I love to read.

Well, I probably love to learn more than I love to read but reading is one of the primary ways that I learn so it’s perhaps it would be more accurate to say that I love what happens when I get to read.

Anyway, enough of my external processing……..

One of the books I am reading at the minute is John Wimber and Kevin Springer’s book – Power evangelism. It’s an incredible read on so many levels and what I am writing about today is taken from that book and more particularly Wimber’s revelation from a portion of Scripture. We find it in the book of Mark, one of the books that talks about Jesus’ life.

That day when evening came, he (Jesus) said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!” Mark 4:35-41

The disciples were experienced on the water with some of them fishermen by trade. They would have been aware of the storms that could come on the sea, although this one may have more spiritual intention behind it than others (I’ll explain why in a minute). They would also be aware of the consequences of being out in a storm on the sea. I’m sure there had been stories of lives lost previous to their predicament. This is why they asked Jesus the question they asked.

“Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”

However they seemed to be unaware of two very important things here.

Jesus’ instruction and Jesus’ power.

Wimber points out the instruction that Jesus gave them at the start of the passage was “Let us go over to the other side”. Jesus’ intention was to make it to the other side, that was what He had said. Therefore there was nothing that could stand in the way of Him.

Their trust in the conditions and their trust in their inability to survive was greater than their trust in what Jesus had told them.

As I pondered this I asked myself another question – What was Jesus trying to do on the other side? So often because of the way we can read scripture we don’t join moments together and end up reading them as separate blocks.

On the other side of the lake was a famous encounter that Jesus had with a legion of demons who were present inside a man who had been terrorising people in that area. The area was not a place Jews liked to go and we can presume that there wasn’t a huge amount of God following going on there. On the other side was a battle with the devil that the devil was powerless to win. And he didn’t.

That’s what leads me to believe that the storm the disciples were experiencing in the middle of the Sea of Galilee was not just a natural phenomenon. This was a spiritual storm which may explain why the disciples were more freaked out than we might expect. The enemy had a sense of the battle that was coming on the other side and knowing he couldn’t win that one sought to win a battle before they got there and if it hadn’t been for Jesus there was a chance he might have.

The disciples didn’t trust Jesus’ instruction and they didn’t trust Jesus’ power. In that moment on the sea they saw His power displayed not just over nature but over the spiritual world. There awareness to the latter may have only been understood in hindsight but nevertheless both are present.

This leads me to think about the instructions that Jesus has given His church both globally and locally. Do we trust these instructions and His power to partner with us in them or are we more likely to trust the external, rational scenarios than surround and make up our worldview in our everyday?

Do we trust the conditions around us more that we trust the Christ who is in us?