The Alternative

Dr. Tony Evans: Once you picked up truth and righteousness, peace is to be your flow.

Guest (Male): Dr. Tony Evans says our grasp on God's truth opens us up to what the Bible calls the peace that passes understanding.

Dr. Tony Evans: If peace is not your normal way of operating, you out of sync spiritually.

Guest (Male): This is the alternative broadcast featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans. Ask someone how they're doing and oftentimes you'll hear them reply fine under the circumstances. Well, today Dr. Evans points out that we are not supposed to live under the circumstances. Well, let's join him in the book of Ephesians as he explains.

Dr. Tony Evans: So much of our defeat, frustration, misery, anguish, agony, and difficulty comes from the fact that we are forgetting our primary location. Because we have forgotten the fact that the spiritual realm and your ability to function in it determines how you make out in the realm of the five senses. What Paul wants you to understand is that what Jesus Christ achieved we ought to stand firm in. That's why he says over and over again stand firm, stand firm, stand firm beginning in verse 10 because he wants you and I to understand that we don't have to leave what Christ did to deal with what we face.

The moment you leave it, you lose your positioning. So we started off with his first piece of armor. We call it dressing for success. He calls it in verse 13. He calls it the belt of truth. If you're going to operate from the spiritual realm of verse 14, you must first of all put on your truth belt. We explain truth is God-based knowledge. Truth is more than facts. You can have facts and not have the truth. If you only operate on the facts, you may never graduate to the truth and only the truth sets you free.

But the truth that sets you free must be the truth you know. You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. So if you don't know the truth, you won't be free. And if you settle for facts without graduating to the truth, then you're settling for information that's not transforming. So a lot of us operate on facts and information never getting to the truth which is the God-based reality behind the information. And if you never get to that, you never get to God. If you never get to God, you never get the truth.

If you never get the truth, you never get to the origin of a thing. If you never get to the origin of the thing, you never get to the cause and cure for the thing you're dealing with that the facts have indicated to you. He then says you put on the breastplate of righteousness in verse 14. He says the breastplate of righteousness. When you learn the truth, you know the right way to go. So then you move in the right way because of the truth you've now discovered. Once the truth governs the decision, then you are now protected.

Why? Because the devil operates in a lie and he operates wrongly. So if you're operating in the truth and moving rightly, he has no influence over you. He now comes to verse 15, our verse for the day, and he wants to talk about your shoes. He says in verse 15 having your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Having your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Shod means what you have on. He says on your feet ought to be some footwear. And this footwear is preparation for the gospel of peace.

Let's talk about peace. All of us know the opposite of peace, anxiety, worry. That's the opposite of peace. So if you don't know what peace is, if you know what worry is, not doing that. That's peace. Okay? Biblical peace is when nothing's wrong, I'm calm. When nothing's wrong, you're supposed to be calm. Something's wrong with you if nothing's wrong and you worried. If nothing's wrong and you're anxious, you have issues. Biblical peace is when everything is wrong. There is thunder and lightning and the winds blowing and circumstances are against you and nothing looks right and you still singing.

It's when nothing should be creating a song and you still have a song. It's when there is tranquility on the inside despite chaos on the outside. It's when things are at ease when trouble is all around. You don't know whether you have biblical peace until things are not peaceful. The biblical definition of irene, the Greek word for peace, is calm and tranquility of soul despite external turmoil. So important is this peace, this calm that Colossians 3:15 says let the peace of God rule in your heart. Let the peace of God rule in your heart. The Greek word for rule means umpire.

What is an umpire doing in a baseball game? Balls, strikes. He calls it. That's what an umpire does. He calls it. If it's a ball, calls a ball. If it's a strike, calls a strike. And guess what? Whatever he calls it, that's the way it is. He makes the call. Let the peace of God make the call in your life. Now why do you need to know that? Because life is full of decisions and choices. Life is full of you know do I go this way? Do I go this way? Do I go that way?

He says once you've aligned with truth, you found God's view on a matter. Once you've now begun to do righteousness based on the truth, let the peace of God make the call. In other words, God will show you what to do once you're operating on the truth you know by giving you a calm about the decision. He will calm your heart by the Holy Spirit giving you peace. Sometimes you'll look at a situation and all the facts may line up, but you'll say but I just don't feel right about it. Something's not right about this.

