Andrew Wommack - How to Become a Water Walker - Part 4
Welcome to our Thursday’s broadcast of the gospel truth. Today I’m continuing to talk about how to become a water walker, and I’m taking this teaching from the scriptures in Matthew, chapter 14, where Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water to Jesus, and we’ve already covered a lot of material. I’ve been talking about that this small passage of scripture, about ten verses, is just kind of a recipe to how to walk in the miraculous, how to walk in the supernatural power of God.
So, here’s some of the things that I’ve already said. The first thing is, you’ve got to position yourself for a miracle. These disciples didn’t want to get into this boat, they didn’t want to go to the other side. That’s the reason that Jesus had to compel them, Matthew 14:22, but they did it and when they ran into a storm and into the wind blowing against them, they didn’t turn around and retreat, they kept doing what God told them to do. So, the very first step in receiving a miracle from God is you’ve got to position yourself. You’ve got to be doing what God has told you to do and continue to do it even if there is resistance.
The next thing we talked about is that Jesus showed himself to the disciples, but he would have passed by them if they didn’t cry out. You’ve got to make a demand on the power of God. God’s will doesn’t just automatically come to pass in your life. If you don’t pursue it, you won’t get it. Boy, those are big, big statements right there, and then the next thing was that these disciples weren’t looking for the supernatural. When they saw Jesus walking on the water, they were shocked, they were amazed, and over in Mark’s account of this same thing, Mark 6:52, it says, it was because their heart was hardened and they hadn’t been thinking about the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand which happened immediately preceding this instance.
So, one of the things we’ve got to do is condition our heart. We’ve got to be expecting the supernatural. If we just live, you know, like a carnal person, never drawing on the power of God and then expect to have miraculous results, it doesn’t happen that way. You’ve got to anticipate it. You’ve got to see a miracle on the inside before you see it on the outside. The next thing we talked about was that Jesus came and told them to be of good cheer and not to be afraid. In other words, he was telling them to do something that was different or counter to their circumstances. In the natural there was every reason to be afraid. It looked like they were drowning, and yet he told them to be of good cheer, and be not afraid, and so the point I was making is that you have to take a step of faith.
You have to step out in faith. You have to get out of the natural. Anybody can praise God after your problems are over. It takes faith to praise God before your problems are over. And then we also talked about how that Peter said, if it be you, bid me come unto you on the water, and you know that was the wrong way to ask this question because it was Jesus and there was really no option except for Jesus to say, come. We don’t know if Peter really was supposed to walk on the water, whether his faith was sufficient. Apparently it wasn’t sufficient to sustain it because he began to sink, but it’s the way he asked the question, and likewise, we many times ask God to bless this and God, do you want me to do this or this?
Maybe he doesn’t want you to do either of them. You need to be open with the way you petition God for things and say, God, is this your will for me? Is there something else that you want me to do? Maybe you’re in a crisis because you weren’t following the leading of God in the first place and you got there totally on your own and you need to ask God if he wants you to back up and go in a different direction. So, we’ve talked about those things already. In Matthew, chapter 14, and in verse 29, Jesus said unto Peter, he said, come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus.
Now, this is so simple. You’re going to have to really open up your heart and listen or you might miss this point, but I think it’s critical. Did you know before Peter could walk on the water, he had to get out of the boat? That is really simple, but here’s how this applies to us. You know, the boat here is just talking about the natural realm, it’s the safety of the way things have been going. In the natural they had a boat and if you’re going to go out on the Sea of Galilee, it’s about two miles wide, and if you’re going to go out on a sea like that, well then you need to have a boat to float. God didn’t make us to float, so you had to have a boat. He had something natural.
There was safety, there was security, there was protection in it. But they were in a crisis situation, and they saw Jesus come walking on the sea. So, they were doing everything they could to keep that boat from sinking and to preserve their lives, but Jesus told Peter, come, and Peter had to get out of the relative security and safety of that boat that all of the other disciples were trusting in, he had to get out of the boat before he started walking on water. And again, this is just really simple, but you know, there’s a lot of people that are just afraid to do anything different than what everybody else is doing. They’re afraid to break from the pack. They want the security of doing everything just like everybody else.
