When we look at the examples Jesus left us of how a Christian can live it seems obvious that we have a lot more authority and power than we usually exhibit!

Take the incident when Jesus was crossing the lake of Galilee with His disciples and being tired He went to sleep at the back of the boat. We find this incident reported in the book of Mark, Chapter 4, from verse 35 onwards.

Mar 4:35-41 On that day, when evening came, He said to them, “Let us go over to the other side.” Leaving the crowd, they took Him along with them in the boat, just as He was; and other boats were with Him. And there arose a fierce gale of wind, and the waves were breaking over the boat so much that the boat was already filling up. Jesus Himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?” And He got up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Hush, be still.” And the wind died down and it became perfectly calm. And He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith? ” They became very much afraid and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?

It's most interesting to look at this from the point of view of God as we go through the sequence of events.

First God (Jesus) tells the disciples "Let's go over to the other side".

We often talk about how we don't know God's will but in this case it's without question. God's will is that everyone should go to the other side of the lake!

Next a storm comes up on the lake and the disciples have great dificulty making progress and think that they will be drowned, so they go to Jesus and wake Him.

Then they ask Him (God!) if He cares about them and petition Him to do something about the situation!

Jesus gets up and with a word calms the sea and stills the storm.

Then Jesus says "Why do you have no faith!"

Do you see God's perspective throughout that incident?

What I notice is that while the disciples knew God's will, as did Jesus, He was calm and went to have a rest while they started panicking when the storm came up. They lost sight of what God's will was for their lives!

Next they woke Jesus up and petitioned Him to save them. Most people would think that they were exhibiting faith by doing that! They knew who to go to (God); they petitioned Him to save them (prayer); and God acted and delivered them (answered prayer!). Surely that's what you should do? Isn't that perfect fervent prayer?

But, Jesus said that this was actually exhibiting 'no faith' at all!

Jesus expected THEM to speak the words and calm the waves and still the storm. In other words He expects us, His disciples, to speak firmly to our problems, not ask God to speak to the problem! He has given us the authority and expects us to use it, not cower and run to Him every time Satan throws a problem our way!

We have a great God who has not left us helpless to cope with the world. He has placed the same power that raised Jesus from the dead within us and we have the authority of Jesus to use. Remember, Jesus has all power and authority in heaven and on the earth, and we have His power of attorney (authority) to use His power for all occurences in our and in other people's lives.

We have a great priviledge as disciples of Jesus. We need to realise this and walk in our priviledges!

Best wishes for Grace and the Peace of Jesus.

Attlee.

Another thought....