Day 11: Receive God’s deep, inward peace

Throughout the Bible, we see one requirement that God asks from his people: to listen to His voice. For instance, in Jeremiah 7:22-23, God says:

“Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you will be My people...” (NAS)

The simple pathway to God's blessings is to hear and obey His voice, but the inevitable end of not hearing and obeying God's voice is being cursed as described in Deuteronomy 28. The curses in the spiritual realm (the inner realm, the realm of our inner personality) which result from disobedience to God are listed by Moses.

First of all, in verse 20, Moses says that we will experience confusion in all we undertake to do. That is the first specific spiritual curse: confusion.

In verse 28, Moses lists madness and bewilderment of heart. Those are results of not hearing God's voice. They are curses. In verse 34, God says you shall be driven mad by the sight of what you see. We might say that mental and emotional breakdown is a curse and they are the result of disobedience against God.

Let me observe from experience that one of the most common causes, perhaps the commonest single cause of confusion and of mental and emotional breakdown is involvement in the occult, in wrong spiritual relationships and activities that are forbidden by the Word of God. With seeking for wisdom or guidance in the occult, people are listening to other voices than the Lord’s.

In verse 65, Moses speaks of a trembling heart and despair of soul. I believe we could sum up the spiritual consequences of disobedience - these spiritual curses - in some words like these: confusion, frustration, inner agony and torment. These are the things that we continually encounter in the lives of people today: confusion, frustration, inner agony and torment.

Now what is the blessing in the spiritual realm that results from obedience? Of course, there are countless blessings. But I believe they really can be summed up in one short and beautiful word, the word is peace. In Isaiah 53:5, where Isaiah pictures the exchange that took place when Jesus died on the cross, he says this,

“The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him.”

Jesus endured the judgment and the punishment due to our sin and disobedience that we might be reconciled with God. And being reconciled with God, that we might be delivered from inner agony and torment, from confusion and frustration, and that we might know the reality of a deep, settled, inward peace. I pray you will have this peace, which Jesus obtained for you at the Cross - you now know the key!