Can You Walk On Water? Neither Could Peter!Prophecy Chat by Sharon L. Clemens

Special note: all specific scriptures referenced below are linked to BibleGateway.com, making your study easier.

    I am indebted to the Apostle Peter. He is a perfect example of believers who blow it--not once, but several times. But, our Lord's mercy restored him each time he fell, and repented. Peter lived to bear much fruit in the Kingdom of God.

    A favorite Bible story is of Jesus, walking on the water, and Peter's less-than-stellar attempts to do so as well. But the story is not about Peter's attempts to share in Christ's miracle; it is about what happens when believers fail. We all do it. As they say, the Lord may be leading but "we didn't get that memo." Something got in the way: disobedience, a failure to read His Word and pray on a regular basis, worldly distractions. The list of rationalizations is endless, but the results are always the same. The storm came, and we took our eyes off Jesus.

Matthew 14:25-33

    "Now in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went to them, walking on the sea...And Peter answered Him [Christ] and said, 'Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.' So He [the Lord] 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!. And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, 'O you of little faith, why did you doubt?' And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased."

     * The disciples were in a small boat on the Sea of Galilee. A strong wind came up--a "contrary" wind that was not cooperating with where the disciples wanted to go. As they struggled with the wind, the Lord came to them walking on the water. Note that it was the fourth watch of the night--that portion of the night from 3:00 to 6:00 a.m. This is the darkest part of the night, right before the dawn. It is when the storms of life take us to the darkest depths of the struggle that we begin to take our eyes off Christ.
     * I give Peter credit for his spontaneous boldness. He often responded first, and with enthusiasm while the others held back. The rest stayed safely in the boat, but Peter said, "Lord if it is You, command me to come to You on the water." Peter took the opportunity to exhibit great faith in the face of adversity.
     * Note also that Peter did not presume on our Lord. He asked permission to come to Him on the water. We do not accomplish great things for God through our own strength; we are completely dependent on Him and His purpose. It doesn't work to step out when the Lord is not leading in that direction. John 15:5--"...He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without me you can do nothing." It is for His glory, not our own, that He allows great works. We must be sure we are operating on His orders, not our own will.
     * Peter got out of the boat and headed toward Jesus. But, he made a fatal error--he started watching the wind and waves instead of Christ. The circumstances of the storm began to sink him! Peter was a great starter; it was finishing he had some trouble with. But as he sank, he cried out, "Lord, save me!"
     * Good answer, Peter. IMMEDIATELY Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him. But Christ chided Peter for missing his moment. His lack of faith caused Peter to doubt.
When we get out of the boat and step out in faith, fear can sink us, if we let it. Fear is not of God.
When they got into the boat, Peter now clinging to our Lord's arm, the wind ceased. The storm accomplished the purpose for which our Lord sent it--to demonstrate our dependence on Christ, alone.

All storms will end. How we weather the storm depends on our faith to "walk on water."
In Christ Jesus, we are able to walk above our circumstances, no matter what the storm.
He makes a path through all sorrow--He can even make stormy water firm enough to walk on.

[Romans 8:35-39]
"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
...Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come,
nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing,
shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

THE STORMS ARE COMING--Will We Sink, Or Stand!

    With dark clouds brewing over the nations of man, it is a good reminder that in Christ Jesus, we can ride out the waves. There is an image in the heavenly throne room of God that comforts me. In Revelation 4 and 5, the war room of God is described in glorious detail. This "room" is command central during the Tribulation. The believers raptured before the Tribulation are there, around the throne, represented by the twenty-four elders [4:10; 5:8-10]. And before the throne, separating the multitudes of heavenly redeemed from the exalted throne of the Lord God Almighty, is "a sea of glass, like crystal." This "sea" is solid, but transparent. Those who approach the throne walk on this crystal sea into the holy presence of God. In heaven, we will all walk on water like a crystal sea, because the storms of life are no longer present. We will exist in the holy presence of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit for all eternity.

