(Mattityahu/Matthew 14:22-24) “Immediately he had the talmidim get in the boat and go ahead of Him to the other side, while he sent the crowds away. After he sent the crowds away, He went up into the hills by himself to pray. Night came on, and He was there alone. But by this time, the boat was several miles away from the shore, battling a rough sea and a head wind.”

Here we see the beginning of one of the most popular events within the Bible believing world, which is when our Messiah and Rabbi Yeshua walks on the water and meets His talmidim in the middle of the lake. The thought of this alone is mind-blowing because we, who don’t even compare to Yeshua in terms of Emuna, just sink as soon as our feet touch the water.

The passage above “a rough sea and a head wind” is often translated as a massive storm. We, as messianic believers all face storms in our every-day lives, sometimes they are small and sometimes they are larger. All storms are in one way or another a test of Emuna and God only sends storms or tests of Emuna that we can handle at one time. (1 Corinthians 10:13) “No temptation has seized you beyond what normal people experience, and God can be trusted not to allow you to be tempted beyond what you can bear. On the contrary, along with the temptation He will also provide the way out, so that you will be able to endure.” Yeshua allowed His talmidim to go ahead of Him because it was a test for them of their Emuna to refine and increase it, and for later documentation, for us now to study and increase our Torah wisdom. For the talmidim, their storm was an actual storm with rain, and raging wind with waves. While in a boat, especially a small fishing boat this would cause any ordinary person to tremble and fear that they will tip over and sink. Our every-day storms could range from multiple different situations from financial, to family, to career, and so on. However, just like with the talmidim and as Rabbi Shaul teaches, God will only bring us to a situation which we can endure and which has a way out.  

(Mattityahu/Matthew 14:25-26) “Around four o’clock in the morning, he came toward them, walking on the lake! When the talmidim saw Him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost!” they said and screamed with fear.” As messianic believers, we need to remember the vital passage in 1 Corinthians 10:13 when a storms comes our way. We need to have seek the same Emuna as Yeshua to be able to not only endure the storm on the boat, but to walk on the waters through the raging storm, and know that God is in control. The talmidim however show us that we gain no profit from freaking out or over reacting to the situation and as we see in the later passages, it will actually make things a lot worse. We need to internalize this concept deep within our souls, and understand the authority of the name of our Messiah and Rabbi Yeshua. In our daily lives, when we call out to the Father as helpless children, stranded in the oceans of this present world in the middle of life’s many storms, we need to always call out to Him in the merit/name of our Messiah, our Rabbi Yeshua, which literally means salvation! By this name alone, we will be saved and delivered from all of life’s storms and be counted worthy to the gift of eternal life.

(Mattityahu/Matthew 14:27) “But at once Yeshua spoke to them. “Courage,” he said, “it is I. Stop being afraid.” In our storms we all face, Yeshua put it as simple as possible for both us and His talmidim in the boat; have courage. The dictionary defines courage as followed; “the quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty, danger, pain, etc., without fear; bravery.” With the Ruach HaKodesh within us, we are able to face all situations in life, just like King David when he faced Goliath and King Y’hoshafat along with the people with Y’hudah when they were confronted with a sea of enemies. We all need to be still and rejoice and praise God in even the most brutal storms and unlike the talmidim in the boat, we will be filled with courage and recognize our salvation approaching us in the near distance and shout joyfully in praise and worship to the Almighty God if Israel.

(Mattityahu/Matthew 14:28-33) “Then Kefa called to Him, “Lord, if it is really you, tell me to come to you on the water.” “Come!” he said. So Kefa got out of the boat and walked on the water toward Yeshua. But when he saw the wind, he became afraid; and as he began to sink, he yelled, “Teacher! Save me!” Yeshua immediately stretched out his hand, took hold of him, and said to him, “Such little trust! Why did you doubt?” As they went up into the boat, the wind ceased. The men in the boat fell down before him and exclaimed, “You are really God’s son!”

Here we see an example of lack of trust and how it affects our Emuna; Kefa (Peter) is seen here calling out to Yeshua once he begins to recognize Him and still he has a little doubt when he says "Teacher, if it’s really you, tell me to come to you on the water.” The key word here is “if” which shows Kefa’s lack of trust at the moment, even when witnessing this miraculous event, if his Emuna was more solid he would have said “Teacher, I know it’s you, I’m coming to meet you.” The result of Kefa’s lack of trust in God when walking towards Yeshua was that he began to sink, with us in our everyday lives in our storms we face, we also have sinking moments. When we doubt the power of God and do not trust God in our storms, then we rely on ourselves or in other worldly elements such as money as a source of salvation, however, Our Rabbi Yeshua teaches us that we cannot serve God and money, so money alone as a source of personal salvation is completely insane, especially in our current markets where the dollar could crash at any moment and then it’s all as good as toilet paper. We all, just like Kefa however have moments when we are sinking in the storms our situations, like if we allow anger or pride to swallow us up and bring us to humiliation, or if we allow a beautiful marriage which many people pray for to have just sink like a rock over vain issues. However, we serve an awesome God and even if we are up to our necks in the water sinking, if we call out to our Father in the merit of the name of our Messiah Yeshua, He will save us by His mighty hand and bring us to deliverance and salvation because Our Father will see the blood of Yeshua over the door posts of our hearts in faith.

 (Mattityahu/Matthew 14:34-36) “Having made the crossing, they landed at Ginosar. When the people of the place recognized Him, they sent word throughout the neighbourhood and brought Him everyone who was ill. They begged Him that the sick people might only touch they tzitzit on His robe, and all who touched were healed.”  Here we see the complete opposite of what happened in the boat with the talmidim. The talmidim witnessed one of the most amazing miracles throughout the entire bible and they still doubted and sank when they should have been overflowing with Emuna. The people of Ginosar, just like the talmidim saw Him from a distance just walking normally on land and they were filled with Emuna and they sent word to the entire community were suffering through their own personal storms, which in this case were illnesses, which we all face or are currently dealing with at this very second in time. Because of their Emuna, the people of Ginosar were all healed just by touching the tzitzit of Yeshua’s robe. This is the Emuna we all need to have in order to be delivered from our storms, whether they are physical storms like the talmidim in the boat, or illnesses like the people of Ginosar. Even though our Messiah has risen from the dead and ascended into heaven to the right hand of God and we cannot physically see Him today.

Yeshua gave us a very inspiring teaching on Emuna after His resurrection. (Yochanan/John 20:27-29) “Then He said to T’oma, “Put your finger here, look at my hands, take your hand and put it into my side. Don’t be lacking in trust, but have trust!” T’oma answered Him, “My Teacher and my Judge!” Yeshua said to him, “Have you trusted because you have seen me? How blessed are those who do not see, but trust anyway!”

We need to always trust God and always seek our Father with our needs in the merit of the name of Yeshua, who lived a perfect and inspiring Torah centered life because He is the living Torah, we need to trust in the name of Yeshua in all of our prayers to our Father in heaven and we will be even more blessed than those who saw and witnessed the miracles of Yeshua before His ascension into Heaven.

I hope, and I pray that all those who are able to read this put their trust into the one and true God of Israel, and His anointed one, our Messiah, our Rabbi, our Salvation, Yeshua. No matter what storm you may be in, whether it is financial/career, family/marriage, or even sickness, put your trust into the one who we cannot right now see, and recognize the one true salvation just like the people of Ginosar and receive divine healing from the hands of God, in the merit of the name of Yeshua, trust in Him and receive your miracle today!