Faith comes from hearing (or reading) God’s Word (Rom. 10:17) and allowing It to do Its work (take root and grow) in Its readers and hearers. As this series will show, God’s true saints believe and act–thereby proving their faith–upon hearing or reading even one Word from the Lord if the circumstance so dictates.

The Almighty makes it abundantly clear that there is no other foundation on which true Christian faith can be based. Relative to true, God-commanded faith, only His Word is relevant. In summary, according to Jesus in John 17:17, a) the Father’s written Word/Bible is the only source of spiritual Truth and b) His Truth is the only source of spiritual faith. The Biblically proven fact that the professing church rejects most of His Word proves that she refuses to take His Word at face value. Except, of course, those few Words that appear to confirm her theology when edited, twisted and taken out of context. That she is in rebellion against Him and His Son, and that she will pay the ultimate price for doing so is the message God has commissioned me to deliver to those in the church. Those who have ears to hear and eyes to see His Truth will come out of her, as Christ commands (2 Cor. 6:17). The number who will do so, as He prophesied in Matthew 7:13,14, will be very small and will get smaller in the future. This in spite of the world-wide masses having access to the Bible due to the printing press, t.v., the internet, missionary work, etc. At present there are over 2,000,000,000 people who claim to believe God’s Word while rejecting some 80% of it. Two billion church people do not have God-commanded, Bible-based faith–the entity one must have in order to be saved. Unless they become converted and obey the Lord, they will not enter the Kingdom of God.

The Institutional Church’s faith problem falls into four categories: 1) Some have no Bible-based faith, believing that the Bible is the work of man; 2) some have partial Bible-based faith, believing that the Bible means whatever they want it to mean; 3) some have had Bible-based faith but lost it due to sin; 4) some have Bible-based faith but lose it temporarily. I refer to this phenomenon as “faith interrupted.” The story of Peter walking on water is a prime example of problem #4, which this series addresses.

Having left Jesus back at their starting point, we find the disciples in the midst of a Galilee storm and in danger  of drowning. The storm had suddenly come up and is tossing the ship with its waves and wind (Matthew 14).

While peering through the darkness the disciples see an apparition which they believe to be a ghost. After crying out in terror they hear the voice of Jesus coming to them from across the roiling waves and wind, telling them not to fear for He is near. Peter, always the bold one, asked Jesus to prove His identity by following his (Peter’s) directions: “Lord, if it is You, bid me to come to You on the water.” Here we find Peter determining the rules of engagement by which he (Peter) will decide if the person on the water is Who He claims to be or an imposter. Jesus agrees to Peter’s terms and says only ONE WORD–“Come.” Upon hearing Christ’s single Word Peter’s faith suddenly comes to full power. Without hesitation he steps out on the sea and begins to walk toward the Lord waiting for him in the distance. He takes step after step, the Word of His Master still ringing in his ears, filling him with faith. One can only imaging the incredible faith Peter had to manifest in order to place himself in such a precarious situation–he was walking where only one Man had ever walked. Step after step the disciple made his way through the waves and wind toward the One Whose Word had started him on this seemingly maniacal journey. An important fact needs to be brought out at this point. Jesus had to have been quite a distance from the boat for the disciples not to have recognize Him. This was not a short stroll.

Peter was unstoppable, for at that moment HE HAD THE SAME LEVEL OF FAITH AS JESUS CHRIST. It took that level of faith to walk on water. Some might believe that because of this great feat of faith, Peter was all he would ever need to be spiritually. But the following fact must be considered: at that moment in time PETER HAD NOT YET BEEN CONVERTED as Jesus told him in Luke 22:32. Here the Lord said to him: “When you are converted, help your brethren (to be converted.)” Jesus later spoke about the disciples’ lack of conversion when He told all of them that unless they were converted, they would not enter the Kingdom of God (Mat. 18:3). Consider these facts: The disciples had preached the gospel, healed the sick and cast demons out of people. Nevertheless, THEY WERE FAR FROM CONVERSION. To cross that spiritual line they would have to die totally to self. Which all but one of them did. L.J.