Transformational Knowledge or Walking on Water Part 2

Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”

“Come,” he said. Then Peter… walked on the water and came toward Jesus.’

Matthew 14:28,29 NIV

This is going to take longer than 2 days. Transformational knowledge is so important in my life as a Christian, more and more keeps coming to light for further investigation.

Transformational knowledge is: where the head meets the heart;

the knowing of self transects the knowing of God;

It is the moment where the reality of Christianity meets the depths of the soul;

It is where self is actualized in the Spirit of God as actions of faith are moved by God.





I believe this is what happened to me this summer. The soul and the self met the spirit and God moved in ways that could not be explained in human terms. This is what Peter experienced in his encounter with Jesus his faith was brought to the place of impact.

Faith Waits On the Lord

After Peter sought His will in asking the Lord for permission he didn’t immediately jump out of the boat. Peter didn’t presume upon the Lord’s answer, but waited for it.

I would rather have a puff of smoke and be done with it.. It does not happen this way.

This brings us to the next point:

The faith that walks on water is faith that waits on God until He answers.

This passage of scripture is a popular one among preachers who love the vivid metaphor it provides for believing God for great things. We love to hear about the action, the excitement of taking leaps of faith and ‘walking on water’. It’s highly visible and empowering. It suits our busy, externalized culture and modern temperament.

But the waiting aspect of faith taught in this passage of scripture is often overlooked. There is a lot of ‘faith’ teaching around these days telling people to step out on promises and take risks. To many such preachers, Peter’s waiting would have looked like unbelief, and no doubt if they had been on that boat they would have been encouraging him to ‘have more faith’ and jump.

But Peter didn’t jump into the water until after he had waited on the Lord and heard from Him, and this is precisely where many Christians go wrong in their faith. They ‘jump out of the boat’ without sufficiently waiting on the Lord, and end up in troubled waters.

Satan literally tempted Christ to take a similar leap of faith. Luke 4:1-13 gives the account of Christ being tempted in the wilderness. In the last temptation, Satan took Jesus to the top of the temple and challenged Christ to jump off, based on a promise of protection in the scripture. Satan even quoted chapter and verse. Satan was challenging Christ to step out on the promise of God. It is a legitimate promise in Psalm 91:11,12 that God will protect us and keep us from harm. Now, there is nothing wrong with God’s promises and every Christian knows that we are to trust those promises. So what’s the problem here? Sounds pretty scriptural, doesn’t it? But instead of jumping, Christ responded by quoting another verse, from Deut.6:16 - “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”

Testing God means deliberately putting ourselves in a situation where He has to come through or we end up in trouble. The temptation here was twofold: to cherry-pick certain promises from the word of God without heeding the entire written word, and to test God by deliberately putting Himself in a risky situation so that God is forced to prove Himself.

This is a common pitfall Christians fall into. We cast ourselves down on a single promise.

We take a rash stand on a certain promise, without taking the whole counsel of scripture into careful consideration and waiting upon the Lord.

This may result in placing ourselves in a risky situation where God has to respond in a certain way or we end up in trouble. If Peter had jumped before receiving Christ’s word to step out, instead of it being a legitimate step of faith, he would have been putting God to the test.

Faith waits on the Lord, and takes the whole of God’s word into consideration. It requires that we heed the entire counsel of God in His written word and not simply cherry-pick the parts we like. Notice that Christ looked to the rest of scripture for the right response to this temptation, and didn’t make His decision based on a single promise.

Faith isn’t about naming and claiming the promises, or insisting that God honor some ‘step’ of faith we’ve decided to take. It is about looking to Christ and seeking His will, and humbly waiting on Him that He may guide us.

The faith that walks on water is the faith that waits on the Lord as my faith is waiting as the Adventure in Middle Grove moves on to another week.

Transformational Knowledge or Walking on Water

Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.” “Come,” he said. Then Peter… walked on the water and came toward Jesus.’ Matthew 14:28,29 NIV



This is a real example of transformation knowledge. Not just knowledge for the sake of gaining knowledge. But knowledge that leads to actions because of obedience and love for God and from an assurance in self that knows God is leading in the right direction and I can trust him. It is also the basis for faith in God that I can trust him because he loves me and I REALLY know he loves me.
Today I want to look at the faith that is born out of this love for me and the assurance I have in God that he works all things out for good no matter what the circumstances.There are a few points to examine so I will do this over 2 days since God has put this on my heart for a close examination. I have used the book and other resources and a great deal of prayer over the past months to really see what faith is all about and how God works through my faith.In this well known story, the disciples are alone in a boat out on a lake when they see Jesus walking towards them on the water. At first they are afraid, and think it must be a ghost. But when their Lord reassures them that it is He,

Peter asked the Lord to come out to Him on the water. Christ said “Come.”, and Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water towards Jesus. Much is have written and preached on this popular bible story, for it is a very vivid picture of faith in action.

There is a lot I can learn about the nature of faith from this passage. Peter illustrates in it a quality of faith and trust in God which I, as a sincere believer, desire to emulate in my own Christian walk - a trust in God to step out more fully into His will and purpose for my life and to see me through the storms.
God never leaves me guessing in the dark, but has given me all the light I need for my walk of faith this side of eternity. I believe that a close look into this passage of scripture will open to give me a better understanding of the nature of biblical right now if I am able “to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.” A closer look at Peter’s ‘walk on water’ reveals several key elements: First, notice that Peter asked. He asked Christ to call him out. Then, he waited for the Lord’s answer before getting out of the boat. Next, he obeyed when Christ said “Come.” 1. Faith Asks in Prayer Why did the Lord call Peter out of the boat, and not the other disciples? There were eleven other disciples in that boat. Why was Peter the only one invited by Christ to step out of the boat? Simply, because Peter asked. The text gives no other reason for the Lord’s call to ‘come’ other than Peter asked. In his asking, Peter demonstrated a quality of faith that the scriptures repeatedly exhort us to: “keep on asking” (Mat.7:7 AMP); “in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." (Phil.4:6) Jesus repeatedly taught His disciples to be persistent in prayer. “Ask, and it will be given to you.” (Mat 7:7). In Matthew 15:21-28 it is taught that it is the persistent asking of the Canaanite woman that gained her the answer to her prayer. It is the persistence of the widow before the unjust judge in Luke 18:1-8 that got her request granted. The friend at midnight got his bread because of his persistence in asking. So I am taught to be persistent in prayer.
The Lord called Peter because Peter asked. The other disciples didn’t ask, and consequently were not invited by Christ to step out. Don’t be afraid to ask. Our Lord is not offended by our asking, and will respond to our prayers. He may not always respond with the answer I hoped for, but He will respond.

The faith that walks on water is the faith that prays, and keeps on praying. 2. Faith Seeks God’s Will What did Peter ask for? He asked for Christ’s Word: “if it’s you…tell me...” He sought the Lord’s will first, before getting out of the boat. Biblical faith always seeks the Lord first, to do His will. The goal of faith is obedience to the will of our Lord. Faith is not a tool to achieve our own agenda. Peter wasn’t making demands or claiming his ‘right’ to walk on water. He didn’t ‘speak words of faith’. He was humbly seeking the will of his Master.

The faith that walks on water looks to Christ for His will, not our own.Today, Lord, give me the faith that walks on water and looks to you as I do your will. A faith that looks to you and not my own agenda, this day on the Adventure in Middle Grove.
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