Something that God hasn't released me. I do not have peace or calm about this thing. You always hold up where there is no peace because what he says is I want your feet and remember the Greek word is to have is the the verb is to have meaning don't ever take these shoes off. You out of flow in peace once you picked up truth and righteousness. Peace is to be your flow. Okay, now now let me explain something here. If peace is not your normal way of operating, you out of sync spiritually. Let me say it another way.

If worry is your normal way of operating, if worry is your modus operandi, if anxiety is how you roll, you just go from one worry to another, one anxiousness to another, and that's how you roll. You're not wearing your shoes. You going out with no shoes on. You supposed to roll with peace, not roll with worry. So the mere fact that worry Now everybody has moments of worry because we still live in our flesh. But I'm talking about what's normative for you. Peace is to be the normal ruling operative program in your life. 1 Thessalonians 5:23.

Okay, here is where we going to go deep sea diving here. Now may the God of peace Did you hear that? Now may the God of peace himself Oh, I love that word himself. It means God with nobody else's help. May the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let me read that again. May the God of peace all by himself, himself sanctify you entirely and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete without blame at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Okay, here we go. When you accepted Jesus, you were justified. That means God declared you righteous and now you got a free passport to heaven. But the rest of your time on earth is being sanctified. That is being transformed in your soul. He says the God who gives peace does it as part of his sanctification process. And the God who gives peace, who does it as part of this part of the gospel, the sanctifying part of the gospel, does it Here it is from spirit to soul to body. And the order is everything. He does not do it from body to soul to spirit.

He does it from spirit to soul to body. So if you're looking out here for peace, you're looking in the wrong direction. He does not start with the body, then go to the soul, then wind up with the spirit. He starts at the spirit, he says, the God of peace, and he moves to the soul, then he moves to the body. The reason why we can't find peace is we're doing it backwards, Christian soldiers. We're trying to find peace in the wrong direction.

Guest (Male): Dr. Evans will unpack exactly what that means for us when he continues in just a moment. First though, I want to tell you about our featured resource for this series, Tony's book Victory in Spiritual Warfare. It'll teach you how to use the tools and tactics God has provided to give you victory over the spiritual challenges in your life. Even if you're facing serious oppression in the form of substance abuse, sexual or emotional problems, relational issues, and more. If you can help support Tony's ministry with a contribution, we'd like to say thanks by sending you a copy of Victory in Spiritual Warfare along with full-length copies of all eight messages in Tony's companion series, The Armor of God.

Together they're a great way to dig deeper into what we've been learning and to pass these principles along to people you care about. Visit tonyevans.org for the details on this special double offer before time runs out or call our resource center at 1-800-800-3222. It's open 24/7. That's 1-800-800-3222. Dr. Evans will return with more of today's message right after this.

Guest (Female): Leave the noise behind and find true rest where ocean views, quiet moments, and meaningful connection come together. Join Dr. Tony Evans with special guest Priscilla Shirer for a week of powerful teaching, meaningful fellowship, and renewal in God's presence. Visit Nassau, Grand Turk, Amber Cove, and Half Moon Cay aboard the new Statendam February 28th through March 7th, 2027. Reserve your spot today at tonyevans.org.

Guest (Male): Let's return to our message now. Here's Dr. Evans.

Dr. Tony Evans: Your spirit, that's the God part of you. That's the perfect part of you. If any man is in Christ, he's a new creation. All things pass away and behold all things become new. 2 Corinthians 5:17. He says the spirit is the thing of God, the nature of God that's been deposited in every believer and it is perfect. All of God is operative right now in your spirit. Everything are God's powers in your spirit, God's presence is in your spirit, joy is in your spirit, peace is in your spirit, powers is in your spirit, righteousness is in your spirit, holiness is in your spirit.

