Dealing with the storms of life (3)

Text:Mark 4:35-41, John 15:5 Storms of life are part of our redemptive package. This whole world lies in wickedness(1 John 5:19). Jesus said the world will hate us because we are His followers, because the world hated him. The devil is after the followers of Jesus, still reeling from the humiliation at the Cross.In our text, Jesus never sinned; He is our Savior and Bishop of our souls, but storms came against His boat.So storms will come against any one.From the Bible, every divine elevation was preceded by a storm.Examples are Joseph, David, Daniel and the three Hebrew children,Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the children of Israel, the heroes of faith and contemporary men of God in the past and even today. We can also view storms as great examinations from God to see what we are actually made of. Who we actually are show more clearly when we are in a storm. Deuteronomy 8:2 says God humbled the Jews to humble them, to prove them, and to know what was in their heart, whether they would keep His commandments or not. As a new covenant believer, you know the whole commandment is fulfilled and SUMMED UP in " love your neighbor as yourself"(Galatians 5:14).How? Gal.5:15 says do not bite and devour your neighbor with your tongue.2 Corinthians 8:8 posits we should give to one another to prove the sincerity of your love: give forgiveness, kindness, gentleness, goodness, mercy,honor, peace, joy, patience, encouragement, support, helps, comfort, bear with one another all things,communicate with one another, think no evil of any one,endure all things for one another without complaining or murmuring, repent always for any mistakes or wrong especially during a storm. Love is the debt we owe our neighbor as believers, which must pay to fulfill the law. You might say, who is sufficient for all this? The answer is, no one except with the help of the Holy Spirit(Ezekiel 36:27).Actually these virtues are not actually to be ours, but the fruit of the Spirit.The believer, you and I are FRUIT HANGERS(BRANCHES) to serve the Lord Jesus(THE VINE) to display these fruit of Jesus Christ(John 15:5)for the world to see how to live abundant life.We are to allow the life of Jesus Christ inside us(Colossians 1:27, 1 John 4:4) to overflow into the world as rivers of living water to bless humanity, Alleluia. The treasure in our earthen vessel had been locked in for too long, held captive in the flesh.The flesh profits nothing; so why give your precious and valuable time to the works of the flesh, instead of allowing the Holy Spirit to display the fruit of the Spirit of Jesus Christ in us as a member of His Body. It is time to allow righteousness, holiness, riches, blessings, treasures and the abundant life of Christ inside us to overflow to our neigbors and humanity. In the last blog, I shared how God said in Amos 9:13, that the mountains before us, He will cause to bring forth sweet wine, and the hills before us representing any area of barrenness or unfruitfulness in our lives, God will cause to overflow with spiritual blessings. Storms in our lives are synonymous with hills and mountains or plainly stated obstacles and challenges. But we have a part to play!It is our responsibility to yield ourselves in our desires, thoughts, words and actions to the Holy Spirit to manifest these virtues through us, because to whom you yield yourself as servant to obey, ye are in deed servant.Shalom. So how do we respond to the storms in our lives, after deciding to allow the Holy Spirit to take over?