(Ver 2.1)  This is “Part 3” in a series of advanced lessons about “Understanding Hard Sayings” found in the Bible.  We live in a pretty crazy world at times. Some Christians like to believe that God is in complete control of everything that happens to us, but what do you do with the times when it seems like you are facing some very challenging overwhelming circumstances?   Did God send these negative circumstances to test you, prove you or maybe just to keep you humble?   It is funny what many churches teach on this subject and most of them ignore what the Bible says in order to teach something that they have created in their minds.  Human reasoning and religious thinking usually results in things that are directly opposed to the truth of God.  Learn to be careful who you follow and make sure what they are teaching you is based ONLY upon the scriptures being correctly divided and interpreted.  Also allow the Spirit of God inside of you to be your quide into the truth.  He will also keep you from what is not the truth if you let Him.  Always remember that whatever God says to you by His Spirit will always be in perfect alingnment with what He has said to you in His written Word.

Joh 16:33  These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

The Greek word translated as tribulation literally means “trouble” and “pressure”.  So we have all been faced with the storms of trouble and pressure in our lives.  These are things like losing your job and wondering what you are going to do now for money to pay the bills.  How about getting attacked physically with sickness and disease?    Having a child die suddenly?   What about being pregnant and having a miscarriage?  Facing natural disasters like hurricanes, tornados, wild fires, earthquakes and floods.  Look at the world’s economies on the brink of collapse.  The plunging real estate markets and the rollercoaster stock markets.  What about the price of food and inflation, droughts, famines, wars and I could go on and on  We are all faced with an enormous amount of different kinds of pressures being put on us from every side it seems.  The verse above in John 16:23 speak of these “pressures” in life.  Jesus told us that tribulation is a part of the world that we live in.  However, Jesus did not say God was sending them your way.  Jesus said be of good cheer for I have overcome the world.  Jesus directly links this “pressure” to the “world” that we currently live in.  Jesus did not say be of good cheer because these are just God’s way of testing you, changing you, proving you or whatever else people like to think.  I personally believe that if there was nothing to overcome in life that nobody would seek God for help.  But, yet I also believe that God never sent any of these storms of life that we are faced with.  I personally believe that God warned Adam not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and that Adam is the one that allowed evil to enter into the world that we reside within.  I’ll try to talk more about this as we go to show you who the originator of these adversities and evils really is.  Here are some Bible verses that I have found that helped me tremendously when I was studying this subject and I hope they are a blessing to you also:

Luk 8:22  Now it came to pass on a certain day, that he went into a ship with his disciples: and he said unto them, Let us go over unto the side side of the lake. And they launched forth.

In this story found in Luke, Jesus has been ministering to a group of people and it was now getting very late in the day.  Jesus sends the people away and goes with his disciples to cross the sea in their boat .  So far nothing new is happening that is very news worthy.

Luk 8:23  But as they sailed he fell asleep: and there came down a storm of wind on the lake; and they were filled with water, and were in jeopardy.

This is where the story starts to get really good.   There are many people in churches that teach that Jesus was God in His full deity power.  However, this verse should cause them a major problem, because the Bible says that God neither sleeps nor slumbers (Psalm 121:4).  You can obviously see the potential conflict to that kind of teaching by simply reading the verses in the Bible that reveal to us the truth.  I believe that Jesus Christ was fully God and fully man.  However, I also believe when God became a man, He stripped Himself of His deity powers in order to lay down His life for us.   You see it is impossible to kill an omnipotent God.   Understand that how you are now is how God had to become. If you sleep Jesus had to sleep.  If you eat then Jesus had to eat.  If you ever get thirsty then Jesus got thirsty.  If you could sin, then it was possible for Jesus to sin.  These are just basic realities found in the Bible.  So I got off of the subject for a quick side trip to help someone today.  This verse informs us that as they were sailing, Jesus went to sleep.  The winds picked up and a storm came upon them and it looked very bleak to the disciples.  Some of the disciples were men who made their living on the water; they were intimately familiar with this sea, the weather there, boats and sailing.  They obviously thought the situation was life threatening.   So they had a problem; one of those storms of life had arisen around them that I talked about earlier and they believed it could be the end of them.  The boat was taking on water, the wind was very strong against them and the outcome looked very bleak.   Fortunately for them they had Jesus in the boat asleep.  Let me ask you a quick question; do you have Jesus in you right now?  If you do He is not sleeping!

So let’s stop right here and determine something.  Who sent these winds and this storm to Jesus and the disciples?  Was this the work of God?  I thought God was in the boat?  Of course God in the flesh was in the boat but God who is a Spirit was also everywhere else at the same time.  But, did God send the storm?  People like to think that the storms are the acts of God because He is the highest power in control? Certainly men on the earth believe they did not cause the storm, therefore they understand cause and effect so someone had to cause  the storm!   Insurance agencies like to have “Acts of God” clauses to define what they will cover and what they will not cover.   I’ve even heard ignorant ministers claim a hurricane that almost destroyed New Orleans was an act of God’s judgment upon a sinful city.   People sure can be ignorant and accuse God of doing some crazy things that I doubt if He is pleased with.  Please let me introduce you to a new concept that is related to our subject today of who caused the storm:

Mat 12:26  And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself; how shall then his kingdom stand?