Everything that's perfect is in your spirit. That is the one part of you the devil does not have access to because if the devil had access to it, it wouldn't be perfect. It is the perfect, divine nature of God and it is the only place the spiritual realm of darkness does not have access to. If you've accepted Christ, you got a pill inside of you, a spirit pill, a seed the Bible calls it that is full of the DNA of deity. All right? The problem is your perfect spirit is lodged in your imperfect soul. Your soul is your personality.

It's your mind, your emotions, and your will. That's your personality and that is distorted and damaged. So if your body is malfunctioning, it's because it's got a malfunctioning soul. The mind is malfunctioning, the emotions are malfunctioning, and the choices are malfunctioning. A malfunctioning soul, which all of us have, leads to a malfunctioning body. Well, now if I got a malfunctioning body and I got a malfunctioning soul, how is my malfunctioning body going to go out and fix my malfunctioning body when my body is malfunctioning? I can't fix me. I can only try to manage my mess.

That's why New Year's resolutions don't last cuz that's managing your mess. That is trying to get the outside of you to fix the inside of you. God doesn't work that way. He works 1 Thessalonians 5:23 from spirit to soul to body. That's how he works. So if I want my body to work right, I got to get my soul working right cuz my body only does what my soul tells it to do. But the problem is my soul doesn't work right. My soul has been affected by the way I was raised. My soul has been affected by the sins I've committed.

My soul has been affected by people who committed sins against me. My soul has been affected by scenarios. My soul has been affected by what my peers think. My soul has been affected by television and radio and and movies and my soul has been affected by things I've learned in school and my soul has got all this information coming to it and that's why my soul is one way one year and another way another year. That's why my personality is all up and down. I got a problem in my soul and my soul is telling my body what to do.

So when my soul is worried, my body starts twitching. So when am I getting nervous and and I stay nervous long enough, my eyes start twitching because because my soul is damaged and it's telling my body what to do. It's called psychosomatic illnesses. That's what psychology calls it. Psychology, the study of the soul, it says you can have psychosomatic illnesses. You go to the doctor and you say this is and they say I can't find anything wrong. Well, what has happened is that the damaged soul is rubbing off on the body. And so the body is expressing the damage.

And that's what happens when we lose our peace. The peace is not lost in the body. The peace is lost in the soul so the body can't sleep. The peace is lost in the soul so the body wants to stay laying down. The peace is lost in the soul so the body gets mad and you get a temper and you cuss and fuss and stay mad cuz you got an angry soul. It just comes out in your vocabulary. It's the angry soul, the unpeaceful soul that's telling the body that you got to let everybody else know how miserable you are.

So when you say somebody don't you ought to stop cussing. You ought not cuss like a sailor when their soul has not been fixed. All they can do is manage language. They can't be changed by it. So but most people start at the body and hope they can do something with the soul so they go for analyzing and counseling. So I'm going to save you $300 an hour right now. Okay? Cuz this is free. May the God of peace sanctify you in your spirit, soul, and body. The goal of the spirit is to release into the soul the DNA of God.

The goal of the spirit is to release into the soul the DNA of God so that the soul gets changed because of what's being released into it by the spirit. Then the goal of the soul is to release the DNA that came from the spirit into the body. So the body piggybacks off the soul because the soul is piggybacking off of the spirit. The reason why we don't have peace is that the soul is not piggybacking off the spirit. So the soul doesn't have that information to pass on. So the question is how do I get the soul to piggyback off of the spirit so that I can have peace?

In order for the soul to grab the spirit Here it is the soul must agree with the spirit which is why you must start with truth cuz that's the way things really are. Despite how you feel, despite what mama taught you, despite what you learned in school, despite what you know all your life, if it doesn't agree with the spirit, it must be rejected. Once the soul accepts the outside, the inside will close up, clam up, and release nothing. So you could be searching for peace for the rest of your life and all you will get is management on the outside and no change on the inside because nothing is being released from the spirit into the soul because the gospel only relates to what Jesus Christ accomplished, not what the doctor can prescribe.

So here's the only way to get peace I'm talking about real peace, not fake peace. The only way is when the soul has to make a decision. When you have to decide which way to go, which road to take, how do I go not worry in this situation. I just lost my job. There's no money in the bank. I got the facts. The facts don't look good. The facts are causing me to worry. I must then retreat to what the spirit says. The spirit says I don't have any money in my pocket, but the spirit says my God shall supply all your needs according to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus.

