Anchored in Faith: Navigating Life's Storms with Trust and Scripture

In this week's podcast episode, we navigate the turbulent seas of life's challenges, drawing strength from the enduring power of faith and trust as highlighted in the poignant teachings of Matthew 14. I share my personal reflections on the journey of aligning my life with God's plan, even when it diverges from my expectations, inviting you, our cherished listeners, to reflect on your spiritual journeys. We explore the transformative power of prayer, especially in the early hours before dawn, and its impact on overcoming obstacles like job insecurity, familial strife, or health concerns.

Have your fears ever seemed like a fortress blocking your path? Listen to a compelling story of breaking through a trust barrier with someone close, leading to a revelation about the spiritual fortifications that can hinder our personal growth. Inspired by 2 Corinthians, we discuss these strongholds as both protection and obstruction, and the heavenly tools at our disposal for tearing them down. This episode guides you through these mental defenses, offering insights on navigating them with faith and trust, and a comforting reminder that we do not face our struggles alone.

As we conclude our discussion, we focus on surrendering our difficulties to Jesus, finding comfort and guidance in the scriptures of Matthew 14:22 and 2 Corinthians 10:4-5. I offer a blessing for the week ahead, hoping our dialogue sheds light on fostering a deeper trust in God, who calms the storm within our hearts. Join us in this sacred space of spiritual exploration, as we uplift one another on our shared journey of faith.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:20

Musicuk, you, you, you you alright.

Speaker 2: 3:26

Good morning y'all. Welcome back to another Thursday live. Come out of the wilderness prayer. Yeah, we had some technical difficulties on facebook. Please forgive me y'all, it is not my fault. Stream yard get it together. So if you're on the facebook streets, I've already dropped the link to this live. That's happening now on youtube so you can watch on youtube.

Speaker 2: 3:46

Amen, good morning, tracy. He says bless the lord. Oh, my soul, soul and all that is within me, bless his holy. That's how you enter a room amen, amen. So we're going to be talking about faith and trust and I'm going to be preaching to myself today. Y'all catching the overflow, all right. So, lord, we just thank you that you've given us another opportunity to come before your presence. Well, we thank you for this day and all of the victories we have already won through your name, or we just thank you for this lesson on faith and trust. And, lord, I pray that everyone who's under the sound of my voice, whatever they stand in need of, may be through. This blessing, may be demonstrated through your word and your love in jesus name, amen. So let me get my music together, because you know I've got to have. I've listened to soaking music in the background. But this is going to be one of those lessons, y'all, because even as I was preparing for today, I was dealing with this. Yes, I was really struggling with the lack of trust from someone else and then I realized that I was also not trusting God in my situation. So it was a twofer which brought me right to where we are.

Speaker 2: 4:57

So we're actually gonna go into Matthew 14 for our study. We're gonna pray God, gives us Lord, give us the spirit of wisdom and understanding so that we can activate these words and these teaching in our lives practically right, so that we can make the change that we need in our lives. So, for those of y'all who are listening on the podcast streets later this week, you know again, I'm urging and whenever I teach, I always tell people please go back into the word and read it for yourself, because this isn't Shelly said. This is what the Lord said. I'm not making it up, all right. So I'm coming out on Matthew 14. This is the A Shelly version.

Speaker 2: 5:34

Esv and Matthew 14, this is the story about how Jesus walks on water. I'm gonna pause here for those of you who are non-believers if you don't believe, you're gonna have a little bit of trouble with this right here because we're gonna touch on some things that are in the natural mind might not make sense. So I'm gonna pray that the Lord, that the Lord will open your eyes so that you can see and that you'll receive whatever it is that he has for you. A lot of us are kind of on the rocky path right now I'm including myself in this where we're really having to trust God in some situations. We have to trust Him in our jobs. We have to trust Him in our families. We have to trust Him with our health. We have to trust Him in our relationships. We have to trust Him in different ways than we have. Maybe you're a business and you're booming, but you still have to trust God that you can maintain where you are and even maintain your blessings, luke, he's still got to trust God. So this is really a story, I think, that's gonna encourage you to continue to trust Him Immediately.

Speaker 2: 6:40

He made the disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side while he dismissed the crowd. So now let's put ourselves in this story right. So we've been walking with the Lord and here's a. It's easier when you can feel His presence around you when things are going great, right, when you feel like he's with you and everything and you just, victory after victory, and you come to depend on the Lord. Here is a little bit of a separation, if you will. Where he made the disciples get into the boat to go before Him, to go to the other side, while he stayed back, jesus to dismiss the crowd. And it said, and after he dismissed the crowd, he went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. Right, he went on again. Another prayer point, that separation. Sometimes you have to be separated from the crowd so that you can spend time alone with the Lord. But he went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone.

