7/12/2016 0 Comments Can You Calm a Storm?![]() Our lives have a lot of storms in them figuratively speaking but here I’m talking about real live roaring wind damaging, street flooding, hail making your garden turn into a freshly ripped up salad type storms. Do we have any authority over that? This might take a few minutes so you might want to refresh your coffee before we get started. Our God is able and willing to do things for us and with us. How far does that go? He is a generous God. He talks about protecting us and giving us all things, and He is able to do more for us than we can ask or imagine. Faith comes from hearing and hearing His words (not mine) and we need to be interested and excited to hear what He has to say about these subjects so our faith will grow. I have printed these verses here. Hebrews 11:6 (AMP) 6 But without faith it is impossible to [walk with God and] please Him, for whoever comes [near] to God must [necessarily] believe that God exists and that He rewards those who [earnestly and diligently] seek Him. Romans 8:32(NKJV) 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Ephesians 3:20-21 (AMP) 20 Now to Him who is able to [carry out His purpose and] do super abundantly more than all that we dare ask or think [infinitely beyond our greatest prayers, hopes, or dreams], according to His power that is at work within us, 21 to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen. I’m setting a foundation here so please stay with me. So His word (the Bible) does say that He wants to do great things for those who diligently seek Him and he can do more than we can ask or think. The Bible also says that we will do more than He did and greater things than He did. John 14:12-14 (NKJV) 12 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. 13 And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask[a] anything in My name, I will do it. So what did Jesus do that makes me think we have power over a storm? Luke 8:22-25 (NKJV) 22 Now it happened, on a certain day, that He got into a boat with His disciples. And He said to them, “Let us cross over to the other side of the lake.” And they launched out. 23 But as they sailed He fell asleep. And a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water, and were in jeopardy. 24 And they came to Him and awoke Him, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” Then He arose and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water. And they ceased, and there was a calm. 25 But He said to them, “Where is your faith?” And they were afraid, and marveled, saying to one another, “Who can this be? For He commands even the winds and water, and they obey Him!” Jesus said to the disciples, “Where is your faith?” He could have been talking about their fear here and that He was in their boat so why were they scared. But they believed in Jesus enough to go and woke him up to deal with the storm. Wasn’t that what they were supposed to do? Aren’t we to pray and ask Him for help? Jesus had already been healing the sick even in multitudes, casting out demons and raising the dead. In the very next chapter Jesus sends his disciples out to do what He was doing. Luke 9-12 (NKJV) 9 Then He called His twelve disciples together and gave them power and authority over all demons, and to cure diseases. 2 He sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. I believe Jesus had been teaching His disciple how to have faith to do these things themselves. Jesus spoke to the storm and told it to be calm and it calmed down. Jesus talked to things and things listened. He told us we would be able to do the things He did and greater things than He had done. He went on to teach them how to speak to mountains telling them if you believe then the mountain would move. I’ve never heard of someone actually moving a mountain or a tree this way but I have heard about a lot of miracles and moves of God at this point in my life that happened because of people’s faith. Jesus wanted them to speak to the problem. I will repeat what Jesus said. Mark 11:23-24 (NKJV) 23 For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. 24 Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them. Matthew 21:21 (NKJV) 21 So Jesus answered and said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but also if you say to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ it will be done. (Jesus had cursed the fig tree the day they walked by it the next day and found it withered from the roots up) Matthew 17:20 (NKJV) 20 So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief;[a] for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. Nothing will be impossible. That is huge. He does say later that signs and wonders will follow those who believe. So if we look at our lives as believers and they seem normal, where are the signs or wonders? We need to expect things to happen. Storms can be downright scary and destructive but the Bible says that anything less than faith is sin so what does that mean? Romans 4:23b “for whatever is not from faith is sin.” 1 John 4:18New King James Version (NKJV) 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. I got a set of tapes a long time ago and the pastor taught about this very subject. He said that when he was younger he was working at a camp and a tornado was coming straight towards them. The leaders wondered what they should do to keep the campers safe. They came to the conclusion that all they could do was pray so they went outside and prayed. This young man wasn’t satisfied with this prayer so he said “In Jesus name go around.” Following the scripture that says “you speak to that mountain and if you believe it will fall into the sea.” The next morning he went out to where he prayed and could see the path the tornado had taken through the woods. It was coming straight for them and had turned and gone around their camp. I won’t tell you how my children complain when they think I have stifled a storm. They love to watch the lightning and have a bit of excitement for an hour or two. I feel like the parents in the Footloose movie when they forbid the whole community from dancing. My girls also tease me about being mean to the neighbors so instead of telling the storm to go around, sometimes I tell it to fizzle out or I say “no hail or tornadoes but rain would be nice.” You may think that’s strange so I won’t tell you about the times I have watched the weather on the internet on https://www.wunderground.com/wundermap and watched a huge cloud mass all orange and red, open up and go around our small town and close up on the other side and keep going or when they just pass us by on either side. Or it will be coming towards us with power and just fizzles out leaving us with a nice rain. I won’t tell you what fun that is. Another good reason not to tell you is because if all of us started doing this the weather could get extremely confused. My sister already has a screen shot of a red question mark to the south west of us. I privately think my speaking confused those clouds. Okay that might be a stretch but I did think it was funny. ![]() This storm was bright orange and heading straight east when I spoke to it. I watched the radar and this nice green arrowed inlet opened up inside the storm as it passed over our little town. We got a nice rain but nothing more.
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