Greetings, friends and new listeners, and welcome to this program of the R. G. Harding Ministries. I'm Sharon Knotts thanking you for tuning in today because we know faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. The message you will hear today is one word from Jesus, which I ministered in the Sunday night service where the level of inspiration was very high.
And I believe this anointed exhortation will encourage and enlighten your faith. Especially for those times when you're surrounded by doubts and fears, and when one word from Jesus. is what you need. My life is on the Foundation that cannot be Moved and regardless, regardless of the things that come against us.
Sometimes we get hit and struck down. Amen. We get struck down. That's what Paul said. He said, we're cast down.
But he said we're not destroyed. You cannot destroy the faith of a true child of God. Troubles The hardest blow that you can face, and things can come to just totally devastate your life. But if you are a true believer in Jesus Christ. It cannot destroy your faith.
It may seem to shake you up, and you may feel yourself shaken. But one thing about when God shakes you, He said He shakes you so that you can see what will remain. God shapes you to show you that you can stand. Because you are standing in him. Amen.
You are standing on the rock of ages. And when that trouble comes, it does not destroy your faith, it strengthens your faith. It fortifies your faith. The Bible says if you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small. But if you stand firm in the The day of adversity.
Your strength is in Jesus Christ. Hallelujah. And you can make it when He is your strength. Satan cannot destroy your faith when it's really rooted firmly in Jesus. He will lie to you.
He will tell you that he will. He will tell you that your faith is going to fail you this time. That this time you can't possibly make it through. But he's a liar. Amen.
And even when you feel uncertain and you don't feel that stress Strong assurance that you want because a lot of times, let me tell you something: Jesus is always there. He said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. I've told you this before, but sometimes it bears repeating. That if you read that in the Greek where it says, I will never leave you nor forsake you. It says, when I will never leave you, it means I will never leave you when you're in a hard place.
When you're going through things in life, I will not leave you. But when it says, I will not forsake you, it means that when you were absolutely in the lurch, when you had been feeling like you've been abandoned by everyone and everything, when you were at the lowest point, he said, And in order for you to get the impact of the way it's meant in the Greek, you would have to say it five times: I will never, never, never, never. leave you, nor forsake you. That's how powerful it is. Amen.
I will not. And when you know that Jesus is always. there. But sometimes You don't feel him as much as other times. Because sometimes what you're going through and the powers of darkness and the spiritual warfare and all of the anguish and agony that you're facing are just, you know, they're causing your senses to speak louder.
And you feel all of the turmoil in your emotions. And you feel the tears coming down your face, you feel that knot in your throat, you feel the anxiety, you feel the fear, and all those lies of the enemy are just pounding away at you. Jesus is as near as he ever was and ever will be. But you are surrounded. Amen.
And it reminds me of the story we all know well about Peter and walking on the water. But we gotta back up a little bit. You know, Jesus had just fed the 5,000. Men. And we know the Bible says that besides women and children.
So we can just estimate or guesstimate that probably there could have been 20,000 or more people there because most men, especially the Jewish people, that day, they would have had a wife and a bunch of children.
So thousands he fed, and you know, that is the only miracle that all four gospels record. Out of all the miracles that Jesus did, that's the only one that all four of them recorded. That says something to me. That says to me that, boy, it really made an impact on them. An impact that they took one little boy's lunch of two fish and five little biscuits and fed 20,000 people.
I mean, you're never, ever, ever going to forget that one. Amen. Especially when you were the one serving it up. And here it just was kept appearing. I mean, come on now.
So they all recorded that miracle. And I imagine it took a tremendous burst of dynamic. Oh, supernatural energy to produce that. I mean, there had to be such enough power to go through Jesus because this is a creative miracle. Amen to just miraculously multiply.
From two to at Fish to thousands. Amen?
So Jesus really was tapping into the supernatural. Because remember, he was anointed with the Holy Ghost and he went about doing good. He laid aside his properties as God. He was depending on the power of the Holy Ghost. And let me tell you something, it still happens in modern time.
I hadn't heard about it any time anywhere around here. And even in America, but I have read the book and heard the testimonies. This one couple that they're Americans, but they left America. They left a fine, middle-class, safe, comfortable life. And they went over there into Mozambique, which is one of the, I think, is the poorest nation in Africa.
