 May 2007 Rhema Word...
From Issue 70,
Life More Abundant Ezine
Learning
to walk in the Miraculous
Lessons
from Matthew
Matthew 14: 19-33 KJV
And he commanded the
multitude to sit down on the grass, and took the
five loaves, and the two fishes, and looking up
to heaven, he blessed, and brake, and gave the
loaves to [his] disciples, and the disciples to
the multitude. And they did all eat, and were
filled: and they took up of the fragments that
remained twelve baskets full. And they that had
eaten were about five thousand men, beside women
and children. And straightway Jesus constrained
his disciples to get into a ship, and to go
before him unto the other side, while he sent the
multitudes away. And when he had sent the
multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart
to pray: and when the evening was come, he was
there alone. But the ship was now in the midst of
the sea, tossed with waves: for the wind was
contrary. And in the fourth watch of the night
Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea. And
when the disciples saw him walking on the sea,
they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit; and
they cried out for fear. But straightway Jesus
spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is
I; be not afraid. And Peter answered him and
said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee
on the water. And he said, Come. And when Peter
was come down out of the ship, he walked on the
water, to go to Jesus. But when he saw the wind
boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink,
he cried, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately
Jesus stretched forth [his] hand, and caught him,
and said unto him, O thou of little faith,
wherefore didst thou doubt? And when they were
come into the ship, the wind ceased. Then they
that were in the ship came and worshipped him,
saying, Of a truth thou art the Son of God.
If this is your first
e-zine subscription, you have signed up right on
time! In fact, I would dare say that this e-zine
is setting off something so important, that you
need to forward it to everyone on your email list
and tell them to opt in. This article is just one
of four this month that is going to give you
practical steps in “walking on the
water”.
This instance was one of
the few occurrences where all four of the Gospel
writers record it. Every one of them records a
different aspect that is important for us to
examine so that we too can do the seemingly
impossible.
In our (very long)
foundational text there were quite a few miracles
happening within a 24 hour period: thousands of
people were fed with only 7 items; Jesus walks on
the water; Peter walks on the water; the storms
are calmed and the disciples are safe.
There are a few points
that I want to bring out from these verses:
Jesus always
says what He means and means what He says
If you notice, Jesus told
the disciples to get into the boat and go into
the other side; not to go and die in the sea. He
actually had to “constrain” them to do
it. Why would He have to go that far?
These men were fishermen.
You see, the Sea of Galilee is only about 4 miles
across. When a storm hit the sea, it would come
seemingly out of no where over the mountains.
They probably knew it was coming and it was going
to be bad, so they probably tried to talk Jesus
out of it. This storm was so bad that they
entered in about sunset and about 2-4am in the
morning they had only gone half way! That’s
about 2 miles in 6-8 hours!
Had they focused on the
authority of the Words of Christ, they
wouldn’t have been so frightened. Earlier
His Words fed about 10,000-20,000 people (the
Bible records 5,000 men: women and children were
not counted in those days). And yet, here these
men had a Word from God and focused on what was
trying to drown them instead of what Jesus said.
What’s our
application?
Has God given you some
directions that you’ve tried to talk Him out
of? Has He asked You to do the impossible? God
will always ask of you something that looks
impossible; something that puts you over your
head. Otherwise, it’s not of God. He will
not share His glory with anyone. He wants to work
through you. When God works, we call it a
miracle! He’s given you the keys to
miracles: His Word!
Whatever you
are going through, God is taking it personally
Jesus was on the
mountaintop praying when He saw that the
disciples were in trouble. Notice in the verses
that Jesus saw that the boat was being tossed
with waves, and yet, He did not walk toward them
until the 4th watch (I’ll explain
that in a bit). He then started to walk toward
them, but again it wasn’t immediately
(you’ll see why in a moment). In Matthew 25,
Jesus tells us what we do to the least of our
brothers, we have done to Him. He takes it very
personally. Whatever is happening to you, is
happening to Him. Why? He is the Head (Who loves
you) and we are His body. The disciples failed to
recognize Jesus, for they thought He was a ghost
and allowed fear to overcome them.
What is our
application?