Did you know that Satan had a kingdom?  That is not why I picked this verse, but it is an interesting point to keep in mind.  Jesus says that any kingdom divided against itself will be brought to nothing.  This is a spiritual law from the mouth of God!  What do we learn from this law?  Can you apply this knowledge to our discussion today?  Jesus claims that one party or one kingdom cannot fight against itself and survive.   That is a very important concept to keep in your mind when thinking about did God cause the storm.  So what is my point?  If God sends the storm and then God is awakened in the boat to stop the storm, would that not be God working against Himself?  That would make God divided against Himself, not in harmony and certainly not in unity.  It is more like a Jekyll and Hyde type of God.  You cannot send a storm just to give you something to do or to provide an opportunity to prove that you can stop it.  It would not make any logical sense.  The Kingdom of God would clearly be divided against itself if God sends the storm and then stops the same storm.  Do you understand what Jesus is teaching?

Luk 8:24  And they came to him, and awoke him, saying, Master, master, we perish. Then he arose, and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water: and they ceased, and there was a calm.

As you can see the disciples woke Jesus up and said Master look we are perishing.   Jesus got up and looked at the problem and spoke words to it!  The wind stopped and there was a great calm.  So let’s stop right there again and think.  If Words stopped the storm, could words have started the storm?  I think that is a very valid question.  If it were Words that caused the storm, they cannot be the words from God or He would be divided against Himself.  The Bible clearly says God does not change!  To speak words to cause a storm and then to speak words to stop the same storm would cause God to be a shifting inconsistent unstable God!   I find that a very interesting concepts to understand.  As a result of spoken words there was a great calm that surrounded them.  If the storm was intentionally sent to Jesus and the disciples what would have been the end result of the storm, if Jesus had not stopped it?  For what purpose would the storm have served?  Would the storm have been a blessing or a curse?  I recently saw a post on the internet that said “adversity can be a blessing in disguise” and I thought immediately how confused this writer was.  If you can read in Luke from the fear that the disciples possessed the storm seems to be designed to kill them, to destroy their boat and to steal their life, their time and their money away from them.  There is absolutely no logical way to think that the storm in Luke could be viewed to be a blessing in disguise.  What else is a storm good for?  Right here is an amazing time to use your brain and think again.  Is any major storm of life ever a blessing in disguise?   I do not think anyone recently in Joplin Missiouri would think it was.  So who does Jesus say causes these types of adverse destructive events in our lives?  Did you know that the Bible tells us who is responsible?

Joh 10:10  The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

The thief is a synonymous reference or title for Satan.   There are those in churches that think that God sends the storms of life upon them and if that is the case then God is the thief.   I cannot speak for your God, but my God is not a thief.   Anything that steals from you, tries to kill you or destroy what you possess, Jesus called it an act of the “thief” Satan.   We also know that God is not the one who kills, steals or destroys because Jesus said in this verse that He came to give us life abundantly and that would be the opposite of someone who was coming to give us death.  Hopefully you can see the difference and know who is behind each event that happens to you.  Jesus said that the pressures of life would come, but that we should be of good cheer because He had overcome all of the pressures.  Why is that important?  Because according to 2 Cor 2:14 God declares us triumphant “In Christ”.  Did you know you were in Christ?  I guess I do not have time to teach that today, but this is why God can tell you to be of good cheer when storms come!

Eph 6:12  For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

There are just too many people in churches who do not realize that we have a spiritual enemy and an adversary of spiritual opposition.  This enemy is only interested in taking you out of this world.  He wants to deceive you any way that he can.  The term to wrestle is a physical conflict between opponents.  If you are wrestling a friend you are not wrestling.   The opponent is described to us as not being a physical being, but is clearly described to be a spiritual force.  The term principalities refer to the chief rulers in the spiritual realm.  These spiritual forces are described as being “wicked” that means evil and hurtful.  They do not play the game or fight the battle by any rules.  They are in a no holds barred match of spiritual wits against you.  They will send whatever they can against you to take you out.

Luk 8:25  And he said unto them, Where is your faith? And they being afraid wondered, saying one to another, What manner of man is this! for he commandeth even the winds and water, and they obey him.

Getting back to our main lesson story found in Luke, Jesus calms the storm with words and turns to the disciples and asks them a very funny question that most people do not understand.  Jesus did not say “Sorry fellows, I did not know, why didn’t you just wake me sooner”.   I think that is what most religious people would like to do or think that Jesus said.  Jesus was asking “Where is your faith?”  Why was Jesus asking them like they should have had faith to do something about the storm?    When you read the Bible you need to pay close attention to every word.  What is said and what is not said.  You do not ask a question like this if you did not expect something different.  Everyone likes to pray to God and ask him to calm the storms of life and God’s response will always be “Where is your faith?”  That is something that people do not grasp easily, because they do not know what faith is.    The implied meaning of the question that Jesus asked was the disciples could have done the same thing that Jesus just did.  I know that is going to go over big with some people and others it will be like I’m speaking heresy.   We can’t do what God does, can we?  We certainly are not God!  I know that for sure.  However, I’m just studying the Bible and trying to understand what it says.  You can choose to believe something else if you like; I’m not your judge.

What I take away from this lesson of Jesus and the disciples is that Jesus is more than capable of solving all of our problems.  But, His question will always be “Where is your faith?”   I also learn from this story in Luke that God is not causing the storms in your life so He or you can calm them.  God’s house is not divided and God must be consitently good or we woould not know if we should try to calm the storms, ask God to calm the storms or to simply let the storms kill us.  After all if God sent the storm and you prayed to have the storm stop you have made yourself a new enemy to the will of God and that is why I peronsally believe that God never sends the adversities in your life.  You of course can choose to believe what you like.  God Bless!

If you would like to continue reading in this series about “Understanding Hard Sayings” you may go to “Part 4“.