Andrew Wommack - How to Become a Water Walker - Part 3
Welcome to our Wednesday’s broadcast of the gospel truth. Today I’m continuing to teach from Matthew, chapter 14 about when Peter walked on the water to go to Jesus, and we’re talking about how you can become a water walker, how you can begin to start doing miraculous things because of your faith in the Lord, and I’ve already covered a lot of material in the last two days. I would encourage you to please get this CD set that I have on how to become a water walker. We also have this in DVD format and they’ll give out the information at the end of the program.
But let me just go over some things. I believe that this little instance, actually one time I had, I forgot the details of it, but I had been traveling or something and I was just, I was worn out, came in late on Saturday night, and instead of going to church on Sunday, I have to drive an hour and ten minutes to go to church, I don’t have to, but that’s the one that I go to and it was an hour and ten minutes and then an hour and ten minutes back. I just decided to stay home and I was studying the word and I was reading these passages and I mean, it just came alive to me and it’s like this has all of the elements in this story about how to walk in the supernatural, miraculous power of God, and I got so blessed by it that I remember that I sat down and made this entire CD set in just one sitting.
I think it was, I forget, four hours, three or four hours' worth of teaching and I just sat down and taught it all that afternoon, and here’s some of the points that I’ve already made is that first of all, you have to be positioned for a miracle. These disciples didn’t want to get into the ship. They had to be constrained it says in verse 22, and when they ran into opposition, they didn’t bail and just run for shore. They kept going in the direction that the Lord pointed them. So, the first point is you’ve got to be positioned for a miracle. You have to start doing what God has called you to do and if you run into a problem, don’t quit. Just keep doing it, and now you are positioned for a miracle. That’s a big point right there.
The second point that we talked about is that Jesus came out there definitely to help them. He revealed himself to him, but he didn’t just automatically still the storm, calm the seas, bring them to the other side. They had to call out and make a demand unto him and there’s a lot of people that they just aren’t seeking the Lord for deliverance. They may need it, they may desire it, they may certainly be in a situation where they need the miraculous power of God, but there’s a lot of people that honestly just don’t seek God. If you are in a situation where you need a miracle, you need to be seeking God with everything that you’ve got. That ought to go without saying, but I’m amazed how people don’t do that.
You know, I’ve had people come to me before that had a hole cut in their throat where they had to breathe through that because their breathing was so bad, and yet they would stick a cigarette, it was the cigarettes that caused their lungs to be all messed up and yet they still stick a cigarette up to this hole in their throat and smoke through that. We just had a situation recently here in Colorado springs where somebody who was on oxygen was smoking and the thing exploded and damaged them. I mean, it’s amazing to me how people that are in crisis situation, you think that would make you stop doing whatever it is that’s ruined your health and man, you would be seeking God and looking for an answer, and they may be praying and asking God to intervene, but then they’re still doing all of these things that caused them the problem in the first place.
I’m telling you, you need to recognize that God is there. He wants to help you, but you’ve got to call out to him and it has to be sincere enough that you are willing to start moving in his direction and turn off the as the stomach turns on television and spend some time seeking God. That’s the second point that we made, and then the next one that we talked about was that they were troubled at seeing Jesus walk on the water and this is because their heart was hardened. Mark, chapter 6, verse 52 says that.
So, one of the things you’ve got to do is get to where you start expecting the supernatural. You’ve got to get away from just doing everything in the natural and only depending upon God as an absolute last resort. You ought to make God the first resort. We ought to go to expecting the supernatural. Anything that isn’t supernatural is superficial. And then in verse 27, this is what I was talking about at the close of the program yesterday, it says that Jesus told his disciples, be of good cheer: it is i: be not afraid, and he didn’t just still the storm and take away the reason for their fear. Instead, he told them to not have fear and be of good cheer when there was every reason to have fear.
Why didn’t he just solve the situation and then fear would have automatically left? That’s because God, it has to take faith on our part. There has to be some degree of faith on our part in order to receive the miraculous power of God. If you want to become a water walker, you’re going to have to start taking steps of faith. You can’t just cry out to God in desperation and have no faith. You’ve got to believe God, and I used an example yesterday of my son being raised from the dead and he had been dead for over four hours and yet I just started praising God and praising him and believing, and when that happened is when my son was raised from the dead, praise God.
