The importance of trusting God through the storms of life

Hello and welcome to The Prophetic Voice. I'm your host, Ken Bailey. In a world full of lies and propaganda, it can be difficult to determine who is telling you the truth. Perhaps you're looking for a place where you can hear a voice of truth, someone whom God is speaking to. You come to the right place. It's our mission to share with you the truth of God's word and the prophetic insights that God has given to me to help you navigate life. in these last days before the return of Jesus Christ. In today's episode, number eight, I'll be teaching on the importance of trusting God through the storms of life. As we dive into this topic, let's see what God has told us in the scriptures and what the Lord has revealed to me to share with you. At times we'll also incorporate insights from other leaders in the Christian community. So whether you're a long time listener or a new follower, We're grateful that you've chosen to join us today. Let's tune in and listen to the prophetic voice. Do you remember when you dreamed how great life was going to be, and you couldn't wait to get out on your own, move out of the house? Your life was ahead of you, it was going to be smooth sailing, you were going to conquer the world, then you found out that life has storms, that difficult times come your way. Perhaps all of us have had things that we dreamed of that didn't happen in life. Just because we come to Christ for salvation, from sin doesn't mean we're guaranteed to have a life free from problems. If you have a Bible or a phone app with you, I want you to open it to John chapter 16. John 16, and we're gonna begin reading in verse 33. Jesus said, these things I have spoken to you so that in me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage, I have overcome the world. So Jesus said in this world we would have trials and tribulations. Notice he didn't say we might have hard times. He said you will have hard times. There's gonna come difficulties in life, it's a part of life. But how do we navigate those hard times? How do we get through the storms of light? So there are storms that we must go through in life. Difficult situations come across our path and we must deal with them. Perhaps you're in a storm at this very moment. You have things happening in your life that are stressing you out. Has something gone wrong at work or at school? Is it a financial storm? Is there not enough money to pay the bills? Is there a relationship in your life that's falling apart? As a close family member or a friend died recently. All of these that I mentioned are examples of storms that can come into our lives. In reality, you guys, life can be a series of storms. Sometimes it just feels like we're in crisis after crisis. What do you do when your dreams are shattered? What do you do when life beats you up real good? Who do you turn to for help in the storms of life? Well, I wanna show you today how you can trust God through the storms of life. Let me tell you how. You're likely in one of three spots right now. You're going into a storm, you're in a storm, or you're coming out of a storm. Perhaps you have blue skies in your life at this moment. You're in a good spot. You've got plenty of money, the bills are paid, you like your job, your relationships are going well. If you're in a good spot right now and enjoy it and thank God for it. But know this, at some point you're going to be heading into your next storm. crisis can happen overnight. Storms are coming. Will you be ready for them? I want to share a true story with you of a sudden storm that happened to a group of people. This was actually yesterday. And it's a story from Pakistan. Recently, a copy of the Quran was allegedly burned by two men in Pakistan. I don't know if that's true or not. But it caused a a situation to develop where a number of Muslims in a large city began to riot and go and attack Christian churches, tear crosses off them, go in and vandalize them, tear them apart, take all the furniture out, destroy the churches and ransack the neighborhood around those Christian churches. With Alms International, the nonprofit that I'm the founder of. We support work in Pakistan and we have ministry partners there. And some of them yesterday were suddenly in a life-changing situation. They literally had to run for their lives. Then this one particular group was a couple who manage an orphanage there. And they have close to 30 orphans that they take care of daily, about 18 stay in a home. the home with them at night. Others come and have food in the morning and eat during the day. And suddenly they had to flee for their lives. And they ran, they took what they could. They got the children into another home safely and they escaped to a distance from where the rioting and the mob was, destroying the churches. And they were upstairs in a building at night and it was pitch black and they began to... to chat with me and to message me and tell me about the sudden crisis that they were in, the storm in their life. And eventually we did a video chat and I talked with them and they asked me to pray for them. They were very worried. Their own personal children were terrified and scared and they didn't know what to do. They thought they were gonna die. I did what I could to help them and to calm them down and assure them. in this moment of crisis. And then I prayed. I asked them to join me in prayer, and I called out to Almighty God in this storm on their behalf. And they were so appreciative of the prayer. I prayed and I asked God to protect them, to protect all of the orphans, to protect the Christians