And they've been there for years. And they have orphanages and they take care of children. And they have already gotten down to no food to feed those children. And you know, have a little bit, they've already prayed over it, and it's been multiplied. This has happened to them several times that they have fed the children.
When it being multiplied after prayer.
So it's the same today.
So, what I'm saying, though, this was a miraculous thing that happened to Jesus.
So, anyway, he fed them and he was winding it up, and they all had eaten. They were all fed and all filled, and they still had 12 baskets left over. And he said, gather it all up. lest nothing should be wasted. God doesn't waste anything.
Amen. Sometimes some people wonder why they don't get blessings because they waste their blessings. Don't waste them and you'll get more. Amen. Appreciate what God gives you.
So he had just finished this miracle and he said to his disciples, he said, I want you to go get in a boat and go over to the other side. And they must have protested. And the reason why I say that is the scripture says Jesus constrained the disciples. When you constrain someone, you're putting a little pressure on them. They're kind of like, you know, they're not down with it.
They were, why did they wanna go? I don't know. Maybe they didn't wanna go without Jesus. Or maybe they wanted to hang around, see if he was gonna do some other miracles. I don't know, but he had to say, listen, I'm gonna stay here and dismiss the crowd.
You would leave now. Go get in the ship and go over on the other side.
Now, why did Jesus do that? The obvious reason is, he goes right on to say that after he dismissed the crowd, he went up into the mountain apart. That he may have time to pray. And when he was evening was come, he was alone.
Sometimes you have to get apart and alone. And especially when you've come off of a high. When you've come off of a spiritual high, you really need to be careful then. It's so easy to coast after that. Woo!
You can coast for a while on a spiritual high.
Sometimes on Sunday nights, I could coast till Wednesday. But you know what? If I do that, I am opening up the door to the enemy.
So he had to immediately, because he had spent himself, he had spent the anointing. Listen, when if you're ever under a heavy anointing, I mean a heavy anointing, while you're under that anointing, you feel like you could fly home. Yeah, but when it lifts. You feel like you can't get out of the chair. You're exhausted.
And so he must have been exhausted. And I think another reason why he may have sent them on is because he knew the people once before he had been preaching, and they all got in a boat to go on the other side, and a whole bunch of the people got in boats and followed him. And I believe that he was trying to distract the people so that they could get away because he wanted a time to be separate. And so he's up in the mountain alone, apart in prayer. getting recharged.
Because when you spend and use up your batteries, you've got to get them recharged. Amen. So, here in the meantime, they had gotten on the boat, and the scripture says they were in the midst of the sea, and that means just what it says: in the middle. They were halfway across the Sea of Galilee. It's about four miles wide, so they were about two miles in.
And the storm came. And the Bible says the winds were contrary or contrary, however you want to say it. They were bad winds, kind of like we experienced around here last night. How would you like to be out on a boat? In last night's weather.
Amen. And here they were in the midst of this storm, and Jesus is over two miles away, at least, because they were in the middle, so he was up on the mountain, so he was well over two miles away. But he knew they were in trouble. You see, the last time they got in trouble in the boat when the storm came, Jesus was in the boat. He was there sleeping on the boat.
It was easy to go say, Wake up, don't. Just care it wrong. Gonna die, but Jesus is at least two miles or so away now. But he knew they were in trouble. He heard their cries.
He knew that they were in danger and their life was being threatened. You see, the devil, he's such a coward. You know, Jesus had done this great miracle. Do you think the devil was going to sit down and just say, oh, Well One for you. Uh-uh, he was mad.
But he didn't go after Jesus. He went after the disciples. Amen?
And sometimes the devil is so cotton-picking madding, God, he don't know what to do, so he comes after you. I said he comes. after me he comes after They're us. He can't get to God, so he's. He says, Well, our p.
on this catch. But let me tell you something: the Lord is not going to sit up there on the throne and let him get away with it. He's not going to get away with it. Jesus was over two miles away. But he knew they were in trouble.
And I don't care how a You may feel sometimes, and you may feel that you're in the worst trial you have. Never been in your life, and nobody understands, but Jesus knows, He is touched with the feeling of your infirmity, He knows exactly what's going on. The Bible says that Jesus came in the fourth watch of the night walking on the water.
