22Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, but the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it. During the fourth watch of the night Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. "It's a ghost," they said, and cried out in fear. But Jesus immediately said to them: "Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid." "Lord, if it's you," Peter replied, "tell me to come to you on the water."

It took zeal for Peter to get out of the boat, but he needed faith to walk the way. But who had heard of walking on water? It had never been done. Parting water...done, healed with water...done, turned water into wine...done. But walk on it? Never seen, never heard of, never done. But you could ask the disciples, do you believe it could be done - oh, yeah sure. See believing and faith are two different things.

Believing is saying, “Yes, I know this can be.” Faith is saying, “Yes, I know this WILL be.” But you don’t put your faith in yourself or in actions, you put it in God. In Mark 11:22 Jesus says, “ Have faith in God… I tell you the truth, if anyone… does not doubt in his heart but believes…”Put in Cheryl-phrase, “ Have faith in God and not in the actions he asks you to take, but believe these actions can indeed happen trusting HIM to have the ability to do them!” I have been misguided in my faith and belief. I thought I should have faith in moving mountains, but God only requires faith in HIM! Believe HE can move the mountains! This re-direction of our focus will make the difference! So I said to Him, “ Lord, I have faith in YOU and believe YOU can do ANYTHING!”

Therefore, what can you put into action? Zeal!
 

Some people are content to stay in the boat. I would say these are our intercessors. They are going to pray, and then pray, and then when all else fails - pray. And we need this desperately. You see what happened to Peter! There are others who see the Lord and the need to go to him but can’t exactly find that “jumping-off spot”. They have faith in God for anything and everything. These are our faith-filled brothers & sisters. Then there are still those who haven’t sat still since the boat launched, haven’t shut up and now they see the Lord and splish splash their feet are drowning by faith?

See Peter had all the zeal he needed to get out of the boat. He believed Jesus. But his faith was not on the same level. If it had been, he not only would have walked to Jesus, but he would have walked with him all the way to shore! Of course THEN the others would have bounded out of the boat, “Oh, Jesus we knew it was you, you are the Christ!” See we zealots have always got to take the long shots so everyone else can cash in on the pay off!

Jesus launches us out towards a purpose. Jesus knows the purpose to which our Father has called us and he is on his way to where his father is working. That is his nature. When the storm hits us, our intercessors pray for Jesus to come, come and strengthen us, come and help us, come and deliver us! Well, he’s here - or there on the water ( Interesting - one of God’s names is The Lord who is THERE,) that means YOU & I need to go and meet him! Out there on the water on his way to where God is working and he is waiting for us. So, what’s the first thing we do? We say, “NOOOO, it’s a GHOST, it’s not GOD! It can’t be, there’s no way he’d ever want me to get out of the very boat he put me into and walk on water in the middle of a raging storm!”

ZEALOTS to the RESCUE!

“Lord, if it’s you BID me to come to you!” (Ol’ Peter trying to call God’s bluff.) “COME.” GULP! Lucky he had enough zeal to take that first step. Zealots see the vision, hear the call then WHAM! Surf n’ turf! Well thank the Lord for the intercessors and the faith warriors, cause you know what they’re doing: WATCHING AND WAITING FOR THE ZEALOTS TO DROWN! Yeah, they could be cheering, praying for them to make it, but no! They usually think zealots are crazy! Which isn’t necessarily out of the question. But what happens when Peter DOES begin to doubt.

Well Jesus chews him up one side, down the other. No, he only rebukes him for not having the faith to walk the whole way! Now the rest who stay in the boat, Lord love them, they are just hanging on to that boat, that vision, that destiny, that “word” like it in and of itself will get them through this storm and to the purpose which God has given. And it can - with Jesus in it. But what if he isn’t in the boat?
 

Now I’m not saying to get out of a perfectly good boat in the middle of a raging storm when Jesus isn’t out there waiting for you - Zealots! But, when he shows up you better start bailing - Prayer & Faith Warriors! Lets not start screaming GHOST! But we could, (and all of us have) stay in the boat and try to whether the storm, rebuke the “specter” on the water, and possibly make it to the light of day. Then what? Jesus, though in the midst of the storm, is your way to where God is working; your way to shore. The sea may be calm, and it may be sunny, but there you are-alone. No compass, no food or water- no provision. We are not on a lake where we can just turn around and eventually find the shore ourselves. We are on the sea, the big stuff the real deal. We can not afford to stay in that boat. And yet this is where some churches, some ministries, some people are ending up. Bright sunny days, no storms; and yet…doomed. Because they were so sure that vehicle, that formula, or what ever God gave them to float in and their self-effort rowing were all they needed to get to where he wanted them to be. Or hey, “We are where he wants us to be! Sunny days! Except for that 'specter' that tries to coax us out of our boat!”
 

I’m telling you, in all my zeal I’d rather be with Jesus drowning in the water in the midst of a raging storm, than stranded on an abandoned purpose going no where. Even though Peter doubted, Jesus caught him and carried him and the rest to shore. But if we stay in that boat and continue to yell, "GHOST!" He’ll keep going.

Yes, I am a zealot. However, we need the zealots to ignite the fire! And the Intercessors and Faith Warriors to keep it going! So, the prayer & faith warriors need the zealots, but the zealots definitely need the prayer and faith warriors or they’d be in the wrong boat going the wrong place and when they did get out of the boat they’d once again drown. The point is we need all, not one or the other. We’ve got to stop bickering about our gifts. We've got to stop trusting in the boat. We need to trust in the one who put us in it and is calling us out. The prayer and Faith Warriors point out, “But he didn’t call us out, the zealot asked to get out!” And what if he hadn’t? “GHOST! GHOST!” Back to trusting that old boat.

People get comfortable in a calling or a purpose, or with a word that was given. Then have a hard time realizing it was just the transportation to get them on to the water to meet the real deal!

You may say, "God never changes!" Well hallelujah, but that certainly does not mean he sits still! So that means, neither can we! He is fresh, never stale! His ways are not our ways, his thoughts are higher than our thoughts, so we are crazy to think we should be able to understand him the first time around.

You know when my son started school the teachers told me to encourage Jeth to write words whether they were spelled wrong or not. The point was to get him writing. We are as children compared with God’s plans. He sometimes takes us in stages. He has to get us in a boat, then scare us out of it, then carry us to the shore. Why couldn’t he just start out saying, “O.K. you did a great job helping me with the five thousand now go walk across the lake and encounter the worst storm you have ever experienced. I’ll meet you in the midst and we’ll all walk the rest of the way together! Who’s first?” We’d fall out on the shore. Some wouldn’t even stay. We’d be arguing and whining, “You can’t do that. Why can’t we take a boat?"

Stages. To us it seems like he’s changing but he’s just trying to get us to the place where we have the zeal to get out and the faith to walk with him to the purpose he’s truly called us.