The ship was rolling in the heavy seas as the powerful storm called the Euroclydon threatened her safety. Paul had anticipated the danger when he first boarded the ship. The weather was bad but it wasn't a mistake; the wind was ordered. It wasn't comfortable but it was commissioned. Paul didn't ask for it but he needed it. Peter said we will only get tests and trials “if need be”. This was just part of the process for God’s promise to be fulfilled.

To grow and have peace in our troubles, we need to realise it is part of the process that brings us to the promise. If God could have brought Israel into the Promised Land without change, He would have. If God needed you to have that job you just lost, to become what you needed to be, you would never have lost it. If God knew you needed that friend who just moved away, for you to become the woman God intended you to be, they would still be here. God know what we need to become His champions. We all want the promise but less want the process. Everybody wants to look like a Schwarzenegger but nobody wants to spend three hours at the gym. We are to meet with God in our trials and grow stronger like Paul. He didn't just go through the storm, he grew through the storm.

Friend, there are no easy steps toward your destiny, but they are always purposeful steps. God’s plan, is that your test becomes part of your testimony. Hold on and discover that He is holding you.

There are 2 groups of people that see everything clearly. The rest of us can only approximate this reality in our hearts and minds.

The first group are those in hell.  In Luke 16, the rich man found himself in hell and saw things perfectly for the first time. He saw that he was in Hades, not Paradise and he saw there was no way out. He saw that he was wrong about the way he lived and everything he believed, He saw that God was holy, His word was true and hell was real. He saw the dangers of ignorance and pride and wanted others to be warned.

The second group are those before the throne of God.  The living creatures cry “Holy Holy”, as they circle the throne of the Lord Jesus Christ.  They see His sovereign power and beauty and in endless realization of His majesty and glory, they can only shout Holy! They see that every created atom is held together by unspeakable might, and every act of God worked in the affairs of men, was love revealed, and they cry Holy.

The twenty-four elders see that everything was created by God for His glory.  They saw their utter debt to God for their existence and their utter debt to the Lamb for their forgiveness and salvation. Before this King Jesus, they could find no lower place than the floor, so they fell down.

Friends, there are two places we can get perfect vision and understanding. None of them are earthly. Men without God can’t see at all and certainly AI is blind to His glory. AI can give you a script but no vision- words but nothing that God has said. Until you've seen God, we've got nothing to say. Only seeing Him clearly enables us to see everything else clearly. Our vision will be totally healed at the throne, but even now, Father grants us a spirit of revelation and wisdom in the knowledge of Him. Nothing we see, think or believe is right until we have seen Him. Psalm 36.9. In your light, we see light.

As Elijah sat in the cave amongst the mess of his life, he couldn’t see God in his circumstances. God wasn't doing what Elijah thought He would do.  His cave was not just a geological place but a spiritual and mental place God never planned for him to be in. Elijah didn’t think that God saw him as valuable. He had even asked God to end his life. He had gone into a cave but God would not leave him there. " And there he went into a cave, and spent the night in that place; and behold, the word of the LORD came to him, and He said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 

The great honour of God speaking was lost on Elijah and he blurts out his depression, paranoia, and hopelessness. “I have been very zealous for the LORD God of hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they seek to take my life.”  (1 Kings 19:8). The prophet Elijah felt ineffective and a failure. Sometimes we get our sense of worth from the perceived value of our effectiveness and circumstances. We are tempted to derive our worth from our busyness or profile in the body of Christ, but we are valuable to God because we are His special creation.  When we realise that we were created on purpose for a purpose, we can be assured that every situation we are in, is crafted by Him or will be used by Him, even if others have made it hard for us. 

Friend, you are of great value to our Father, and both your and your circumstances are part of God’s workmanship. Don’t equate your value with your circumstances. Jesus’ life was strewn with difficulties and trouble, yet he was loved intensely by His Father. So are you, and every trouble Jesus endured brought him a step closer to the crown and the joy that was set before Him. God brought Elijah and Jesus out of their cave into their purpose and He will do the same for you. Listen is He calling you to come out?

Shafts of light fell through the small hole in the wall of the prison and John shifted his position on the floor to be in the sun. It felt good and, in his heart, he worshiped his King. Suddenly he was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day.   “I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last:” Rev 1:10  

Being in the Spirit brought supernatural change to what John saw and heard.  John was imprisoned on Patmos Island, but God took him into the Spirit and showed him how things truly were. Things he could not see with his natural eyes.  He saw Gods victory even though his circumstances were confining.  He could see that while he is limited, God works without limitation. Though John was isolated, he saw Jesus in the midst of the church. He saw Jesus moving even when his situation looked static.

In the Spirit, you can see that God is working everything together for good for those that love God.  It means to be able to see or hear what Father is saying in your situation or in spite of your situation.  We can be going through a loss and still see that God is adding something to your life; Have a really bad day but still see the blessing of God and good coming our way.  He was in prison but in the Spirit on the Lords Day. In the Spirit, it's always the Lords Day!

Friend, go into the Spirit today. Jesus is speaking to you there. See that God rules in your life, not your “prison guard or your prison walls”.  See the King sovereign and unshaken in His purpose. Being in the Spirit always trumps being in the prison.

Everybody gets disappointed at some stage. Disappointed with their husband, boss or their children, it’s just part of life. People are not perfect, and we almost expect to be disappointed. But what if you feel disappointed with God?

