Jesus spoke these words to address the spirit of the age. We must also look at what happens when our spirit is troubled.

1. When our heart is troubled the focus is on ourselves and not on God.

2. When our heart is troubled the focus is on what appears to be negative or something negative happening.

3. When our heart is troubled we are distracted from what the Lord is doing or about to do.

4. When our heart is troubled we no longer have the capacity to be in faith, but our orientation is from a basis of fear.

Jesus knew that what He was about to undergo would shake the disciples’ very existence. When you consider that for 3 years they were supported by Him, taught by Him, and they had His Company. Temporarily He was going to be taken from them. Their hearts were going to be troubled, but this was going to be a great test.

Right now God is wanting us to come into rest and trust. This is so that we do not get sucked into the spirit of the world. The spirit of the world is pushing affairs in a direction that basic rights are being sacrificed in manufactured crises. When we consider that some nations to give up sovereignty it seems that a crisis comes along to push a government to make flash decisions which they would not make in normal times. All this to demonstrate that in the moment of intense pressure we don’t make decisions which undermine the allegiance we have to Christ.

That is why our hearts must find supernatural piece. In every crisis the devil has a great agenda. We either become princes or pawns by the way we act in a crisis. A prince has authority, a pawn is pushed around.

Right now the devil is bringing together a plan to destroy, but God is bringing this plan to a head so that He puts the devil where he should be.

In this age of many crises, each day can descend like the Philistines on David’s family. They descended on Ziklag, taking all the wives and children. The army of David returning to find this and cried until they had no strength left. They all turned against David. But he STRENGTHENED himself in the Lord. From that place he got the Word of the Lord, the strategy and they recovered all, and took spoil.

Sometimes turmoil descends on our families, as David did, and Jesus taught, we must STRENGTHEN ourselves unto the Lord.

So we must ask God to give us the ability to be quieted in Him.

Jesus was preparing the disciples, but He is now preparing you. Maybe today you have experienced many turmoils. Let not your heart be troubled! The Lord will cause you to have the strategy not only to find what was stolen but take spoil.

Shalom!

Russell