Storm Warning

Storm warnings are given for a reason. They invite us to prepare, change course, or seek shelter before the winds begin to rage. But what happens when we ignore the warning?

In Acts 27, Paul urges the crew not to continue their voyage, warning that the journey will end in disaster. Confident in their own judgment, they press on anyway—only to find themselves caught in a storm far beyond their control. Their story is a sobering reminder of what can happen when we dismiss wise counsel and fail to heed God's warnings.

Yet even in the middle of the consequences, God's mercy is on display. Though the ship is lost, every life is spared just as God promised. His grace meets His people in the storm, reminding us that while our choices have consequences, His faithfulness never wavers.

Join us for this episode of Woman in the Word as we study Acts 27 and consider the importance of listening when God warns us, trusting His wisdom over our own, and discovering that His presence remains steadfast—even when we've sailed into the storm ourselves.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Woman in the Word, the podcast where we dive into scripture, ask real questions, and walk through the Bible together, one honest conversation at a time. I'm Felicia Parker, I'm your host, and I'm so glad you're here. So whether you're new to the Word or you've been studying for years, there's a seat at the table for all of us. So grab your coffee, open your journal, or put on your walking shoes, and let's get into it. Hey, welcome to the Woman in the Word podcast. I am so excited that you are joining me today. Today is gonna be a good one. We are talking about storm warning, and you probably have an idea of where I'm going, so let's go ahead, let's jump into it. So I think we've probably all experienced some level of a storm warning. Depending on where you live, um, you've experienced whether it be on the news, you're hearing things about the weather changing, whether it be signs being posted, streets being closed, maybe due to flooding because of excessive rains, winds, uh, whatever it is, whether you're in Florida and you're experiencing the hurricanes, or you're Midwest and you're experiencing experiencing tornadoes, or you're on the West Coast and you're experiencing some of that monsoon season weather. Um, whatever it is, I think we've all, and I'll say all, but most of us may have experienced some level of storm warning in our lives. And y'all, let me tell you, it pales in comparison to a storm warning that God gives us for our lives. And I find it so interesting that we will lean into a storm warning that comes from the news broadcaster, the radio host, the a warning that goes across our phone or our TV screen. But when one comes into our spirit, like a heart check, to check us and say, hey, there's a storm ahead, we kind of push past it. And we see this playing out in the book of Acts, chapter 27, where Paul is getting a check in his spirit that, oh, you know what, we shouldn't continue sailing on to this next harbor because there's a storm warning that I'm that I'm getting that I'm perceiving, and I'm gonna read it to you. Acts 27, verse 9, it says, Much time had been lost, and sailing had already become dangerous because by now it was after the Day of Atonement. The Day of Atonement it reaches back to the Old Testament. This was a day where they would offer up burnt offerings and it would be in replacement or a substitute for their sins so that they could get back in right standing with the Lord. So whether that looks like they didn't want God's judgment on them or they didn't want the anger of the Lord in a way that he would take away his presence, so they have this day of atonement or this time where they can go and provide a substitute for their sin and that they would be made right or back in right standing with the Lord. And we see in the New Testament that Jesus is that sacrifice for us. So what they did in the Old Testament, sacrificing, you know, the animals as the burnt offering, the substitute, Jesus went to the cross to be our substitute, he is forever our atonement for every sin that we have committed or we will commit. He is that eternal atonement that has been offered up to us. And I don't know if you've sat back to think about that, but man, every year they would have to go and they would have to offer up these sacrifices because their sins had been built up, they've accumulated over the year, and so in the seventh month of every year on the tenth day, they would go and they would sacrifice. And y'all, we have the opportunity to walk through our days, through our months, through our years, and not have to carry the weight of accumulated sin because we have a savior that died for it all, and all we have to do in whatever moment, we don't have to wait for the seventh month, the tenth day of that seventh month to ask for forgiveness. We literally can say, It's Tuesday morning and I messed up last night. Lord, I ask that you would forgive me. I repent, I turn away. And in that moment, we are forgiven for whatever sins, and we can have the opportunity of being back in right standing with Him and walking the road that He's called us to walk on without any interruption. And so that's what the Day of Atonement was for them. And so, jumping back into scripture, Paul warned them, verse 10 men, I can see that our voyage is