Have you been watching all the storms that have hit the United States recently? Over 80 tornadoes in Iowa this season! In Mark 4, we see that Jesus and His disciples were in a storm. They had just finished ministry and Jesus told them to cross the Sea of Galilee and go to the country of Gennesaret where He would deliver the demoniac. While they were crossing the sea, a storm came up. The disciples were afraid that the boat was going to continue to sink, and Jesus was asleep in the stern of the boat.
Have you ever gone through a storm in your life when you felt like the disciples? You felt like Jesus was asleep and did not care? That in itself is believing a lie of the enemy. Jesus always cares for us. The problem is we take our eyes off Him, and we begin to concentrate on our sinking. Notice Jesus wasn’t offended with their accusations. Matthew 8:26 gives us the words that Jesus spoke to His disciples. “Why are you afraid, you men of little faith?” Jesus is questioning why their faith was not working. The word little is not used here in a quantitative way but in the way their faith was working. It wasn’t the size of their faith. The problem was they were using what they had.
Jesus then does something that in the natural may seem foolish. He speaks to the storm. In the natural, that is not what should be done. Jesus knew that He had authority over storms whether they are natural occurrences or not. The thing we need to know is Jesus has authority over every storm that comes into our lives. He will either stop the storm or He will get us through the storm.
What else did Jesus know? He knew that His disciples had authority over the storms. That is why He questioned them about the use of their faith. Because Jesus had chosen these men to walk with Him and had given them authority over demons. (Mark 3:15) I believe this storm was demonically inspired to stop Jesus from ministering to the demoniac. Storms come into our lives to stop us from having great victories.
What did Jesus say to this storm? Mark 4:39 says, “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.” Let’s look at these words. These are two different commands. The first is hush up. My mother has been in heaven for years, but I can still hear her say, Leon, hush! The Greek word for hush is siopao. It is a command to be silent. When I was sixteen, I was in a tornado. One of the things I remember very well is the noise it made as it destroyed things around me. It caught my attention! When storms of all sorts come into our lives, they try to get our attention. We can get to the point where we hear nothing else. What do we do? Command the storm to hush up in Jesus’ name.
The second command was, be still. The Greek word here means to muzzle a beast. We muzzle dogs so they will not bite. We have the authority to muzzle the storms effects on our lives. What Jesus said not only hushed the storms, but He muzzled it completely. We can muzzle the effect of the storm by using our authority in Jesus’ name. Recently, I spoke to a thunderstorm that was threatening the outdoor estate sale of a long-time friend and partner of this ministry. It was producing huge hail and winds as it approached their house. I had been praying for their protection when the Lord said to me, Speak to it! Which I did and storm moved away from the house and dissipated in a few drops of rain.
This month I wrote this to encourage you to speak to those storms in you life and use your authority. That is what Jesus is expecting of you!
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