All throughout the Bible the scriptures say that God has prepared shalom for his believers in Jesus Messiah. Shalom comes from the Hebrew word, “s-l-m,” and means wholeness, well-being, complete life, welfare, success, everything working and nothing broken.
In both the Tree of Life Version and in The Complete Jewish Bible translation we see the word “shalom” over and over again from the beginning of the Bible to the end. That word appears all over the Old Covenant and also all over the New Covenant. For example, when we were children growing up in our churches, we would hear the pastor say these words at the beginning of his sermon – “Grace and peace be unto you from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.” Now in the Tree of Life Version and in The Complete Jewish Bible, the salutations at the beginning of most of the epistles say, “Grace and shalom be unto you from our Lord Yeshua, the Messiah.”
What a difference one word makes in the meaning of the statement. “Grace and shalom be unto you…” What if our pastors had used that word, shalom, and then had explained it’s meaning to us when we were children? If this had happened, then as adults we would know for certain that God’s will for us is His shalom. We would be saying “shalom” to our family members and to the people in our churches. We would be declaring shalom to our neighbors and to the people in our office buildings. We would be declaring this ancient blessing among all of our acquaintances. Our declaring shalom to them would bring God’s blessing into their lives.
It’s not too late for us to begin to live under God’s shalom. First of all, we need to know that shalom is God’s will for every believer in Jesus. We see that shalom is His will in many verses in our Bibles. Isaiah 60:17b – “I will make shalom your governor and righteousness your taskmaster.” Isaiah 66:12 – “I will spread shalom over her (Jerusalem) like a river and the wealth of nations like a flooding stream.” Psalm 122:6 – “Pray for shalom in Jerusalem…” Most of our English translations of the Bible say, “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem…” Psalm 128 at the very end says, “Shalom on Israel.”
Then in the New Covenant we see Jesus greeting his disciples in Matthew 28:9 – “Jesus met them and said, ‘Shalom.’ ” In Hebrews 13:20 we see these words – “The God of shalom brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep, our Lord Jesus, by the blood of an eternal covenant.” In Hebrews 12:14 we read, “Keep pursuing shalom with everyone and the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.”
I write these examples so that you can see that in some translations of the Bible “shalom” is used instead of the word, “peace.”
Now, if we want to live in shalom in our own lives, then we must know how to do deliverance praying. We have to push out the “yuk” of our lives with the words of our mouths and with the Name of Jesus. Once the evil thought or sickness or mental torment or temptation is cast out, then we can live free from those things and God’s shalom can reign once again in our lives. When Satan is afflicting us with something, then we can’t have shalom operating in our heads or bodies at the same time. That’s why knowing how to stand against the wiles and tricks of the devil should be so important to all Christians.
Let’s look at three verses from Ephesians 6:11, 13 and 14. In verse 11 we see this – “Put on God’s whole armor that you may be able successfully to stand up against [all] the strategies and the deceits of the devil.” Now standing against the enemy is actually self-deliverance. If the devil has afflicted us with a sickness, a mental torment, an evil thought, a temptation, or a toxic emotion, then we can use our words to stand against that thing in the Name of Jesus and tell it to get out and away from us. This standing against the evil one is actually self-deliverance.
We see the same thought in Ephesians 6:13 and in verse 14 – “Therefore, put on God’s complete armor, that you may be able to resist and stand your ground on the evil day of danger and having done all the crisis demands, to stand firmly in your place.” Verse 14 says, “Stand therefore, hold your ground…” Our ground is God’s word. When we’re standing against the wiles of the devil, then we don’t let him get away with anything in our lives. When we realize what he is doing to make us miserable or sick or when he is trying to tempt us into sin, then we need to take authority over him and tell him to get out and to leave us alone. He will go because Jesus Himself has given us the authority to stand against the devil and his demons in this life. When we issue the command in Jesus’s Name, the devil listens and obeys us.
You and I can get rid of the devil’s antics in our lives and get free from those things. Once the devil and his demons are removed from an area of our lives, then God’s shalom can come in and reign there. Remove demonic thoughts from your mind. Don’t let your mind be a playground for the devil or for his demons. Remove the devil from your body. Don’t let sickness and disease reign there any longer. Remove the devil and his demons from targeting you and your family. Don’t quit. Don’t let him afflict you and your family any longer. Be firm! Stand your ground and he will finally leave you alone. When you do that, then the shalom of God will move into that area of your life. Living in God’s shalom is way better than living in misery, sickness, disease, weakness and temptations.
Mary