going to be a disastrous one and bring great loss to the ship, the cargo, and to our own lives also. Verse 11. But the centurion, which is the the guard, instead of listening to what Paul said, followed the advice of the pilot and of the owner of the ship. Verse 12, since the harbor was unsuitable to winter in, the majority decided that they would sail on. So they're looking at what they can see, and they say, no, this isn't a place that we want to have to have to stay for a while. We're going to see if we can just push on, press on past this warning, and get to the place that we desire to be. And y'all, let me tell you, they hit a crazy storm. Not only did the storm turn out to be just a crazy water waves, all the things, but it literally rocked these men to their core. Verse 21, I'm gonna pick up. After they had gone a long time without food, Paul stood up before them and said, Men, you should have taken my advice not to sail from Crete. Then you would have spared yourselves this damage and this loss, verse 22. But now I urge you to keep up your courage, because no not one of you will be lost, only the ship will be destroyed. Verse 23. Last night an angel of God to whom I belong and who I serve stood by me and said, Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand trial before Caesar, and God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you. Verse 25. So keep up the courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me. Nevertheless, we must run aground on some island. So, what he's saying is, okay, guys, we went ahead and you press past the warning that God had placed in my spirit and I spoke it to you. You press past the warning. But the good thing is, take courage, you're not gonna lose your life. He did say, but you will lose everything else. And how often, y'all, do we find ourselves in situations where we look up and we say, Oh my gosh, I lost everything. Thank goodness I didn't lose my life, but I lost my business, or maybe I lost trust in my marriage, maybe I lost my integrity, I lost this opportunity, I lost this job promotion, whatever it is, because we decided not to listen to the storm warning that God gave us before we ever hit the storm. Hey, I just wanted to take a quick pause in our conversation and introduce you to uh the lover of your soul if you have yet to meet him. I would love to lead you in the prayer of salvation. So if you'd repeat after me, that'd be awesome. Dear God, I know that I am a sinner and I'm in need of a savior. I confess that Jesus is Lord and I want him to be the Lord of my life. I believe that you raised him from the dead to rule and reign for all of eternity. Forgive me of my sins and cleanse me with the precious blood of Jesus. I thank you, Lord, for dying on the cross just for me. In Jesus' name, amen. Hey, if you just prayed that prayer, I want to welcome you to the family of God and just say congratulations. In the scripture, we see Paul says, Hey, take courage, and he said it multiple times. Men, take courage. You're only going to lose the stuff. You're not going to lose your life, you're not going to lose the most important thing. So take courage. And then we're going to jump ahead into verse 33. Just before Don, Paul urged them all to eat. For the last 14 days, he said, You have been in constant suspense and have gone without food. You haven't eaten anything. Verse 34. Now I urge you to take some food. You need it to survive. Not one of you will lose a single hair from his head. Verse 35. After he said this, he took some bread. He gave thanks to God in front of them all. Then he broke it and he began to eat. 36. They were all encouraged and ate some food for themselves. Y'all hear me. They decided we're not going to listen to what you have to say. We're going to push past the storm warning. We're going to go ahead and we're going to go to the place that we want to go because where we are does not look sustainable for what we desire. So we're going to go ahead and go to the place that we desire to go to. We push past the storm warning. We are now in a storm. The boat is taking on water and just all the things are happening. They're going to end up being shipwrecked ultimately. They, he says, there's going to be damage, there's going to be loss. And then he reminds them, hey, take courage though. You're not going to lose your life. And then he says, I need you to eat. You have been on edge. You've been anxious. You have been so afraid for these last 14 days. You haven't even eaten. He says, So I'm going to need you to eat. I'm going to need you to give your body what it needs. So when we show up on the other side, you will have the thing in you to sustain you to keep moving forward when we now have to get off this boat and either swim to shore or walk the land that we're going to come into. I need you to eat. And I find it so interesting that he had to continue to encourage them, like to remind them to take courage. And y'all, I want you to hear me. The enemy will allow storms to hit your life so hard. He's after your hope. He's after your belief in God. He wants you so discouraged, so afraid, so down from the storm that he can get you to not see God anymore. He can get you to not believe or hope or have faith in the ultimate outcome anymore. You have to remember, Paul told them in verse 22, hey, take courage. It's only going to be a shipwreck. Last night an angel