in the area, to watch over everyone, to help them to escape. I just cried out to God on their behalf and said, amen. And they were so pleased with that and we hung up the phone and we chatted a little bit more after that. You guys, it almost seemed like I was back in World War II in Nazi Germany, where some Christians were hiding Jews in their homes to protect them from Hitler and from being sent off to the concentration camps. Here I was with people that I work with that I know. in a video call with them hiding upstairs somewhere in the dark scared to death that they were going to be found captured maybe put to death. It was a sobering moment, but I want to let you know something. I want to give you the rest of the story. This morning I got up after praying for them during the night and, uh, quite a few times. And, and I received a message from them that the, um, that the police and Rangers there in the, in the large city there in Pakistan came, stopped the mob, stopped the rioting and peace had returned. and they were gonna try to go back to their homes for now. So we thank God for this. We thank God that he answers prayer and that he got them through the storm. My friend, life can change in a moment. One day you're feeling fine and then a health issue suddenly appears. You can go to work and the company lets you know that they're downsizing and you're gonna lose your job. You can be driving along and suddenly have a car wreck and total your car. and have that financial crisis. You can be at home and your spouse walks in and they tell you that they want a divorce. Young people, your life can be going great and then one night your boyfriend or girlfriend lets you know that they want to break up. So storms can come up on us so suddenly like it did with my ministry partners in Pakistan. So some of you are now in a storm. At this very moment you're stressed out and I want to ask you a question. What storm are you in? What has you worried or depressed? What's the crisis that you're dealing with? Can you sleep at night? If you're in a storm, I wanna offer you hope. Do you realize that Jesus is with you and will guide you through it? Let's look at Hebrews chapter 13 and verse five. Hebrews 13 verse five. I wanna talk about the second half of that verse. It says, I will never leave you forsake you. If you're a Christian, Jesus is with you no matter what you're going through in life. That should comfort you. He will never leave you or forsake you. And he said that a couple of times in the scriptures that he would be with us until the very end. And let's be honest you guys, we all want to avoid the storms that come into our lives. That's human nature. Sometimes Jesus moves in and we don't go into the big storm. He stops it early on. At other times, for reasons we don't know, He allows the storm to come upon us. Know this, it's often in the storms of life that we draw closest to God. Through the storms, we can grow and become more like Christ as we depend on God to help us get through. Our faith is strengthened. When we come out of the storm, we can see that God was faithful in getting us through it. Sometimes God uses a storm to get us back on track in life. Maybe we've been rebelling against God and he uses the pain and the storm to bring us to our knees and we cry out to him for help. He did that with the prophet Jonah who was rebelling against him. Jonah didn't wanna go to Nineveh and obey the Lord and bring the message to the people of Nineveh that God told him to take and speak. Instead he fled. If you know the story, he eventually was tossed off a ship that he was trying to escape in and go the other direction. He was swallowed by a large sea creature, perhaps a whale. And he spent three days and nights in there. And while he was in there, he talked to the Lord, he prayed, and he repented of what he had done. God forgave him, restored him. The Lord had the whale spit him out. up on the beach and Jonah went and obeyed the Lord. But it took a storm, a crisis in Jonah's life to get him to turn from his rebellion and obey what God wanted him to do. Let's look at another passage of scripture. Let's turn to Mark chapter four. And I'm gonna begin reading in verse 35. It says, on the same day when evening had come, he said to them, Let's cross to the other side. Most of Jesus' disciples were fishermen. They'd been in a boat on the Sea of Galilee numerous times. It was easy to get in a boat with Jesus and head across to the other side. Perhaps they saw some clouds on the horizon and they knew a storm might be coming their way. They had been through storms in the boat on the Sea of Galilee many times in the past and they'd always made it safely to shore. But let's look at verses 37 now and 38. And a great windstorm arose and the waves beat into the boat so that it was already filling. But he was in a stern asleep on a pillow and they awoke him and said to him, teacher, do you not care that we are perishing? Now they were encountering a storm that was more powerful than anything they had ever experienced. So they said to each other, we're gonna die. We must wake Jesus up so that he can save us. I wanna pause and make sure you notice something here, how Jesus was so calm during the storm. He was taking a nap and not concerned at all about what was happening all around him. But the disciples were full of great fear. Let's look at verse 39 now. Then he arose and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased and there was a great calm, but he said to them, why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith? And so the disciples were afraid and they were fearful. Jesus was