Highlights from Peter- Useful lessons for us.

Highlights from Peter- Useful lessons for us.

BY Argie Simonis         

Ιn my previous post I have been sharing from Matthew 14:22-32  where the desciples were sailing in the midst of a storm and Jesus came to them walking on the sea and saved them. Here is the summary and some highlights of this story:

- Be positioned for a miracle. Do what God called you to do and don't quit no matter what.

- Call out and put a demand on the Lord. Seek God with all that you have.

- Start expecting the supernatural. In Mark 6:52 their heart was hardened and they were overwhelmed by the miracle instead of expecting it.

- There has to be faith in some degree from our part in order to see the miraculous power of God. Start taking steps of faith. For example, when you are facing a financial crisis and the money you have is not enough to support you anyway, you have to use that money as a seed for the Kingdom of God if you want to see the supernatural. Faith is seeing things with your heart that you can't see with your eyes. Remember the people of Israel when they crossed the red sea? It is easy to praise God on the other side of the sea when your enemies are destroyed and you are safe, but faith is to praise God before you see the result.

- The way Peter asked Jesus to call him to walk on the water, didn't give Jesus much of a choise to deny him. He didn't ask Him "if you want, or if it is in your will call me to come to you", but he said "If it is you, command me to come". The point of this is that many times we ask God the wrong or stupid questions. When you are in the midst of an important decision and ask God for direction or answer and you give Him options, just make sure that appart from your A and B option (that is according to your understanding) you must also consider a C option: none of the above. The Lord may lead you to an option that you never thought of before!

Before Peter could walk on the water, he had to come out of the boat. The boat represents the natural and the "safe" environment we are in. Many people are afraid to do anything different than everybody else is doing. They are afraid to break from the pack. 
The rest of the desciples refused to leave the relative safety of the boat. If you believe there is something more why don't you just take a step of faith and step out from your comfort zone? If what you have been doing is not working, why are you so resistant in someone coming and presenting something new?

If you believe God and try to do something, even if you don't make it 100%, at least you'll taste a measure of it. Many people are afraid to take a step further, wasting their life away doing something they don't like. Don't stay in the boat! No risk, no reward.

In 1Kings 17:1 we see Elijah goes to king Ahab and declares drout. That takes courage. He put his life on stake. The Lord then sent His supply in brook Cherith where He said Elijah to go, not at the place he was at that moment. If he didn't follow God's direction he would have starved to death.

You may be praying to walk on water, but you are afraid to take a step out of the boat. People are praying for supernatural healings, but still they are afraid to take a step and go out to people, pray for them and speak faith into their heart. You want the result but you are afraid of the rejection of people.

Trusting God is risky. 
"But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." (Hebrews 11:6)

It is safer to walk on the water trusting God than to stay in the relative safety of the boat that was about to sink. 

What did the winds and waves had to do with Peter walking on water? If you try to live in the natural, you may be a nice, kind cute powerless lifeless person.

Now notice that when Peter's attention went off Jesus, he didn't immediatly start to sink, but he begun to sink. Likewise, we don't get immediately out of faith and we don't get immediately into it. You have to build it, cultivate it. It takes a while. There are signs when we begin to loose our faith, and when you start recognising these signs you can stop the process before you totaly sink. When you see those signs yoy deal with it and get back to the top.

Sin doesn't come as a seizure. It has to be conceived and acted out.
"Then when lust has conceived, it brings forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, brings forth death." (James 1:15)

The most likely time to allow unbelief and doubt into your heart is not when you are in a crisis, but when you are in good time. When things look relatively nice, no storms on the horizon, that's when the most people take their eyes from Jesus. Like Peter, Jesus didn't run towards him. He just stretched His arm to catch him. That means that Peter has already walked a distance towards Jesus, and at the moment he came close to Him and felt safe, he took his eyes off Him and started to sink.  You can tell what a person is like when being in pressure, but you can also tell when everything looks good, because that's the time that most people have a tendancy not to seek the Lord any more. History shows that when the church was prospering, that was the time that it most failed.

Jesus called Peter "man of little faith", but still he walked on water! You don't need "big" faith to see miracles!
"...for truly I say to you, If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible to you. (Mat. 17:20)

The problem with Peter was not his little faith but
"... why did you doubt? (Mat. 14:31)

The reason that Jesus' desciples couldn't cast the demon out in Matthew 17:18-20 was not their small faith, but their unbelief. In Rom. 12:3 we see that God has given to all of us THE measure of faith. Our reasoning works against that. There is a knowledge problem:
"That the communication of your faith may become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus." (Philemon. 1:6)

and there is an unbelief problem as well:
"Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him out?
And Jesus said to them, Because of your unbelief...(Mat. 17:19-20)

Unbelief comes the same way faith comes:
"So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." (Rom. 10:17)

Likewise, unbelief comes from hearing all things contrary to the Word. Some people are really plugged into this world. We don't need more faith than we already have. What we need is less unbelief and doubt. Our generation is exposed to unbelief like no other in the history of this planet and this is hintering our faith. The reason we fail is because we are taking our focus off Jesus. If you want to be a water walker and experience the miracoulus in your life you must do what Peter didn't do. Keep yοur focus onto Jesus and don't allow all these trash around you to take your eyes off Him.

Stay blessed!