Water-Walking FaithSample

WATER-WALKERS HEAR

Today, I believe that we are going to unpack the most important and critical moment of the entire water-walking story. Yes, Peter pioneers the encounter, but there are a lot of people who start things and never see them through to completion. Yes, Peter steps out of the boat, but there are a lot of people out there who have taken big risks and ended up underwater. Why is this moment the key? Because there is nothing more important than a Word from God.

Any significant moment in my life has been anchored in a word from God. Any important decision I have ever made has been rooted in a word from God. It is a word from God that can bring peace into chaos, it is a word from God that can calm any storm, and it is a word from God that can raise dead things to life. In fact, it was a word from God that spoke the entire universe into being. There is power in the WORD of God.

I don't believe that Peter stood on the water, I believe that he stood on a WORD.

I guess that might sound crazy, but so does walking on water. Maybe it is more feasible to conclude that Peter didn’t defy the laws of physics with some special hi-tech sandals. Rather, there was a divine moment that took place out on the sea of Galilee that night, and a supernatural God spoke a supernatural word that created a supernatural moment.

So, before we unpack the hearing part (which is our responsibility), let’s try to understand God’s ‘Word’. In the bible there are two primary Greek words used to describe the word of God. Logos and Rhema. The Greek word ‘logos’ translates to the WORD of God, whereas the Greek word ‘rhema’ translates to the SPOKEN word of God. This essentially means that there is the written and recorded word of God (logos), but there is also the current and constant spoken word of God (rhema). We use the scripture (the logos word of God) as a guide, as a basis, as a framework and as an anchor for our lives – but it’s also equally important to understand that God was speaking to people throughout the bible and so I believe with all my heart that He still speaks today.

So, the question is not whether God speaks or not, the question is do we listen?

One of the most important things you will ever learn in your entire life as a believer is how to hear the voice of God. The most important part of this is our position. I am not talking about sitting or standing, I am talking about positioning yourself to hear from God. More often than not, if we are not hearing from God, it might be because we haven’t been allowing ourselves to listen. We might get so busy with life that we don’t give God any margin to speak to us. For others of us, we fill every gap with noise. We scroll through Facebook or Instagram with every spare moment we have. We fill every little space with news and opinions and, before we know it, we have grown deaf to the sound of God, because the primary sound of our lives is from the world.

The WORD of God is our daily bread. It is not a cheat meal that we binge on once a week. It needs to be the main sound, the lead singer, and the primary voice of our lives. For some of us, the first thing you need to do in your life is to plug into God and get a word from heaven for your life.

For me personally, there was a stage in my life where Katie (my wife) and I were desperately looking to God for answers. We were serving wholeheartedly in our local church in Sydney, however we felt like God had put a church in us, we just didn’t know where and when. Initially when we prayed, we felt God say ‘wait’ and then for the next 5 YEARS, it felt like we heard nothing. Despite our prayers, despite our requests, and despite our petition – silence. This was so hard because during this time there were plenty of opportunities that presented themselves and sounded really good on paper and made so much sense in the natural. But none of these opportunities ever sat right with our spirit. I remember talking to a friend of mine who has also been a pillar of wisdom in our lives. He simply asked me – “Are these GOOD options or are these GOD options?”. This question changed my life forever.

This is the key. DON’T GO FOR A GOOD WORD. GO FOR THE GOD WORD. There is a BIG difference between good and God. Don’t get me wrong, God is good, but not everything good is God. I have seen too many people go for what looks good or what feels good and miss out on a promise because it wasn’t God. They were either too impatient, too impulsive, or too immature and they ended up settling for what’s next, not for what’s best.

So how do we know it’s God? For some of us, God’s voice may not be a loud audible voice that splits the clouds and shakes the foundations of your house. For me, it has never been anything like that at all. Generally, it begins as a feeling, an inkling, a prompting, or a sense. I will generally sit on that sense for several days, weeks, months (and in one or two cases, years) and the way I feel confirmation that it is a word from heaven is the most important word you will hear today – and that is PEACE.

I have found in my life, wherever there is peace, there is God’s presence.

It is the peace of God that confirms His word. It’s the peace of God that transcends all understanding. It’s the peace of God that provides calm in the storm. It’s the peace of God that bring clarity to what is cloudy. It’s the peace of God that provides the quiet amidst the noise.

There is nothing like the peace of God. Do you have peace about that relationship? Do you have peace about a boyfriend or girlfriend? Do you have peace about that job? Do you have peace about that decision? Whatever you do today, learn to follow PEACE.

Romans 10 reminds us that faith comes by HEARING, and hearing by the Word of God. So before we step out in water-walking faith we need to lean in, to HEAR His voice. Peter wasn’t LOOKING for a strategy, he was LISTENING for a voice. Today I want to encourage you to stop looking and start listening – because where His voice is, is where He is. And where He is, is the faith to walk on water.

QUESTIONS:

1.Have I ever heard the voice or leading of God? If not, why not? If so, what was that like?

2.What do I need to do to position myself to hear from God more regularly?