calm and he wasn't concerned about the storm at all. And the disciples cried out to Jesus to help them during the storm. And you could go to the Lord in prayer and ask him to help you and deliver you from the crisis that you're in. After praying, you can trust God to get you through the storm. You can ask God to teach you the lessons that he wants you to learn during the storm. And my friend, don't miss out on what he wants to teach you in a storm. Be sensitive to God's voice when you're going through a crisis. Why are you in the storm? What is God trying to tell you to teach you? Learn the lessons from the storms. Are you doing something in rebelling? and against the Lord and he's trying to get your attention, bring you to a full stop and get you to change directions and go another way. Go in obedience to what he wants you to do. If life was all blue skies and smooth sailing, we wouldn't grow and develop as Christians. Through the storms of life, we learn to rely upon God and we grow in our faith. As you encounter the storms of life, draw close to God and he'll get you through. Lessons are learned in these storms. We wanna avoid them, but God allows us to go through them at times, to purify us and get us to depend on him. Some people only turn to God when they're in crisis. So often it's just so easy to say, hey, I got this, I don't need to pray, life's smooth right now, I'm just gonna do this thing all on my own. And before long you start slipping away from the Lord, you're not reading your Bible, you're not praying or going to church. Then all of the sudden, he brings a crisis or he allows a storm to come into your life to get your attention and get you to get back on track from what you've been doing. Perhaps you're coming out of a storm. You went into a storm, you were in the storm, and now you're coming out of a storm. You've battled a difficult crisis for quite some time, and now that you see blue skies on the horizon, things are starting to get better. Rejoice in this, but be sure to thank God for getting you through the storm. When God delivers you from a difficult time and a hardship, and he's... He blesses you in many ways in your life. Don't forget to go back and thank him. So often we pray and then God shows up and blesses us with what we prayed for or even something better. And we never even pause to thank him. Give praise and thanks to the Lord if he's gotten you through the storm and you're coming out of it. I want to warn you to stay in your Bible. You're coming out of a storm, some of you, and, okay, I'm going to go back to my old ways, my habits, watch a lot of TV at night, get up late in the morning, rush off to work or school or to the chores. You've got to get done that day. And you start blowing off, reading your Bible and having a devotional time and a prayer time before you begin the day or in the evening, if you do it then. because you're in good times again, don't do that. That's a danger I wanna warn you about. Don't get complacent when you're now coming out of that crisis. Keep reading the scriptures each day, listen to your praise music, and praise the Lord for what he's done for you. And I wanna ask you also to tell others about what God did for you, how he delivered you and rescued you from the crisis, the storm that you were in your life. This will strengthen the faith of other Christians and it'll be a witness to the lost who are trying to navigate life without God. I tell you this, I don't see how people out in the world, all over the world do life without the Lord. I can't even fathom that because it's getting so difficult these days with all that's happening, increasing increased prices, how expensive it is to. to live by fuel, food, pay the rent or the mortgage, I can go on and on, you know the deal. I can't even fathom doing life without the Lord. So we wanna see people come to the Lord and by you sharing your story of how God was faithful and delivered you through your storm, it'll bless them and maybe they'll choose to seek God and a relationship with him. Life is hard. You grow up as a kid and life seems easy most of the time. You go out and play with your friends after school. You watch TV. You do your sports or you listen to your music. You talk to your friends. You go and hang out at their homes. You do life. But as you get older, you get exposed to pain and death and failures and some bad experiences in life. You get wounded by this world. Life hurts sometimes, for some of you, maybe even all the time right now. But you know, God never promised to give us an easy life. Christ and his disciples certainly didn't have easy lives. No, God promised to walk with us through the storms of life. He said he would never leave us or forsake us. And God uses these storms to shape us into the image of his son. We're exposed to the refiner's fire, a call under pressure over time. becomes a diamond. I'm going to say that again. A coal under pressure over time becomes a diamond. God's pressing on you. He's allowing you at times to go through storms in life or difficult times. So often we bring these things on ourselves, but at other times God will bring something into our in the image of Jesus Christ. We can become a diamond in this world. Never forget this. All of the difficulties we deal with in this lifetime are temporary. A better day is coming. Heaven is coming. Let that encourage you today. It's not gonna be long before the Lord comes and takes his followers home now. We are really living in the last days. Life is hard, but God's faithful. I want you to look back at your past. How many times has God come through for you? I know my answer. God has