Ministering: Rev Sam Oye
Topic: The Wonders of Faith: Daring the Impossible
Text: Mathew 14: 22-30
Immediately Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side, while He sent the multitudes away. And when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. Now when evening came, He was alone there. But the boat was now in the middle of the sea, tossed by the waves, for the wind was contrary. Now in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went to them, walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out for fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid.” And Peter answered Him and said, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.” So He said, “Come.” And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, “Lord, save me!”
There are two kinds of people in every church (including pastors, heads of teams, the congregation, men and women). They all are either driven by fear or faith. The results of our lives can always point or link us to what drives us. We need to understand that even in the church, some of our leaders are possibly driven by fear. It is only a few that are truly driven by faith. The sad part of it is that God will use the select few driven by faith to get great things done and set aside those driven by fear.
One amazing observation to note is that of all the things God hates, fear is one of the greatest. It is impossible to please God when you dwell in fear. Fear is something we must all deal with. You could have been more if you were not afraid. This could happen when you are too calculated and logical as a person. If everything happened by calculations and logic, a lot of people would not achieve great things in life. It is sad to see a generation with great potential being wrecked by fear. Another sad thing is to know that these fears are actually excusable and justifiable.
Proverbs 22: 13 (NLT) “The lazy person claims, There’s a lion out there! If I go outside, I might be killed!” The sad part of the scenario in Proverbs 22: 13 was on that day he was too scared to step out, the lion was safely in the jungle, not outside.
Ecclesiates 11: 4 (AMP) “He who watches the wind [waiting for all conditions to be perfect] will not sow [seed], and he who looks at the clouds will not reap [a harvest].” We should analyse and identify areas in our lives where we must, could, should and would have been more, except for the fact that we allowed in the ruining and damaging effects of fear. The challenge with life is that it will always make you see someone who is doing well in what you are always afraid to do. When you decide to finally do it yourself, you discover that it was too late for you to start.
The two kinds of people in the church:
- Those driven by fear – They never start, continue and finish anything significant in life because anytime they want to start, they could fail. Due to this possible failure, they are always paralysed at the point of starting. They never overcome the inertia needed to start. In physics,
“Newton’s First Law of Motion states that a body at rest will remain at rest unless an outside force acts on it, and a body in motion at a constant velocity will remain in motion in a straight line unless acted upon by an outside force.”Furthermore, they hardly try again after a bad past. Individuals driven by fear never attempt things again. They always ask themselves why they should try again. The reality of things in life reveals that some of the most successful people are individuals who continuously failed until they succeeded. It is important to understand the concept that “He who sits doing nothing fails at nothing”.
Failure is just an indicator that you are making progress. It could be that the only reason you failed is that all the variables of success were not considered. Failure should be seen as an invitation to start again, but the next time around, intelligence should be given details that were missed before. Failure should be seen as an opportunity to identify and refine your potential.The mission of fear is to convince you that due to prior failure, you cannot achieve success. It is important to be aware that the language of fear is lies. Fear is a spirit and its language is lies. Every time fear speaks, it lies. Inversely, lies are a spirit and every time it speaks, it introduces fear. Those who are driven by fear easily quit when the going gets tough. They make wrong decisions in anticipation of unfavourable outcomes. They will betray their friends instantly because of their wrong conclusions in emergency situations. They always hide their potential when others are exploring and showing their potential.
From the Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25: 14 – 30, in verse 25, it is interesting to note that the servant given only one talent tells his master that he was afraid, and this led him to bury the gold. This is what fear does. It makes one bury what should be released, hide what should be exposed, back off from platforms that one should stand upon, stay indoors when you should move out, and put your hands in your pockets when you should use them to knock on the door.
Fear has the capability to paralyse your capacity for expression. It is fear that silences you when you need to speak. It is fear that tells you to sit down when you need to stand up. - Those driven by faith – They hear and listen to God. They fear nothing and overcome their doubts. They obey God. They hold on until the very end. In the midst of the storm, it does not matter to them. They continuously believe and hold on to the word of God. They decide they will never quit, turn back and back off. The culture of those driven by faith is that they stay through until they eventually breakthrough. A word of advice – “Do not let fear be the driver, let faith be your driver”. Faith is absolute confidence in the person and faithfulness of God. Those driven by faith are recklessly abandoned to God. They believe that if God cannot help them, no one else can. Your faith in God must be absolute. You cannot be looking up to God and man at the same time.
Psalm 121: 1 – 2 (KJV) “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, From whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth.” Faith is seeing the invincible. It is seeing what others do not see. It is believing in the incredible. It is receiving the impossible. You are saved by faith. We (the just) live by faith. Every step we take as Christians is ordered by faith. We do not look at our bank accounts to decide which steps to take. We hear God first, then take steps.
Philippians 4: 19 (KJV) “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” We work and speak by faith. 2 Corinthians 4: 13 (KJV) “We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak.”
As people of faith, what we say does not always make sense. The problem is in the desire to always make sense of what we speak. It does not really matter. Beware of arrogance, it can make you miss so much in life. Learn to ask questions and not talk. Also, always speak your vision! In Matthew 14: 25 – 30, Peter watched Jesus walk on water. Jesus (God in the form of man) came to show him what is possible; an act impossible in the realm of human beings. Peter initially believed before doubts and fear set in. Concerning being driven by faith, we should dare ourselves to believe that what no man has ever done, God can bring to pass through us. The only person we are learning from is Jesus. The only person that is your limitation is and should be Jesus. “If Jesus cannot do it, then we cannot do it”. However, if it is something Jesus can make happen, then we should believe that we can perform the impossible.