“…Master, carest thou not that we perish?”
Mark 4: 37- 41 KJVAE &KJV
As I read the famous story of Jesus calming the storm, the Holy Spirit connected the dots in my head as to why we respond with fear instead of faith. Our reaction is valid, yet frustrating because why do we initially react first with everything, but faith? The answer is, we are trying to survive. And 2 of the 3 components of our beings don’t know that survival lies in Jesus alone.
We try to keep ourselves alive…
“For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for My sake shall find it.”
Matthew 16:25 KJVAE
We function in a compare-contrast mechanism
From conception to the ability to form neural pathways which is the basis of all thought and action we have the mechanism of comparing new sensory information to stored, learned information. Why compare and contrast? Well its for survival, which is what science and psychology agree on. The question however that I am MORE interested in is why? What are we trying to survive? More importantly, when was there a time where we didn’t need to survive? Before our brain switched modes of mechanism we had a structure of love and perfection. There was no danger, we were aware of nothing but life and love. We see this in the garden of Eden with Adam. God created him and interacted with him showing His lens of our inadequacy and no need of rebellion1. We were united with Our Creator, the One who alone sustains us. Then we rebelled, sinned and were separated. We became separated from life, taking on the role of survival; the fall event created “contrast”. Now millions of years later, our brains are striving harder than ever to do their “alleged” job, comparing and contrasting every bit of sensory information derived from millions of stimuli just so they can keep us from dying. Your brain, “right hemisphere and lower, deeper brain structures…echo ancient longing for reunion with one from whom we have long been separated” says Curt Thompson, a psychiatrist of a book I read confirming that even our unconscious is trying to run back to the beginning, even if it doesn’t know the name is JESUS.
As I read the freak out of Jesus’s disciples I stepped into their mind because my mind works the same. The brain perceives a storm, wind blowing, waves beating into the ship so hard, its rocking the balance of your body and to make matter worse the water is starting to fill the only dry, safe place. The brain which is you, begins to believe that you will die. I imagine this type of dying as painful and extremely stressful, so the brain begins to do what it does best.
As you not only see the storm in front of you and feel the negative emotions as a result, you see Jesus, sound-fully asleep at the back of the boat, called a hinder, which signified a place of control. And you’ve experienced Jesus, His presence of power, His hand of miracles, His tone of voice that echoes kindness, grace, and love. So how is it that He is not awake to my scream and the sound of jeopardy? As a result, the brain goes: HE IS NOT DOING ANYTHING…HE DOESN’T CARE ABOUT MY SURVIVAL…THEREFORE…HE MUST BE AGAINTS ME.
The Cross
V.39 “and He arose…”
Remembrance of the gospel is everything. Jesus came to earth as a man, the One who was with God before creation, the Word who represented the heart and character of God came to save you and me. I think, “Words are an expression of something hidden, music from an instrument that cannot be heard. As He writes, He opens His heart, a vulnerability familiar to Him, a delight in doing so because maybe this time I will see Him for who He really is”. Psalms 27: 1 says, “‘The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?” The death of Jesus on the cross gave us the doorway into what psychologist David Firman calls the UNIVERSE OF CHRIST, where satan’s rule and dark power do not govern, only the Words of God, the grace and mercy of God exist.
“The price of transferring the power of darkness to the Kingdom of light of His beloved Son was the blood of His Son, and by that blood nothing of darkness can pass into the new” says Firman. Colossians 1: 13 (KJV), “who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son.” Thats also why the bible says, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”2
“…and rebuked the wind…”
Jesus rebuked the accusations of sin. “For the wages of sin is death”3 and “without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness.”4 Accordingly, “…the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul”.5 The accusations of satan against us are correct. For Jesus Himself called us evil. But, “the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord”. For this is the good news. Salvation is so much more that heaven or hell, it is closeness to what our original design as humans are. It is full knowing who JESUS is. Because only by knowing Him can be rewire our brain to be conformed to His nature6, our original design.
“…and said unto the sea, Peace, be still.”
