Matt. 14: 22-33 The event of Peter walking on the water is most often thought of as Peter almost drowning. I believe he should be given more credit than that. He is one of very few people who has ever walked on water. We have all experienced stormy times in our life. As we strive to walk through life according to Godʼs Word and operate in faith, there will be many such times and we must be prepared for them. There are some principles I want to share with you for living this kind of life, the God kind of Life. First, always remember that what God commands, He will make it possible for you to do. If God tells you to do something, He will make a way for you to do it. He will provide the means, the method, the people, or whatever is necessary to bring it about. Jesus constrained His disciples to get into the boat and go to the other side. I think we could say that Jesus insisted to the point of commanding His disciples to get into the ship and go before Him to the other side of the sea. There are several things involved here. They were in the ship, crossing the sea, going to the other side, because Jesus told them to. It is one thing for us to find ourselves in a fix because of something God told us to do; it is another thing to find ourselves in a fix because of something WE decided to do. There is a difference. We must make sure God told us to do it. If He did, He will make it possible. When the storm came they should have remembered that it was Jesus who told them to go to the other side. They could see with their eyes and hear with their ears that they were in the middle of a storm. But in spite of what their senses were telling them, Jesus had told them to go to the other side. THAT should have given them confidence that they were going to get there. Jesus said, “Go to the other side of the sea”. Instead of fear, there should have been faith. We do not always understand the way out of every situation we face, I know that. But, we must trust Him and speak His Word to the storms in our life. When you are walking on the water in a storm, remember you have a Great High Priest and an intercessor. Remember, no matter what situation you face, Jesus is aware of it. If you are toiling in the storm, He says to you, “I see you and I am making intercession for you. Use My Word and you will come out on top of the storm. You will be victorious over the very thing that seems to defeat you.” Jesus was praying; He saw what was happening to his disciples. In the spirit He saw them. We know according to Heb. 4, He sees us and intercedes for us today. Jesus sees what is happening to you in your life and He prays for you. We are not to walk by our feelings, but we are to walk by faith. Our High Priest is touched with the feelings of our infirmities. He already knows about our infirmities. He is simply waiting for the expression of our faith. We donʼt need to emphasize what we feel. We need to emphasize our faith. He knows when we hurt. He knows when we are about to go under. But He is waiting for the expression of our faith. The next thing you need to remember when you are walking on the water is that you have changed - and not your environment! This is very important! When you are born again YOU CHANGE, not your environment. Sometimes after people get saved you hear them say, I got saved, why is everything going wrong? People laugh at me, they put me down, they say I am weird! They did before you got saved, you just didnʼt know it. Now that your spirit life has begun, you are aware of it, thatʼs all. Why should it be otherwise? If your friends, neighbors, family and boss have not been saved, sure they are going to treat you differently. You are different! You have changed. You may be the only member of your family who is born again. You are different and that is why they treat you differently. You are running crossways with your environment. That is why things are going wrong. Just keep going. The fact that you have ALREADY changed is what is creating the storm. This is not bad, it is not negative. It is good! Since you are the cause, you can do something about it! Do something constructive. If you find yourself continually in the storm, begin to speak the Word of God in faith. Watch what you say and make sure it is the Word of God. The Word of God spoken by the believer in faith has creative power. It will change your situation. It will change your life. The disciples had been in many storms. They had seen Jesus speak to the wind and the waves before; they had seen them go calm at His word. At His command, more than once, they had seen their boat settle down and begin to float nicely on the calm waters. They could have done the same thing. Jesus had taught them how. He had shown them. However, they were back in their old environment and were crying out in fear. Remember this, when you find yourself in your old environment, your world will not change until you begin to do something about it with the Word of Faith. We walk by faith in the Word of God and not by sight. In this story, we discover some amazing things happening in verses 25 through 29. It seems their cry of fear comes not so much because of the storm, though that had something to do with it. Primarily their fear came when they saw Jesus. How many times in the middle of a storm have we said, “If I could just see Him. If He would just suddenly appear, I know everything would be alright. I know it would be immediately over, if I could just catch a glimpse of Jesus”. How many times have we thought that? It was the visible appearance of Jesus that caused the disciples to cry out in fear. Sometimes we think if we could see Him, then we could believe Him. I am not so sure we would believe. I think it would greatly frighten some people like it did the disciples. Why? Because then we are walking by sight and not by faith. Peter said “if it be thou”, and thatʼs one of the biggest ifʼs I know of in the Word of God. “If it be thou, bid me to come.” And Jesus said, “Come.” Even when Jesus answered Peter, he still did not ... See Walking on Water - Page 11 2 GLAD TIDINGS JUNE 2025 Non-denominational Christian Newspaper Sharing the Gospel of Jesus the Christ MAIL P. O. BOX 1116 - DOUGLAS - GA 31534 E- MAIL Editor@GladTidings.news OFFICE PHONE (912) 384- 6896 ADMINISTRATION EDITOR AND PUBLISHER.........Quinnelle McRae VOLUNTEERS CARTOONS/JoyfulToons...................Mike Waters EDITORIAL WRITERS .......... Gary Toole, Peggy Clark, Sara Goldstein, Mark Hankins PROOF READER.. .............................Peggy Clark PHOTOGRAPHY.... ................. 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