Now, the fourth watch is between three and A. M. and 6 a.m. And that according to the According to what scientists and The medical profession says is the time when it is hardest for a person to stay awake. And it is often around the 3 a.m.
hours when Satan often attacks people in their sleep. Amen. A lot of times if you have a pattern where the devil regularly comes against you, a lot of times if you look at the clock, it'll be around three o'clock or somewhere in there. That guy who wrote the book, Twenty Three Minutes in Hell, He went to hell at 3 o'clock and came back at 3.23. In the morning.
And so it was between 3 and 6 a.m.
Now that meant those disciples had to be exhausted by then, because we can only assume they hadn't slept yet. Amen. And no telling how long they had been dealing with this storm. Because Jesus wouldn't have dismissed these people at 12 midnight and 1 o'clock in the night and all that. He would have dismissed them at daylight.
That means the disciples have been going for hours. Hours, hours. They were out there, but this was not any ordinary storm. This was not an ordinary storm. This storm had all of the connotations of demonic activity, and we'll see that.
And so Jesus came in the fourth watch of the night walking on the water. In the midst of this storm, and I want to tell you: while Jesus was walking on the water, and this is important because I didn't always see this. Here comes Jesus walking on the water, the master. And the winds were still blowing and the seas were still raging. They were still the storm was still kicking up.
And the disciples looked out there and saw Jesus, and they thought it was a spirit. They thought they were seeing a ghost, and they cried out. For feed. They were more scared now of this than the storm. At least the storm was something they understood.
Have you ever been in a test that you hate, but at least you understood it? You're going through the test. You think, I'm going to get through this thing. I'm going to come out because you understood it. It was the kind of test you'd been.
Be through before, and you got it, and you know it won't last always. But boy, those tests that you don't understand. Those tests that come up out of the blue, and you're like, I don't get this one, Lord. I don't understand it. They really can get to you.
You know, in the back of your mind you're going to come out, but you just don't feel like you know how to fight the battle because you don't know what you're dealing with. I mean, if you know what you're dealing with, you can bind it in Jesus' name. You can speak whatever needs to be spoken. But when you don't know what you're dealing with sometimes, those tests are hard. And here they didn't know what they were dealing with.
And they saw this. this thing coming closer.
Now we know that Jesus had not identified himself at this point. But somehow or another, there was something that kicked in for Peter. And he looked out there.
Now, Jesus was not close enough for Peter to be sure. He was not close enough for Peter to see him clearly, or he would not have said, Lord, if it be you, bid me to come to you on the water. Amen. He wasn't really sure. He couldn't really see.
And sometimes you can't really see. Amen. What is happening around you? And so he said, Lord, if it be you, then bid me. To come to you on the water.
I don't hear any of the other ones saying anything. No other volunteers. Amen. And here's the thing about Jesus. He didn't say Well, of course it's me.
Who do you think it is? He didn't say that. In fact, he only said one Come. That's all he said. I mean, Peter said, Lord, if it you bid me to come on the water, Jesus did not say, Oh, you know, you need to believe God.
You need to step out there on faith. Of course, you know it's me. Don't you know and recognize me? He just met Je he met Peter at the point of his faith. And he said Calm.
And let me tell you, sometimes when you're in a severe trial, when you're going through the storm, and I mean that storm is a wicked storm, and you know it's demonically controlled against you. And oh my god. My Lord in heaven, what you would not give for a prophecy. Have you ever been in a test that you just wished that God would give you a prophecy? Have you ever flicked through the Christian TV channels and just wish somebody would say, this word is for sharing.
She's sitting there with the red dress on. Come on, I know how it goes. Or that they would say, I don't know, but the Lord has given me this scripture for someone, and you just highlighted it in your Bible. That morning. And he says, and I don't know who it's for, but here it is.
Oh, just give me a scripture, Lord. Just give me a prophecy. Just give me a scripture. And sometimes all God gives you is one word. Trust?
Believe! Obey! Stand! And you want God to give you this great big, flowery prophecy and all of these wonderful words. And He's saying to you, when you've done all that you know to do, stand.
But let me tell you something when you're in the midst of your storm. Yeah. And all that you get is one word? Trust, stand, believe. One word from Jesus is all you need.
I said, one word from Jesus is all you need. That's all you need, is one word, and you hang on to that word. And don't let that That word. Go and on that one word, Peter got out of the boat and he began to walk on the water. Hallelujah!
