IN CASE YOUR JESUS SLEEPS ON CROSS-OVER

Luke 8:22-25

I read this few verses of scriptures and though they were not new to me, the perspective I gained was definitely new. They gave me a different view on the events that have taken place in my life over the past one year.

So it was a really good day and Jesus’ disciples were having a great time with Him. I mean the almighty Himself was with them; the one who had performed miracles, a large crowd sought after Him. What a privilege. It kind of sounds like that time when the presence of the Holy Spirit is apparent in our lives and people close to you can attest to it. I am speaking of that time when you are having a vibrant walk with the Holy Spirit and you receive every word/ instruction from Him with deep conviction, fellow believers around you want to have that kind of deep conviction too. God is with you and you know it.

So Jesus asks His disciples to come along to the other side. That’s the same way I sensed God was calling me to the other side last year - another side. Certain policy changes took place in my office and the restructure required that I moved to another department and because I wanted a more career- promising unit, I took the offer but that required me to move to another side, to change geographical location. I crossed over completely out of my comfort zone to an unknown “other side”.

I prayed about it and I was convinced that was part of God’s plan for my life. I knew I had His approval. It felt safe, believing that every other thing was going to be sorted out. I also launched out because the ‘path of the righteous’ ought to shine brighter and brighter, right? And our path can’t shine brighter unless we walk, I mean walk with God, right? So the disciples launched out too.

But as they sailed, He fell asleep.

If he had fallen asleep and the sail remained smooth, that would have been okay. Instead, He fell asleep and there was a storm of wind. What a bad co-incidence. Have you ever had such a bad co-incidence before? I have had one. After I got into a new environment, things did not turn out the way I expected. The challenges I encountered felt like Jesus was in my boat, but He had fallen asleep. I had no friends, I had hostile colleagues who didn’t want you to move ahead or past them in anything, I needed a place of my own to stay in, I didn’t know what church to attend, had frequent malaria, conjunctivitis and other minor health challenges set in, it was a devastating experience and obviously anyone could tell that the Jesus in my boat had fallen asleep. And then the bad co-incidence was that I lost the job, the same job for which I relocated. My confusion heightened.

Could it be that when the disciples saw the storm and turned to Jesus only to find Him sleeping, they felt like jumping out of the boat to swim back to shore? I mean right back to where they used to be. Back to their comfort zone. Well, that was what my natural instinct told me to do, but I saw that there had to be more in this for me. Thank God the disciples did not jettison Jesus (the only saving factor from the sinking ship. When the same storm comes on your ship and Jesus, though in your boat is sleeping, do you jettison Him? Or do you jump off the boat and swim back to your comfort zone? That storm could represent a very difficult time in career, relationship, marriage, adulting, business, parenting and it could be poverty or intimidation that makes you feel like the Jesus in your ship is asleep.  Your ship may be filled with water that begins to erode everything you once held dear, you must remember that there hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it. – 1 Cor 10:13.

It is not the time to throw all hope away for we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul. – Heb 10:39

So they had to wake Him up and that was okay, yet it seemed like it was not the proper thing to do. He didn’t expect them to wake Him up, not because he loved sleep but He expected them to have calmed the storm by faith in His name and a word of rebuke. I am glad he calmed the storm before He revealed the whole essence of the journey, after all He was in it with them. I wish I gained this earlier. That Jesus was with me in my situation and that He never sleeps nor slumber. That when I am at my wit’s end; just about to break, he always makes a way.

So what was the essence of the cross-over expedition? It was an opportunity to express faith; an avenue to attain maturity. The disciples were certainly going to narrate their cross-over story in future but it would no longer be just a story but a life changing event that would transform lives of others.

That is how I feel about my experience today. He called me for a cross over to the other side but He was setting me up for something - something more than just me; something to press me, shake me, cook me until I learnt how to trust Him only, something that helped me see me better and see life through a whole new perspective. Something to help me trust, depend on and obey Him all the time, something to help me learn the pattern in which He with me.

I am glad I chose to cross to the other side. How about you? Has He been asking you to come on a sail and you are bothered that He is going to sleep off? Or have you began the sail and He is not only sleeping but the storm, wind, and flood are about to swallow you up? Don t wake Him up yet, lest He asks ‘where is your faith’? Exercise your faith today. Face that situation and let the devil see that because Jesus is in your boat, you can never sink. Learn through the experience and let it gradually bring you to maturity.