Walking on Water

Miracles happen at the intersection of faith and reason.  God, being a Man of War, loves Glory.  He is Gluttonous for it.  When David accepted Goliath’s challenge, David must have looked crazy to everyone.  To David, his decision to accept Goliath’s challenge was completely reasonable.  God was his reason. 

David learned to trust God working as a shepherd.  He would defend his flock against both bears and lions with only a club.  If God gave him victory against the fiercest predators of the wild surely he would give him victory against Goliath who challenges the God of Israel, and he did.

Before every battle David prays and looks for direction from God.  God gives him victories.  The Templar Knights during the crusades blindly charge into battle expecting God to follow them.  They get slaughtered to a man.  God doesn’t work that way.  You can’t control him.  He controls you if you let him.  If you want to lead you first have to serve. 

I started learning to follow the spirit like a compass.  I grew to depend on it so much that I would even ask what to have for breakfast.  At first the spirit and I were aligned in what we wanted, but soon it felt like it was overbearing, and at times I couldn’t get a clear bearing on what it wanted.  It was like I was a slave, but a willing one.  There were times where it would confuse me and I would become anxious and panic not being able to get a clear direction.  I felt like a slave.  I almost cried for freedom, but I endured. 

Walking in Faith means learning to not look down.   God wants us to move with his spirit, and Glory in where it is taking us.  If you learn to move with the spirit, you might just find yourself walking in the middle of a lake.  Don’t look down. 

God said that the Israelites would number like the stars and David just had to count them with a census.    David looked down.

When you run on a treadmill, your natural inclination is to keep looking at the time.  Your soul is stressed, and the mind wants you to stop because it hurts.  What happens if you train your soul not to look, and to just enjoy the run?  Jesus taught us faith.  Socrates helps us with reason.  Jesus is reason.  How do you feel about walking on water? 

When Peter walks on water he is focusing on Jesus, and glorying in where he is going.  He walks out on the lake towards Jesus, and the wind hits him.  The air hits his senses and worries and doubts about walking on water reach his mind.  He sinks.  To do miracles, one must train the mind to ignore everything on the outside, and just focus on God and Glory. 

I was walking to campus to bible study which was about a mile away.  It was raining outside, and I had a full sized bible with me, so I decided to put it under my coat.  The rain was slow and gentle and I hear a voice that says, “Don’t worry.”  My heart was full of the spirit, so I grab my Bible and walk with it swinging at the end of my arm with no worries.  I don’t look down or even think about it.  My mind is on God.  As I approached an intersection I started singing “No bodies fault but mine” by the Dixie Hummingbirds.  I am white and rarely even sing at church.  I don’t look to see if anyone saw or heard.  Don’t care. 

By the time I reach the Bible study my Bible is dry.  I don’t even think about it.  What does it matter anyway?

As I am walking back from the Bible study and it is raining much harder than before.  I notice that the rain doesn’t touch the hand I am holding the Bible in.  I walk 100 feet and notice the water isn’t touching my other hand either.  Doubt enters my mind.  What if my sleeve is what is keeping the rain off my hand, and not God?  What if my Bible is getting wet?  I felt my Bible.  At first it was dry, and then it became wet quickly.  I had looked down.  What I did was reasonable in the context that I fear my Bible getting wet, but God had told me not to worry.  Let him be your reason. 

I walked the rest of the way home with the Bible under my coat.  Some devils start to plague me.  “Look at this prophet.  He is shamed.”  I tell them “I am learning. I am only 29 and I have time to get it right.  Look how far I have already come.  Rome wasn’t built in a day.”

The Devils tempt me, “Why don’t you take the Bible out of your coat and walk again? If you are so powerful it won’t get wet.”  I tell them, “My faith has been weakened, and I won’t make God suffer for my weakness.”  God was pleased.  Although I looked down, my mind stays on God, and my hope is unbending. 

The deceiver works in two ways.  He will make the lover of food gluttonous and fat, and then when that person decides to diet and exercise, the deceiver will make the same person anorexic and sickly.  Following God’s spirit takes reason as Socrates teaches in order to find the healthy medium and balance.   

