I was reading in Matthew14:24-34,
about the disciples being out in a boat when a storm came up. They saw Jesus walking on the water and thought he was a ghost, but immediately he spoke to them to calm their fears. Peter who was dubious, like the rest, asked Jesus if it was indeed Jesus, to call and ask him to come out to him, which Jesus did. Peter walked on the water also, but as soon as his focus was off of Jesus, he again focused on the storm & started to sink. He called out for Jesus to save him & immediately, Jesus rescued him. When they got back in the boat, the winds stopped and the storm calmed. Then the disciples recognized him. They went on across the lake to Gennesaret. The meaning of Gennesaret, is “the Paradise or fertile ground of Galilee.”
Galilee was the home of Jesus when he was on earth. The literal meaning of the root word of Galilee (galal) is to put one’s trust in God.
Psalm 37:5 “Commit thy way unto the Lord ; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.”
So if you think back on the meanings of this story – when you face a storm in your life, look to Jesus. Call on him and he will rescue you, keep your focus on him, even when the winds are howling and the waves are high. He doesn’t just rescue us, he takes us to The Paradise of his home. We are delivered to his doorstep. It is also interesting that this area, in Solomon’s time, was called Galil by the Jews meaning ‘the Galilee of the Gentiles.’ Jesus delivered both Jews & Gentiles. In Biblical times, Galilee was the largest portion of Palestine.
Isn’t it just like God, not only to calm us, but also to rescue us, and to deliver us to the most fertile (Gennesaret) and give us the largest portion (Galilee)!! All we must do is to recognize him and keep our focus on Him! Look to Jesus!
I had not thought about the meaning of Genassaret as the paradise or fertile ground before or of Galilee being the home of both the Jews and the Gentiles! What a picture of God rescuing us from the storms of life!!
I shared on my Facebook page earlier this week about how God instructed Elijah, during a long drought, to go to the brook East of Jordan named Cherith. It is written in 1 Kings 17:1-7. In the Hebrew, the word Cherith, Chorath, or Kerith means “a place of separation.” If you locate where this brook is located, most modern scholars agree that it is the Wadi al-Yabis, a region that is described as one of the wildest ravines in the region. It is also so wild in terrain, that it is a place where one can easily hide from persecution and still be protected; it is a place of refuge. In this passage, God also told Elijah that he would send the ravens to bring bread and flesh to Elijah.
Cherith or Wadi al-Yabis by samdefranc
There are many things which need to be pointed out about Ravens. They are extremely intelligent, more than any other bird in the bird kingdom and rivaling that of the chimpanzee in the animal kingdom. They are adaptable to any habitat, mountainous, desert, rocky, grasslands, wetlands, etc., regardless of weather. Ravens can be taught to talk better than most parrots, imitating the human voice and the calls of other birds. They also communicate with each other with their beaks, such as pointing out an object to another raven. Another form of communication they use is to attract other animals to a carcass they want to feed on by their calls, because they cannot tear open with their beaks, then once other predators have opened the carcass for them, they can pick at the meat. They are not known to feed others, except their own babies. They are one of the dirtiest birds in the bird kingdom, yet they are survivors. They are scavengers, and are quite resourceful finding food by outwitting other birds and predators. They even follow the gunshots of hunters to locate a carcass to feed upon, yet ignore other equally loud sounds, showing signs of extreme intellect and recognition. They work in cooperation with each other to steal food, by distraction and/or observation. Ravens are playful and can play together, with other animals, or alone, solving intricate games and using comical behavior. They can fly upside down up to half a mile, do somersaults, and acrobatics. They are more agile than crows in flight, because they use light wingbeats and soar at times. During nesting times, they wash all their food in a nearby water source before feeding it to their nestlings. One of the facts I found to be most interesting is what a group of ravens are called, which is an ‘unkindness.’
RAVENS – Licensed under CC BY-SA
Isn’t it just like God to take an unkindness and turn it into a kindness? And wouldn’t God choose one of the smartest, cleverest, most resourceful, and unlikely animals to provide for man who is created in his image? And wouldn’t God take an unlikely raven, who is greedy and selfish, to share of the food they find to sustain mankind? The ravens brought Elijah bread and flesh it tells us in First Kings. Don’t you imagine that those ravens took Elijah in as one of their own to do this? I even wonder if they washed the food before they gave it to him. As I was thinking of this, the ravens, a most common bird, were a substitute savior for Elijah. They took on some of the characteristics of Jesus, by taking care of God’s chosen, offering redemption from starvation in the form of bread and flesh. (Jesus is our bread and flesh. He took on the flesh of a man to dwell among us. He adopted us as his own, once we submitted to him. He is our sustainment and our redeemer.)
So when we find ourselves in a desperate situation that looks like we cannot go on, or have suffered an unkindness; we must remember Elijah and how God provided for him and then look to Jesus and remember that he is our ultimate sustainment, place of refuge, and redeemer. God will provide us a place of refuge, the brook of flowing water, and sustainment, but first we must separate ourselves from the worldly things that ensnare us and keep us from Him. We must put aside encumbrances to allow God to clothe us, to feed us, to supply all our needs, and to care for us better than we can ever care for ourselves. He may take us into a ravenous situation (a place of greedy hunger) to get our attention, or into a hidden wilderness where only he can provide to remind us that he is our sustainer and has provided our ultimate redemption in Jesus Christ. What hunger do you have that the world cannot satisfy? Where is your brook of separation? Have you found it, do you need to go there to renew your heart with God or simply to be sustained and cared for? It is with Jesus. Allow him to be your place of separation and sustainment today and every day.
Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap, which have neither storehouse nor barn; and God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds? – Luke 12:24
Interesting side note on the word raven-ous: The verb to RAVEN means to devour greedily, to seize, and to prowl hungrily. The adjective RAVENOUS is traced to Old French ravener, meaning ‘to seize,’ regarding water, meaning ‘swift flowing.’ Overall meaning: “voracious, greedily hungry, and seized.”
Prayer: May God seize us to have a voracious hunger and thirst for Jesus, as our sole sustainer, refuge, bread, and flesh.
I have found through the years, that any research can lead from one subject to another. This morning I was researching a phrase that led me to a mathematical theory, called ‘chaos theory,’ which then led me to the phrase ‘butterfly effect.’ I was thinking of examples of the theory and the effect. If I understand them correctly, an example would be skipping stones over water. As a young child, skipping rocks was one of my favorite things to do on one of the farms I grew up on. I would wander down the creek away from where my grandparents were fishing. We had an area on the creek, that has a ledge of shale. Those pieces of dark gray, thin, shale rock that flaked off the ledge, made for awesome rock skipping! I always looked for the ones with the least variation in thickness, so the aerodynamics would yield the best results. But I didn’t know at that age what aerodynamics even were, I just knew the rocks needed to be thin and smooth to skip the most number of times. Now I know that there are variables which can change the way the rocks react to skipping and sinking. Those variables include the type of spin the rock is thrown with, the force of the spin, the shape of the rock, the degree of angle that the rock has when it hits the water, the calmness of the water, etc. All of these occurrences can change how many times a rock spins and skips. Skipping stones is a past time that is known and practiced around the world. It is probably one of the few things that can cross barriers of language and understanding.
But I’ve also learned something that cannot be explained by a mathematical theory or change with effect, which also crosses all boundaries, language barriers and does not involve chaos. It is the Love of Jesus. It doesn’t matter how hard a person’s heart is, Jesus’ Love is penetrating, constant, sincere, and His redemption is for everyone. We cannot win others by condemnation, but we can reach them with love and allow the Holy Spirit to soften their heart. It is the way that God provided to bring man back into his original purpose, which is to have fellowship with all mankind. This morning during my prayer time, I was thinking of the death chants by the radicals in the Middle East and I prayed, “NO! I do not agree with this mindset! I call death to any spirit that calls people to desire the destruction of others, not death to those people personally. I call death to the evil they engage in and I speak LIFE to them! I speak that the Spirit of God will arrest their hearts into true understanding. I speak LOVE & PEACE!
I pray that Jesus will be revealed to them and that the corruption of their hearts will cease. I speak a Healing to their land. I claim a righteousness to invade their land like nothing they’ve ever experienced before. I call for a stirring in their souls to be awakened to God’s original purpose, to know and love each other and the world around them. It can start with one man, and then another, and another, like a skipping stone causes a ripple effect, and it will continue forever. When we start seeing with the eyes of spiritual understanding we will see Jesus all around us, we will see others with the potential to return to God’s original purpose. Many today are aborting the Spirit because they are holding onto the law of religion and the traditions of man. God put his spirit within us to be birthed over and over again, but many use spiritual birth control by hanging onto the law and false religions, which Christ already redeemed us from. (See Colossians 1:1-14) When we recognize his seed, his original purpose, which came to fruition by Christ’s resurrection, we will start watering it and see it spring forth Life!
I pray for the mouths of all the governmental, religious, and system leaders around the world who speak or contribute to the destruction of any man to be softened to hear and to know PERFECT LOVE. I pray that their misguided leadership, anger, fear, and hatred is replaced with love and acceptance. How will they know HIS LOVE if they do not hear? I pray for ministers to be called into their midst and into their personal lives, who can reach their hearts by your Word. I pray for a mighty outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the people and the land that all their barbaric customs cease. I pray for an encounter with God who is the only one who can change hearts.
I claim these things through the redemptive power of Jesus. I pray for doubt and unbelief to stop in their land and ours. I pray that we quit calling others barbarians and perverts, but that we call them redeemed. Father I thank you that your will is being performed throughout earth to transform the hearts and minds of people towards each other. I call the scattered to come into one accord as you desire and that we will seek to live in peace and trust, with our fellow man, both in America and abroad.
I pray for awakening in our own land in our leaders and our citizens to seek you and your will. I pray for Heaven to come to earth by your people who are called and I pray you would give them understanding that condemnation cannot heal, hate cannot heal, despising cannot heal, corruption cannot heal, but only your Love can heal our land and the world. I praise you that we will see the manifestation of your will on earth as you have instructed us to pray in
Matthew 6:9-10 “Pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.”
Give us the courage and realization to point to the answer and not to the problem. Give us Peace where there is chaos. The answer is Jesus Christ. How can we say we believe in a Living God if we do not share His love and His answer to a lost and dying world? Help us to share His answer. We have the answer!
Luke 5:31-32 Jesus answered them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor-sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners and need to repent.”
Katie Storme 