KEEPING YOUR FAITH DURING STORMS
(week 11/11)
OLUBI JOHNSON
Matthew 14:25-33 MKJV: And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went to them, walking on the sea. (26) And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a phantom! And they cried out for fear. (27) But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, Be of good cheer, I AM! Do not fear. (28) And Peter answered Him and said, LORD, if it is You, tell me to come to You on the water. (29) And He said, Come. And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. (30) But seeing that the wind was strong, he was afraid. And beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me! (31) And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him; and said to him, Little-faith! Why did you doubt? (32) And when they had come into the boat, the wind ceased. (33) And those in the boat came and worshiped Him, saying, Truly You are the Son of God.
Here we see the Lord Jesus walking on water during a storm; this is an example of ‘workings of miracles’: a temporary suspension of physical laws by the physical manifestation of spiritual forces.
Here God released spiritual forces that kept the Lord Jesus walking on water when He should have sunk into the water.
When Peter saw, he asked the Lord if he could join Him and the Lord obliged him and PETER ALSO WALKED ON WATER: the same spiritual force that kept Jesus walking on water was also acting on Peter.
However, when Peter took his eyes off the Lord Jesus and gave his attention to the wind and waves and began to doubt, the spiritual forces holding him up were withdrawn and he began to sink.
It is instructive to see here that the wind and the waves had no power to stop the power of God from holding Peter up on the water: what stopped the power of God from working was Peter’s heart attitude from faith to fear.
The lesson for us all here is when we release divine power by faith through believing and the speaking of God’s Word and prayer in the Spirit, we must maintain the flow of divine power by maintaining our attitude, words and prayers of faith.
If our attitude, words and prayers change from faith to fear and doubt, the power of God will stop flowing and so hinder the coming into physical manifestation what we are believing God for.
So, in the middle of the ‘storms’ of life: in trials, tribulations and afflictions, let us maintain our attitude, words and prayers of faith by acknowledging the Lord for mercy in thoughts, maintaining a positive confession of God’s Word and praying in the Spirit until the power of God brings the victory into physical manifestation.
This process could take hours, days, months and even sometimes years:
Jesus’ curse on the fig tree took 24 hours to come into manifestation (Mk. 11:12-26).
Esther’s favour with the King came after 3 days of fasting and prayer (Esther 4:15-5:6)
The supernatural birth of Isaac to Abraham came 25 years after God gave him the promise (Gen. 12:1-5; 21:1-5).
However long it seems to take, let us follow the example shown us in
Hebrews 6:11-20 NIV: We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, in order to make your hope sure. (12) We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised. (13) When God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for him to swear by, he swore by himself, (14) saying, “I will surely bless you and give you many descendants.” (15) And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised. (16) Men swear by someone greater than themselves, and the oath confirms what is said and puts an end to all argument. (17) Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. (18) God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged. (19) We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, (20) where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.
Hebrews 10:36 AMP: For you have need of steadfast patience and endurance, so that you may perform and fully accomplish the will of God, and thus receive and carry away [and enjoy to the full] what is promised.