The next day I go to the gym and run on the treadmill.   I set the goal to run four miles at an 8:00 per mile pace which is pretty good.  I put Godly themed music on my Ipod that keeps me motivated.  I also decide that I am going to train my mind to not look at the time, and I am not going to cover the time with anything so the temptation is there.  I make it for about two miles before I start to get a little fatigued and start looking down.  I only look down a couple of times, but those devils come back to mock me.  I block them from my mind by calling myself a bad prophet.  I am so bad.  Rome wasn’t built in a day.  I’m still learning.  By putting myself down in a positive way, I learned how to block out the deceiver. 

This happened in late January 2014.  I had found a way to make God my reason, and to block the deceiver.  The spirit of God became really loud, and my head was exploding with revelations and knowledge.  I was on fire.  I blew up my facebook account with my zeal over my growing faith until I made an interesting prayer.  I prayed something like this:

Lord God, I am your slave Adam, and I am a sinner.  I thank you for all the blessings you have given me despite of it.  I know that you love Justice, and you are Justice.  You are absolute.  I know what it is like to live in hell on earth, and I know what it is like to be imprisoned unjustly.  I would pray that if there are any Christians of faith unjustly imprisoned, that I could take their place.  Here I am, send me.  IN THE NAME OF JESUS.   

My body was in a sweat and my legs were shaking from the spirit.  I felt like I had gained some sort of victory in the heavens.  I wanted to just sit and relax, but God wanted me to celebrate.  I put on my black suit, grabbed my bible, my Army dog tags, and an empty flask.  I start walking towards the bar.  As I am walking I get the feeling that there is some sort of battle being wages around me.  It is around midnight.  A car sees me and honks about scaring me to death.  I keep walking.  As I walk I hear a loud thunderous noise like that sound of artillery.  I keep walking.

When I get to the bar I lay my bible on the bar and open it to Mark 14:25 and then I lay my dog tags and the flask on top of it.  I order Jack Daniels Honey on the rocks, and sit back and relax.  A bartender comes over and asks “Hey Adam, what’s happening?”  I reply, “I don’t care.”

There were not many people in this bar, most were next door in the dance club.  I sit and enjoy my drink, and I see some smoke that appears to be coming off me.  This is a non-smoking bar.  I continue not giving a damn.  I finish my drink, and the spirit tells me I have done enough, so I get a shot of Wild Turkey to go.    

An Army veteran stops me as I leave.  He sees my dog tags I am wearing.  We talk for a minute about where we served, and then I grab my dog tags and say, “Did you know that God is a Man of War?”  He says “Yes” with a depressed sigh.  I reply, “But he is also love.”  He sees.  He says “He would have to be to forgive me of my sins.”  He is excited and happy.  He asks what Church I am part of.  I reply, “What does it matter.  I lift my Bible eye level, “This is all that matters.” He is pleased with that answer.  We shake hands and I tell him to be blessed as I leave.    

I stop at the cigar shop nearby and smoke a cigar on the way home.  I still have a feeling that there is a battle being waged around me.  The song “When the Man Comes Around” by Johnny Cash pops into my head.  I only remember two line, “Come and See and I saw, and behold, a white horse,” and then “100 million Angels singing.”  I told the angels to sing as I turned the corner towards my apartment, and then told Michael to go.  I’m not sure what that did, but the spirit tells me that it was good. 

The next day I had to remove my facebook account.  My brother had been reading it, and had told my mom about what I had been doing.  They give me no honor.  Jesus did few miracles in his home town, and my hometown was following me through the internet.  I had to pray for both my mother and my brother.  I didn’t want to, but they left me no choice.  I prayed like this:

Lord God, I am your slave Adam.  I am a sinner, but I thank you for all the blessings you have given me.  I love my family, and I know you do as well, but both you and I know that they can’t keep dishonoring me like this if I am to continuing growing.  I pray that they learn to joyfully endure trials as I have, so that they can find you and be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.  In the name of Jesus.