If you take time to listen to the voice of Holy Spirit instead of the noise surrounding you, you will retain your focus and most of all your peace. Holy Spirit used a very dear Sister in Christ to provide me with a new life motto just before He took her home to the Lord. It is one that I make sure I focus on EVERY day when I wake up because it helps me to stay my focus in a world which is pulling me in every direction it can.
“Govern yourself and guard your peace.”
One sentence that brings order. Brings focus. Brings peace. Brings direction. Enables me to remember whose voice it is I am to listen to – God’s. It is my center point. It redirects me when I start to feel anxious, discouraged, worried, fretful. When that occurs, I recognize that I am NOT governing myself. Miriam Webster Dictionary definition of governing oneself is as follows:
“Having control or rule over oneself.”
You are not responsible for the actions of someone else. You ARE responsible for how you conduct yourself, especially if you are part of God’s Called Remnant. You are Christ’s Ambassador and it is in remembering that as in Galatians 2:20:
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
You are responsible for how YOU govern yourself. In governing yourself, you are like a watchman on a tower – you are guarding your peace. The Bible tells us in Acts 17:28:
“For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are His offspring.’”
When you remember that you have committed your life to the Lord, so it is no longer your own, you realize that you have a HIGHER calling, you have a VERY angry enemy and need to conduct yourself as a soldier for Christ. You are in a spiritual war so you must be on guard at ALL times, for it is when you let your guard down that the enemy tries to gain ground. Guard your peace! Conduct yourself accordingly! Your mind is the battlefield! Your thoughts and perceptions need to be protected! Your body is a vessel unto Holy Spirit, make sure that you are dressed in your spiritual armor, as in Ephesians 6:10-18:
“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.”
Who are you listening to? Your worries? Your anxieties? Your feelings? Governing yourself means recognizing that you and you alone have the authority that Christ has given you to bring EVERYTHING under submission to God, but YOU have to take authority and do it. It is an action item that requires your willingness to submit everything that concerns you under Christ’s authority.
God has given you ALL the tools you need to be successful in your walk with Him, use them. Walking by faith requires just that – stepping out IN that faith. You have to govern your thoughts, your actions, your will, what you choose to listen to, how you act or respond – bringing all things that concern you into submission. This isn’t always easy – it is re-directing thoughts, which in turn will line up your actions and responses to all things concerning YOU. THIS is guarding your peace. Jesus said in John 14:27:
“Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”
Guarding your peace comes with lining up with the Prince of Peace, when you lose your peace something is not being governed within you correctly, it is time to re-examine what it is that is the cause of that disruption. Time to back track and examine… Is it your heart? Is it your thought life? Is it you allowing someone to disrupt your peace??? It is in the recognizing what it is that helps you get things lined back up in order. Once you have figured out whatever it is you can bring it to God in prayer. Holy Spirit is RIGHT there with you, sometimes it is a matter of allowing Holy Spirit to make you submissive to the transformation of your mind. He likes to get in their and re-arrange and get rid of the things within you that hinder you from governing yourself which results in the disruption of your peace. Let Him!
We are ALL works in progress, as you practice “governing yourself and guarding your peace” you will find yourself more sensitive to Holy Spirit and able to hear His voice of instruction more clearly. I pray that this mantra will become YOUR mantra and that it will help grow you in Christ, as it continues to grow me. There is no greater joy than sharing a word that was shared to me, may it make as big a difference in your walk as one of God’s Called Remnant’s as it has in mine. I pray as this word was shared to me, that you in turn will share it with others, for we are called to encourage and build each other up – to share successful tools to walk in the victory and peace that Christ has purchased for us! May we do just that! To God be the glory! Amen
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