The Lord our God will not delay in coming to us. He longs to fulfill our needs and wishes. He is a God who knows how to satisfy us. He works in ways that are uncommon to us or that are wondrous to us. He knows that His power is beyond any limit and desires that we too know the same. He may keep us in waiting, but not for too long. It is His wisdom to keep us in hope so that He prepares us with the supply He gives. He makes us realize He is nearer to us than before. Time passes whether hope exists or not, but time that passes in hope is for an inexplicable relationship with God that is intimate. This is an advantage and the way to receive His blessings. We wonder how He does it, all the while knowing He can, but He does it in the only way He alone can. Hence, it is worth understanding our Lord’s amazing ability. “And in the fourth watch of the night He came to them, walking on the sea” (Matt. 14:25).
On the outset the clearly amazing thing we notice is Jesus walking on the water. We are very familiar with it. Numerous times we spoke of it to describe His incredibleness. But, how does it relate to our lives? If Jesus walked on the water, what value does it yield to us now? We know our Lord is all-powerful, but what impact can this all-powerful Lord have on our lives? They had an incredible impact to the extent that Peter even walked on the water. Had Peter wholly believed and not feared, he would have walked all the way to the Lord. (And who knows if the rest seeing him would have had the courage to do the same?) So, the Lord spoke of his littleness in faith. Nevertheless, by what Jesus did they believed Him to be the Son of God. And, everything in life has changed for them. They began believing in a Power who is the Almighty. In learning to believe in the Lord they learned of the nature of faith.
Faith plays pivotal role in our journey to eternity and it is the most difficult to sustain. It must first be learned from the Lord and must have substance. Then, it is supplied by God to remain in us. Everything we obtain from Him hinges on it. Many believe in the Lord, but cannot hope in Him, since they are not astute regarding God’s supply. Hence, they are seldom satisfied by the Lord. They fear not obtaining what they desire than wholly leaning on the Lord, who satisfies them. But, Peter grew from being little in faith to such greater faith that one does not need an introduction to it. His association with the Lord gave him the immaculate faith, because he treasured the things the Lord did and spoke as riches beyond riches. He knew them to be everything for sustaining his faith and for blessings. He came to a whole faith. Greater blessings come from whole faith, since Jesus said, “But from now on THE SON OF MAN WILL BE SEATED AT THE RIGHT HAND of the power OF GOD” (Luke 22:69).
Littleness in faith does not help us realize the meaning of Jesus’ words. On the contrary, a whole faith helps us understand that the Son of Man who walked on the water, who was with the disciples and who helped them to come to an immaculate faith is the One who now sits at the right hand of the power of God. What does this imply? It implies that there is no shifting in His power; that His incredibleness is a constant; that He still desires to show Himself as the Son of Man to His people. Nevertheless, His incredibleness appears to us when we like the disciples come to know who we believe in. Many times the Lord cannot come to people, because they remain timid for whole faith. Such timidity gives ample opportunity for the devil to weaken them for faith. Because of this, many in the churches do not see the incredibleness of the Lord. And they walk about their own ways and in their littleness of faith. Sooner or later they enter faithlessness. Can Jesus walk on the water again? Oh, yes! Should we believe He will perform the equivalent of it for us? He is seated that the right hand of the power of God. In other words, God displays His incredibleness to us by supplying us. Then, we justly sustain our faith and He will satisfy us. The outcome of this faith is quite remarkable, as Paul and his companions found out. “When he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them” (Acts 16:10).
It is only in our God to do wondrous things. And, His Son who is seated at His right hand is the source for them. When we wholly believe in the Lord, God gives us His purpose. For the sake of His purpose He supplies our belief and adds to it His blessings. The vision that Paul and his companions had is no less incredible than Jesus walking on the water simply because of the purpose of God. God in Christ displayed Himself to them. Whether it was Jesus walking on the water or a vision, it is God displaying His incredibleness to His people. For while the former was for an intimate relationship with God the latter was by an intimate relationship with Him. We know this from His word. And if we are to see His incredibleness, we ought to believe the Power in the word. The word leads us to every act of God that has been done giving us faith to look to His every act toward us. This gives hope and He will not delay in coming to us. To this end the Spirit said, “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:4).
Do not be baffled as to how God will supply to your faith and satisfy you. On the contrary, lean on Him with whole faith for there are varieties of gifts with Him. He will show you His incredibleness. You have heard of our Lord walking on the water. And now you will see no less incredibleness from God, because He is able to perform the equivalents of it. This is His supply to your faith and will unite you with the faithful. For He has seated at His right hand His Son in whom you believed. Through Him He is determined to fulfill all your needs and desires. He aspires to do this, but He first desires you obtain His gifts. His gifts give you courage, power and confidence to handle aright His blessings. Thus, He resolves to remain undaunted by all that you do. For then He is confident you do all things for His glory. This is receiving His kingdom and His righteousness that all things are added to you.
And the Spirit says, “Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 1:13). If your hope is completely on the grace to be brought at the coming of Jesus, your faith is whole. It implies His kingdom and righteousness are in you. Your faith will strengthen your mind to take evasive action against the works of the devil. It will keep your inner self pure for Christ wherein your thoughts and intentions will be according to the gift that God gave through His Spirit. His gift protects your righteousness and indicates the seal of the Holy Spirit on you. No Christian can prepare himself to fight the Adversary and the evil thoughts of this world unless he or she is powered by God. It is not a slight thing for us to possess God’s gifts; they are a means to not only thwart all wickedness and unrighteousness, but to do good also. Many have disdained them and having found their own are working against Him. They sated their spirits with the cup of the devil to work against the gospel of God. The grace that appears at the coming of Christ will evade them. But for the rest whose faith is astute for God’s supply, there remains a blessing. “After these things I heard something like a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, ‘Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God’” (Rev. 19:1).
Brethren, since you have known what belongs to God, know that He will supply to your faith for the fulfilling of His purpose. This is His incredibleness toward you. Now, He will satisfy all your needs and desires that His name is forever glorified. Take care that you do not lean on man’s understanding or on the knowledge of those who disdain God’s gifts. Or else, your determination to know the incredibleness of our Lord and our God will fade away. You will lose the hope of being with the great multitude. Those who praise God in heaven are the ones who know and see His salvation, glory and power on the earth; they sought His kingdom and His righteousness. For this reason, Christ descended to the earth and spoke of God’s kingdom. And, “Some of the people therefore, when they heard these words, were saying, ‘This certainly is the Prophet’” (John 7:40).