If a man love me, he will keep my words. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me. These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid (John 14:23-27).
Let's pay attention to the progression here. The Father spoke words one day. Jesus came and spoke the same words the Father spoke. The Holy Ghost is on His way, and He will speak the same thing that Jesus spoke. So the words that Jesus spoke, which are recorded in the New Testament, are the words of the Father.
Now in verse 27, Jesus said, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth." There is a great difference between the peace of the Lord and the peace of the world. Many of you no doubt remember that before you got born again, you experienced a certain kind of peace. There is a kind of peace that the world can give. You experienced peace when you graduated from high school or college, when you got that job, when you got that raise, when you got a good report from the doctor - when everything in your life was going well, you had peace.
But notice what your peace was based on. Your peace was based on worldly systems and circumstances. And the trouble was that once the world systems started falling apart and failing, your peace fell apart and failed with them. When you lost your job, your peace went with it. When you lost your salary, your peace went with it. When you found out the boss didn't like you anymore because you didn't show up at the office cocktail party, your peace was destroyed.
It's impossible to depend on the world for peace, because the world is changing all the time. People in the world are double-minded and unstable in all their ways. One day they're up; the next day they're down. One day they praise this and praise that, and the next day they curse the very same things. The world is up and down, up and down all the time. You cannot invest your peace in it, because it is always subject to change.
But Jesus said He gave us His peace. And the peace that comes from God always outweighs the peace that comes from the world, because God never changes. When you get into God's system, by getting born again, you're not subject to what the world does. When you're in God, you are rich whether there's a recession or not, because God's Word says you are (2 Cor. 8:9) and God can't lie. But if you're depending on the world system, when the world economy crashes, your economy has to crash along with it.
Excerpt permission granted by Harrison House Publishers