    Only through Christ Jesus do we gain access to that throne. As the elders sing, "You [the Lamb] are worthy to take the scroll, and to open its seals; for You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation..." This is the redeemed church in heaven, cleansed by the blood of the Lamb. [5:8-10]

    Let us keep our eyes on Jesus, maintaining our walk of faith EVEN THROUGH THE STORMS, and waiting with anticipation for His return to "receive [us] to Himself." [John 14:3] Come, Lord Jesus!

In Him We Wait, Work, and Watch,
[Luke 12:35-59]
Sharon

[Prophecy Chat is a weekly commentary of current events in light of Bible prophecy. Sharon L. Clemens is an evangelical, premillennial, dispensational teacher of eschatology. She can be reached for comment or questions by e-mail at farmgrove@verizon.net]

"The Truth Make-over"Prophecy Chat by Sharon L. Clemens

     Recently, we left our church of 26 years. We were active members of this church, but finally were compelled to leave because the Bible is not being taught literally. What do I mean by a literal interpretation of the Bible? It is also called expositional teaching--the presentation of the Word line by line and verse by verse, in its proper context. This method of teaching interprets the Bible primarily at face value, rather than merely expounding on an obscure application with no substance. A basic rule of Bible interpretation is "When the literal sense makes perfect sense, seek no other sense."

     The loss of our home church especially troubled my husband and I because we also were led to leave the denomination we were raised in after we received Christ as Lord and Savior. That was many years ago, but the Holy Spirit made it clear we had no choice; the Word was not being taught honestly. However, the seminary-trained pastors in that denomination seemed oblivious to the fact that they took scripture out of context and ignored prophetic portions because a literal interpretation would expose the error of their denominational position. The pastors had been trained to "spiritualize" scripture, making the literal meaning into a symbol of something else. It has been called Little Red Riding Hood preaching. For Sunday after Sunday, during my childhood, I would sit in a pew and listen to the senior pastor expound on a Bible passage--not teaching it in context, but lifting out a shallow point of morality, launching into a fairytale-like story to illustrate his point--a story with little relationship to the text. He needed to create interesting stories in order to keep the congregation awake. You may have had similar experiences. How sad. If such preachers had actually taught the Bible, they would have found the Word of the living God is not only interesting, it is convicting power.

     The issue boils down to the same question Pontius Pilot asked of Christ. What is truth? Because truth is the foundation of everything, the question is fundamental. Because there is only one truth [John 14:6], and that truth is synonymous with Jesus Christ, Satan has sought to destroy it from the beginning. How effective he is in doing so is an indication of how near the Lord's return may be. God will only allow Satan to abuse His truth for so long before His wrath will tolerate no more.

SATAN'S MAKE-OVER OF TRUTH:

     Satan's tactics to pervert and subvert truth haven't changed much over the centuries; they do not have to because lost mankind falls for them every time. All Satan had to do to lure Eve into sin was to cast subtle doubt on God's intentions: "Has God indeed said..." [Genesis 3:1]. Satan is a master of DECEPTION. Deception is not all lies--that would be too obvious. Deception is a little truth with a little lie. But even a shade of a lie contaminates the purity of truth, making it into deception. All Satan had to do was to plant a seed of doubt in Eve's mind about God's intentions, and she bought it--hook, line, and sinker.

     For years we reasoned it wasn't so much what the ministers were saying as what they were NOT saying. However, that pattern changed. We finally left when scripture was taken out of context, interpreted on the basis of bias rather than literal truth, and then was used to cast dispersions on those with opposing views. Our story is being repeated again and again in churches all over our country and shouldn't surprise us. But neither should we continue to sit in a church that is teaching defective truth. I pray the scales will fall from the eyes of ministers who work very hard about what NOT to say or twist what they DO say so the meaning supports their Madison Avenue mission statement instead of the Bible. The Lord is the one who will defend His truth at His return; that is why I pray for teachers and pastors who are falling into apostacy and deception [Revelation 22:18-19].

