Welcome to God Today. My name is Bobbi Kumari and I am the founder of Living In Light. And it gives me so much joy to be able to share a word with you all today. I pray that the Lord would show up in your day today. And fill you with fresh faces of joy, and hope, and peace.
Peace is actually what I am going to be speaking about today. I would love to begin by sharing an encounter that I had when I was on a mission trip, about 18 months ago, on the party island of Ibiza. Ibiza is in Europe, one of the Spanish Islands. And it is renowned for a real hedonistic vibe. There is a lot of partying, a lot of drug-taking, alcohol consumption, promiscuity, beaches, etc.
The ministry I was serving out there, do the most incredible work in being able to reach out to, obviously, holiday-makers, both the staff that work in the clubs and the bars and the workers in the sex industry as well. As well as locals and just anyone, really, that would need help during a night out, or even during the daytime.
So, one of the nights we were there praying on the streets. And just asking the Lord to show us what He would want us to do next. We were sitting on a bench and 3 men walked past. And one of them just approached us and began to speak with us. And so, we ended up having the most incredible conversation with these 3 precious men, who were actually all chefs. They were living in Paris and working together. The love of God for these precious ones just filled our hearts so much as we talked about their lives, and their dreams, and their aspirations.
My friend and I asked them if they would like prayer. Although they weren’t Christians, they were totally up for it. I asked them, “What would you want prayer for?” One of them said he would want prayer for peace in the world. And so, we began to pray. And we all held hands. We stood in the middle of this space filled with drunk people, and people screaming, or just having lots of fun, and just lots of craziness going on around us. And there we stood. All 5 of us, holding hands, just praying.
We could feel the presence of the Lord as His kind intent, and His goodness for these 3 men showed up in such a beautiful, tangible way. And so, we prayed for their friendship, for their callings, for their gifts, and their talents. We prayed, really, that Jesus would reveal His love to them. And, of course, we prayed for world peace.
Once we actually finished praying, you could tell that they were tangibly touched by the encounter they had. They knew that it wasn’t an ordinary thing that they had just been part of. As they were leaving, the guy who had asked for prayer when it came to peace, said to me, “If everyone in the world carried what you two are carrying, then surely there would be world peace.”
And I said, “I know!” And we all laughed. But it was so true, and it is so true. He could tell the peace we carried wasn’t a peace that you could find in this world. It wasn’t worldly peace. It wasn’t a pseudo-peace. It wasn’t a fleeting peace. He could discern that the peace we were carrying as children of God, was a peace that came from another world. This is what scripture tells us. This is the kind of peace that Jesus has left us as His children. This is what we read in John 14:27 says, which is what I am going to read now. Where Jesus says, “Peace I leave with you, my own peace I now give and bequeath to you. Not as the world gives, do I give to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled. Neither let them be afraid. Stop allowing ourselves to be agitated and disturbed. And do not permit yourselves to be fearful and intimidated, and cowardly, and unsettled.”
And as we find ourselves living in a world where there is so much reason to be cowardly, there is so much reason to be shaken, where the world around us is shaking so much. But in the midst of us, we as the children of God have this unshakeable peace where we don’t have to fear what is happening in the world. Because John 16:33 Jesus tells us in that scripture, “Yes, there is going to be trials and tribulations in this world. But we don’t have to fear because He has overcome this world!” And He actually says, in the Amplified version, “that He has stripped this world of its power to harm us.”
As children of God, we carry this confidence that nothing in this world can actually harm us. Where billions right now are so afraid because their livelihoods are being harmed, or they might be fearful about their health being harmed, or their finances being harmed. But we, as Christians, have this hope that this world cannot harm us. And so, what that brings us is a peace that surpasses all understanding that we read about in Philippians 4. A peace that mounts garrison, that mounts God around our heat and our soul.
The word “garrison” is a military term. It actually speaks of an army and a troop that actually guards our hearts. In fact for me, when I picture that, I find so much rest in actually visualizing a supernatural army of God’s peace that is mounting God around my heart, and around my mind. When I recognize just the kind of peace I have been invited into, I become more and more determined to share this peace with a world around me that is truly experiencing unrest.
I want to encourage you today. You have the Prince of Peace abiding in you. Let’s invite those who are around us, those who are looking for peace in this world. Those that are actually looking for some kind of stability in this world of unrest. Let’s invite them into God’s peace. A peace that truly surpasses all understanding. I am going to pray for you guys to have the most peaceful day. That you would so acutely be aware of the peace that we have available to each and every one of us.
Father in Heaven, I just thank you so much for the price that Jesus paid so that we could have peace. So that we could experience wholeness. So that we could experience rest. And Jesus, I just ask, would you, as the Prince of Peace, truly release such a glorious canopy of peace over every single person who is listening and watching? And, Lord, I pray that each and every one of us would become vessels of peace that would truly release something so supernatural in the world around us that we would invite those around us that are wrestling with unrest, that are unsettled, that are fearful, that are lacking courage, may they know the confidence that comes from the peace that only you can provide. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.