As the boat slipped effortlessly out into the harbour from the bustling docks at Joppa, Jonah sat down on a coil of rope. He felt pleased to be on board. His plan was working but in spite of the relief he felt, there was also a slight foreboding with in his heart. Jonah was running from the presence of the Lord.

Thankfully God prepared a great storm and a great fish to help Jonah succeed in his ministry. In 2 Tim 4.7 Paul said “I have finished my course..” (A sailing term) Paul the great pattern man and apostle, completed his course not because he had a perfect knowledge of God’s will but because circumstances beyond his control (storms) but completely within the control of God, blew him to the mark.  In Nahum 1.3, it says that God has His way in the storm. Many of the circumstances that came into Paul’s life were uninvited and unpleasant.

Mostly we don’t volunteer to go to the places where the growth and stretching of our faith takes place, but Gods faithfully blows us there in His storms.  In His storms, even people like the sailors who threw Jonah over, are unwittingly part of Gods plan to help us stay on course. Our difficult circumstances are all conspiring for our success. Most of all, God wants to reveal Himself to us in a way that He never could without the storm. The disciples in Mark 4.35-41 learned of Gods sovereignty over all and Jonah found out just how much God loves sinners. So right now in the midst of your storm, hold on because there is something more of God that He wants to reveal to you, that you can only see by going through the storm and you should know that when God planned the storm for Paul, he had already prepared a people for harvest and when he planned a storm for Jonah he had already prepared a fish to help Jonah end up a success.
Friend, I have found that God is at work in us and in our storms and He is preparing some thing great for you. (Phil 2.12)

It is amazing who God calls to be ministers.  If I was God I wouldn’t have chosen Aaron to be the High Priest of Israel.  The first day on the job didn’t go well the Aaron. In Ex 32.24-25, Moses had gone up the mountain to meet with God and was told that Aaron was to get the top job.  As the High Priest, Aaron was going to bring the sinner before God and God’s mind to the people. When Moses came down, Israel was dancing naked around the fertility god. Aaron had turned the worship service into a strip club.  He seemed the biggest failure ever.  If we were God, we wouldn’t have chosen him for the job but God is looking for people who can be touched with the feelings of the infirmity of others.  Aaron would now never be a self-righteous, judgmental or condescending High Priest.
Jesus was full of mercy to sinners of every type, even those who came to kill him.  When the High priest’s servant, who led the mob to arrest Jesus, got close enough, Peter cut off his ear. The servant of the High Priest was likely studying to be the next High Priest. Think Elijah and Elisha. However, the Old Testament forbade a person with a physical blemish, from holding a priestly office so Peters sword made sure he would never hold an office he didn’t deserve.  But Jesus “touched his ear and healed him”( Luke 22.51).  Jesus not only healed his blemish and restored his office but he gave the man an experience of mercy that qualified him to be a merciful High-priest to others.
Friend, doctors and nurses who have had injuries are the most empathetic. If you have gone through failure and pain in your life,  you will likely find that you can also be merciful and non-judgmental of others. In a way, your agony was necessary for your destiny.  We know well that we have received mercy from Jesus,  He has restored our ear to hear His voice and touched our hearts by His mercy. Now we are more likely to be a merciful “priest” to the people in our world. What a privilege! It is, after all, the Top Job.

Abraham might have been walking slowly but his mind was racing as they climbed to the summit.  He had strife in his home and now his promised son was to be taken from him.  Sometimes ancient deities demanded the offering of a child and that day had come.  “After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here am I.”  He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” (Genesis 22:1-2)   The promised and precious was about to be taken away with no warning and no word from God about how it was going to end.  Sometimes God wants for us some things that we don’t want for ourselves.   We imagine in life that we will ask things from God; not that God may ask something of us.  Abram received his son back again but others didn’t.

Tests of faith are costly to us, usually because we lose something from our life.  Maybe a loved one or a cherished child that turned away from God.  Perhaps mobility was lost as the use of some part of our body permanently disappears.  Did we lose a partner through divorce or was it a simple request to remove a headache that went “unanswered.”

Of course, Jesus said to pray and we need to ask but if God answered every prayer as we wished, would we be as god and would He would end up the genie in the bottle.  We almost want to be God or at least we want God to do our will. Greater difficulty can come when we think we know His will and He doesn’t seem to act!   St. John the divine coined a term called the “dark night of the soul.”  which as Pentecostals we prefer not to deal with.  We are more comfortable with the bright day of victory yet if we walk longer than a few years with God, we will find the sun does set.   These dark nites could be called the test of love and in the darkness, we learn to live with mystery.  Our self-revealing God is still unfathomable in many ways. Our redeemed spirit and renewed mind can know Him a little but will never know all that He knows is important for us. We know that He is faithful, that He cannot be unjust and we know He is pleased by faith.  Hebrews eleven tells us that it is not receiving the answers to faith that pleases God but keeping the faith through the test. Being people that still love God when there is no answer from God.