I’ve dealt with many, many people, you know, that are fighting cancer or something like this and they’re dying, but you know what? They’re going to go through with all of the treatments because this is what everybody else does. They’re afraid to try anything different. They’re afraid to just stand and believe God. In a way, I like it when the doctors finally release a person and says, there’s nothing we can do. Just go home and die. I like it because their faith isn’t divided. They’re now to a place to where the only thing they can do is believe God and they just throw themselves into it and commit themselves to it.
But many times I’ll try and minister to a person, but as long as there is hope that they’re going to get healed some other way, as long as there’s hope that their finances may come through through something else, they just don’t commit themselves 100% to trusting God, and I like it when people get to where place they just, you know, throw caution to the wind and this is what God has told me to do and praise God, I’m going for it. I like that kind of attitude. To me, see, that’s getting out of the boat. Every one of these disciples could have got out of that boat. Every one of them could have walked on the water, but there was only one person that got out of the relative safety of that boat and there’s only one person that walked on the water.
You know, the comparison of this to us is that people just, you know, what’s wrong with you or you’re crazy. Everybody else does this. You’re crazy for thinking this way, and yet look at those people who are saying that this is the status quo. This is the way it has to be. They’re miserable, they aren’t succeeding, nothing is working for them, but they want you to be just like them.
You know, I think I mentioned this earlier on our programs, but we just recently moved into our new facility up in woodland park and the previous mayor up there, he voiced his opposition to what we were doing and said, we don’t want this ideology in woodland park, people that believe that they can pray for the sick and they’ll be healed and that people can be raised from the dead, and he was against it and he just thinks that, man, this is crazy, and you know, there’s a tendency to want to appease people like this and you don’t want to be weird and you don’t want to be different, and yet, you can look at it this way, that these people who are critical of that, they’re the people who are sick. They’re the people that are poor. They’re the people that it’s not working for them, and yet why is it that we feel so drawn to be like these people?
You know, Peter could have looked at this and said, there is very little difference in being out here on the water trying to believe God and being in that boat completely covered in water and going down and sinking. If you would use logic, really it’s logical to just say that what we’re doing isn’t working. If we continue to do what we’ve done, we’re going to die, this boat’s going to sink. There really was no reason not to step out and try and walk on the water, and yet the majority of these disciples, eleven out of twelve, refused to get out of the relative safety of that boat, even though the boat was going down. That just amazes me, and likewise, there are very few people that will just step out and decide to believe God. They’re miserable, they aren’t satisfied.
In our meetings we’ll often, you know, advertise the Bible college and we say, how many of you know that there’s something more, that you aren’t satisfied? You just know that there’s more to life than what you’re living? And it’s not unusual to see 80% or 90% of the people’s hands go up. They know there’s something more. They aren’t satisfied and yet they’re afraid to break away from what they’ve been doing, and I’m telling you, it’s just the opposite with me. If what you’re doing isn’t working, if it’s not satisfying, if it seems like you’re drowning, then you know what? Why not believe God and get out of the boat? Why not try something different?
You know, I’ve done this with healing before. When I taught on the subject of healing, I get a lot of criticism and just like I was mentioning about this previous mayor of woodland park saying that, this is terrible that we’ve got people that believe in healing, and there’s people that are just super critical of this, and so when I go to teaching on healing, they will come and attack me and do all of these things and talk about how terrible it is and how I’m getting people’s hopes up and things like this, and yet, here’s the way that I look at it. What they’re doing isn’t working. Man, they’re sick, they’re struggling and if what you’re doing isn’t working, then why is it that you are so resistant to having somebody else come along and present something new?
That’s amazing to me, but you know, most of us, it’s kind of a herd mentality. We’re like a bunch of sheep or cows or something that, you know, if one stampedes, everybody wants to go with him. You just follow the herd, you just go in line with everybody else. But I’m telling you, the vast majority of people are not living an abundant life. The vast majority of people are struggling. They’re miserable, that they know that there’s something more, and why is it that we’re so afraid from breaking away from that? If what you’re doing isn’t satisfying, I’m telling you, just like Peter here, get out of the boat. Leave the pack. Get rid of this herd mentality and step out and start believing God.
