The Storm King by Messianic Rabbi Jonathan Cahn
Below is a youtube excerpt from Jonathan’s longer teaching. By the way, you can purchase teachings in their entirety (can be downloaded for about $7) at Hopeoftheworld.org.
Simply search Jonathan’s site for the youtube teaching excerpt number. For example, under the above youtube link teaching, it states, The Storm King #2106:
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But you can never, you can never plan it, so storms will come. The question is, “What are you going to do when the storms come? What do you do?” You may be in a storm now. What do you do?
There’s all kinds of storms in life. There are storms of financial problems. Emotional problems that become a storm. Opposition, people against me can be a storm. People talking about you…You get stormy. You know, a storm of losing a job, or a moral failure – there are so many kinds of storms. It takes away peace if you let it.
But the things is, that’s the whole point here. In this life, you will have these things. But, remember, not only has He overcome it, but remember your peace is not dependent on what’s going on around you. If it is, the enemy’s going to be able to always do what he wants with you.
Your peace is not to be a “fair-weather” peace. When someone says they’re a fair-weather friend it means they’ll be with you when times are good, when it’s fair-weather. But, when the storm comes, they’re gone. We all know people like that. But then, a real friend stays no matter what.
So our peace is not to be a fair-weather peace where it’s only good for fair weather, it’s to be a peace that’s good for the storms as well. You know, sometimes, they have all-weather tires that you don’t have to change. God wants us to have all-weather peace, all-weather joy.
It means we must be weather-resistant.
The way you deal with storms is crucial because every life has them so it’s crucial for your peace, it’s crucial for your victory – It doesn’t matter what the storm is.
And even if He’s in your boat, Messiah, you’re going to have a storm. What that’s telling you right off the bat is, right there, some people preach that He’s going to exempt you from having storms. But that’s not the Bible.
If we look at the life of the Apostle Paul, was he not in the will of God? And, did Paul not have enough faith? And yet, Paul, what’d he say, “I’ve been through this and I’ve been through that. I’ve been stoned nearly to death, I’ve been that. I’ve had all this, I’ve been in jail, etc.” And yet, he was praising God.
Paul was victorious not because he avoided those things, but because he triumphed in them…And he’s the one who writes to you, “Thanks be to God Who always causes me to triumph.” In the storms and outside them, He always does. And that’s the key, how do you do that?
Everything doesn’t have to go fine outside. In fact, sometimes because you follow Jesus, it will go worse outside. People will be against you. The world will be against you. Follow Me, take up your cross. There’s a cost to it Jesus says. But, everything still, in God, is to be victorious. The Bible says, God, Who always leads us to triumph – Not “sometimes.” That means whatever you’re going through in your life, if you’re following God, He’s always going to lead you to victory over it no mater what. Storm, or no storm, He’s always – that’s the world part, that’s the “outside” – but God, His promise is always to triumph, always.
You look at Paul, and here he is in prison, and it’s near the end of his life in the book of Timothy, and he, the man has no regrets. He’s not depressed. He has joy and hope. He says, “I have a crown coming for me, it’s laid up for me, I’ve fought the good fight of faith.” That’s the thing. He had more joy than any millionaire has if they don’t have the Lord.
Now, it doesn’t matter if someone doesn’t follow the Lord, they’re going to have storms, or if they follow the Lord, they’re going to have storms. But, the difference is how you go through it. That’s what makes the difference. The weather’s the weather. But, God is the God.
Thank God, whatever’s going on, one of the key things when you’re dealing with something – things are going crazy – one of the key things that’s kind of hard to first get into your head is that the tendency, the temptation is to focus on all the stuff that’s happening. And the first part of victory is not to focus on everything that’s happening. No, the first thing of victory is to focus on the Lord and not the problem. You have to start with the Lord if you’re going to have real victory over the problem.
So one of the first things to get, the first victory is getting your mind off all the stuff, the fear, the anxiety, and get it onto God despite it. And, just by doing that, you’re already saying, “I am not under the storm, I’m under God.” The fact that I can even let go means that God is more important than the storm.
Thank God you have Yeshua, Jesus, Messiah, in your boat cause if you didn’t, all you’d have is a storm. If you didn’t let Jesus in your life, then when the storms would come anyway, then you wouldn’t have anything. The people in the world don’t like that they’re dealing with the storms, and they’ve got nothing in the boat. But you’ve got that (Jesus), and that’s the most important fact you have.
Galilee is one of the most beautiful lands in the world, and it has storms at the same time. So, the same way, just because you have storms in your life, doesn’t mean your life is not beautiful in the Lord.
And, notice something. What’s Jesus doing in the boat? He’s sleeping. Now that’s something. How’d He fall asleep so fast? I mean, some people can sleep through anything. Some people wake up at any point. I’m kind of a mix. I sleep well for a while. But while I’m sleeping, our boys sneak into our beds. And they wait till we’re sleeping because then we can’t stop them. We wake up and there’s a hand over our face or a leg over there. But, I don’t usually wake up and I don’t know how they do it. And then they get up and go to school and they don’t even wake me. I don’t know how that happens. But the Lord is in the middle of a storm, and the boat is rocking heavily back and forth from side to side – and He’s sleeping. Why? Well on one hand, He’d been ministering right before that and ministry can take a lot out of you. When I’m finished ministering on Sunday, no matter what I do, my body shuts down. I cannot stop it. It shuts down and I’m asleep, you know, for a time. But He’s asleep, He was ministering so that’s probably why He’s exhausted. But, I also think that the Lord knew what was going to happen. I mean, God the Father knew what was going to happen and He, also, it was a setup from the Lord just like it is with our life. And so He’s sleeping there and they’re (His disciples in the boat with Him) going crazy while He’s sleeping. He’s (Jesus) unaffected. You know, the boat’s affected. There’s gotta be water coming on everybody, and He’s still sleeping. He’s unaffected. Which tells you something.
In the Lord, if you’re a follower of Him, you’ve got Him in you, you can actually go through things and not be affected by them. His presence does not change through anything. So if you’re always dwelling on the wrong thing, I mean, and in a sense they had the peace of God in their boat in the middle of the storm, but it wasn’t their peace until they stopped focusing on everything else but Jesus.
In the same way, the peace of God is there, but if you focus on a million things, you’re not going to know His peace until you focus on Him.
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God bless you all,
Mark