came to me. This is what he says in verse 23. An angel came to me. Of the God that I served, his messenger came and delivered me a message, and he said, Hey, you're not going to perish, nor are any of these people gonna perish. But I need you to understand, they were so locked in to the storm that they didn't listen and give heed to the word. They were so locked into what they saw happening to this boat. They were so locked into the winds and the waves that they did not give heed to the word that came from God through the messenger of his angel to Paul. And Paul says, Hey, yes, there will be damage. Yes, there will be loss, but you won't die. And they were still hung up on the fact that they were looking at the loss and the damage. And this is the crazy part. Paul said before they took off on this journey, hey y'all, I I feel like there's gonna be some loss. This is this is a pretty dangerous journey. Maybe we should wait. And then in the midst of it, he says, Take courage. Yes, what you're seeing is going to continue to happen. This boat is gonna continue to become more and more damaged. This wind, these waves, it's gonna destroy a lot of stuff. But take courage. You won't lose your life. And y'all, I need you to hear me. The enemy, if he can get you so discouraged by the storm, he doesn't have to take your life. Because if he can take your courage, you won't have the courage to believe for the next thing. You won't have the courage to get on the boat the next time. You won't have the courage to extend the faith for what God is asking you to believe him for. You won't have the ears to hear the word that he spoke to you because you're too busy focusing on the storm. So I want to encourage you, like Paul, if you are sitting in the middle of a storm right now and it's maybe a storm that you created for yourself, get up and eat because you will make it to the other side. And God needs you to have the strength in you to do the thing he's called you to do after you get past this storm. So get up and eat, not just physically and nourish your physical body. Get up and feed your spirit man. So when you get to the other side, you are prepared to do whatever God called you to do there, and you're ready to listen if another storm warning comes up. Hey, I just wanted to take a quick break in our episode and share with you some really exciting news. This year we are hosting our first ever outreach experience. This is an expansion of the gathering, and it is hosting 12 to 20 year old young men and women. I'm really excited about it. The location will be a UNLB Student Union Ballroom. It's gonna be a great time of word, worship, connection, free merch, free food, a great concert, and you don't want to miss it. And it is totally free. So all you have to do is jump on our website, purpose-promise.com. Click on the gathering, drop down, register, and we look forward to hosting you. All right, let's jump back into the episode. Another thing I want to point out in scripture, I thought it was so interesting. Let me read this to you. Verse 36, it says, This is after Paul told them, you know, get up and eat. Verse 36, it says they were all encouraged and they ate some food themselves. 37. Altogether, there were 276 of them on board. When they had eaten as much as they wanted, they lightened the ship by throwing the grain into the sea. Y'all hear me. There were 200, there were over 200 people on this boat. Okay, and none of them were eating. And it says that they ate as much as they wanted. So for 14 days, they were missing out on the provision that God was sustaining because they were focusing on the word that He gave in regard to there will be a disaster, this storm will take out this ship, but you won't die. They listened to the fear of the enemy as far as look at the winds, look at the waves, pay attention to all the things, all the noise I'm making around you. They didn't focus on the fact that, hey, God sustained the provision on this ship for all of these people for these past 14 days, but they overlooked it. They didn't eat, they didn't calm their spirits down. So for 14 days, provision was sitting there. What they needed to sustain themselves through this storm was there. And it says they finally ate as much as they wanted to, and then after that, they threw the rest over. That means they had more than enough, y'all. And I find it so interesting that the enemy will get our eyes so focused on what is going on around us that we miss what is right there for us being provided by God to actually fulfill his word that he gave us. Paul says, You won't die. The angel of the Lord told me that we're gonna make it to the other side. The grain, y'all, is on the ship, the thing that will sustain them so that they can make it through this storm, and so that they are strengthened when they make it to the other side. They missed all the provision for 14 days until Paul says, Hey, get up and eat. And then I love this part, verse 35. It says, After he said this, he took bread, he gave thanks to God in front of them all, and then he broke it and began to eat. Jesus did that. I don't know if you remember when he fed the 5,000. It says, He took the fish and loaves, he um, he gave thanks to God for it, he blessed it, he broke it, then he distributed it, he gave it out. Paul gives thanks to God, he breaks it, and then he begins to eat it. And the men see this and they