Today we're going to take a posture of peace by calling peace to rise up in us.
Hi, I'm Lindsay Van Zale. Posture is a podcast that serves as a short audible fist bump to remind
you that God is in everything. Together, we're going to be emboldened to take a daily posture
of perfect peace. In John chapter 14 verse 27, Jesus said,
This week, I'm joining Graham Cooke for a five-day challenge on Facebook called
Three Plus Me, where together with people from all over the world, we are exploring the depths
of God's empowering presence within us. We'd love for you to join us this week. It's not too late.
The link to join is in the description of this episode. Now, a few years ago, when I was in the
battle of anxiety and panic, Graham said something to me that honestly, I did not respond too well
at first. It rubbed me the wrong way, but now I know it was rubbing away my unbelief. Graham's
testimony that he shared with me during that time actually planted a seed of possibility in me that
led to my total victory over anxiety. I'm going to be sharing a clip from our conversation in the
Three Plus Me challenge that highlights this story. Graham, you said something to me a couple
years ago, actually. It's been a couple years now, but it has always stuck with me, and my initial
reaction to it was actually pretty volatile. What you said was, I have not worried in over 30 years,
and when you first said that, I thought, that can't be true, which is a horrible implication,
because it was really implying that you were lying to me, but as I've sat under your mentorship as
being a brilliant TV subscriber for many years, and I've just watched as you've lived this out,
lived this truth out, that we do not have to be worried about anything. How is that possible?
I think it's because Jesus is the Prince of Peace, and He lives in you, and He was very clear
in John 14, 27, when He said, My peace I give you, not as the world gives. Don't let your heart be
troubled. You know, I've overcome the world. So here's the Prince of Peace living in you, and He's
never had a day of worry in His life. So what He's saying is, if I'm making you like me, then you get
to come into all of this territory in terms of identity, in terms of who we are, and you get to
live from a different place. And so I realized the Prince of Peace is living in me, because before
then I was always thinking that peace is something on the outside that I need to bring inside, and
then what I was realizing is I already have peace inside, because there are three of them, and they're
all practicing their peace in me. So I need to get with the program, and really I needed to come into
alignment with my inner self and God, that God is always in me. I need to line up, so that who He is
rises up inside of me. You know, God isn't going to give me something from outside. He put Jesus on
the inside of us, so that Jesus could be the one who receives everything, and the Holy Spirit allows
that to come up out of my heart into my conscious mind, and so on. So I'm living in
this three, and they have a different picture of my circumstances than I do. So I'm the one that
needs to refocus. So I love the whole idea of Three Plus Me, because it's so simple on the one hand,
but it's so profound on the other, and it has a hugely powerful focus for us,
because straight away we're right there with the Lord. Yeah, I think I used to live backwards too,
like you talked about, where when I needed peace, I was trying to get it from like my head down,
you know, like if I just, and instead it was about letting the peace that was already in me,
in my spirit, rise to then permeate my thoughts and my emotions, and settle all the head noise,
right? Settle the negativity, silence the accusation, silence the confusion,
and that has really what has made the
difference. You know, part of my testimony is I used to have numerous panic and anxiety attacks
and now I'm totally free because I have this revelation of the Prince of Peace in me.
Always there, never leaving to then, you know, show up later again. Right, right, right.
And I loved it. I remember God teaching me the whole thing. I was staying in a hotel,
I was on the 40th floor and he was talking to me about, Graham, everything's in you and it has to
rise up within you. You've got everything you need right now but it has to, it's in you, it has to
rise up. And I'm on the 40th floor and I'm meeting a friend down in the lobby and as I'm walking
towards the elevator it said, so how does the elevator work? I said, Lord, you press the button
and it comes up. And he goes, huh, like something else I know. And I'm thinking,
oh my gosh, that's it. That's the perfect illustration. I can grab hold of that. I call
peace up and it comes. You press the button and it comes, it rises up within you. And it's not
coming from outside, it's coming from within. It's like you call it up in the same way you call up
the elevator. Lord, let your peace rise up in me, in Jesus' name. And so I just started practicing
that and that literally is how it works. You know, you don't, you can't understand it, you have to
experience it. Because the Bible says, I think it's in Philippians, that it's the peace of God
that passes all understanding. In other words, you can't understand it, it's a pure gift and a pure
experience. Just let it rise up. You call it up, it will come. Just like the elevator, it's the same
principle, the same practice. And I love how God makes things so available to us, you know, by
example. So I've been calling up peace all the time. And it, you know, I call it up and I just
get on with things. And then sometimes the elevator comes right away. Sometimes it's like, you know,
it's a process, it comes up, but I'm always expecting it to come. And it does. More often
than not, it's an express elevator. I think it depends on circumstances, maybe, you know.
And if you know, if you know in a situation how to practice peace in that situation, you have
the permission to have the answer straight away. Because you've had an experience. So I like that too.
Now, did you catch that? Graham said he started practicing calling peace up and letting it rise
in him. You know, too often I've been tempted to think that, well, if it's true, it's just going
to happen. And if it doesn't happen or if it doesn't happen immediately, it must not be true.
This thinking causes a double-mindedness in us. It causes doubt and unbelief because
the truth is an invitation. And it's an invitation that we must receive and a way
for us to receive it is to start putting it into practice. And, you know, there's so much
grace within this relational journey with God. He's not looking to trick us or trip us up or
make it complicated for us. He makes himself available to us always. So today, put peace into
practice, call it up, expect it to rise, because the truth is the Prince of Peace is always present.
The promise of perfect peace is found in Isaiah 26 3. And in Hebrew, it is shalom shalom, meaning
complete wholeness, nothing missing, nothing broken. This is who you are in Jesus. Let's
declare this together. Today, I am kept in perfect peace. With my whole heart, I trust the Lord.
I am strong. I am victorious. I am whole. Remember, friend, you are a living testimony
of Jesus's ultimate win, not because of anything you did, but because of what he did for you.
With every step you take today, you're putting Jesus's victory on display and Satan's defeat
on replay.