"YOUR FAITH" Will Carry You

By Rob Bailes

"Your Faith Will Carry You"

Have you ever had a really great day when everything went better than you had planned? You had your time alone with God and your day was productive from the standpoint of accomplishing your goals; you felt so good that you couldn't help humming or singing a tune in the car on the way home. Then it happened!



Suddenly out of the blue, you get a phone call with bad news or you suddenly realize you've lost something very important; or someone dear to you gets hurt; or someone you care about disappoints you! This is a really good time to do a faith check! It is at this moment that we will usually either panic or stay calm. The faith that you have in Christ will make the difference at a time like this!

The disciples found themselves in just one of those moments in chapter four of Mark when their ship had filled with water in verse thirty-seven.

Mark 4:37
And there arose a great storm of wind,(like a hurricane) and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full.

I could see in this passage that the ship is now full of water and Jesus was asleep on a pillow in the back part of the ship. The disciples had ran around in a panic before they went and woke Him up from His rest. Jesus had been teaching and healing people all day long and the disciples needed Him to do something to save them. Let's take a look at what they said to Him.

Mark 4:38 And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, "Master, care thou not that we perish?"

We see in this verse is that they addressed Jesus as their Master, which in the Greek means "teacher". Those guys were afraid that their end was near and they would soon be sucked up by the sea! They needed someone to give them a plan of action; a "master" plan, so to speak.
Yes, I believe that these men were pretty much in a state of panic and they wanted Jesus to either come up with a solution or to at least, panic with them!

They asked Him, "Don't you care that we are going to die?". Their understanding was blurred by the circumstances and they were past the reasoning and understanding that they were on a ship in a storm with the Son of God! The same One who had spent days and weeks teaching them about the power of faith and exercising this faith in many different ways.

Can you imagine a team of men in a large ship and the waves are crashing over the deck and filling the ship up faster than they can bail it out? Imagine the wind tossing their boat in every direction and the rain beating down on them as they bail faster and faster to keep the boat afloat.
They have been battling this storm for maybe an hour or more and they're loosing the battle. The boat is quickly sinking under the added weight of the water on board. They probably could hear the boards of the ship beginning to creak and move under the stress and they felt as though there was no hope for survival.

Finally, in this moment of total despair, I imagine someone shouted out,"Wake up Jesus!".

When we read what happens next, it is very clear to me that they didn't wake Jesus up for the purpose of stopping the storm. They didn't wake Him with the purpose of delivering them from the circumstances either, as they believed that they were going to die. I believe they were really upset that Jesus was sleeping and they were all bailing water and they just couldn't stand to let Jesus rest so peacefully while they were fighting for their lives! They acted as though they felt that the calm, peaceful sleep that Jesus was experiencing was a sign that He didn't care about them. They had forgotten all the lessons that Jesus had taught them about the battles and struggles of life's difficulties and they were acting purely on human instinct!

How many times do we do this very thing when something catches us by surprise? Do we feel we should battle our way through it and wait until we are about to sink before we run to get help from our Lord? Why do we wait? Some people will tell us that we should do all we can and that God expects that from us, but I believe that too many times we wait until our boat is full of water before we will call out in prayer!
What do you think would have happened if the disciples had woke Jesus when the storm began? Would this have been a good sign that their faith in Him was strong? Would Jesus have responded to their faith earlier in the storm? I feel sure He would have and we see this in the next passages that follow. Let's look at the next two verses together,

Mark 4:39,40
39 And He(Jesus) arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, "Peace, be still". And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.
40 And he said unto them, "Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith?"

The same power and authority that we see displayed here when Jesus spoke to the wind and the sea was also available to those pitiful, scared disciples already! Earlier in this passage written by Mark, the disciples were given the power to perform miracles by faith! Jesus had taken them up onto a mountain and ordained them to preach the gospel and to heal the sick and cast out devils! Jesus had told them that they could ask anything if they had faith.(Even moving mountains!) Faith is a powerful thing to have and to understand! We excuse our lack of the power of faith in our lives many times by counting ourselves weak and vulnerable as humans. This isn't what Jesus wants for us as his children and messengers to the rest of the world!

Even still,as people talked, the disciples had heard rumors of how Jesus was from the devil and how Jesus was breaking the laws that had been laid down by the religious leaders, concerning the sabbath day. So we must remember all of that when we see the disciples reaction to the miracles Jesus performed on this day in the storm. Let's read on,

Mark 4:41 And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, "What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?"

It's interesting to read in the previous chapters of Mark how the evil spirits all seemed to know and acknowledged that Jesus was the Holy Son of God and we can also read how that the Holy Spirit descended as the Heavens opened up when Jesus was baptised by John. These same men had been with Jesus to see allot of these things take place, but they hadn't understood and recognized in the time of panic that this same Jesus was the Son of God and has the power to do all things with anything or anyone that He so chooses!

Do we still struggle with this today in our society of logic and legalistic thinking? Would Jesus ask us the same thing that He asked the disciples; when we think we are so smart and capable that we try to get through life's difficult circumstances all on our own?
Do we still get surprised when Jesus answers our prayers? Why should we, if we have constant unwavering faith in Him? He doesn't waver from His promises as we go through life's difficult circumstances; our faith is what can change the way that things turn out and it is each person's faith in God that will deliver and restore you in the presence of life's storms.

