Let me share with you something about the “Shalom” in all its dimensions that the Lord intended for each of us as His children. I want to warn you: It’s going to mess with your head a little!

Do you know that the Lord taught His Old Testament people more than three thousand years ago something that you and I, as modern people, are still desperately searching for today?

Let me put it this way: How to press the reset button in every area of ​​our lives!

Just like we sometimes have to press the reset button on our computer or cell phone to erase all the mess that has built up, so that we can start over!

In Leviticus 25, it is called the Jubilee year, and in Isaiah 61, “the year of grace”.

The Jubilee year of Lev. 25 happened every 50th year. It was in every sense of the word a radical “reboot” or restoration action at God’s command among His people!

All guilt was erased! Jews who had become slaves because of what had happened in the past 50 years were freed! Yes, even land that people had lost because of their own actions and mistakes was returned to the original families and owners! It was truly forgiveness and restoration in capital letters in every sense of the word!

The Jubilee year was like in the famous Monopoly board game, going back to the Beginning, and starting over!

If you want to read more about this in God's Word yourself, read Leviticus 25, Lev. 27, and then also in the prophecy of Isaiah 61:1 and 2, which Jesus then quotes in Luke 4:18 and 19, where Jesus himself says that He has now made “Jubilee” possible for each of our lives!

It is amazing to think that Jesus and what He did can make “Jubilee” happen in every sense of the word for each of His people!

That is why it is so important to just spell out this “new beginning” and restoration that is possible in Jesus, for each other here in the presence of the Lord!

Yes, the “Year of Jubilee” can mean at least the following for you and me:

Total forgiveness!

Being free!

Being liberated!

Restoration in every sense of the word!

Total provision!

Renewal!

Suddenly, there is peace again, and people feel safe again!

In Luke 4:15 to 21, and also in 2 Corinthians 6:2, we hear God promise this total restoration to each of us who believes in Jesus and understands something that He did for me and you through His becoming human, His death, and resurrection!

In “Jubilee,” everything that we have lost and forfeited is restored.

It is like a theme that is repeated over and over again in many ways throughout the Old Testament.

Let me quote a few of these Scriptures:

Job 42:10 – "After Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord RESTORED his fortunes and gave him twice as much as he had before."

Joel 2:25 – "I will RESTORE to you the years the locusts have eaten…"

Psalm 126:4-6 – " RESTORE our fortunes, Lord, like streams in the Negev. Those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy. Those who go out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with them."

Zechariah 9:12 – "Return to your fortress, you prisoners of hope; even now I announce that I will RESTORE twice as much to you."

Based on what Jesus has done for us, our past, and everything we feel so guilty and ashamed about, we no longer need to define and control our lives!

We can move on, because we are freed from it once and for all in Jesus! Praise His Name!

Jesus himself taught us in Luke 10.

Part of our commission to minister “peace” to people and communities is to trust the Lord to minister healing to people as part of the Message about the Kingdom.

Do you remember what Jesus said there in Luke 10:9?

“Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’”

Part of the ministry of the Kingdom of God, or the Good News of the Gospel about what Jesus really came to do for us here on earth, is to also minister healing to people.

Part of the “peace”, or “Shalom” in Hebrew, that Jesus came to effect and make possible here on earth, is to minister healing, restoration, wholeness, liberation, encouragement, and forgiveness to people who are still trapped in physical-chemical illnesses, or perhaps trapped in emotional pain, trauma, and depression.

That is why God’s promise in Matthew 8:17 was like life-giving water to me when, at 37 years old, I had been wandering in the desert for 3 years without water.

“He took away our infirmities and bore our diseases.”

Two aunts came to pray for my physical healing as a Dutch Reformed minister in the 1990s. I had already been choking on an illness for almost 3 years, for which there was no solution in the medical world at that time.

Their prayer and anointing with oil, as James 5 instructs us, was the key for God's complete "SHALOM" to break through in my life as a follower of Jesus.

Thus, the Lord's "Shalom", His peace, also later in my life as a PTSD sufferer, broke through after everything I saw, heard, and experienced during my time in the border war of that time!

Therefore, the Lord can use me and you, as part of His Ekklesia, also today to serve the Good News of the Kingdom to people and to be "peacemakers" in our time in Jesus' Name and in His service!

With Jesus’ peace, His “Shalom” in Hebrew, or His “Eirene” in Greek, in your own life, “peace” has happened between you and God, and you and other people. Yes, can this SHALOM, and the entire spectrum of God’s wonderful PEACE in your own life and around you in every sense of the word begin to break through and become true!

Can I ask you a personal question?

Do you really taste and experience this in your life?

The God of the Bible, who always speaks the truth and whose Word always comes to pass, says this is true in your life. And if you haven’t yet experienced it or fully experienced it, just grab hold of it again in faith for yourself too!

He says, because you know you have been forgiven, you can also forgive others who have wronged and hurt you.

That is why He can now send you out as one of His disciples in the words of John 20: “As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.”

So we hear Him instructing us in Luke 10, where He positioned us or where He wants to send us:

“After this, the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of Him into every town and place He Himself intended to visit. He said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Pray therefore to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest. Go your way! Behold, I am sending you out like lambs among wolves.

Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this house!’

If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; otherwise, it will return to you.

Stay in the same house, eating and drinking what they give you, for the laborer is worthy of his wages. Do not go from house to house.

Whatever town you enter, and they welcome you, eat what is set before you. Heal the sick there and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ “

Let me spell out for you what Jesus is saying here, in four steps:

1. “Peace be with you!”

Begin to bless the people whom the Lord has placed on your heart, in Jesus' Name. Pray that God will begin to bless them from their very feet with His blessing (Deut. 28's blessing), which through the death and resurrection of Jesus is part of "life", and "this in abundance", which He has wrought for each of us. (John 10:10b) Begin to also speak God's peace over each of them every day in Jesus' Name!

2. Eat and drink with them!

Eat and drink with them, visit with them, to give them time so that, while you eat and drink together, they can really get to know you and your heart. May they see something of Jesus, His love and His life, in you!

3. Minister "Shalom", "Eirene" to them!

Be constantly sensitive to the voice of God's Spirit, which may want to show you a specific need in those people's lives that only God can minister. Then pray that God will come and perform a God-sized miracle in that one's life. Whether it is a healing that needs to happen, or that God can intervene somewhere in his life, his marriage, his business, or his finances, and do a miracle there.

4. Minister the Gospel of the Kingdom to them!

When God's Spirit creates the opportunity for you, then testify to that person about the hope and life in Jesus that is in you. Then also minister to them the good news that God's kingdom has come to change their lives, and the lives of others around them.

Do you wake up at night from worry or anxiety?

Then come and sit in the presence of the living God, whom we get to know in Jesus and in the Bible, and let Him serve you.

As Ps. 46:11 says: Be still, be still, take a breath! Then experience how the Lord and the peace that only He can give, are there with you and in you!

Then hear how He says to you in His Word:

2 Cor. 12:9 – “My grace is sufficient for you!”

2 Cor. 9:8 – “My God can make all things abound to you, so that in all things, always having all that you need, you may abound to every good work.”

That is why He says to you in Phil. 4:6 ff. – “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus!”

That is why you can remind yourself aloud of Psalm 23 every day:

“The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. Even though I walk through the darkest depths, I will not fear. Your rod and your staff comfort me. You make me sit at the table of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup runs over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever!”

Create, like me, an early morning discipline for yourself to help you start each morning from a good, happy, peaceful place!

If you don't know how, let's talk, and I'll help you with that.