A windstorm came

Luke 8:23-25 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!" NKJV

The disciples experienced windstorm as they were sailing with the Lord and their faith went away. Jesus was right there with them sleeping. This would have been a moment for them to display their faith in the Lord and calm the windstorm which would have been a testimony of their faith in the Lord. Well, they were learning and there will yet be many more windstorms to confront when Jesus is gone (let’s say when Jesus is sleeping again in moments of windstorm). The time of windstorm is not the time to be troubled neither to be afraid but to be at peace. It is the time to arise (step up) by faith and rebuke the windstorm. One must step up in prayer by faith to be able to rebuke the windstorm.

When the disciples could not cast the dumb spirit out from a boy, Jesus told the disciples that it is because of the littleness of their faith and recommended prayer and fasting for them to be able to cast out the demon. In this case of windstorm, it is not just about littleness of faith, but their faith was not found; they didn’t exercise their faith at all. Jesus said to them, “Where is your faith?” And, Jesus cannot recommend less to the disciples to address the windstorm.

Matt 17:20-21 He said to them, Because of the littleness of your faith [that is, your lack of firmly relying trust]. For truly I say to you, if you have faith [that is living] like a grain of mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, Move from here to yonder place, and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you. 21 But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting. AMP

Jesus intervened in both cases, but Jesus will not always continue to intervene having thought the disciples what to do in such cases. In subsequent cases, Jesus may be silent no matter how they call on Him, because as the good Teacher, He had thought them the very thing to do and now sincerely expects them  to act by faith (by inspired words He had thought them) to be able to calm the situations.

Windstorm is a real life overwhelming condition which has the capacity to drive one’s faith away if the right steps are not taken to confront it. Without stepping up, one’s faith will be lost in that condition and all that one will say just like the disciples said is that “we are perishing”, “we” includes the Lord Himself. What a statement? How can the Lord, the creator of the universe perish with them?

We know the Lord is both with us and in us, but how many times have we faced windstorm (such real life hard challenges) and what we find ourselves saying in the heat of it is “Lord, I’m dying, where are you?”, “Lord, I can’t take this anymore, help me before something else happens”, “Lord, you’re here and I’m passing through all these, arise and act”, “Lord, is my case different, please do something?,” “I can’t take this anymore, help me”, “Lord, the pressure is too much, please take me out of here”. These utterances sound like prayer, but they are actually statements borne out of faithlessness. The disciples said to Jesus, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” but Jesus said to them, “Where is your faith?”

The disciples’ hearts were troubled in the windstorm, and there are indeed so many things that trouble us in this world. However, we have peace of the Lord. Our hearts must not be troubled regardless of the obvious troubles because the Lord has the capacity to calm the troubles – to make the wind and the water to calm for us.

Rom 12:12 Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying. NLT

It is good to have the intervention of Jesus in troubles, it is good to have the intervention of a minister in our challenges, but the interventions is to enable us learn how to be able to solve the problems by ourselves in other occasions. A believer who only continues seeking for intervention will soon have his faith displaced. At a point, the person will not be able to define where his faith is inclined to. When he prays, he no longer prays out of faith in the Lord, but out of fear of the confronting challenges. It is when our faith is found in the Lord, who has the capacity to deliver us that we begin to grow in battle strategies and be encouraged by one another.

1 Thess 3:2 and sent Timothy, our brother and minister of God, and our fellow laborer in the gospel of Christ, to establish you and encourage you concerning your faith, NKJV

It is then that we will know that even water and the wind are subject to the Lord’s authority and that troubles will indeed listen to our command when we arise by faith in the Lord and rebuke them.