God is always trying to
reveal Himself to you. He wants to reveal Himself
as Jehovah Rapha (God the Healer); He wants to
reveal Himself as Jehovah Jireh (God the
Provider); whatever your needs are today He is
the Great I AM. Not the
Great-I’m-going-to-be. The I AM. I AM what?
Anything you need!
The will of God in your
life is based on you recognizing and yielding to
Who God is. If we focus on the storms instead of
Who God is, then we cannot see Him. We cannot
draw from that which is not seen.
The
“insensitive” answer Jesus gives the
disciples
As we read on in Matthew,
Jesus’ answer to the drowning disciples was
to be of good cheer for it was Him. Image that.
Let’s say this happened tonight. This would
be the announcement in some churches:
On
Friday some of our brothers were caught on a
storm that almost killed them. They were drowning
around 6am Saturday when Jesus walked on the
water toward them. His first words to the
drowning disciples were to cheer up followed by
for them not to be afraid; He’s there. When
He reached the boat, the wind ceased. They are
all safe today.
Doesn’t that sound
terrible? You would think at first that Jesus
would have said: “Sorry guys. I’m
sorry. I knew there was a storm coming. I should
have been there with you. I shouldn’t have
made you get in the boat earlier. I saw the boat
being tossed around and didn’t come down
until now.” No. His answer was for them to
cheer up and not to be afraid. He’s with
them.
What is our
application?
There’s a reason
it’s called a sacrifice of praise. In our
storms, we need to focus on what God has told us.
But we need to stand from what is already
deposited in our spirit. You cannot build during
a storm or you will drown. Read, study, and
deposit the Word of God now so when the storms
come you can recognize God in the storm, praise
Him that He is with you, and be not afraid. Jesus
fully expected the disciples to take care of the
circumstance; He had already given them authority
by speaking His Word. How much more authority do
you have now, being saved and sanctified? You are
in a privilege position. Use what God has given
you.
Why Peter
started to sink
Reading on, we see that
Peter asks if he can come to Jesus on the water.
What was happening to the boat and the other
disciples? That’s in another Gospel; another
lesson. For now, Peter was the only one willing
to get out of the boat.
In the midst of the
storm, Peter walked on the water. Right before he
reached his goal, he began to sink. Notice that
it says he started to sink. He didn’t just
sink down like a cartoon character off a cliff.
He was not even three feet from reaching the goal
and he began to sink. Why?
You can have faith and
unbelief at the same time
This is something that is
not taught in many churches. Most churches tell
you have to have big faith. But Jesus tells Peter
that he was one of little faith; why did he
doubt. You can believe and have doubt at the same
time. There are a few other instances in the New
Testament where we see faith and doubt at the
same time. I will expand on that in a future
article.
What was happening?
Even in a clear day,
Peter couldn’t walk on water. He stepped out
and wanted to do what Jesus was doing (sound
familiar?). And it was working; for a little
while anyway. Then, he began to sink. Have you
ever encountered this? You are doing what Jesus
did: praying, fasting, helping the poor, healing
the sick, and then, all of a sudden, it’s
not working as well?
Peter began to sink
because he took his eyes off Jesus and began to
notice the boisterous winds!
The simple secret to
walking on the water is this: keep your eyes on
Jesus, no matter what the circumstances tell you;
no matter what storm you are in; no matter if you
are the only one you know that dares to get out
of the “boat” (norm) and believe God. Keep
your eyes on Him and you will not sink. Unbelief
is subtle. It’s not going to jump on you and
overtake you. Our world is filled with fear,
doubt, and unbelief. It’s in the television
programs, commercials, music, and billboard ads.
You are the custodian of your heart. Guard your
heart at all costs when you are headed toward
that promise you need fulfilled from God in your
life.
Keep your eyes on Jesus.
Dare to walk on the water. Be a fanatic for
Jesus. It’s worth the effort.
Till next time,
Raquel
To be part of
our exclusive FREE woman's ezine Life More
Abundant, send a blank email to ezine@acts1614.org with the subject
"SUBSCRIBE ME" to be added.
(For Previous Rhema
Teachings, please visit our Articles Page for
more free reprint articles and sermon
resources)
|
