Doing The Impossible Part II

Doing the Impossible Part II

“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 14:30-31 NIV

Peter was walking on the water. That is something that no one but Jesus had done. He accomplished something miraculous. I can only imagine what that must have felt like. To be out on the Sea of Galilee and literally walking on top of a liquid surface towards Jesus. With every step he must have said to himself, “Oh my God! This is really happening!” And then he takes another step. And another step. And then he sees the wind and immediately begins to sink and cries out for Jesus to help him.

How can you see wind? Isn’t wind invisible? The Bible speaks of something interesting here. It says that Peter saw the wind. But seeing wind is impossible. What we actually see are the effects of wind. We don’t see the wind itself. We see the natural consequence of what wind does when it blows. We see trees moving; hair blowing; objects in the air. We see the effects of wind on the material world. And the stronger the wind, the more damaging the wind appears to be.

So out on the water Peter was walking on, he saw the effects of the wind and got scared. He saw the natural consequences of the wind’s presence all around him and began to assume that he, too, should fall victim to the wind. But he was already defying natural consequences. People don’t walk on water. The weather conditions were irrelevant. He was already living a miracle.

As we move forward into a life of faith, we may find ourselves in positions where it seems impossible to do what we are already doing. It is true that what we are doing is impossible, and the only reason we can do it is because Jesus has called us to come to this place. In our natural minds, we can see the consequences all around us of what happens when others may try to do what we are doing and have failed. Maybe we see that naturally, when the wind blows, we should all of a sudden not be able to continue walking on water. Everything was good until the wind came. And because we cannot see the wind, we only see the effects of what the wind can do, we assume that we, too, are subject to the wind’s power.

But when we see the “wind” instead of seeing Jesus, we begin to live out the natural consequences of what should be in this circumstance. Peter only began to sink when he saw the wind. He took his eyes from the visible Jesus on to the invisible wind. He still knew Jesus was there because he called out to him when he began to sink. But he stopped believing in Jesus‘ power to keep him walking, and started to believe in the natural powers of the wind. Both were visible to him. The effects of the wind, and Jesus in front of him. But when the wind seemed stronger, he believed that is was, and began to sink.

I am currently walking on water in many ways. And there have been many winds that have blown my way and I, like Peter, cried out to Jesus for help. I knew Jesus was there. I knew that Jesus called me, but I saw the wind instead. And the wind reminded me that I should not be doing what I am doing. There are natural consequences to my actions and if I stop looking at Jesus, I will live those consequences. The only way for me to continue to do what I am doing is to keep my eyes on Jesus. How do I do that?

These days, Jesus is not walking the earth in his fleshly human form. I don’t have the luxury of seeing the person of Jesus of Nazareth standing on the water with me. But I can believe that this Jesus is still with me and continuing to call me to walk on the water. I already see the defying of natural law in what I am doing. And all around me are the natural consequences of what should be happening to me. I choose daily to focus of the Jesus that is calling me rather than the effects of the wind around me. I am already walking on water. No need to stop now. Sometimes I need to take a pause and pray and remind myself that if natural consequences were what God wanted to teach me, then I wouldn’t need faith. I could just keep living. But when God is trying to increase my faith, I will have to believe in the impossible. I will have to keep my focus on who Jesus is and not what natural law says. The moment I believe that natural law supersedes the spiritual one, I will sink. I will actually live out the fear. Once you walk on water you have to keep going knowing that even if you start to fall, Jesus will still catch you. But your faith will keep you walking.

With so many people making New Year’s Resolutions and setting goals of what they want to do this year, just know that if any of your goals is to walk by faith, winds will blow after you start to do it. It will be a matter of spiritual discipline and faith to continue to walk on water and ignore that natural consequences of what you think “should” be happening to you. You might need to step up your prayer game, increase your devotion time and lose some relationships but the faith walk is worth it. Do what you have to do in order to stay focused on Jesus and not the wind. The only way to conquer fear is with faith.