There has to be some degree of faith on your part, and there’s people right now that you’re desperate, no argument. You desire the things of God, no argument with that. You may be praying and petitioning God, but are you taking any step of faith? You know, I wish I could talk to all of you individually right now because if you could tell me your plight, your situation, what it is that you’re dealing with, I could tell you things to do that would be a step of faith. Now, it’s not the doing that really produces the power, it’s the believing, but faith without works is dead. There has to be some action of faith. You’ve got to do something. For instance, let’s say that some of you are in financial bind and you’re praying and asking God to intervene, but have you taken a step of faith? Specifically, have you given?
You know, recently I’ve been watching this thing on TBN. Paul Crouch died back in the month of December I believe it was and I’ve been watching a tribute to him and Paul Crouch was talking about when they started the TBN network that they were just, you know, they were down to the last few hours and they had to have money within hours or their whole ministry was going to die. This was when they only had one television station and they were just barely getting going, and he had done everything. He had been praying and believing, but as he was driving some place, the Lord spoke to him and said, «You haven’t given me anything to work with». And Paul said, «What do you mean? I signed my house over», and he had given some kind of a loan to help get TBN started.
I may not have the details, but I think it was $20,000 and he had given it, but it was a loan and he had a piece of paper written down that when TBN began to succeed, that they would pay him back, and the Lord spoke to him and he says, «You haven’t given me anything». And he says, «I’ve given you this $20,000». He said, «You didn’t give it, you’ve loaned it», and anyway, this was like his and Jan’s life savings, and so he got the point. He called Jan because he says it was her money too and he says, here’s what God has spoken to me. I think we need to tear up this note and just give this money, and Jan agreed and they prayed, and that very day, I think, $30,000 above their $20,000 came in and it was enough to pay the deal, and of course, now we know 40 years later that they have, you know, this huge Christian network that reaches around the world.
But see, you’ve got to take a step of faith. He was in a crisis situation. He needed to do something, and what do you do when you need finances? You need to give. If what you have isn’t enough for your need, you need to turn it into a seed and sow it, and so again, I say that if I could sit down and talk to every one of you individually, if you had a physical problem, I could tell you things you could do that would be steps of faith that would start the supernatural power of God flowing in your life. If it’s finances, I could tell you something you could do, but it would involve you planting a seed or doing something.
You know, a friend of mine was building a building and I forget how much he needed, but anyway, it was hundreds of thousands of dollars and he was going to do it debt free, and this was when we had just begun the process of building this campus up in Woodland park. We hadn’t broken ground or done anything and I needed about $30 million to be able to get that done, and you know what I did? I took $30,000 and gave it to this friend into his building believing for a hundred fold return on that and that’s how I began to start taking a step of faith.
If you’re in a situation, you need to do something. Take a step of faith, and this is what this is talking about, that you, he told them to be of good cheer and not to be afraid before the situation had changed, not afterwards. You know, when Moses came to the Red Sea, they parted the Red Sea and the Israelites went through and then the Egyptians followed them and the Red Sea came back and killed all of their enemies and when they got on the other side of the Red Sea and they were dry and they were safe and their enemies were destroyed, then the people started praising God. Well, it’s appropriate to praise God on the other side of the Red Sea, but I tell you what faith is, is praising God on this side of the Red Sea, before it’s parted, before your enemies are destroyed.
Faith is seeing things with your heart that you can’t see with your eyes, and God has promised us success and victory and he’s promised us that we always are made to triumph and to overcome and that we can be the head and not the tail and faith is beginning to praise God for those things and take step of faith before you see the answer. And I meet lots of people that man, they’re willing to praise God on the other side of the Red Sea when all the problems are gone, but they aren’t willing to do it on this side. I’m telling you, that’s not faith. So, Jesus basically solicited faith from them. Be of good cheer: it is i: be not afraid. In verse 28 it says, and Peter answered and said unto him, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water, and of course, the next verse says that Jesus said, come, and Peter walked on the water.
