You are currently browsing the daily archive for March 2, 2012.
Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, but the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it. During the fourth watch of the night Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear. But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.” “Come,” he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!” Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?” Matthew 14:22-31
i love this passage. its such an encouragement to me.
its such a reminder for us to fix our eyes upon Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith (Hebrews 12)
when peter had his eyes upon Jesus he walked by faith, he walked on the water.
when he took his eyes off Jesus and when he saw the wind, he began to doubt and be afraid and he began to sink.
faith walks on water but fear and doubt cause us to sink.
faith isnt a what. it isnt a thing. it is in a WHO. we have faith in GOD.
To step out and be the person we are called to be and to do the things we are called to be we need to be people of FAITH – having faith in GOD – it is HIM who works in us – I CAN DO ALL THINGS THROUGH HIM WHO GIVES ME STRENGTH.
Overturn the doubt by fixing your eyes on Jesus and His truth and His words. It’s all about attitude. Peter’s attitude was one of faith. Not doubt. He was unshakable because He had faith in God’s unshakable power.
Faith provides eyes for the heart. Faith sees. ~ Bill Johnson
To overcome doubt we must REPLACE it with the opposite thing: Faith
Let your FAITH be bigger than your fear.
Doubt isn’t conquered by confidence in our own giftings or abilities, which may sound like a contradiction to what I have said and will say – but the reality is that doubt is conquered when we know the greatness and power and almightiness of God!
God is faithful.
God is powerful.
God is compassionate.
God is for us.
God is holy.
God is the Creator of the Universe.
God’s thoughts and ways and wisdom are higher and greater than ours.
He is omnipresent, omnipowerful and omniscient.
In other words, He sees all, knows all and has all the power.
He is awesome and glorious, good and great.
Have a holy confidence that is founded and grounded upon GOD and His abilities and resources!
but i bet next time the opportunity arose peter would know to keep his eyes upon Jesus, to be firm in His faith, to not look around at the circumstances blowing around him and that he would have advanced further.
i’m also challenged by the fact that only ONE disciple called out to Jesus to follow Him onto the waves. only one stretched his faith to accomplish something supernatural and amazing. only Peter got out of the boat. the opportunity was there for the others to walk on water to, to experience this wondrous miracle. but only peter had the courage to request and do it. were the others waiting to see what happened to peter first before they stepped out? to see if he had success or sinking?
i want to be someone with faith and courage. that steps out of the boat of my life, out of the comfort zone into the realm of needing faith and my eyes fixed firmly on Jesus. i want to say YES to whatever and wherever Jesus calls me to go.
its so good to know also that when we call out LORD SAVE ME that there is an immediately. Immediately Jesus reached out His hand and caught him. Jesus is immediately there to rescue and save us.
Luke 9:1-6 Jesus called together his twelve apostles and gave them complete power over all demons and diseases. Then he sent them to tell about God’s kingdom and to heal the sick. He told them, “Don’t take anything with you! Don’t take a walking stick or a travelling bag or food or money or even a change of clothes. When you are welcomed into a home, stay there until you leave that town. If people won’t welcome you, leave the town and shake the dust from your feet as a warning to them.” The apostles left and went from village to village, telling the good news and healing people everywhere.
firstly COMPLTE POWER
- not partial, not a little bit, not a portion of power…
complete power – supernatural authority!
Jesus gave them complete power and then he SENT them to do something with that power!
Matthew 10:7-10 “as you go announce that the kingdom of God will soon be here. Heal the sick, raise the dead to life, heal people who have leprosy and force out demons. You received without paying, now give without being paid. Don’t take along any gold, silver or copper coin. And don’t carry a travelling bag or an extra shirt or a walking stick.”
I read this the other day somewhere and it has come back to my thoughts again and again, so I’ve been pondering it a bit – it said it as “Don’t take anything with you.” The disciples were sent out to preach the message of the kingdom of God and to pray for the sick and work miracles. They were to travel from village to village sharing what Jesus had told them. They were to take nothing. It struck me that often when we go to minister somewhere – be it formal ministry – or just living our lives as ministry – that we often take things with us. We might take the great book we were reading, or the great blog post we’ve just read, the latest podcast we’ve heard or a preaching set of cds… we take baggage and our own views and rights and preconceptions. We take our knowledge and our learning. But are we taking revelation and encounter and the presence of God.
We are to take NOTHING! Why?
So that in taking our nothing we take the Holy Spirit and listen to him and follow his ways and not the 17 step programme to laying on hands, or the 4 step sniff and scratch way to discern demons etc. so we don’t rely on our own knowledge but rely on revelation. That we obey the Lord.
All we must take is Jesus. All we must take is his power. Take nothing of ourselves but all of Jesus. Trust him. Follow him. Be used by him.
Jesus instructed them to take nothing with them – only take the power He gave them with them – not to take their own agenda, status, qualifications. the only qualification they had to minister was the power of God.
the power is of God – not ourselves!
We are like clay jars in which this treasure is stored. The real power comes from God and not from us. 2 Corinthians 4:7
We may have experienced things in our lives that caused us to build emotional walls to protect ourselves and create systems of thinking that give us a false sense of safety. Often we are not aware that we are doing this … If we continue to feed our old way of thinking with lies and fears, the sin of disrespect will control us. – Grace Driscoll
inspired by holly furtick’s post INSIGNIFICANT THINGS ABOUT ME i thought i’d give it i a go and give you more insight into my world
1. i read about 4 books at a time… one at night in bed, one while cooking diner (between stirs etc), one in the car while waiting for the kids to come after school, and usually another random/teaching type thing
2. i love LOST. you probably knew that if you’ve read my blog for more than 2 minutes
3. i learned to bake about 3 years ago as a new years resolution and because my daughter has food allergies. i’ve become a lot more adventurous over the past year. some would even say i’m good.
4. i have a very southern accent… southern New Zealand that is… means worrrrds like churrrrch and worrrrd and purrrrple and spirrrrit and shirrrrrt all come with complusorrrry extrrrrra Rs
5. i can only play one game of Settlers in a row.
6. i go to an awesome brows place that takes 90 seconds to do them. seriously.
7. i listen to preaching at night if i cant sleep
8. i am not a morning person but have in the last 3 weeks totally changed my routine so i get up at 5.30am
9. my favourite way to spend an evening (apart from housegroup) is to curl up on the sofa next to my hubby and watch something like Fringe. or Lost.
10. i cant drink coffee after 10am in the morning. i have a 12 hour affection level.
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