Understanding God

June 13th, 2006

I have been reading different stories in the bible and more specifically in the gospels of Matthew and Mark about the disciples and their relationship with the Lord. I saw a familiar theme woven throughout these stories that I recognize as being very important to my own walk with the Lord. Recently I turned over the throne of my heart to the King of Glory and since that time He has been teaching me how to operate in His Kingdom. Even though I am a child of the King, I soon learned I am not immune to the storms of life that occur periodically. However, when the storms of life come, and there will be many, I can be confident the Lord is there with me in the midst of the storm. An example of this is found in the bible in the story of the two sea voyages Jesus and His disciples would make. In the first one, Jesus ordered His disciples into the boat prior to embarking on their trip. He had not told them what He had in mind when they reached the other side or what they might expect to occur during the sea crossing; He just said to them, “Let us cross over to the other side.”

During the crossing, a great storm arose on the sea while Jesus was sleeping in the bow of the ship. The disciples, most of whom were experienced fishermen and seamen, fearing for their lives awoke Jesus from His sleep and said to Him; “Master, do you not care that we are about to perish?” Jesus rebuked them for their lack of faith in Him when He said; “Why are ye so fearful, Oh ye of little faith.” In other words, Jesus was saying to them, “Do you not yet understand that I am the Lord? I am the master over any storm or rough going you will encounter in life.” The Bible says; Jesus arose, spoke to the storm, calmed the sea, and His disciples were in awe as we learn from the statement, “What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?” Almost immediately after the storm ceased and the sea became calm, they reached their intended destination.

The first thing the disciples saw when they reached shore was two naked, devil possessed men the citizens of that area were scared to death of and could not keep bound approaching them from out of the graveyard. I know it must have been hard for the shell shocked disciples to understand why they had just crossed a very rough sea in which they feared for their lives only to be confronted by two crazy people who hung out in the local cemetery. However, Jesus had a plan to carry out and if He had told His disciples what was going to happen to them before they left on this trip, half of them probably would have balked at the idea of going with Him to this place. And it is for that reason He doesn’t tell us before hand what we are going to encounter in our journeys with Him.

In the story, Jesus sets the demon possessed men free from the demons that held them bound and the citizens of that country became more afraid of Him than they were of the two demon possessed men who lived in the cemetery, and they ask Him to leave their shores. If we stop reading the story right there we would probably think it had been a wasted, hard to endure trip, that Jesus had put His disciples through just to meet two crazy men in a cemetery. But we must understand, Jesus had a greater plan for this trip and this was only the first part of the plan to be implemented. The plan would not be fully realized until after the demon possessed men had a chance to go around the countryside telling their story of what Jesus had done for them that day in the graveyard. Jesus would then revisit the area and many of the same people who were afraid of Him the first time He came, would later receive Him as the Lord of their life on His second visit. Jesus always has a plan greater than anything we can imagine with our little finite minds, but if we stay with Him long enough, we will learn of that plan at some point in our journey with Him.

The enemy tried to thwart God’s plan by bringing upon the little crew a great storm with high winds in an attempt to kill them and Jesus in one fell swoop. The devil’s plan failed because Jesus, the Master of the storm, was in the boat with them, and He had personally ordered His disciples to take Him to the other side of the sea because He had work to do over there they didn’t know anything about. The part of this story that has to get down into my knower – is that when the Lord gave me this business in August of 2001;  He commissioned me to take Him to the end of this venture however long that may take. And this venture will not end until Jesus has fulfilled His plan for it and there isn’t one thing the devil can do to prevent us from reaching our destination as long as Jesus is in the boat with me. If I should drop Him off somewhere along the way and try to go it alone as I did in the past, then I will find myself in serious trouble once again. But if I have read this story correctly and I believe I have; I have nothing to worry about as long as Jesus is in this storm with me. And it really doesn’t  matter how rough the trip may get; the Lord of the storm, and I, are going to go right through the heart of this storm and we are not stopping until we reach the other side of this problem safe and sound and the plans of the Lord have been carried out to completion. Hallelujah!  That is shouting territory. DThrash

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