Speaker 2: 7:38

It struck me that the Lord went into prayer because he was preparing for this test. He was preparing for this situation, he was interceding as our priest, he was preparing for what was to come. I love to think that, right now that the Lord is interceding on your behalf and about what it is that you're going through, he stepped away on the mountain. Right, he's praying for me. So the word says. But the boat, by this time, was a long way from the land beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them. You, in a situation you feel like even pulled up and you've been beaten by the waves. You've been beaten by a situation for the wind was against them. That pressure where again, where things are just not working in your favor, everything, the wind, that pressure that's against you. Now, verse 25 is very important. And in the fourth watch of the night, he came to them walking on the sea.

Speaker 2: 8:40

Now, what is important about the fourth watch that you should know spiritually, the fourth watch happens between 3 and 6 am 3 am and 6 am and this is a time during. This is a time period where a lot of spiritual activities happen. So you might hear people talk about you know being woken up between 3 and 6, or you know being woken up at 4 and they keep being woken up at these certain times. That is a time period. That is a time period that is a spiritual, a lot of spiritual things happen. It's like a veil, if you will, is torn. I'll share some notes because I had some notes. I don't want to mess this up. So it was the time period, this fourth watch, when Jacob wrestled God. That's Genesis 32. It is the time period when Moses led the Israelites across the Red Sea. That's Exodus 14. It's the time period when angels appeared to announce the birth of Christ. That's Luke 2. It's the time period where Jesus was resurrected from the dead. That's Matthew 28, verse 1. You can look it up for yourself, but that is a very specific time period. So the Lord was interceding and this was happening. So this is a spiritual event.

Speaker 2: 9:54

This is a spiritual encounter that was taking place in the fourth watch of the night. And he came to them walking on the sea. Obviously, if you're like them, if you're like the disciples, verse 26 says but when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified. I mean, wouldn't you be terrified? And said it's a ghost? And they cried out in fear because, yes, that is our natural response to something spiritual happening. If you've ever had a real spiritual encounter, you are going to be terrified. I don't care how many spiritual encounters I have every time. It's not all daisies and roses, there are times when I am terrified. But the disciples, when they saw him, they were terrified. That was their natural response and they cried out in fear.

Speaker 2: 10:40

The word says but immediately Jesus spoke to them, calm them, saying take heart it is, I Do not be afraid, do not be afraid. And Peter answered him Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on water. Peter's like look, if it's really you, you tell me to come because Peter will respond to the voice of God. He will respond. He knows the voice of Jesus, so he will respond to the voice of the Lord. So that's why he's saying Lord, if it's you, command me to come to you on the water Verse 29,. He said come. He said come. And so for so many of us, we're sitting in this boat right, this rocky. I just see that like we're sitting on this rocky boat and we're calling out. You know we're calling out to the Lord. Lord, this is really you in this situation and this is really you. You've really come to save me. Let me know, say something, command me, tell me, it's you. And he's saying come. He's saying come.

Speaker 2: 11:37

There had to be a level of trust that Peter had, knowing the voice of the Lord, and a lot of times we are afraid to get out of the boat, as Peter did, got out of the boat and walk on water and came to Jesus. A lot of us are so afraid to take the next step to trust him, because it wasn't really the Lord's voice. Am I just hearing things Right? But watch this Verse 30,. But when he saw the wind, when he saw again, remember I said the wind was against them. Things that are pushing you into different directions, the wind that's creating change or turmoil, the winds of change, all those things.

Speaker 2: 12:15

When he saw the wind now, how did he see the wind? That's another thing, that's a me and the Holy Spirit. How did he see the wind? Spiritually? He saw the wind. He saw these things, right, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, he cried out Lord, save me and watch again Jesus. Immediately. He didn't say Jesus thought about it. He didn't say Jesus went back to go pray about it. He says Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him oh you little faith, faith, why did you doubt? And when they got into the boat, the wind sees and those in the boat worship him, saying truly, you are the Son of God. I love this message, I love this story and I love this. This inspires me to really, truly trust God. This is one of those you either trust him or you don't kind of conversations that we're about to have and, like I said, I'm gonna preach to myself. I'm gonna preach to myself and you catch the overflow because I need this this morning. This is one of those. You either trust him or you don't.

