Stepping into the Storm

But Jesus spoke to them at once, “It’s all right,” he said. “I am here! Don’t be afraid.”

...”Lord, if it’s really you, tell me to come to you...”

“All right, come.” Jesus said.



There are moments when we feel like the storms of everyday life gather around us and we feel like the only option we have is to retreat to the boat, close our eyes, cross our fingers and hope we make it through (after all, that’s what the disciples did). The passage of Jesus walking on water has been used numerous times to further show us the miraculous power that Jesus had on this earth, I mean walking on water is unfortunately not a natural occurrence in today’s society. However there’s a much deeper symbolic lesson to learn from this passage; like I said earlier, we all have ‘comfort zones,’ boundaries we have set in place around our lives to shelter us from harm. Unfortunately in today’s society we feel this need to shelter parts of ourselves from other people, but when this mentality affects our vision and experience of the kingdom it is detrimental to the progression of our faith and hinders the invasion of Heaven on Earth. Now this is the point where I say something that could upset you:



God is not a God of comfort.



You can search, but you will not find a verse that describes God as one of comfort, or a passage that says he brought comfort to an individual; the reason for this is because to bring comfort signifies a level of passivity with the state of current events. Instead God is the bringer of peace; he brings peace to sorrow, to anger, to heartache. If you want a tool to help further grasp this, think of these words and what are the first things to pop into your head? Personally when I think of comfort I think lying back on the sofa with a cup of tea in my joggers and a hoodie; when I think of peace I think of stillness, stillness with the possibility of action. The disciples were more than happy to sit in the comfort of the boat while the storm raged on around them, but Peter knew different; Peter knew that Jesus isn’t in the boat, Jesus is out there in the storm and if he wanted to fully experience the power of God he had to be out there too.



Now, if you want to have the courage to step out of the boat, there are three things you must grasp, the first is an observation. Ask most people what they think Heaven looks like and they’ll say it’s a massive castle with a moat around it, probably made of gold and shiny; the defining characteristics of the kingdom that come up time and time again is that it is a well structured, defensive fortress. Everything about it is trying to keep evil out and in doing so gives more credit to the enemy than they deserve. There is nothing, and there should be nothing about the kingdom that is defensive, it has absolutely no reason to be. We read in Revelations that the kingdom of Hell will not stand against us, it is they who have the strong gates, the moats, the high walls; they’re trying to keep us out. How does that make you feel? We need to stop being defensive Christians who feel they need to bow the knee all the time in an effort to feel accepted, we need to begin to understand that the battle has already been won and strive forth in confidence and take back ground for the kingdom. Our society is calling for a group of people who will stand up for justice, for peace, for grace, for truth, for what they believe in and we can be that people.



Secondly we need to stop making excuses in order to stay in our comfort zones; Dino Rizzo gives a couple of examples of this in his book ‘Servolution,’ I’m going to give two examples of the main reasons for staying in the boat:



Statement 1: Our church just doesn’t have enough people to do that or our people aren’t motivated to do that

Dino’s Response: It starts with leadership – if you lead the way, the people will follow.



Note Dino didn’t say it starts with ‘the’ leadership; you don’t have to wait for you pastor or your smallgroup leader to take kingdom initiative before you feel you can do it. If you have a churning in your gut and a passion to get out there, then go, you’ve been given the authority to do so.



Statement 2: We don’t have the money to do outreach like that.

Dino’s Response: Do what you can with what you have and see what God does.



You don’t need to have a savings account full of money to do outreach, if you can only spare £1 then use that £1 to show God’s love to someone in a practical way; pay for someone’s parking ticket at the shopping centre, buy a coffee for a stranger. If you can see the kingdom come in the small things you’ll be given the kingdom to do big things.



The final thing is we need to improve our ability to realise our own potential and understand more the authority we’ve been given here on Earth. Jesus said we could move mountains with only a mustard seed of faith, he gave us authority here on Earth, and he commissioned us to do as he did. Therefore if you read about Jesus doing something in the Bible, then you’ve been given the authority to do it too. This is more of a progressive thing, once you begin to step out in faith your confidence will build and your faith will strengthen, but it takes that first step to spark it off.



The nails that pierced Jesus’ body have pin-pointed our destiny, and if we run with it we'll see the kingdom move like never before. I hope you’ve found these words helpful but more than that I hope that after reading this you take the risk and step out of the boat. After all, it’s the only way you’ll get to walk on water.