The Progressive Journey to the other side!
MARK 4: 35-41
And the same day, when even was come, He said unto them (His disciples), ‘Let us pass over to the other side.’ And when they had sent away the multitude, they took Him even as He was in the ship. And there were also other little ships. And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full. And He was in the hinder part of the ship (where the rudder was!), asleep on a pillow: and they awake Him and say unto Him, ‘Master, carest Thou not that we perish?’ And He arose, rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, ‘Peace, be still.’ And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. And He said unto them, ‘Why are ye so fearful? How is it that ye have no faith? And they feared exceedingly and said one to another, ‘What manner of man is this, that even the wind and sea obey Him? (without our help, too!)
Jesus had just finished expounding (Gk. = to solve further) about the Kingdom of God to His disciples. When the end of that day (age!) had come, the challenge went forth to PROGRESS TOGETHER TO THE OTHER SIDE, which would be their next horizon in their vision.
SEPARATION from . . . to!
"Going to the other side" pictures for us a separation from the multitude (- majority thinking from those at the meeting!) and progressing with Christ, the Living Word. He is saying to us today to leave where we are and press towards what He has in store for us on the other side of the veil . . . the unseen side! This is the fullness of Christ . . . this is experiencing the throne life now . . . this is moving in the new man in the fourth dimension as Jesus did. Any time we desire to yield to such a calling (command?), we need to be very alert for possible storms cause by much ‘hot air’ (wind!) from those who did not as yet, hear the call and also from the ‘hang-over’ of first Adam’s thinking who will try to avoid anything new.
Jesus went along with them in their sailing ship and others were along as well on this trip in their ships. Water here pictures for us OUR PRESENT BELIEFS, which for the most part remain quite calm until someone breathes upon them with questions, alternative renderings and sometimes challenges or even ridicule! However these beliefs support our little (fellow)ships — but under a strong wind of God’s testing, which He will bring to grow us up, they are liable to become stormy and far from calm! The crew members dedicated to their ship and ‘captain’will cry out in fear and dismay . . . ‘Lord help us keep "OUR SHIP" afloat’. It was much safer and less distressing back on the shore without this progressive trip.
THE TRADITIONAL STORM
A great storm of wind, this, says Berry’s Lexicon, is a figure of speech that applies to EMPTY DOCTRINES OR BELIEFS from a root word aer (air) . . . like ‘hot air? The traditional calm thinking gets stirred up by this wind of change — God is in control of ALL things, wherever they ‘appear’ to come from! — they will only expose the emptiness (lack of vision) of kindergarten understanding. Big waves of controversy (so-called by those who are not hungry even if they say as much!) smash into these little ‘ships’ filling them with life-threatening reactions!
Jesus was at rest in the stern of the vessel, which just happens to be where the steering is located. This storm did not affect Him. It was for a purpose of teaching the disciples some more truth . . . sort of an ‘object-lesson’. Their security was in a CALM SEA: compare the security that Jesus had which was in the presence of the Father.
WHAT WE BELIEVE IS NOT OUR SECURITY so that when it gets challenged, it will make no difference to us — OUR SECURITY IS IN OUR RELATIONSHIP THAT WE HAVE WITH THE LORD JESUS CHRIST.
In this report of what happened ‘back then’, which is a parable for us today, Jesus Christ was there with them (us) and they did not realize the full significance of His presence. Just in passing . . . the Word declares that the ship was ‘FULL of water’: these circumstances, which we would certainly call ‘uncomfortable’, did not affect the REST that Jesus enjoyed — even a ‘wet pillow’? We so often let our circumstances like the disciples, govern our requests and affect our relationship with Christ.
"Enough is enough! Lord, Help! Don’t you care (Gk= faithless reasoning) that we perish?" In passing, the phrase ‘we perish’ is an amazing one for the Greek word used here, apollumetha has a gematria (Mathematical value) of 666. (Please refer to re-think No.43). ‘666’ is a number that the Word instructs us to count (Rev.13:18): in counting the value of paradosis, which means tradition in the Greek, we find that it too totals 666 The link-up here with ‘we perish’ (via 666) to tradition unveils the point that the Word is trying to get through to us — namely that it is traditional thinking that hinders one’s growth into maturity. . . . which is moving and living fully and continuously ‘on the other side’ of the cross –no longer sin-conscious all the time, but rather righteousness-conscious.
Unless the Living Word (NOT the quoting of ‘the black ink on the white paper!) came to their rescue, this wind that was challenging their doctrines and beliefs, would cause them to drown in their own traditional thinking. (The word ‘tradition’ in the KJV New Testament occurs (13) times of which (2) are good situations and the remaining (11) are negative! Be warned!) . Jesus did not answer the disciples at first. He spoke to the controversial situation. He spoke directly to the stirred up thinking of His people, "Peace be still". Jesus rebuked this wind of traditional ‘hot air ‘ that was blowing down from those ‘fundamental hills’ that surrounded the sea. Such rough-sea strivings were certainly not affecting Jesus and they should not affect the Christ within us for He is our life.
Being thus aroused, Jesus spoke to the effect of such traditional bondage and fear (fear of not being correct causes some folk to become quite ‘uppitty’ which is the opposite to a TEACHABLE SPIRIT. Meekness was described once as A 24-HOUR FEELING THAT I JUST MIGHT BE WRONG) and showed His teachable disciples that it was just a rough sea and that it would not cause them to die. He was showing them with the situation that when HIS WORD OF LIFE is applied, then the result will be a beautiful calm. We who experience the close presence of Jesus Christ, the Living Word, will likewise remain calm. Jesus was then able to talk to His disciples and expose their fear of ‘losing it’ and the lack of awareness of His presence . . . Amazing!
HE WAS RIGHT THERE AND THEY PANICKED!
How was it that they didn’t realize that they were being tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine? How was it they waited until the ship was filled with disaster before calling out to Jesus? What saith the scriptures? John 14:26 . . . When the Holy Spirit (that was manifested in Jesus) is come in us, He will TEACH US ALL THINGS and bring ALL things to our remembrance. We trust that we do not have to experience any such stormy journey in order to learn to receive from Him, our Teacher, and to be aware of His abiding presence because He will never leave us nor forsake us. . . Glory!
Our God is well able to draw one to Himself without our help! Our God is well able to keep what has been committed to Him without our help! Amazing. Isn’t it? Any expression of fear (including ‘extreme concern’!) will expose where our trust lies.
Our sharing of what we believe should never be allowed to produce a big storm! The more saints have an unbiased hunger (that’s the only genuine sort!) and are teachable, the fewer the number of storms that we will have to face in our thinking.
‘THE OTHER SIDE’ OF THE VEIL
God will use the overflowing of new things that magnify the Lord Jesus, to help us all to progress to the other side (this time of the veil), the next step towards the fullness of Christ in us. It is comforting to know that Jesus will get us to the other side in spite of our great storms. He purposes to have a people who leave the thinking of the multitude — Yes! Even fundamental Christian thinking! — and make headway under the propulsion of the wind of the Spirit to the fact that He has a progressive journey for us. It is a journey INTO Jesus Christ, in which He leads and guides us into all truth along the way until we achieve that HIGH CALLING of operating out of the experience of the ‘other side’ (of the veil!). Christ-Jesus manifested the fullness of God. He was the fourth-dimension man with the ability to be fully in the heavenly-spirit mode while living on this earth. §