Dear Explorer,
Read John 14:27
What does Jesus call the Holy Spirit in this verse?
Here He calls the Holy Spirit “peace”.
The world offers a different kind of peace than God offers. The difference is so great that there really should be two different words for it.
The world offers peace when all around you is calm. You see the lady practicing yoga and everything around her is peaceful -- there's candles or incense, a wonderful peaceful serenity. She's surrounded by peace and quiet and stillness. Or you see a vacation advertisement with a fantastic view of the ocean and pristine sand beaches and a single deck chair just waiting for you to come.
But that peace is only good until trouble knocks or life gets hectic and confusing and more often than not -- the beach becomes crowded and dirty. God's peace is an inner peace that remains through the tough times and actually grows during adversity. It remains in the midst of school pressures, upset parents, financial worries or health complications. Peace is like a piece of heaven that dwells within us, keeping our compass set on Him. Of course, that peace is the Holy Spirit Himself inside of us.
I picture God's peace like a Rocky Mountain creek crashing down the side of a mountain. It is amazingly powerful, and you can throw as many rocks as you wish into it – it just keeps crashing noisily down. You could toss a whole boulder into it – and it would just rush over and around it. Nothing would stop it! That's a good picture of God's peace.
You can find a list of all the "fruit of the Spirit" in Galatians 5:22-23. "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law." (NASB). When you let God fill your emptiness with His Spirit -- this is the list of what He produces inside of you.
I use these "results" or “fruit” of the Holy Spirit in my own life as a measure of where I am in my relationship with God. If I'm in short supply of gentleness or peace or kindness (or any of the others) I recognize that I may be letting habits of SELF crowd out the Holy Spirit. I try to make more time for God and get to a healthier place in my relationship. I especially see the Holy Spirit's fruit diminish when I miss my quiet time with God first thing in the morning. These fruits are produced in our life by the Holy Spirit. They are not earned or learned. That's a major fallacy that's often taught. You don't seek to learn patience -- you seek to let God be in control of your life and patience is the by-product. If you pursue one of these fruits -- it becomes an elusive butterfly -- but when you pursue God Himself -- the fruits appear in your life!
When God is in first place in the command center of my life, I WILL produce fruits that will naturally show up in my life.
What 2 instructions does Jesus give in the last phrases of John 14:27?