Where is Your Faith?

"Now when He got into a boat, His disciples followed Him. And suddenly a great tempest arose on the sea, so that the boat was covered with the waves. But He was asleep. Then His disciples came to Him and awoke Him, saying, 'Lord, save us! We are perishing!' But He said to them, 'Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?' Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. So the men marveled, saying, Who can this be, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?'" {Matthew 8:23-27}

The story of Jesus rebuking the waves & the wind is well known among most believers. Most people take great comfort in knowing that the Lord is able to calm the storms of life. I have heard many references to this particular passage: Jesus in the boat, Jesus calming the storms, and etc. While those types of references teach us some wonderful truths about God's ability to bring peace to our lives; I believe there is a greater lesson to be learned. What you and I need to recognize is that the issue is not the storm. The issue is our faith!

The issue of faith is the very thing that Jesus addressed when the disciples woke Him from His sleep. Their lack of faith in the situation brought great fear upon them. They did what most of us do in the midst of storms - they went to Jesus to make sure that He was aware of the situation.

It is stories like this one that cause some theological debates within us. It's one thing to say that everything Jesus did while on the earth He did as Spirit-filled man and quite another thing to actually believe it. The same power that Jesus operated in is the same power that God has made available to us. The ability to speak peace in the midst of a storm comes from our ability to release what God has placed inside of us. Jesus could bring peace to the waves because God's peace resided in Him.

The challenging part of looking into the life of Jesus is that He never had to work up anything. He never waited for His emotions to match His faith. He simply spoke. What we do know about how Jesus operated is that He spent an incredible amount of time with the Father in prayer. He always knew when God was speaking, how God was leading, and what God was doing in the earth. I truly believe that when you and I learn to commune with God the way Jesus did that we can have this same sensitivity to the Spirit of God. I believe that we can release the peace that God has placed within us to calm the storms around us. I believe that all that Jesus operated in is available to us. This is the power of the Holy Spirit within us!!! However, it doesn't come cheap.

Here's what I know:
I can release what God has placed within me!
I can change the atmosphere of every situation that I encounter!
I can enter into a greater authority than what I currently display!
How? By communing with God, listening to His voice, seeing where He is at work, and obeying Him in every situation.

Are you ready to calm some storms? "Where is your faith?"