That I may Know HIM - A Devotional

Day 41: Your Company and your Destiny

 And he went up unto them into the ship; and the wind ceased: and they were sore amazed in themselves beyond measure, and wondered.

Mark 6:51.

 Two chapters earlier, in Mark 4, when the storm threatened the boat in which Jesus had been sailing with His disciples, He "arose" and rebuked the winds and thereafter spoke peace to the troubled sea. At once, what had been a "great storm" turned into a "great calm" (vv.36-41). On this occasion in Mark chapter 6, Jesus did not say a word to the storm. Merely getting into the boat was enough to stop the storm on the sea where that boat sailed.

The same account is reported in the Gospel of John, with a little more insight:

 Then they willingly received him into the ship: and immediately the ship was at the land whither they went (John 6:21).

According to this report, there seems to have been the added miracle of speed gained. Soon as "they willingly received him into the ship," it arrived "immediately... at the land whither they went." Their struggles and tedious rowing were at once overtaken by grace that gave them speed. Time gained, energy saved, all because of a Presence with them in the boat.

Imagine that you were travelling from Lagos to Cairo in a derelict old truck along a difficult, dusty, bumpy road; a forty-day journey in normal circumstances. At the end of the first day, you have only managed to get out of the difficult Lagos traffic. Sunset meets you the next day still trying to find your way through the bush path in the village next to Lagos, because sections of the highway have been washed away by a torrential rain. Just then, someone flags you down for a ride to the village ahead. You slow down and open the door to let the stranger in, and at once find yourself in Cairo. No border checks, no immigration delays, no stopping every ten hours to fill your petrol tank, no overnight lodging in any hotel, no bad, bumpy, dusty roads and holdups. Energy saved, money saved, time gained. That was what the disciples had as soon as Jesus stepped into their boat.

Some people are like Jonah; their presence generates storms and delays (Jonah 1-2). Others are like Jesus here; they need not always say something. Just being in a place is enough to stop the storms there and grant the people speed.

 A mere presence, sometimes, could speak louder than voice. Years ago, a visiting bishop was greatly impressed by the service to him of a man in the church who had volunteered to be his driver during the stay. At the end of his mission, the bishop had to leave. He was almost out of town when he remembered the man who had served him well, so he drove back to ask that man if he had any prayer request. The man replied that he would be honoured if the bishop would only step into his house. The bishop obliged him. That same month, that man’s wife became pregnant, after a long time of marriage without any baby. There was a voice in the bishop’s presence that spoke no less powerfully than prayers could have done. That man is today a bishop himself. He told me his story.

At an unfortunate time of backsliding in the history of Israel, the ark of God got captured by the Philistines and was kept in the temple of Dagon their god. By the next morning, Dagon had gone flat on his face. The presence of God had knocked the idol down, without a voice that mortals had heard (1 Samuel 5:1-5). All voices are not audible to our natural ears, even when they thunder.

And unclean spirits, when they saw him, fell down before him, and cried, saying, Thou art the Son of God (Mark 3:11).

And they brought him [the demonized child] unto him [Jesus]: and when he saw him, straightway the spirit tare him; and he fell on the ground, and wallowed foaming (Mark 9:20).