Friend, trust Him when you can’t track him. Reward and complete understanding are reserved in heaven for you. You are pleasing to Him. If something is necessary for your destiny God will intervene.  Abram walked down the mountain with his son and with a greater love for God. God will again speak to you in your darkness to reveal His greatness and to keep your promise alive.

The disciples are on the lake with Jesus and a huge storm threatens to swamp their boat and their future.  The lake represents all of us in the circumstances of life. We are in the Boat; in Christ. Like Noah in the ark; it is not what you go through that matters but with whom you go through it. The wind is always variable but this day the wind is blowing against them.  Sometimes when the wind really bad in life we think it might be the devil, but Jesus had been watching and praying for them and now comes close to encourage and comfort.Jesus is teaching His friends that everything is always good. If there is no storm everything is okay and if there is a storm I am close by so everything is still okay. In our storm, He comes and He comes for one of two reasons; to bring peace in the boat and still the storm, or so we can walk with Jesus in the storm.   Just because we are born again, doesn’t mean we know how to walk on the water or keep at peace in the boat. Faith in the storm is something we all need to learn.Peter says “If it is you command me to come to you;” give me a promise. Jesus says “come” so Peter gets out of the boat with his faith in His word. Like Peter we are to walk trusting God about our money, children, job, health or relationship and we are learning not to look at the waves boisterous.Peter walked till he doubted but when he sunk Jesus didn’t just let him drown but grabbed him and walked him back the boat.  We are all learning.  Jesus never let them sink and He’ll never let you sink.  If the storm is too much, He will catch you and bring you to the boat and still the storm.1 Corinthians 10.13 says that He knows what temptations and trials you can handle and always has a way of escape.  He may speak to you; He will hold you up; he will bring you to the boat but he will never fail you and we can worship him.The Wind is stilled and the lesson is over for the day. They realize how great Jesus is; that He is always praying for them; He is always watching them and close by in trouble.

Friend, He is training us to walk on water in storms, He is putting His word in our hearts; He is calling us closer and He is catching us if we slip and you will get to the other side.

The disciples returned to the tomb wondering what they could do as they knew the Roman guards had rolled a great stone had been rolled over the grave, but God sent a great earthquake to shift it.

“and laid it in his new tomb which he had hewn out of the rock; and he rolled a great stone against the door of the tomb, and departed” “And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat on it”  “So they went out quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to bring His disciples word (Mat 27:60, 28:8). 

God brings us through situations that seem closed and blocked by great stones; they are meant to seem impossible, difficult or burdensome but Jesus cannot be stopped. Stones will be moved and His great power revealed. Wherever we face trouble or a great problem it is a prelude to God stepping in and meeting that need with His great power.   The result was the disciples had great joy in their hearts! Great joy came through great trouble.

One time when Jesus was in a boat there was a great storm but after the disciples woke Him up, He rebukes the wind and there was a great calm.  “And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat so that it was already filling. Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, "Peace, be still!" And the wind ceased and there was a great calm and they feared greatly and said to one another what manner of man is this that even the sea and the wind obey him ( Mark 4:37-41). What is placed into heart of the disciples?  Great fear or great awe of God.

Friend, our Father knows that great revelation and great personal changes are not possible without great challenges. God means the great storms in our life, to eventually become a great calm, and great barriers to become great doors. Not so we continue life unchanged, but so something of God’s greatness is deposited in our heart and spirit’s.

I was standing in the front of the church on a Sunday night enjoying the worship and feeling my soul fill with love and wonder. Suddenly it felt like God was saying “Fear not your weakness or your limitations or the places where you have the greatest need, for the place of your need is the point of My grace. The place of your weakness is the place of My strength. The place of your cross is the place of My power and the place in your life where you feel unvalued, inadequate, out of control and even desperate, can become the greatest place of strength and testimony in your life.
God has said this before many times, to many people. He said this to Moses, Jeremiah and Gideon, my power and ability only begins to manifests at the extremity of your ability. When you are weak, then I am strong. This is the theology of weakness. Paul believed that Gods power was released through human weakness. “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us”. 2Co 4:7
So we’re not trying to be free of all weakness, or improve our humanity. (It’s mortify not modify our flesh). We are not trying to get to a place where we have no need for His grace. We are never to get to the point where we are strong in ourselves and don't need Gods help or His power. We can only come boldly to the throne of grace if we are in need. We are to be strong but strong in the Lord.
Friend I have found that it is not in God’s plan to deliver us from need or weakness but to fill us with His incredible and powerful Grace, who is Jesus our King.