Naomi in the book of Ruth went down to Moab because there was a famine in Bethlehem. Then while in Moab, her husband and her two sons or died. When she returned to Bethlehem, she told everybody to call her Mara, as she felt that the Lord had made her come back empty. “Call me Mara for I'm bitter”.  Her sadness was understandable, but wasn’t aware that God was making an appointment for her with destiny. She was about to become the great grandmother of King David and part of Messiahs line.

We are mostly disappointed because we don’t yet have perspective. The disciples were disappointed when Jesus went to the cross, they had no idea it was His appointment. Joseph was extremely disappointed as he looked back at his brothers from the camel’s back. Young alone and now sold to traders by his family, a huge sense of betrayal, fear and wild ideas about the future filled his mind. How could they do that a brother and where is God?  It would be years before Joseph would ascend the steps of government and see that his difficult past, was the necessary path to His appointment.

Friend, many times, when we can’t see the disappointment as His appointment, it’s only a matter of time and perspective. Perhaps someone or the devil meant it for evil, but God means it for your good. Stay patient and trusting until your appointment appears.

The disciples were sitting on the floor for the meal, when Jesus stood up and took the towel to wash their feet. The feet of travelers were normally dirty from walking on roads littered with dung, left behind by passing flocks of sheep and other animals. At meals people would recline on the floor around the food, their feet not far from the other guest’s noses. I can imagine trying to fellowship with Jesus and the brothers, but all you can think about is your bad smelling feet near your closest table guest. You hope nobody notices but you are a little embarrassed.

The disciple’s feet may have been washed already, but either way Jesus is making a point. I am washing your feet, so you can forget about where you have been and enjoy where you are. I’m washing away the effects and any shame you feel abut your past walk. I want you to be Son conscious not sin conscious. While you are conscious of the past, you’re not able to hear what I’m saying to you now.

Friend, our acceptance with God is not based upon our performance but His, and our fellowship is entirely the result of what He has done, not what we have done. Why not turn our eyes upon Jesus and let everything we are and everything we aren’t, grow dim in the light of His wonderful face.

Two weeks ago I took our boat out first time this year. We got away from the ramp and out towards the beautiful islands in the Gulf.  Anneke said that she smelt petrol and when I looked the bilge was awash with petrol somehow. I thought that doesn't look good, so I asking the Father to get us back to the boat ramp without blowing up my wife and me. Fortunately we got back to the boat ramp to our desired Haven. It reminded me of Psalm 107:29  “Those in great storm in life  call out to God in their distress  He calms the storm, So that its waves are still. Then they are glad because they are quiet; So He guides them to their desired haven.”  God has a desired haven for us and it is always Him.

Once when the disciples were on a lake in the midst of gale, Jesus walked on the water toward them, Peter wanted to walk on water too but once he got on the water he began to sink. Jesus held him up and they got back into boat, “And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. Then those who were in the boat came and worshiped Him, saying, "Truly You are the Son of God.” ( Mat 14:32-33) .

It wasn’t about faith or Peter water walking or the wind would have stopped when Peter sank. The wind kept blowing until Jesus was in the boat with them. He brought the calm, they worship Him and the lesson is over. He is the Haven. When we have met Him, God has had His way in the storm.

Sometimes He is not taking us anywhere but He is showing us something. There are some things about God you’ll never know until He shows up in your storm and He speaks to us in the midst of a storm. We can only know more of Gods ability in a situation that is beyond your ability and in which we have never been before. In a flood we can come to experience him as a rock higher  than us.

It doesn’t matter what storm you are going though in matters who is with you in the boat. It is not what we go through that counts but who we are going through it with. God used the storm to reveal himself and His power to the disciples.  The title is from the verse in Nahum 3:2 ”God has His way in the Storm.”

Friend you might be in a storm right now or maybe there are storms coming your way in 2022. It may feel powerful but remember, there is someone more powerful with you in your boat and God always has His way in the storm!

 As David lay back in the grass he became so aware of the feelings in his heart. He sought to find words that could express the sense of destiny and security that He felt in the hand of His God…. “Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life…” Divinely inspired words that mean today, tomorrow and next week there will not be one moment when God’s goodness and His mercy is not following us as well. That means right now, the goodness and the mercy of God is following you. The word actually means to pursue relentlessly and run someone down. 

We have to ask why God would cause His goodness and His mercy to follow us, rather than go in front of us and “fix” thing for us, before we walk into situations in life?

He never stopped Adam (or us) from sinning, but after he sinned, His goodness and His mercy moved to restore Adam again to himself. (Adam now understood how good and how merciful God is). He didn’t stop Abraham from abandoning his wife, but three days later His goodness and His mercy caught up with Abraham and Sarah was delivered from Abimelech, who sent Abraham out with many flocks. (Abraham was now humbler and understood the graciousness of God). Of course God goes before us as well but if He changed every difficult thing before we got there, we would never get to see His power and amazing love.

Even when God give us a promise, it usually takes time to manifest. We have to wait for His promise to catch up to you. Moses had been told by God to lead the people out of Egypt into the Promised Land.  When he got to the Red sea, it seemed impossible to cross but God said stand still.  As Moses waited, he looked back and saw the Egyptians hordes following him, but that was not all.  The goodness and the mercy of God were following Moses too, and it soon caught up with them. The whole nation was delivered as Gods power moved.

Friend, if it seems to be a hard time in your life, stand still, stand in faith and wait for Gods goodness and His mercy to catch up to you, because it will.