NOTHING NEW--AN EXAMPLE OF SATAN'S METHODS FROM THE OLD TESTAMENT:

     In the days of the prophet Amos, he was called by God to warn Israel of coming judgment. Israel, except for the remnant of true believers, did not listen to his words. Instead, the apostate leaders accused Amos of conspiracy and treason! They questioned his motives and demanded he return home to Judah and try to sell his message there--as if Amos were in it for the money. Amos countered by pointing out that he had a prosperous business before God commanded him to go to Israel. Amos was obeying God; there was no benefit for him personally. [Amos 7:10-16]

     Because Israel refused to hear the truth, the LORD took away the truth-tellers. "Behold, the days are coming,' says the Lord God, that I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread...but of hearing the words of the LORD...They shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the LORD, but shall not find it." [Amos 8:11-12]

IN OUR DAY, TRUTH-TELLERS ARE BECOMING FEW AND FAR BETWEEN.
TRUE BELIEVERS ARE SEARCHING FOR CHURCHES TEACHING THE WHOLE TRUTH--AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH--OF THE BIBLE.

     Just as the Lord took away the word of the Lord from Israel, so He is allowing Satan to deceive and corrupt God's Word today. As Isaiah warned, immorality is being legalized in our courts so that "evil shall be good and good, evil" [Isaiah 5:18-20]. Hate Crimes legislation threatens to repress the truth by making scriptural truth illegal in the public arena. Daniel 7:25 predicted a time when Antichrist would change times and laws to fit his demonic agenda.

     IF SIN HAS ITS WAY, THE UNITED STATES WILL LEGISLATE FREEDOM FROM RELIGION, RATHER THAN FREEDOM OF RELIGION.

SIN SEEMS TO BE WINNING--BUT THAT'S PART OF GOD'S PLAN:

     Sin will have its day; it is called The Tribulation. But the darkness that the Lord is allowing to fall upon the Day of Man will be eclipsed at the Day of the Lord by the return of Christ Jesus. Our Lord is coming to "repay with tribulation those who trouble [us], and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.. These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, when He comes, in that Day, to be glorified in His saints and to be admired among all those who believe, because our testimony among you was believed." [2 Thess 1:6-10]

     The Lord will come in wrath and vengeance to RESTORE TRUTH and punish those who deceive. The lost are also self-deceived, thinking their manipulation of truth is bringing world peace and global Christianity to a deteriorating world. But they are wrong. "For when they say, 'Peace and safety!' then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape." Paul likens the self-deceived to those in darkness while the believers are walking in the light of God's truth. "But you brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief." What are believers to do in days of deception? "Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober...putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation. FOR GOD DID NOT APPOINT US TO WRATH, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ..." [1 Thess. 5:3-9]

     The great irony of this onslaught of LIES and the perversion of truth is that because of the attack on God's truth, the Lord will TRAP THEM with their own lies:

THE DECEIVERS WILL BE DECEIVED!

"The coming of the lawless one [Antichrist] is according to the working of Satan,
with all power, signs, and lying wonders,
and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish,
because THEY DID NOT RECEIVE THE LOVE OF THE TRUTH, that they might be saved.
And for this reason GOD WILL SEND THEM STRONG DELUSION, THAT THEY SHOULD BELIEVE THE LIE,
that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness."
[2 Thess. 2:9-12]

     Let the punishment fit the crime. The Lord's justice and righteousness is perfect in its application. [Obadiah 15]. We have nothing to fear, but must occupy until He comes.

In Him We Wait, Work, and Watch,
Luke 12:35-59
Sharon

[Prophecy Chat is a weekly commentary of current events in light of Bible prophecy. Sharon L. Clemens is an evangelical, premillennial, dispensational teacher of eschatology. She can be reached for comment or questions by e-mail at farmgrove@verizon.net]