BY GREGORY ALBRITTON

The Dilemma of a Silent Savior in the midst of a Raging Storm.

“Now it came to pass on a certain day, that he went into a ship with his disciples; and he said unto them, Let us go over unto the other side of the lake. And they launched forth. But as the sailed he fell asleep; and there came down a storm of wind on the take; and they were filled with water and were in jeopardy. And they came to him, and awoke him, saying; Master, master, we perish.

Then he arose, and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water; and they ceased and there was a calm. And he said unto them; Mere is your faith? And they being afraid wondered, saying one to another, What manner of man is this! for he commandeth even the winds and water, and they obey him.” (Luke 8:22-25)

Illumination says, I turn the light on so you can see the way things really are. Revelation says, I reveal to you what already exists.

Jesus said unto his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” While they were on shore, while everything was okay, before they ever got into the middle of the lake, while everything was peaceable, while everything was fine; Jesus said, “Let us go over to the other side.’ They had a direct word from the Lord.

Let’s just take it apart. He said, “Let us go over.” In other words, I’m with you in this journey, you are not going to the other side alone, but when you begin this journey and when you end this journey, I want you to know, I am with you for the duration. “Let US.” I’m not saying you are at this moment alone, I am going to be with you all the way to the other side. “Let us go over.” He didn’t say, let us go halfway and quit, let us go halfway and get discouraged. He said, “to the other side.”

Now it is important to get the word from the Lord engraved in your spirit because sometimes between this side and the other side, you’re going to be tested. Sometimes, between here and there, you’re going to wonder, what did He really say? did He really say anything at all?

So let’s get it in our minds, Jesus said, “I!… I’m going to be with you for the whole journey; I! … when it’s all said and done, we are going to be on the other side.’ We, us… ‘us’ means you and me together are going to be on the other side. So write it down. Put it in your little black book. We’re going to make it from here to there. You keep it somewhere close to your heart, Hallelujah! He said, “Let us go over to the other side.”

Seems to me like a pretty normal day. “Hey guys, let’s just go to the other side’. But when Jesus talks, take notice of every word, take notice of what He’s saying, because you never know when things are
going to change rapidly. He was just talking, but it’s important later, just a few minutes down the road that they knew that they could stand on the infallible word of God.

Maybe a little wind was moving through, maybe a few little clouds, but it goes on to give us the idea of normalcy. It just says, “…as they sailed, He fell asleep.” That doesn’t seem to me like there were a whole lot of problems; that there was a whole lot was going on. Jesus said, “Guys, I think you can handle it, I’m going to go take a nap.”
Have you ever had times in your life when everything was going okay and Jesus took a nap? Jesus doesn’t talk when He’s taking naps. He doesn’t give you words when He’s taking naps. He talked when He was awake on shore.

Man, I love Jesus talking. If He gives me a word three times a day, I’d take it. If He puts His arms around me and talks just straight one-on-one, you’re looking at one guy who wouldn’t complain. I love Jesus being awake with me. I love it when He’s talking; I love it when I feel goosebumps on my goosebumps and they’re break-dancing up and down my spine. I really do!

But there are times when Jesus just says, I’m going to lay down, I’m going to be quiet for awhile. I’m going to take a little nap for awhile. And we don’t mind as long as the sky’s blue, as long as the winds stay at about 4 or 5 miles an hour, as long as everything’s going kind of cool. Go ahead, take a little nap, Jesus; everything’s fine.

But about thirty-four seconds after He goes to sleep, the clouds started getting bigger. Why is it that every time He takes a nap, all of a sudden, where are these winds coming from? It didn’t say anything
about this in the paper this morning. My goodness, we’ve been fishing on this lake for years. This is starting to feel bad. Here come the dark clouds, the storm is whipping up and Jesus is asleep. It’s
getting louder. What are we to do?

As they sailed along, Jesus got quieter and the storm got louder. Have you ever been in that condition? where circumstances started getting in your face and making a lot of noise? And it seems at the same time, whoever is turning up the storm’s volume over there is also over here turning the “Jesus’ volume down.

Wait a minute, what is going on? The Bible says, “He fell asleep… There came down a storm of wind on the lake and they were filled with water and were in jeopardy.”