Speaker 2: 13:26

For those of us who are really believing in God, for some things, maybe your big thing is just your health. Maybe your big thing is a turnaround on your job. I talk to a lot of people who have the kind of the kind of struggles that they're going through. It's job related. It's dealing with people you work with in business and big people you do business with. Right. That is a majority of the people that the Lord has set my way and for a lot of folks, this is a season where they're really having to learn and some of them really making a decision whether or not they trust God. It's not a matter of do you hear from God, because he's speaking all the time. It's just a lot of us are so busy listening to ourselves telling ourselves that we can do it and truthfully, we can't. You cannot do it under your own strength.

Speaker 2: 14:21

So it is a heart posture in trusting God. First of all, it builds up your faith. I have to trust God in conversations that I'm having, challenging conversations that I'm having with people. Right, I have to trust God. His word is true. I have to first believe that. That builds up my faith.

Speaker 2: 14:40

Do you believe I talked about this last year in a different message? Do you believe God? Do you believe what he says about you and your situation? This, the story that I just shared with you about the disciples being in the boat. For many of us who are in that boat right now and he's literally his hand is out and all you have to do is take his hand and rely on him. Right? Do you trust that God is gonna provide for you this season?

Speaker 2: 15:08

This is a matter of faith. Do you trust God? And I say all the time I don't trust people that I surely trust God. Do you trust that he's coming through for you? Are you relying on a past? Are you looking at things like well, it didn't work out for me before, so why should I trust him now? I was hurt by other people. Where was God? That is the question I get all the time. But where was God? He was there with you. He's not a purveyor of evil. Some of the evil that we have in our lives are things that we're creating.

Speaker 2: 15:47

Some of us are reaping seeds that were sown by generations before us. That's why you hear a lot of believers talking about talking about wanting to break generational curses, because there were things that were done from generations before that. Folks are reaping those harvest now, and sometimes it's not good. Right. If you grew up in a family where no one really thought about finances in a way of investing and planting seeds that way, all you did was spend and spend and spend right, and you grew up with a mentality that was broke right, I'm not ever gonna be this Then those seeds were planted before, and so now you're reaping the harvest. But that's not the Lord doing that to you, so that I can't trust God. That is you. That is you. That is a natural. That is us making decisions. That's impacting our harvest. So a lot of times, we blame God for things that are happening around us that we've self-selected to happen. We still have the freedom to choose, and so, in the same way, we have the freedom to choose whether we trust God or not.

Speaker 2: 17:02

I wanna share something else with you. I think is gonna help. When we talk about stronghold, I'm gonna share this verse because I think this is gonna help, maybe punch this down a little bit deeper. Like I said, I'm praying to myself y'all, so let me share this with you. This is 2 Corinthians 10, verses four to five, and I wanna show you something this says, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have divine power to destroy strongholds. So the first thing is the weapons of our warfare, the weapons so Psalm 27 talks about. The Lord is my light and my salvation. Of whom shall I fear? I'm looking at my word. The Lord is the stronghold of my life.

Speaker 2: 17:46

What is a stronghold? A stronghold is like a resistant, it's like a wall. But a stronghold could also be a particular belief that you have. So when it talks about destroying stronghold and again this is where the power of the Holy Spirit comes in he helps do this for us is having the power to destroy strongholds. But what do we destroy? It's arguments, right, it's a lofty opinion. It's the knowledge you know.

Speaker 2: 18:17

We pretend as if we know more than God. When you try to raise up particular beliefs as if you know more than God, that's knowledge against God. And then the last thing is our thoughts. So it's our imagination, as best we can put it our imagination, our knowledge and our thoughts. These are where we have to work on how we respond and how we tackle the strongholds that we have against whether we trust and believe God or not. It's in our imagination, it's in our thoughts, and then it's again, again, it's in our knowledge. Again. We're so, some of us are so been in church for 30 years and we don't want to hear nothing. And yet again, you might know the scripture, but you do not know the word. So you build yourself up through knowledge and you've convinced yourself that Jesus must do X, y, z, and when it doesn't play out like you thought it would, then you start to lose trust in Him. So then it's a matter of I don't believe God. You see what I'm saying. So in order for us to build up our faith, we do have to work on those particular things, these strongholds that we have Imagination.

Speaker 2: 19:33

Here's an example I'm having a conversation with someone today and it really it didn't keep me up all night, but it was on my heart because it's a matter of a trust conversation. It is a do you trust me or not conversation. Right, and the reason it was really, it was really bothering me. It was because, then the Lord was, you know, I went. Here's the situation, I don't know what to do with it. It's clear that this person does it. Trust me, and I don't really want to be bothering with it. Like I'm one of those, like I don't fight over people, I am no drama, I don't have, I don't want any of that, and so I'd rather just move on Like I'm not fighting for you, I'm not fighting for nobody, you know, do you trust me? Like that's just my nature, right? I'm just not that person to get into any brawls at all. I'll just, I'll just tell you Deuce's right.

