How Do I Walk in the Peace That the Prince of Peace Walked In?

Bill Gothard teaches that anger is an inner alarm signal of rights I have not laid down, or if I did, I picked them back up again. I remember getting angry years ago when I was pastoring a church which was experiencing division. My reputation was being ruined by people gossiping and spreading untruths about me to people who had never even met me. The listeners would then take up a reproach against me, even though they had never connected even once with me. How unfair. I was ready to get angry. However I journaled and the Lord said, "Mark, give Me your reputation and allow Me to do with it what I will, and give it back to you in whatever condition I so choose. You can trust Me to handle your reputation."

I chose to follow His advice. I gave Jesus my reputation, allowing Him to return it whenever He desired in whatever condition He desired. Whew. That took a load off my shoulders. I no longer needed to defend myself or get upset when someone maligned me. I was free because I had given up my right to have an excellent reputation.

The Bible says, Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped (Philippians 2:5-6). 

Below is Mike Bastien's journaling about the above verse.

Jesus speaks

I never ask of you anything that I was not willing to do or that I have already demonstrated. My love compelled Me to put flesh on and become like you and to walk like you and to dwell in human form. The only way that was possible was for Me to empty Myself of all the glory, all the attributes that I was and to humble myself to be contained within human form. I did not grasp or hold tightly to all that I was and Am. In order for Me to become man, I let go, I gave up and surrendered freely those things that made me the Lord and Creator of the universe.

That is the attitude I carried and grasped and this is the same attitude I ask for you to grasp and hold tightly to. Let go of holding tightly to those things that I have given you, that I have placed within you and you will experience greater peace and greater effectiveness in your own life and in what I have called you to be and do.

Realize that when you find yourself engulfed in anger, that you have taken on an attitude that is opposite of the attitude that I had. How was I able to walk this earth as the Prince of Peace? By having this same attitude. The way I was continually treated while I walked the earth and then ultimately the cross. If I carried any other right or attitude, I would never have made it to the cross for you and the world. I would have walked in anger and would not have been able to fulfill my mission.

Love for you and all of mankind is what I walked in and that made it possible for me to endure the cross and the cruelty of mankind and the onslaughts of the religious spirits that continually opposed Me. At any moment, if I chose to walk in any other attitude, I could have blown them away and lashed out in anger and self righteousness. Love compelled Me. Love kept Me and love for you was the attitude that I grasped. Walk in My love and walk with the same attitude that was in Me. I love you, son.

Jesus, I love You. Thank You for not only loving me, but demonstrating that love in the most profound and unselfish way by giving Your very life for me.