HOW TO ACCESS PEACE (6)

When a beloved one heard about my call into ministry and got to know that no one had succeeded in changing my mind, she said, “It is just youthful exuberance. It will wear out.” This is twelve years, and that youthful exuberance has not worn out. Why? It was not my zeal. It is the zeal of the Lord. 

When we were to get married, we also had quite some dissenting voices. Those who loved my wife felt she was making a huge mistake marrying a young man who was into ministry in a place like Eruwa. Some confronted her directly also. She stood her ground in the heat of it all. Why? It was her zeal to follow the Lord no matter what. 

Beloved,  one of the ways that you enjoy the covenant of peace is by being zealous for the Lord. 

First, your zeal for the Lord must be rooted in the knowledge of who God is and what God can do. It must be a righteous zeal and not just a decision made in pride. 

Romans 10:2-3 NKJV

[2] For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. [3] For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. 

Whenever you have a zeal for the Lord that is driven by righteousness, the outcome is peace. You will have an unusual peace from the Lord. Everything may be shaking around you, but you are as calm as a baby. 

Psalms 27:3-4 MSG

[3] When besieged, I’m calm as a baby. When all hell breaks loose, I’m collected and cool. [4] I’m asking God for one thing, only one thing: To live with him in his house my whole life long. I’ll contemplate his beauty; I’ll study at his feet.

Phinehas (not of Eli) touched this dimension when he arose and killed a man and woman who had the audacity to commit immorality in the middle of God’s judgement. God spoke to Moses about him. 

There are plagues in the land because of immorality. While they were praying and weeping about it, someone was committing that same act: 

Numbers 25:6-8 NKJV

[6] And indeed, one of the children of Israel came and presented to his brethren a Midianite woman in the sight of Moses and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, who were weeping at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. [7] Now when Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose from among the congregation and took a javelin in his hand; [8] and he went after the man of Israel into the tent and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman through her body. So the plague was stopped among the children of Israel. 

Did God commend his zeal? Yes, He did! 

Numbers 25:11-12 NKJV

[11] “Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned back My wrath from the children of Israel, because he was zealous with My zeal among them, so that I did not consume the children of Israel in My zeal. [12] Therefore say, ‘Behold, I give to him My covenant of peace.

When you see unrighteousness, do not tolerate it. Hate unrighteousness in your life and around you. Speak up about Jesus. Speak up about righteousness.