become encouraged and they say, Okay, hold on. If he can take God at his word and he can have peace in the middle of a storm, maybe I should follow suit. And I would say to you, get people in your boat that are not panicked by the winds and the waves, even though they may have given you the storm warning, I pray you have some people that will say, even in the midst of this storm, get up and eat. You're not gonna lose your life. Get up and sustain yourself, get up and strengthen yourself, even in the midst of this storm that you chose to go into, you chose to push past the warning. Get up and feed yourself because you're still going to make it to the other side. The people on the boat decided to leave where they were because it wasn't desirable as far as having to deal with that place in the season that they were in. So they were trying to push past the warning so they could get to the place that they desired to be so that they can experience that season in a desirable place. And hear me when I say this: if God gives you a warning not to push past and go to where you desire to be, understand he's gonna be exactly where he's going to be and where he's calling you to be. And if it's in a place where you open your eyes and you see, oh no, this doesn't look like this, it doesn't sound like this, it doesn't feel like this, just know wherever God is, that's exactly where you want to be. Paul told them, hey, I've got a feeling this journey is gonna be a bit dangerous. We should stay. And they did not heed his warning. And he wasn't just talking from himself because scripture reminds us that Paul was empowered by the Holy Spirit. So he was speaking from heaven's frequency that he shared with these men on the boat. And the centurion, the guard, he didn't listen. He listened to the ones that said, Oh, you know, we're an expert at this. This isn't the place we want to be. We're gonna push to another harbor. We can make it through this storm, we can we can weather the storm, we can do it in our own strength. Anything that you catch yourself saying you can do in your own strength and you push past a warning from the Most High God, understand there will be disaster and there will be loss. So if God is saying pause, don't push past my warning in regard to this relationship, don't go. If God says pause, don't push past my warning, there's danger ahead in regard to that business partnership, don't do it. If God says pause, don't push past this thing in regard to neglecting your health, listen. Whatever he is saying, you've got to lean into it and you've got to listen because he is a loving father and he is not giving a warning to be mean, he's giving a warning to protect, he's giving a warning to preserve. Those men, their ship did not have to be destroyed. They did not have to go through a dangerous storm, but they chose not to listen. So the only thing that was preserved, the only thing that was saved is their life, and praise God for that. But God didn't want them to even lose their ship. I want you to hear me. There's things in your life God doesn't want you to lose. He doesn't want it to just be your life that you don't lose. He would love for it not to be your business or your job or your friendships or your marriage or your relationships with your children. There are things he doesn't want you to lose, but if you push past the storm warning and he tells you there's danger ahead, there will be loss and there will be challenges that you face and you still go. I need you to understand there will be loss that you experience because you pushed past the loving warning of your heavenly father. And y'all, it's never worth it to push past his no. On September 19th, 2026, women will gather at the UNLV Student Union Ballroom for a powerful day of connection, encouragement, and renewal. The gathering 2026. There's a seat waiting just for you. So, in the words of Paul, in verse 21 of chapter 27, he says, Men, you should have taken my advice not to sail from Crete, then you would have spared yourselves this damage and loss. My prayer is that before you keep pressing on the journey, you will heed the warning so you can spare yourself of the damage and the loss. And if you find yourself in the middle of the storm right now, do like Paul, encourage yourself, remind yourself what the word says that God is gonna get you to the other side. There may be loss, but there is also another opportunity on the other side of this to heed the warning the next time so that you can spell spare yourself from damage and loss. So if you're on the shore, don't keep moving if God said stop. If you're in the middle of the storm, encourage yourself. Strengthen yourself by feeding not just your physical man but your spiritual man. And get to the other side and prepare your heart to listen to whatever warnings God gives you in the future because it's not to stop you from doing something, it's to protect you and keep you so that you can show up to the place at the right time in the right way to do all that God has called you to do. Thanks for hanging out with me in the Word. I hope it encouraged your heart and gave you something to carry into the rest of the week. If it spoke to you, share this with someone who might need it too. And hey, don't forget to follow or to subscribe so you don't miss out on what's next. Until then, keep showing up, keep listening, and let his word lead the way.