How God Speaks || PART 3

Years ago, my dad received an invitation to fly overseas in order to minister. For some reason, he lacked peace about going, so he turned it down. That plane never reached its destination. It went down. My dad had no idea why he felt no peace about going. Afterward, he understood why.

God can guide us by His peace, or by a lack of peace in our hearts. In Acts 16:6,7, the Spirit did not permit Paul to travel to a particular city. I believe he felt no peace about going. I believe that was how God spoke to him.

We can sense a holy agitation in our spirit as a message from God. Yet it is accompanied by peace within.

Satan can agitate us too and bring a lack of peace, but his is always filled with fear, worry, and negative fruit.

In other situations, God can make us feel a disturbance in the atmosphere because of an evil presence. We can sense that something is not right. He may tell us to leave, or He may lead us to confront the evil presence. He wants His Holy Spirit to lead us in these situations.

God’s peace can show up when it makes no sense in the natural. His peace is not tied to natural circumstances. His peace is directly connected to God’s will for our lives.

In 1989, we had planned to hold a crusade and a leadership conference in Pucallpa, Peru, but we were advised against going due to terrorist violence. The Shining Path guerrillas caused a great deal of bloodshed across the nation, and it was a period of widespread fear.

Despite the dangerous situation, the Lord spoke to us and gave us peace in our hearts that we should go. We covered the city of Pucallpa, Peru with fliers bearing the message, “CHRIST IS OUR PEACE,” even though a mayor had just been murdered. We made preparations to hold a large event in the soccer stadium.

As part of preparing for this event, Dennis went ahead early to set it up. The media knew about our plans for the event and saw the fliers posted throughout the town. They asked for an interview with Dennis, and he agreed to meet.

The first question they posed was a highly volatile one. “Do you believe in violence as a means to political justice?”

If Dennis answered, “No,” he would be aligning himself with the military against the terrorists, which would put his life at risk. And if he answered, “Yes,” he would be siding with the terrorists against the military, which would likewise endanger his life. Either answer was dangerous.

God’s Word says we should not worry beforehand about what to say, but that the Holy Spirit will give us the words. And that is exactly what happened in this case. Dennis received inspiration from the Lord. He answered their question with a question of his own.

“Let me ask you, Where do wars come from?”

Dennis asked.

“We don’t know,” they replied.

It was an ideal response. Dennis was able to keep going. “The Bible says that wars arise from the lusts of men’s hearts. Now let me ask you, which of the political options is able to change a man’s heart?”

The reporters murmured among themselves and finally answered, “Neither.”

“Well, that is exactly why we are here, to offer a message that will change men’s hearts. The message is that Christ is our peace.”

God had given divine wisdom to answer these reporters, and favor came our way.

We brought a large team from our church in Las Vegas and held a daytime conference for 500 pastors and leaders. About 8,000 people turned up at the stadium in the evening. God was faithful to show His miraculous power. Blind eyes were opened, and 2,000 people were saved!

During one of the meetings, a bomb went off outside the stadium. Later a man came up to us and said he had originally planned to place it under the platform, but he felt bad about it. So instead he had put it outside the stadium walls, where it exploded during the meeting. During the altar call for salvation, the Spirit convicted him, and he came forward to give his heart to the Lord.

The point of this story is that God had given us peace to take this mission trip, and it was not based on natural circumstances. In fact, the American Embassy had advised us not to go. When they saw they could not talk us out of it, they asked for our addresses, so they would know where to ship our bodies if we died! God genuinely protected us in an unstable environment.

Several months later, we received reports that peace had arrived throughout the entire city of Pucallpa and that the violence had ended. The message of Christ’s peace had touched the entire region.