There are times when, through no fault of my own, that in the same boat, in the same life, I have Jesus that would deliver and the water that would destroy in the same boat; in the same boat! I didn’t sin,
it’s not like I went out into the world, I’m trying to live for Jesus. And here in one end of the boat is the silent, sleeping Savior. And coming over the boat is the water that would drown; water that’s screaming, “I’m going to destroy you,’ while the Savior who can deliver me is asleep. But they’re in the same boat!

And in our lives sometimes, is the Savior and that which would destroy; the Waymaker and that which would cause us to drown; the One who would deliver and the one who would cause us to lose it all. And it is at that point that we need to look at the sleeping Savior and the screaming storm. You have the option at that moment because you have the ability to see both; they are both in your boat. And it is at that
time that I wish I could sing, because I would rear back and sing, ‘Whose report will you believe?’

Are you going to believe the report of the Savior who spoke just a little while ago and said, “Let us go over to the other side”, or are you going to believe the report of the water that’s pouring in your
boat, saying, “I’m going to stop you from making it to the other side.’ Whose report will you believe? Are you going to believe the report of the wind? Are you going to believe the report of the waves? Are you
going to believe the report of the water in your boat that’s making all the noise?… or are you going to believe the report of Jesus? He may not be talking right now, but He gave you a word, He said “We are going over.” There’s going to be some water coming in your boat sometime that’s going to say, ‘Don’t believe those words you heard, Don’t believe what He spoke to you.’ But that’s when you’ve got to say, “I
will believe the report of the Lord!’ He is with me. I’m going to make it to the other side!
Don’t ever mistake His silence for His absence. He may be asleep. He may not be talking for a little while, but you got to remember Who this is in the boat. You’ve got to remember; He may not be talking but He’s still on board. He said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Storms may come. “Jesus, I may not be hearing You like I want,’ but let me tell you something, He’s still somewhere in the boat, and that makes everything alright. You’ve got to remember who He is.

Look at that water as it’s pouring in over the sides of your boat and say, “I can’t hear Him a whole lot right now but somewhere in my boat is the One who created you. Wind, you’re about to blow me away, but somewhere in my boat, He’s taking a nap right now. The Lord who created you, He’s in my boat with me!
I want you to know water, I’ve got the Water of Life in my boat and He can stand up and talk to you.’ Don’t ever mistake His silence for His absence! He’s still there, He’s still God, He’s still in control!

He’s just as much God when the Children of Israel walked around the walls of Jericho for six and seven/eighths days. He’s just as much God when not one brick nor one grain of sand had fallen off as He was when the entire wall fell at one time. He was just as much God the night before, when the Children of Israel camped on this side of the Red Sea, mountains on each side. He was just as much as God then as when He swallowed up the entire Egyptian army. And He was just as much God when He was asleep in the back of the boat as He was when He stood on the front of the boat and said, “Peace be still!”

You’ve got to remember, even if He is not talking, He’s still God. Remember who He is! Even if He is a sleeping, silent Savior, He is still just as much God. He is still in control.

Whose report will you believe? The silent Savior or the raging storm?

See, that’s really what the storm is asking for, it’s saying, put more faith in me than you have in His Word. And that’s when I’ve got to look at that storm and say, You’re fighting for my faith and I’m going
to keep faith in my Savior. Even though at this moment I can’t feel Him, see Him or hear Him, I know He’s on my boat and in control. Everything is going to be alright.

See, the enemy likes to make it seem that you are in jeopardy. What are you going to do with all this that’s about to sink you under? On the same boat, through no fault of your own; they are both asking for
your faith. Circumstances may try to get you to put faith in the fact that you’re going under, but Jesus said, I’m still on board. Don’t ever mistake His silence for His absence, He is with you!

Two things to remember when the storm is screaming; One, See, Jesus is not talking now, He talked back there. He said one little sentence that may even have seemed insignificant at the time but you better hold on to it. Remember it because now He’s asleep. Hold on to His Word. It has been tested. It has been tried. Storms do come but in the middle of the darkest hour when the wind is in your face the strongest
and Jesus is the quietest, you have the Lord’s permission to reach back and hold on to that Word in faith.

Two, Remember, when the storm is at its loudest, is the boat with Jesus on board ever really in danger of sinking? Now the water’s coming up. They try to out-paddle the storm. They try to bail all the water out.
They’re doing everything they can do, but even if it’s a sleeping Jesus, no matter if I do not feel Him or see Him He said, “I’m with you always.”