Now, here is a caution, something that I’ve learned, and that is, you know, much of this stuff I’m using it to say, this is how you’re supposed to believe God and thing, but this is something that I’m not sure that this was the right thing to do. You know, Peter asked this question, he said, «Lord, if it’s you, bid me come unto you on the water». If he would have asked this question differently, if he would have said, Lord, do you want me to walk on the water? Is it your will for me to walk on the water? I believe that Jesus might have answered his question differently. But he said, if it’s you, bid me come unto you on the water. What was Jesus going to do? Say, don’t come. It’s not me. It was him, and the way that Peter asked this question was, if it’s you, bid me to come on the water.
You know, we aren’t sure that it was really God’s will for Peter to ever walk on the water. There’s no other person in history, in the Bible that ever walked on the water. Jesus is the only one and then this instance of Peter. I can’t find a scripture that promises that all of us are going to walk on the water. I can find scriptures that say that we can believe God for the miraculous, but you know, I’m not sure that it was God’s will for Peter to walk on the water. I’m not sure that his faith was up to it.
As it turns out, and we’ll deal with this in more detail, but Peter, you know, he took his eyes off of Jesus and he’s began to see the wind and the waves and he got afraid and he began to sink and he could have drowned and Jesus had to lift him up by the hand and bring him back to the boat. I’m not sure that Peter’s faith was really up to this and that this is something that God wanted him to do, but because of the way he asked his question, it left no other option for Jesus to answer, and there’s a direct application here, and that is that many times we ask God some stupid questions. For instance, let me use myself as an example.
I was brought up in this denomination and I was in this church that was resisting and fighting against everything that God was showing me and they were criticizing me and it was a struggle, and I thought about leaving that church and going on with God, finding some people that would enjoy what God was showing me and that I could agree with and have fellowship with. I thought of it hundreds of times, but you know what? I just kept thinking, does God want me to leave these people? Doesn’t he care about this group of people? And here’s the way I would pray. I would say, God, do you want me to leave this church? Don’t you care about the Baptists? Don’t you care if the Baptists ever come into the truths about the baptism of the Holy Spirit and healing and righteousness and things like this?
And because of the way I prayed that prayer God never told me to leave because here’s the way I was praying. God, don’t you love these people? If you tell me to leave, it’s basically because you don’t love these people and you don’t want them to receive. Well see, that wasn’t true. God does love the Baptists. He loves all of us in whatever denomination we find ourself in. I’m not against the Baptists or anybody else. I’m just saying this is my testimony: this is what happened to me. I’m not trying to single out anybody, but because of the way I was praying, God was never going to say, well yeah, leave because I don’t care about the Baptists.
See, that wasn’t true. The way I was praying was incorrect and one day it got so much pressure. I was just being criticized, I was going this way, my church was going this way. They would have been better off to have gone, you know, in unity, in that direction than to have me constantly hearing them criticizing me, and one day I finally said, Lord, do you want me to stay in this church with these people? And he said, no, and I mean, he told me it was time to leave and I left, but for years God wouldn’t tell me to leave because of the way I prayed, and I meet people like this all of the time that they’re going to stay in some church and they’re miserable and they are being criticized and it’s not a good fit because they aren’t in agreement.
How can two walk together, except they be agreed, is what the scripture says, and yet they pray about, God, do you just, don’t you care about this church? Don’t you care if these people ever hear the truth? If I leave, they aren’t going to, I’m not going to be here. Don’t you care about them? Well, if you pray that way, God’s not going to tell you to leave that church because he does care about them. But that doesn’t mean that he necessarily wants you to stay there and die with them.
As a matter of fact, the Lord gave me this little vision, and I saw people stuck in the mud on the side of the road and I wanted to help them, but if I pulled off, I was going to get stuck in the same mess that they were in and I just had to go past them and say, I’m going to get help. I’ll send somebody else back, and the Lord showed me that in a sense, that’s what I needed to do. I didn’t need to just pull over and get stuck in the same problems that other people were in. I needed to go on with God and I needed to get as strong in the Lord as I possibly could, and now, because I have gone on with the Lord, because I did leave that church, did you know, I am ministering to literally thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of Baptists.