What has happened to your dream? Has it been delayed, derailed or destroyed? Don’t write it off too quickly. God still plans for you to become your best you, the largest you and the most fulfilled you but it always takes time and stages. Israel camped 42 times and took 42 journeys before they entered into their promised land so maybe you are camping at one stage about to follow the cloud to your next position?

 Sometimes we're not ready for the next step because we don't want to let go of the past or the present. We can't access the dream because we're not ready for the change that every dream from God will requires. It is a fantasy to think that your future will be different and not change anything about your daily routine. Your destiny is locked up in your daily routine and your revelation.

Sometimes we are not ready for His future because He has yet to make us bigger. The person we need to be in future isn’t there yet. Could God be waiting for us to grow up before we can go up? We have to be big enough in character to survive the bigness of our future. And usually, that doesn’t happen quickly.

 But mostly our thinking is too limited and we find we cannot go beyond what our mind or heart can imagine. There were times when Israel couldn't go any further into their destiny because they're thinking was wrong. They couldn’t possess the Promised Land only because they were defeated in their own mind. So for most of us to go on the next stage on our journey, we only need to get a breakthrough from our current thinking.

Sometimes our dream gets lost in our difficulties. Our perspective gets distorted by our problems. Josephs dream seemed over as he languished in prison but God was arranging a setup, not a setback. When Daniel was put in the lion’s den, he was tricked by men but he is still on track with God. Even if your God dream seems dead, Our Father can bring it back to life. There are no hopeless circumstances only hopeless thinking.  Once God had said to Paul that he was going to Rome, nothing could stop him from getting there. The storm meant nothing - the shipwreck couldn't deter him and a snake couldn't destroy him.  Paul declared on the deck of the sinking ship “I believe God”.  He would not be put off. Nothing can stop you getting to Gods planned future for you but you!

Friend, if you think your dream has sunk or is sinking, don’t write your self off. Everything we go through is necessary for our future. But fatalism won't access promises that can only be gained by faith. There is still time to hear from Father, then rise and declare “I believe God” and follow the cloud of His purpose toward His dream.

Charles Dickens book, “Great Expectations,” tells of a poor young man who dreamed that one day he would be a wealthy man and marry a beautiful and rich woman.   As often happens, his great expectations turned into a great disappointment.

Young people get married and expect to never have a difficult moment.  But a lot can happen between the wedding cake and the silver anniversary cake.   It seems that those that do the best in life are those who are able to handle failed expectations without becoming offended at people or God.

The word “offence” means a trap or a stumbling block. It is when you allow an offence to become a snare or allow it to cause you to stumble.  Jesus said that offences were inevitable, so the key is not to let those offences stumble us.  Paul knew this, so he constantly guarded his heart against being offended at God or man. Acts 24:16.  And he had plenty he could have been offended at!  While trying to serve God, he was allowed to be beaten, flogged, imprisoned, shipwrecked and rejected by the very people he was trying to save.  We can be offended by people who correct us or that don’t meet expectations but we can also be offended at God.

John the Baptist, a boyhood friend and relative of Jesus, who ate bugs for a lifetime in order to serve God the best he could, was put in prison but he imagined that Jesus would get him out. After all He broke Daniel, three Hebrew boys,  Jeremiah and Joseph out of prison so why not John?  Jesus left him in prison to die and said.  “And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.” (Matthew  11:6) 

We could almost excuse JB from being offended, it seems like a raw deal, but God saw it differently.  Jesus told the whole planet that John the Baptist was the greatest person ever born of women.  Mat 11:11. That is greater than Moses, David, Samuel and Elijah – the greatest man in 4000 years. And he will be eternally honoured for that. He was the only other man who the Bible says was sent from God. John 1:6 . John had a divine mission, to prepare the world for Salvation and thereby change the entire universe.  Since his death he has impacted more people than in his short life, just like Jesus.  And he was elevated to heaven to be part of life with Heavenly Father and family. He was a victim for a second but a victor for eternity. If nothing else good happens to us in life and we still get to go to heaven, it’s the grace of God and that is a great life.

Friend, To serve Gods purpose in the years we have on earth and then be with God forever, is the grace of God and that is a great life.  How are your expectations? As William Carey said “We should expect great things from God and attempt great things for God”   but are you expecting from Him more that He actually promised. Don’t take offence at God- He is planning a great ending for you. If every day in this life is filled with troubles, we still have a great heavenly expectation.