Alright, that’s good to know, but let me ask you another question, can a storm really sink Jesus? Here’s what I want you to understand: He was taking a nap just as good in the storm as He was in fair weather.
Storms don’t bother my Jesus. What’s freakout weather for me is a good nap time for Jesus. Storms don’t bother Him any more than a pretty day; He can handle them all. Look, if the boat really went down, Jesus could just say, “Let’s just take a little walk.” He likes walking on water.

You can’t lose. Even if we walk the last half of the trip, we’re going to make it to the other side!

There’s something else I want you to understand: the storm didn’t wake Jesus up, the disciples did. The Bible says they said, “Master, carest thou not that we perish?” You don’t care about me. A little storm
comes up and You forget about me. You love me when all is pretty and pleasant but then You go on vacation when everything goes wrong.

Maybe we don’t say that but we think it sometimes. We say, God, where are You? what are You doing? Don’t You care about me?

Yes, He cares about you. He understands. Here’s what I love so much; Jesus woke up, He rebuked the wind. He looked at the sea and said,’ “Peace be still.”

The storm was not the issue. It took Him that long to take care of the storm, but here’s what the issue was: He turned around, looked at them and said, “Where is your faith?”

When Jesus goes to sleep and the storm starts raging, the storm is not what’s on trial, Jesus is not what is on trial, but our trust and our faith. Where is your faith? where is it? where did it go?

But God, it doesn’t tell us what they were supposed to do. What are we supposed to do when the water is filling our boat, the wind is about to capsize us and You are sound asleep? What are we supposed to do? You didn’t give us another story in the next chapter where they did it all just right. So, what are we supposed to do?

Are we supposed to all of a sudden, stand in front of that ship and say, “Hey, I’ve got water up to my knees and Jesus is asleep; but wind, sit down; waves, back up; I’m a child of God!’ It’s hard to do that
when you’re bailing water out of the boat as fast as you can.

Were they supposed to just have this undying trust to where when the water started to get You wet; when it got to the back of the boat where You were sleeping, You’d probably wake up with a quarter of an inch
left to spare and say, “Oh I’m sorry, I overslept. Peace be still.’?

These were my two solutions; I thought either they were supposed to rebuke the storm on their own, or they were just supposed to trust all the way through. And then it hit me! He wanted them to wake Him up when they realized the storm was bigger than they were. When they’d done everything they could do, He wanted them to wake Him up – but it was the attitude with which they woke Him up.

Not, “Master, carest thou not that we perish?’ but just wake Him up and say, ‘Jesus, this is one for You. It’s bigger than me, I’ve tried everything I can try, I’ve tried to row past the wind and the waves,
I’ve tried to bail my ship out, because you see, sometimes bailing works. Sometimes the storm is okay and you need to use your own reserve of strength.

But there are other times when you’ve done all you can do and the storm is bigger than you. You have a word from the Lord but the storm is threatening every syllable of that word. There does come a time when it is okay to go to Jesus and say, “Jesus, I need You to wake up… Would You mind standing up here and taking care of this situation? I can’t; it is bigger than me.”

It’s okay to wake Him up! “Lord, there’s not much boat left for water to fill. I don’t know what’s going on, I don’t understand it…”

And then, God begins to deal with things. He begins to talk, He begins to move. He says, “I gave you a word. I know you’re going through a storm but have faith; everything is going to work out alright.”

The storm is not the issue, He can handle that. Tell Him, “Lord, I’m going to keep trusting You if You need to sleep another little while.’

His being asleep is not the issue. He said, “I’m watching you My child, I’m trying to let you know you can trust Me and have faith in Me even when I’m asleep. My Word will stand fast.’ Spoken weeks ago, it
will still stand fast in the midst of the storm.

Let illumination come. He understands where you are. You don’t have to be panicked. Don’t wake Him up saying, “I’m about to go under,” wake Him up saying, “This is work for You, Jesus.” Remember, the storm is not the issue, the wind and waves are not the issue, His silence is not the issue. The issue is, “Where is your faith?”

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THE ABOVE MATERIAL WAS PUBLISHED BY APOSTOLIC WRITER’ DIGEST, JUNE 1996, PAGES 7-9. THIS MATERIAL IS COPYRIGHTED AND MAY BE USED FOR STUDY & RESEARCH PURPOSES ONLY.