done so many things for me and helped me when I needed him most, that I can't begin to count them all. When you're in a storm, the tough times that life throws at you, it all comes down to one thing, faith. Because God's come through, I look back at my past and God's come through so many times in my life, as I look back over it. that I now have faith, a rock solid faith that God's gonna come through for me no matter what happens, no matter what circumstances or crisis or storm comes my way. God's faithful, he's gonna get me through. I have faith that God will see me through the storms just as he has in the past, and I pray that you have that faith or you're gonna acquire that faith in the days ahead. Let's take a look at another passage of scripture. Let's look in Hebrews chapter 11 verse 6. It says, and without faith it's impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. So here in the scriptures, the Lord tells us how important it is to have faith in God and faith that he's gonna get us through whatever we're dealing with in our lives. And God will reward you if you seek him. He'll answer your cry for help. If you call out to him. in faith. Jesus said in another passage of scripture that I don't have time to turn to, but you can't be blowing in the wind, indecisive, some days faith, some days no faith. You got to truly believe when you call out to the Lord that you come to Him in faith and He'll come through for you. So many times in the gospels Jesus talked about, go your faith has made you well. or your faith has delivered you from this blindness or this being lame, the sicknesses and diseases that people had. The Lord complimented those that had great faith. Oh, I pray that your faith is growing in the Lord. I also pray that you ask God to meet your needs and you praise Him in the storm. You're going to be in storms at times. Praise Him in the storm. You see, we have hope during difficult times in our life. God's with us. He may choose us to keep us from the storm or He'll walk us through the storm. Jesus is an anchor that you can hold onto as you claim His promises found in the Bible. He'll be with you in the storm. There will be some more storms that you're gonna pass through in the future that are gonna come along your way, but have faith in God. He'll see you through. Oh how I pray for all of you that are listening to this podcast today that you have faith in God and that you trust him now and going forward that he's going to come through for you in the storms of life. And remember, just reading your Bible is not enough. You've got to claim what the scripture says and apply it to your life and obey it. So when he tells you not to worry, do not fear. 1 Peter 5 says, 7 says, cast all your burdens on the Lord for He cares for you. Will you do that today? Will you take that storm and the crisis that maybe you're in and go to the Lord and say, Lord, I can't do this. I'm not going to make it. I'm giving you this burden. I'm bringing the storm, the crisis to you. Help me, O God, and He will. It's written there. Cast your burdens on the Lord. for He cares for you. He's going to come through. I want you to know this, for you that are born again, believers in Christ, you've repented of your sins, you've turned to faith in Jesus and his atoning death for you on the cross, his death, burial and resurrection, the gospel, you've got angels watching over you. You've got angels that are watching over you. If you get time today or the coming days, go and read Psalm 91, it'll comfort you. that a crisis could come, a virus or a pestilence can come like we've dealt with over the past several years. And God says, I've got angels watching over you and I'm going to deliver you through whatever comes your way. So I pray that blesses you today. You can count on God to get you through the storms of life. Let's pray. Father, I thank you for our time together today. God, you've told us that trials and tribulations are coming for all of us. Not that they might come, but they're absolutely going to come into our lives. And so many of us that are listening have had such difficulties come into our lives over the years. But God, you're faithful. You've encouraged us with your written word, the holy scriptures that we find in the Bible. And we thank you for them. That you've given us a guidebook. to help us journey through life, to navigate the difficult times that come our way. Lord, if someone's in a storm today, I just pray God that they would cry out to you, that they would ask and seek and knock, like you said to do in Matthew 7, and that they would put their faith and trust to you, that you would calm their spirit, and that you would get them through the storm. Because Lord, when difficult times come that crisis hits us, we want to just get paralyzed by fear. We want to panic at times. And Lord, it just doesn't do any good. You said worrying just doesn't help at all. It actually hurts. So God, be with those that are in storms. May they realize like you did for our ministry partners in Pakistan just yesterday and over the night and into this morning. You came through. God, you came through. The disciples were scared. They thought they were gonna die in the boat when the storm came upon them on the Sea of Galilee. But you got them safely over to the other side. And Lord, may we all remember that one day, those of us that are Christ followers, your adopted sons and daughters, you're gonna get us safely through and over to the other side. Eternity in heaven with you. Lord, we love you, we praise you, we bless you, and we will trust you in the storms of life. In Jesus' mighty name I pray, amen.