You know what, I would rather try and believe God and follow him and be like Peter that took his eyes off of Jesus and he began to sink, and people can sit here and criticize him and say, well man, he didn’t do this perfectly, he began to sink. If Jesus hadn’t have reached down and lifted him up, he could have drowned, and you could criticize him over that, but Peter is also the only other person besides Jesus who ever walked on water recorded in scripture. Peter did something that nobody else did. I would rather be one of these that goes to believing God and tries and if I don’t make it completely, if I don’t do it perfectly, at least I saw a measure of God’s power, at least I was out there believing and trying to do something. Most people are just petrified, they’re scared to try anything different. They’re afraid to break away.
You know, I have people come to me all of the time and they hate their job. They’re miserable, and yet they’ve got a job that is making them a living. It maybe isn’t everything that they want, but at least it’s secure, it’s got retirement, it’s got benefits, and rather than leave the security of that and do what God has put in their heart, they just spend year after year after year wasting their life away, doing something that is not satisfying them, that they don’t like and they do it. I tell you, that is wrong. Life is not a dress rehearsal. It’s the real deal and every day that you continue to do something other than what God has placed in your heart is a day that’s wasted and you need to just be bold enough to step out of the boat.
If you are going to walk on the water, if you are going to see the miraculous power of God, you cannot do it staying in the boat. There was water in that boat, but I can guarantee you, Peter’s feet were below the water. He wasn’t walking on the water in the boat. It was only when he got out of the boat and put himself out there totally dependent upon God and operating in faith that his feet began to start finding traction and he was able to walk on top of that water. As long as you’re afraid of leaving the security of your job, leaving the security of the approval of everybody around you or whatever, as long as you won’t take any risk, you aren’t going to have great reward. You aren’t going to see the supernatural power of God.
This is so simple. Like I said, you’ve got to have somebody to help you to misunderstand it, but this is a pivotal point and I believe that this is exactly why many people aren’t seeing the supernatural power of God in their life because they aren’t stepping out of the boat, they aren’t taking any risk. You know, if God was to speak something to me and I didn’t do it, it would just, man, it would destroy me. I can truthfully say that right now I’m in the process, I may not have accomplished it all, but I’m in the process of doing everything that I feel that God has placed in my heart. I’m not leaving anything on the table. I don’t relate to people who sit there and know that God wants them to do something else, and yet they just won’t do it because of whatever the reason is.
You know, when it comes to our Bible school, we have lots of people that come to me and they say that, man, God has told me to come to Bible school, but, then they’re just afraid because they’re afraid of what their relatives are going to say, they’re afraid of what the people at their church are going to say, they’re afraid about losing a job and you know, whatever it is. I taught on this not long ago and I have a book on this entitled, lessons from Elijah, but in the 1 Kings, chapter 17, the Lord told Elijah to go and speak a word to the king who had been killing all of the true prophets of God, so he put his life on the line, and it wasn’t until after he took that step of faith and went and delivered this message that God told him to go to this brook, and he says, I have, that means it’s already been done, commanded the ravens to feed thee there.
God didn’t send his supply to where Elijah was, but he sent the supply to where he told Elijah to go, and if Elijah hadn’t have taken that step, if he hadn’t have gotten out of the boat, in a sense, and have gone the direction that God told him, he could have starved to death, he could have died of thirst the whole time God had this miraculous provision for him beside this brook Cherith. Well likewise with you, there are many of you that God has placed something in your heart and it’s a holy dissatisfaction that you have with your life and with your job.
It’s not a carnal dissatisfaction, it’s God trying to move you on and let you know that there’s something more that he has for you and you know that there’s something more and yet you are afraid to take this step, you’re afraid to get out of the boat, and yet you’re praying to walk on the water, you’re praying for God to come through, for a miraculous supply, and yet you won’t get out of the boat. You aren’t going to experience God’s miraculous supply until you take that step. I know people that pray that God’ll perform miracles and that, you know, God’ll just flow through them and that miracles will happen, and yet, they’re afraid to go up to a person and begin to start speaking faith over them and tell them that if we agree and pray, God’ll heal you.