Matter of fact, I used to go to a Baptist church every Easter for over 20 years and minister in the Baptist church. I’m not against the Baptists. I love the Baptists. But I’m saying, this church that I was in was not receiving the word, and the way I was praying kept me there probably two years longer than what I needed to be, but I was asking the wrong question. Just like Peter, he says, Lord, if it’s you, bid me come unto you on the water. It was Jesus so there was no option but to say, come, because it was him and the way the prayer was fashioned and stated, it left the Lord no options.
You know, I came to another example of this is, that when I was first getting into the word, I was raised to believe once saved, always saved, and I still believe that to a degree, but I began to read scriptures about if they fall away, it’s impossible to renew them unto repentance, you know, that how much sorer punishment will they be thought worthy who have done despite unto the spirit of grace, et cetera. I began to see some scriptures that looked like the saved, lost, saved, lost, born-again again, you are saved and you lose your salvation crown, and so I saw these two scriptures, and for years I said, God, which is it? Is it the Baptist or is it the Pentecostals? Is it the once saved, always saved, or is it the saved, lost, saved, lost, saved, lost group over here?
And I couldn’t get a clear answer, and then I met this man who shared a testimony with me and he had gone to Oklahoma Baptist University. He contacted my sister there who knew me. She put us in contact. This guy was getting his life changed and I mean, he got turned onto the Lord, but he had only been at this Oklahoma Baptist University for a couple of months and now he felt like God was leading him to leave there and come sit under my ministry and start being discipled in the word, and one of the problems that he had was that he had prayed and God gave him a scholarship to Oklahoma Baptist University and he couldn’t understand why God would lead him there and then within a month lead him in another direction, and so he struggled for about two or three months and finally he was praying and he says, God, why did you send me to Oklahoma Baptist university if your will was not to really go there, but to go sit under Andrew’s Ministry?
And the Lord spoke to him and he said, John, out of the two choices you gave me, Oklahoma Baptist University or Berkley, he said, OBU was the better because I knew that I could connect you with Andrew through his sister, et cetera, but see, that was really Revelation to me. He says, out of the choices you gave me, he was praying, do you want me to go to Berkley or OBU? Sometimes we need to put in there not A: Berkley, B: OBU, but we need to put C: none of the above, and we need to say, God what do you want me to do? And the Lord spoke to this man and said, if you would have asked me what I wanted you to do, I would have sent you here in the first place, and see, this is the way it was with this saved, lost, saved, lost, and once saved, always saved.
I was saying, God, is it A: once saved, always saved? B: saved, lost, saved, lost? And finally through this testimony I said, is there another option? And the Lord showed me another option, and anyway, I’m not going to teach on that right now, but my point is, that see, the way we pray sometimes, we say, God, is it A? Is it B? You need to put in there, C. God, is it none of the above? God what is it that you want me to do? God, how are you going to meet this need? See, I learned this through looking at this scripture where Peter said, if it’s you, bid me come on the water. He did walk on the water. There was a miraculous supply, but you know, I’m not sure that this ever was what God intended. I’m not sure that Peter’s faith was up to it.
As it turned out, he did begin to sink and had to be rescued, but because of the way he asked this question, there was really no option. There was nothing else that Jesus could have said given the prayer that Peter prayed. Likewise, you need to make sure that when you’re praying that you aren’t just trying to get God to do what you want him to do, but you always need to say, «Father, is this situation something that I should have avoided in the first place? Is this my own doing? God, should I change direction? Should I do something different»?
You need to be open to God leading you in some different direction because I believe that the vast majority of the time, our problems are of our own making. I’m in agreement with blaming the devil for everything that you can blame the devil for, but sometimes it’s not the devil. I believe that sometimes the devil sits back and scratches his head and thinks, man, I never thought of that. You made a bigger mess of your life than I could have ever done. I think sometimes he takes notes on us and how we mess our life up.
So anyway, we need to be open to not just try and say, God, do you want me to do this or do you want me to do that? You need to say, God, what do you want me to do? Is it C, none of the above? And I believe that God is speaking to many of you today through this real simple truth that I’m sharing right here, and if you would just open up your heart and listen, God might lead you in a direction that you hadn’t even considered before. Man, that’s powerful.