from them, these are one of my heroes.
We have peace because we have His assurance that He is with us and for us.
God reassured Gideon by consuming the offering and confirming the fleece that he put out.
In the valley of the shadow of death, He is with us.
Proverbs 3.5 tells us to trust in the Lord Yehovah (Messiah Pre-incarnate) with all our heart and lean not on our own understanding.
This was the scripture the Lord gave us when He called us to go to Thailand and a special scripture for me.
We were to trust in Him and not to lean on our own understanding.
He gave us His perfect peace, that this calling was of Him and we could trust Him.
When we are in God’s plan and purpose, He gives us perfect peace.
He has a purpose for all of us, even the least of us has a purpose.
When we went to Thailand, someone described me as ‘Reepicheep’, the fighting mouse from the Chronicles of Narnia; I may be small, but I’m a fighting mouse for the Kingdom of God!
We may be ‘the least’, but we can punch above our weight when we have God’s peace!
We have a choice, to believe that we are small and weak and become ‘Much Afraid’, like the girl in Hind’s Feet on High Places, or we can be ‘Reepicheep’, the fighting mouse, a valiant little warrior with a big spirit!
Isaiah 26.3 tells us that, God will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is stayed on Him.
We are to trust in the Lord forever, because in the Lord Yah (Messiah Pre-Incarnate) Yehovah everlasting strength.
He keeps in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Him, He makes us into mighty men of valour when we trust in Him, because He is our strength.
God promises that we can have perfect peace and be kept in a place of perfect peace.
The Lord is Peace.
Yehovah is peace.
In Paleo Hebrew this word means, “Consume the leader, so he can be connected to greatness.”
Difficult circumstances bring forth greatness.
Because of Him, we can have well-being regardless of circumstances.
Shalom peace is wholeness, completeness and total well being in our lives, shalom is found only in Jesus.
Micah 5.2-5 – Prophesies Jesus’s birth in Bethlehem
2 You, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
are too small to be included among Judah’s cities.
Yet, from you Israel’s future ruler will come for me.
His origins go back to the distant past, to days long ago.
3 Therefore he shall give them up
until the time a mother has a child.
Then the remnant of His brethren shall return to the children of Israel.
4 And He shall stand and feed His flock in the strength of the Lord His God;
And they shall abide, for now He shall be great to the ends of the earth.
5 And this one will be the source of their peace.
He is to be the source of our peace.
Jesus is the Prince of Peace
Isaiah 9.6 – Pele Yo’etz El Gibbor Avi Ad Sar Shalom
6 For unto us a child is born, a son is given.
The government will rest on his shoulders.
He will be named:
Wonderful Counselor (Pele-Yo’etz El Gibbor Avi Ad-‘Sar-Shalom),
Mighty God (The Powerful Living Word),
Everlasting Father,
The Prince of Peace (Sar Shalom).
Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end.
How we long for the peace He will bring!
Now we can know His peace internally, but one day His government will bring it in and there will be no end!
Genesis 49.10
10 The sceptre shall not depart from Judah
nor a ruler’s staff from between his feet
until Shiloh (Place of Rest) comes
and unto him shall the gathering the people be.
He is our Shiloh, our place of rest.
His plans for us are peace.
Isaiah 48.18
18 If only you had listened to my commands!
Your peace would be like a river that never runs dry.
Your righteousness would be like waves on the sea.
Peace is our heritage, it comes with our salvation and is part of the package.
Sin interrupts peace, when we sin, our peace is interrupted.
God brings people into a place of peace.
We have peace, restoration, and healing in Jesus.
Come to me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest (Matthew 11.28)
We don’t need to be encumbered and overburdened by worry, we can have freedom in His peace.
Peace is our protection, He is our peace, our anchor in the storm.
We can speak peace to our storms.
When we are connected to Him, peace flows out to us from Him and overflows through us.
When we have Him, we can bring peace to every situation.
My peace I leave with you, my own peace I give to you. (John 14.27)
Do not allow yourself to be agitated and disturbed, stop allowing yourself to be intimidated and unsettled.
The Spirit of Intimidation
While we were in England in November 2016, I felt God speaking to me about learning to teach English back in Thailand.
Up to that point I had been learning Thai, so had been concentrating on that.
Both my parents had been teachers, but I had never felt drawn or able to do anything like this before, although naturally I had always been good at English.
In talking to God about teaching students, He said that I would need to do a TEFL course.
I delayed in doing this until July 2017 when I signed up for a course in Pattaya.
On the same day that I went to sign up for the course, David had a dream from God, telling him that if I didn’t sign up for the course, he had to!
Now, if you know Dave, you may know that English is not his forte!
As a couple we balanced each other perfectly; I had always been terrible at maths, but he is great at it and conversely, I had always been good at English, but he was not!
So on the same morning, I told him that I was going to sign up for the course.
Now public speaking has always been a bit scary for me and on the day that I had to do my first classroom assessment, I had a very vivid dream.
In the dream I was in a shopping centre.
A man walked towards me, dressed like a biker covered in tattoos and piercings and looking very scary.
As he walked towards me, he looked at me and said, “She’s my WIFE!” looking over his shoulder.
His wife was behind him and they both carried a spirit of intimidation.
I saw that the man was wearing a hat with the word “Intimidation.”
They were using fear to intimidate me.
Next, I went up in a lift and came out into a market place, where two old friends met me and asked if I was okay and went to take me for a coffee.
But then, my sister Sarah came up and put me onto a hospital gurney where she made me lie down.
She prayed and prophesied over me and called forth life to come out of me.
I could see and feel little balls of light being deposited inside me, as if I was in labour and giving birth as light came out of me.
God confirmed that I was in the right place, where He wanted me to be, and that this was His plan, being done in His power and not in my own strength.
I was birthing the vision of teaching in the Spirit and not of my own plans and I knew that it was from Him.
When God shows you something so clearly, nothing can stop you and you know that you are not doing it on your own.
He equips His people, in His way, for what He calls us to do.
We can stand on Christ, our Solid Rock.
Jesus is our Captain and Ruler, the source of our peace, He is in control.
Our peace is the fruit of our fellowship with Him.
Peace brings great benefits, the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace.
The Spirit changes intimidation and fear to confidence and assurance.
In Matthew 5.9, Jesus tells us, “Blessed are those who pursue peace, for they shall be called sons of God.”
Philippians 4.7 tells us that “the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
John 16.33 He tells us, “These things I have spoken to you, that in me you may have peace.”
In Hebrew perfect peace means shalom shalom.
Not just shalom, but shalom shalom, perfect peace.
We shall receive a double portion, a double provision, a double blessing of peace; more than enough.
As we continue into this New Year, let us press in and know that His peace is more than enough for our journey.
We are upheld and sustained by the Lord’s perfect peace.