WindStorms
Matt 4:37 And there arose a great storm of wind
I have been in WindStorms that literally lifted me off of my feet, or moved the car I was driving. The wind can be scary, but for me the scariest thing about windstorms is the noise they make, especially combined with the vibrations a house can make during strong gusts. Even when you are inside a safe building, it can get creepy.
We are hearing lots of WindStorms lately, causing lots scary noises and vibrations. Politics, civil war, viruses, hurricanes, floods, riots, the list goes on. A lot of noise and movement can steal your peace and keep you up at night. If it keeps up you can go days without sleeping well, and that can lead you to be without peace, and cause you to make possibly catastrophic decisions. The danger isn’t in the windstorm, nor the noise and movement it creates. The danger is in how you react to it.
In reference to the opening verse, Jesus and His disciples were in a little boat, in the middle of the sea. Up came a big WindStorms . The disciples were all scared. They looked for Jesus, and I think they were more surprised at what they saw than when they were caught unexpectedly in a WindStorms. Jesus was sound asleep!
Matt 4:38 And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow
Jesus wasn’t afraid nor surprised. Remember, Jesus left His divinity when He came down from heaven. What He had was what all true believers have, the Holy Spirit within. Some people have scornfully told me ‘you are trying to be like Jesus’. I got confused, I always thought that was the point of being a Christian? Wanting to be like Jesus is a good thing.
We are told that we should be transformed into His image on earth. As we look for His glory, and read His Word, and honor Him by esteeming Him, we are becoming like Him.
2 Cor 3:18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
Jesus was 100% man on this earth, and in Him was 100% God, the Holy Spirit. We have that same Holy Spirit too. As we become more aware of our spirit man, our inner man, we will become more aware of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We become more sensitive in our inner spirit by not doing things that will harden us to the things of God. Ask God to guide you, to make you more sensitive to Him. (He’ll usually speak to you through the Bible). When you feel like He is showing you to do something, do it. He’ll stop you if you heard wrong. God will never prompt you to do something contrary to His Word, the law nor to the fruit of the spirit.
Galatians 5:22 – 23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
note-first evidence it’s from God is that it’s guided by love and peace, which are His characteristics
If you obey God’s Holy Spirit, and stay sensitive to Him, you will hear from Him more and more clearly. As you hear from Him more clearly, you will listen to Him more and will listen less to the scary WindStorms. You will have peace and love in your heart, no matter what is coming at you. You will even be able to sleep through it all. Jesus is teaching us to grow into His image through His Word and through His Holy Spirit. When his disciples woke Jesus up, check out what He said,,, I think He was talking to his disciples as much as He was talking to the WindStorm.
Mark 4:39 And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.
WhatIsTheLoveOfGod.com
Dean and Winnie Peters
Joyfully serving the ‘least of these’ in Nicaragua for the glory of God