Now that's what the spirit says in truth. My soul says you broke as a skunk. My soul says how you going to pay your light bill? My soul says they going to kick you out of your house. My soul says And that's fact. The fact is I'm broke. The fact is my soul is telling me the truth. They going to cut my lights out. It's not that my soul is wrong, it's that my soul doesn't have the truth. It just has the facts. But once my soul goes to my spirit and the spirit says the truth of God's word and the soul and the spirit agree, a release valve is opened up.

And out of the spirit flowing into the soul is the peace of God that passes understanding cuz last year at this time I would have lost my natural mind. But the spirit has been able to release into the soul. So now my body can go to sleep at night knowing I'm going to sleep on the truth and I can tell my soul you lying. You ain't nothing but a liar. And I'm calling myself a liar. You are a liar cuz God is the truth. So the God of peace will flow peace. Listen, the moment you begin to worry, you ought to tell your soul The moment that worry pops up, you can't stop it from popping up.

But the moment it pops up and seeks control, that's the moment you want to run to the spirit. And the only way to run there is to find out God's view on the subject. That's the only way to run to the spirit. You know that's why I love Philippians 4:7 it says be anxious for nothing but in all things through prayer and supplication, let your requests be made known to God. And it says And watch this now. I love this. And when you go to God during those worried some moments, watch this. It says Philippians 4:7 says go with thanksgiving.

Why does he tell you to go with thanksgiving? Okay, watch this. You don't want miss this. This is sweet. When God deposited the spiritual seed in you, it's like an acorn. All the oak is already located. In other words, you don't have to infuse anything into an acorn to help it become an oak. Once it's planted in the right location, it will become an oak cuz all the oak is already in the acorn. All the God is already in the spirit. You don't have to add God to God to get God. All the God you ever going to get is already there.

So when you go to God and say I have a need, I have a situation, I have a circumstance, what I'm giving thanks for is that the answer has already been deposited in the spiritual realm. Lord, I got this problem, but you talked about this answer. That answer is already been deposited. So I want to thank you, even though I don't see it manifested yet, that it's going to be manifested because the spirit already houses it. It's already there. See that's why I can give thanks and you can give thanks even in tough times because God has already answered in advance in the spirit.

Your goal isn't to try to get something new. Your goal is to draw out what God has already deposited. It's a change of direction. Look, submarines don't have to get nervous in a storm cuz they going deep. Fish don't have nerve attacks when it's storming because they know storms as bad as storms get, they will only get 25 ft below sea level on the worst day. So they go 26 ft. In other words, they go deep when things get chaotic. When your world gets chaotic, that's the time to go deep. That's the time to dip down.

That's the time to say okay God, you sending me to the spirit realm where there's calm down there, there's peace down there, there's cool down there. I can chill down there because down there is the perfect mind of God in the spirit.

Guest (Male): Dr. Tony Evans will return with a final encouragement for us in just a moment. First though, a quick mention that today's lesson is called The Footsteps of Peace. And as part of his current message series, The Armor of God, an in-depth look at how to avoid becoming a casualty of the spiritual war going on behind the scenes. This set of eight full-length messages on CD, USB flash drive, or digital download contains material we won't have time to bring you on the air. And it's our gift to you in appreciation for your contribution to help us keep Tony's teaching on this station.

Along with it, you'll also get the powerful book I told you about earlier, Victory in Spiritual Warfare. You can get the details and make the arrangements online at tonyevans.org. Again, that's tonyevans.org or call us at 1-800-800-3222. Our resource team members are available around the clock to help you. That's 1-800-800-3222. Spiritual attacks are inevitable in life, but spiritual failures are not. Join Dr. Evans tomorrow as he teaches us how to defend ourselves even when we feel cornered. Right now he's back with this closing thought.

Dr. Tony Evans: My challenge to you is put on your shoes and don't take them off. Don't take them off. This is something you keep on you at all times and all situations. Don't take them off. Isaiah 26:3 says and you will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed upon you. When your mind agrees with God's mind, you will get God's spiritual results and then you'll know you've just experienced God.