If we agree, God’ll come through, your miracle will happen, your finances will be supplied. You want the results, but you’re afraid to take that step. You’re afraid of maybe the rejection of people and stuff like this. I’m telling you, you aren’t going to see the supernatural power of God manifest in your life until you get out of the boat and take a step of faith. That is just so powerful. That’s amazing. You know, we’ve just built a building for $32 million. We’ve got another one coming for $20 million. We’re doing these things.
There’s a lot of people that would like to see God supply. You would like to have God meet your need, and yet there’s not a lot of people that would go through the steps that would begin to start doing this, that would obligate themself, that would sit there and begin to start confessing to people, we’re going to do this debt free. We aren’t going to take out a loan. There’s a lot of people that just won’t put themself out on a limb, but I’m telling you, it’s out on the limb where the fruit grows. If you’re a trunk hugger, if you’re the kind that man, you don’t like to be out on a limb blowing in the breeze, you want to hug that trunk. You like the security, you don’t want to take any risk, then you aren’t going to see the fruit. You aren’t going to see the miraculous power.
So again, I’ve spent all day on this, but to me this is just a powerful truth that Peter had to come down out of the ship, and then he walked on the water to go to Jesus. You’re going to have to get out of that relative safety whatever it is. If you feel that God is leading you to do something, you’re going to have to get away from the safety and you’re going to have to live a risky life. Trusting God is risky. Living by the Word of God, following the leadership of God is risky. You know, God is a God of supernatural.
It says in Hebrews 11:6, without faith it’s impossible to please God, and I believe it’s just the nature of God. It’s certainly been in my life and from what I can see from scripture, he’s going to lead you in ways that will get you beyond yourself. He wants you to live in the supernatural. He doesn’t want you to do things just by your natural means and in all of these carnal, physical, natural ways. He’s going to lead you in ways that will stretch you and that will put you at risk, and yet the average person is doing everything they can to eliminate all risk from their life so that there’s no faith involved. They just want everything to be guaranteed, and yet that’s not the nature of God. God is going to lead you to do something that I guarantee you is going to get you beyond your comfort level, it’s going to get you out of your comfort zone, it’s going to put you in a position where you could possibly fail, and most people just don’t want that. You don’t like that.
I’ve actually, you know, the scripture talks about those that have addicted themself to the ministry of the saints, and it actually becomes addictive once you begin to start believing God and you get out there to where, man, if God doesn’t come through, you’re dead, you’ve had it, amen. It’s all over, but you see the Lord come through and after a while you get to where you like this. It’s like an adrenaline rush. You know what? When I have everything totally at peace and there’s nothing on the horizon that is challenging me, I get bored.
I enjoy the challenge. I enjoy God telling me to do things, that four years ago when we began this process, I didn’t have any money, and yet here we are, a little over three and a half years, less than four years away and we have paid for this building $32 million. I’ve got another $20 million building coming and all of this has been done. You know what? I like that challenge and I’ve got some other things in the work that are going to cost millions and millions of dollars that God has told me to do. They haven’t come to pass yet so I’m not free to share, but I’m just saying, I love this. I love it when God is challenging me. You can get addicted to it. You can get to where you like it walking on the water.
Again, it was actually safer out walking on the water, trusting Jesus and following him than it was to stay in the relative safety of that boat that was about to sink. If you really looked at it objectively and removed your own emotions and fears and stuff and just looked at it logically, it would have been, it was much better to just take a step of faith and trust God and get out there to where you are drawing on that same power that was keeping Jesus above the water.
It was better to do that than it was to stay in that boat that was about to sink, and likewise, I’m saying to you that there are some of you that have just been afraid to step out and follow God because you like the security that you’re in, and yet it’s not satisfying you, it’s not meeting your needs. You need to change this thinking. You need to recognize that if you aren’t stretching yourself and following God with everything you’ve got, that is failure, not the other. Not following God is a failure. You need to get out of the boat and take this step and begin to believe God.