Speaker 2: 20:25

And so what he was showing me, though, is, as I was, I was coming to him and saying look, lord, I don't know what to do in this situation. This is your, this is your fight. He, he, brought it back to me and said do you trust me in this fight? Do you trust me to turn this situation around? And if I don't turn around, do you trust me where we're going with this? Do you trust me? And that is the ultimate question for you this morning, because, as I said, I can't trust man.

Speaker 2: 20:57

Our nature, our nature is our nature. Where we still have a similar nature. You know, we still feel how we feel, we still hold on to our experiences. That person said something two years ago and you can't let it go. We're still insecure, right. We still have a lot of all of us, right, I have some levels of insecurity that you know. You can't let go of a thing. And now the question is do you trust me?

Speaker 2: 21:24

So I have to shift my perspective, knowing that this story you know it inspired me, you know, to really, really really trust that God, you are still in control, that all things are working together for my good, no matter what it looks like that, even though I'm on this rocky ocean, with winds coming from the east, right, winds coming from the, where they come from, right, wherever these storms are swirling, with all this chaos and craziness that's happening around me, with all of these things going on, I am at peace because my eye is set on Jesus. I am not going to sink in the waters of life, I'm not going to drown in my chaos, in the situations that's happening around me. I am focused, my eyes are focused on what the Lord is going to do in this situation and all I have to do is reach out my hand and say, yes, lord, I trust you. And that is the encouragement today, no matter what it is that you're going through, that all you have to do is reach out your hand and say yes, lord, jesus, I trust you, and then let Him do it. Let Him do it so, father, we thank you. We thank you for reminding us, lord God, of how important it is to really truly trust you, to believing you and building up our faith. Trusting you when we don't understand what's happening around us. Trusting you when people are going crazy, lord, because we don't understand what's in other people's hearts and minds. Trusting you, lord God, even in the way that we think, the strongholds of our mind, the way that we attach our own beliefs, like, lord God, you know. Remove those strongholds that we have that are not of you, any imagination, any form of knowledge that takes us away from you, lord God, any thought that creeps into our minds today, lord God, that disrupts or interrupts that level of faith and belief in you. I ask that you will pull that down right now, in the spirit as it is in the natural. I thank you for your award, reminding us of the importance of that fourth watch, of that time where heaven communicates with us. We thank you for that. I thank you that, for the person who is wondering why do I keep waking up at this time period in the morning, that you will encourage them, you'll speak to their hearts, holy Spirit, that they will know this is a time of prayer. This is a time when you cry out to God and he will hear you. This is a time, a very important time, that you speak to the Lord and that he speaks to you. This is a time that you connect back to our Lord Jesus. I thank you, lord, that you're reminding us, you're reminding us that there is no separation. As it happens in the spirit, so it does in the natural.

Speaker 2: 24:13

I pray over everyone who is struggling with trust. Maybe it's a broken trust again in their careers. Maybe it's a broken trust with their supervisors. Maybe it's a broken trust with their peers and colleagues. Maybe it's a broken trust with their spouses or friends, or family members or siblings, whatever that area is. There's a broken trust that today is a day that you will heal hearts, lord, god, so that they can reconcile. They can be reconciled back to you, holy, holy, w-h-o-l-i, amen.

Speaker 2: 24:42

I thank you, lord, thank you for blessing us today and help us, Lord, god. Help us, give us the strength, give us the strength to trust and even as it comes to trusting you, lord, I pray that you will demonstrate your power, demonstrate the power of the Holy Spirit in their lives, show them so that they will see and come to believe in the way that you deem it for them, based on the grace that has been given to them, lord, god, so that they will all trust you, me included. Abba, thank you. I thank you for this platform. I thank you for every person under the sign of my voice, whether they are watching live or the replay, that they'll be blessed this morning and they will learn to trust you more.

Speaker 2: 25:20

Amen, amen, amen, y'all. I hope that really blessed you. I know it really blessed me. Y'all, you know. Just go back into the word, as I said. I know I dropped a lot of verses, but go back in the word Matthew 14, 22, 2 Corinthians, 10, verse 4 through 5. Go back into the word and ask the Lord to show you what areas that you need to hand over to him. Amen, y'all. Have a wonderful rest of the week. I'll be back next week. I love you. Jesus loves you more. Take care.