Since we now belong to the kingdom of His Son, there can only exist a reality where the Words of the Bible are all we exist by. And the BIBLE only speaks of us a wonderful reality. He has given us every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places7, He has given us a mediator8, an author and finisher of our faith9, a new beginning every morning10, and every capability to advance forward11. In Jesus we are complete12 and satisfied13, lacking nothing14. Therefore, if our brain is living in the first circuit mentioned of believing Jesus is against us, we are living a lie and satan is the father of lies15 which means deception. The reality of the universe of Christ exists, now its up to us to believe in that reality.
What the fall did:
When we fell, satan’s essence entered us. His essence is “I don’t need God, I will be ALONE”. What was satan’s lie? “you will be like God.”16 This shows that if you are trying to be like God you believe that you do not need Him. You actually believe you can BE Him.
When we try and survive on our own, as in seperated from Jesus, we are fearful of our mechanism. A person who almost dies in a car accident doesn’t joyfully rescue himself, no! He feared for his life! Any degree of survival is fearful. WE FEAR SURVIVAL. Yes our bodies try and survive, but are bodies are scared of it.
Why? I beleive it is because the body and mind remember a time when it wasn’t trying to survive. Survival was non-existent in the garden, our precious soul, spirit and flesh just lived. WITH ITS CREATOR. “And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith?”17
Why does Jesus asks us such an axiomatic question? Because there is a reality that we are back in the garden, BUT BETTER! The bible says we now live in the Son, “for in him we live, and move, and have our being.”18 Jesus says through Him we know the Father!19 It is by faith that we have the power to renew our minds into the UNIVERSE OF CHRIST.
Vulnerability is the beginning
“If you allow yourself to be known by God, you invite a different and frankly more terrifying experience…if you permit others to know you, they can make their own assessment of your worth. They can react to you. You give them power to be affected by you and in so doing to affect you. You grant them the option to love you or to reject you. In essence…you must trust another with yourself,” says Dr. Thompson, author of Anatomy of the Soul.
Mathew 8: 3-4 KJV
Mark 7: 25-30 KJV
“‘And, behold, there came a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.”
This verse impacted me so much because the man didn’t have a lack of faith, he had the faith to be vulnerable. He said since You exist, then true survival exists.
Remember that God made us with the desire to live. The desire to survive! The desire is not the issue, it is how we achieve survival. The desire of pleasure and satisfaction is not the issue, it is how we get pleasure and satisfaction.
In Mark a women pleaded with Jesus to save her daughter and in a superficial glance Jesus seems rude, but His conduct was an exhortation. She was vulnerable to the point of humility! Which strengths the authority we have in Christ.
“have ye your heart yet hardened?Having eyes, see ye not? and having ears, hear ye not? and do ye not remember?”20
All I could hear was: “Having ears do you not hear what I am telling you as your flesh is in trial? As it is agonizing to trust Me? To believe in Me? That is why I say blessed is He who believes yet didn’t see Me.”21 When I bow down I understand, but when I withhold breaking and refuse the pain of suffering and dying to the survival of the flesh, I cannot understand because I choose not to understand and this is the yeast of the pharisees, Jesus warned us about.22 That is why pain is inevitable. In light of all this His Word is filled with the answer to our pain. We don’t need to move away or anywhere. Amen.
“Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, And art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, But, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast beset me behind and before, And laid thine hand upon me.”23
Index
1- Genesis 2: 18- 25 KJV
2- 2 Corinthians 5: 18 KJV
3- Romans 6: 23 KJV
4- Hebrews 9: 22 NLT
5- Leviticus 17: 11 KJV
6- Romans 8: 29 KJV
7- Ephesians 1: 3 KJV
8- Hebrews 8: 6 KJV
9- Hebrews 12: 2 KJV
10- Lamentations 3: 22- 23 KJV
11- Hebrews 13: 21 NLT
12- Colossians 2: 10 KJV
13- Psalms 145: 16 KJV
14- James 1: 4 NLT
15- John 8: 44 NLT
16- Genesis 3: 5 NLT
17- Mark 4: 40 KJV
18- Acts 17: 28 KJV
19- John 14: 6 KJV
20- Mark 8: 17- 18 KJV
21- John 20: 29 KJV
22- Mark 8: 15 KJV
23- Psalms 139: 2- 5 KJV