Jesus was there in the ship the whole time! The sooner that we understand that this holds true in our lives, the sooner we will find our lives filled with the unlimited resource of miracles and blessings of God through our faith in Him. The Faith of the disciples, or should I say, the lack of faith was the the cause of their distress and panic in this storm. It was their decision to take on the storm all by themselves and did you happen to notice in that last passage that nothing was said about the water in the boat?

Jesus stopped the storm, but they still had a boat full of water!

I just can't help but wonder how they dealt with that situation. That's the problem with waiting many times when crisis comes! We still have the repairs and the cleanup to do as a result of waiting to call for help! Use your faith and call out to God early when a sudden crisis hits you! Your FAITH will carry you safely through the storms and calm the waves and wind.

I'd like to close this Part two message on "FAITH" with a final thought and by reading some verses that will help illustrate this for you. "Hang with me, you won't want to miss this!"

Question - How does our faith carry us through the times of difficulty?

We must be careful not to think that we are constantly on a battleground and that we must always be ready to fight off the unseen forces of satan. In sharing my final point, I would like to point out how living our lives battling satan would be very different from what Jesus was teaching the disciples in the time that He was here on the earth.

The disciples may have tried to handle their difficulties all on their own at times, but I believe that they eventually found, as we will also, that it is not for us to wage war against the devil and sin by our own strength, because we will loose the battle every time!

It is by FAITH in God that we WIN our battles and remain victorious over the evil forces and the difficulties of this world.

That is going to mean giving up our ego trips, putting our own weapons away and trusting in the all consuming power of God. That means fear and respect for the Mighty One who is greater than us all and admitting this daily! Let's look at some verses that illustrate man's Faith in God that carried him through circumstances of difficulty!

The following passage tells us about a group of men who reached out to help a paralyzed man who was completely helpless. They didn't decide to pitch in to get him a new hospital bed or take him meals on wheels. They, in faith, took action to change the man's life forever! They believed in the spoken word of the Lord! By faith, they carried him to where Jesus was speaking.
Mark 2:3-5 And they come unto him, bringing one sick of the palsy(paralyzed), which was carried by four men and when they could not come near to him because of the press, they uncovered the roof where he was: and when they had broken it up, they let down the bed that the sick of the palsy(paralyzed) lay. When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, "Son, thy sins be forgiven thee".
It is true that our sins are what keep us held captive in our troubles and it is the faith in the Lord that allows us the deliverance from the bondage of sin and doubt. The faith of these men showed on this day and Jesus recognized it within their hearts and in their willingness to come to Him for help. Remember, it's so very important for us to be used of God and live a life of freedom from sins bondage! Why would anyone want to remain bound by sin?

The next passage we'll look at is about a woman who had been experiencing a continuous flow of blood for twelve years and she had been to many doctors trying their remedies and spent all that she had, but on this day she had heard that the Lord Jesus was coming and she knew if she could just touch His robe that she would become healthy and have a normal life again! She had come this day with unwavering faith; faith in the power of the Lord Jesus. She believed it with all of her heart! Imagine the joy that filled her life this day!
Mark 5:25-34 And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years and had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse. When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment. For she said, "If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole." Immediately the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague. Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press, and said, "Who touched my clothes?" His disciples said unto him, "You see the multitude thronging thee, and you say, "Who touched me?" He looked round about to see her that had done this thing, but the woman fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth and he said unto her, "Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague".

There was a woman of Canaan who had heard that Jesus was going to be at the coasts of Tyre and Sidon and she believed that Jesus could perform miracles and that He was the Lord. She also knew that she was not of Israel, like others who followed Jesus. Yet she knew what she believed and she wasn't going get discouraged and give up because of her ethnic origin, as many times this could become a major social and religious barrier in this region of the world. She knew Jesus could help her daughter who was controlled by a devil! She had to go in faith.
Her friends probably warned her that she wasn't going to be able to be helped, as she was not socially accepted by the nation of Israel. She probably had some doubts herself along the journey to where Jesus was, but by the time she had arrived she was so sure of His power that she knew if she could just get a few crumbs from the bread of life, that her daughter would be free again from being possessed by the devil! Let's look at this passage in Matthew and see what happened,
Matthew 15:22-28 And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, "Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil". But he answered her not a word. His disciples came and besought him, saying, "Send her away; for she cries after us". But he answered and said, "I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel". Then she came and worshipped him, saying, "Lord, help me". But he answered and said, "It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs". She said, "Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table". Then Jesus answered and said unto her, "O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt", and her daughter was made whole from that very hour.

These men and women who were made whole or who were freed from evil spirits were all changed forever! What I want to point our attention to is the thing that made the difference in the lives of the men who brought the paralyzed man to Jesus, the thing that made the difference in the life of the woman who had spent at least a quarter of her life in pain, sorrow and doctor's offices trying to find an answer and the thing that made the difference in the life of the mother and the daughter who was suffering being controlled by a devil that had plans to destroy her body, mind and soul. The thing that made the difference in the lives of these people and many more throughout the Word of God is that they had come to an understanding; a major realization of the hope that was found only in the Lord Jesus who had come to earth as a man to seek and to save that which was lost.

You see, they had come to understand the fear of the Lord's Power through respect and reverence; they had come to understand the love of the Lord in His power and willingness to forgive people of their sin and this brought each and every on of them next to understand His compassion on all of them as He always recognized their faith and trust in Him as their Savior!

Your FAITH will carry you through the difficulties and bring you amazing deliverance from the circumstances and troubles of this world. You will live above the times of crisis when you trust GOD to carry YOU, by Faith!

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