He believed that one word and he stepped out on that word. You can step out on one word and you won't sink, it'll hold you up. Hallelujah! And the scripture says he walked on the water, and there is nobody else in the whole Bible that ever did that. But Peter.
He walked on the water.
Now here's the thing I want you to see. The storm was still storming. The winds were still blowing, and in fact, the word in the King James is boisterously. How many times do you hear that word? Boisterously, the winds were blowing and the waves were crashing.
When he obeyed the voice of the Lord and acted on the word, the storm had not stopped. Jesus didn't calm and let's calm it all. Yeah. Come on, Peter.
Now look, come on out here and step on this beautiful, peaceful, glassy water. No, he had to get out with the wind and the spray of the waves smacking him in the face and the wind punching him in the back. He had to step out. But he did. And the waves and the winds continued.
The storm was still raging. And sometimes you've got to make your move in the midst of a storm. You've got to act. In the midst of a storm, you're sitting there waiting for everything to be peaceful and still, and it's not going to happen that way. And he began to walk on the water.
But the Bible says when he saw. When he saw the wind so boisterously. When he felt The waves and the water slapping at him. He was afraid and he began to doubt. And you know your senses can be your worst enemy.
Amen. Because the scripture says we walk not by sight. We walk by faith and not by sight. Faith walks. Sight sinks.
Amen. By faith you can walk. By sight, you will sink. Because when he saw the waves, And he felt All of that turmoil of the water, he doubted and he began to sink. Hallelujah.
But even if you do that. Just do what Peter did. He cried out, Lord. Save! Me, Lord, help.
Me, Lord, deliver me, and when you cry out. In your desperation, Jesus is going to reach out. Hallelujah, with the everlasting arms that are an eternal refuge. He's gonna swoop you up. Hallelujah.
He's going to lift you up. Glory to God. He's not going to let you sink. The devil is a liar. Hallelujah.
Hallelujah. Woo! You may find yourself floundering a little bit in the water. You may feel like that you go down and come up, and go down and come up. But I promise you he will deliver you.
The psalmist said he drew me out. Of many troubled waters. Hallelujah. Lord Jesus will Sweep you up just in time. And he lifted Peter up.
And they both took one big step and they were on the boat. And guess what happened? The wind ceased. And the storm died down. Not until.
Not until they had Peter had stepped out on faith. And Jesus then had acted to deliver him. But Jesus said to him, when they got in there, they were all safe and sound. Everything was calming down, and they're sitting there trying to dry off and taking it all in. Boy, you talk about a 24-hour.
Feeding 5,000, spending half the night out in the storm in a boat, almost drowning. Seeing Peter get out there and walk and then almost around, think they're seeing a ghost. I mean, these guys were tired, exhausted. They just sat there. And Jesus looked at Peter and he said, O ye of little faith, Why did you doubt?
Amen. And you know he didn't give him some big, old long sermon. That's all he had to say. And sometimes that's what the Lord says to us: why are you doubting? Just believe.
Amen, because you're not going to sink. I'm not going to let that happen. I will not let it happen. You have to walk away from the Lord. You've got to turn your back on Jesus and walk away from him, and then you'll sink.
But if you're reaching out to Jesus and you're calling on him. He's not going to let you sink. Amen. He will deliver you. No matter what it is, Jesus will deliver you.
Oh, yes, he should have believed. Oh, yes, he shouldn't have doubted. No, no, he shouldn't have let all the senses come in and throw him a curb. But I want to tell you that when you're in that place, amen, I want you to know the Lord is going to deliver you. He may give you a little sermon afterwards.
He may say, oh, you shouldn't have doubted. You should have believed. But I want you to know that God is going to rescue you. That's what you got to know. He's going to deliver you.
Amen. And Jesus Think about it. that got a sermon. The only one that got A little finger shook at him. Was the only one that got out of the book?
Ouch. The rest of the guys didn't even get out of the boat. They didn't even Yeah, I think it's a good idea. But you see, Jesus was really encouraging Peter, saying, Man, you were on your way. You were walking.
I mean, you were doing what I was doing. You were stepping out with me. Why did you doubt? My God, we could have walked all the way, the two miles, all the way back. Amen.
So let me tell you something.
Sometimes when the Lord does give you a little reprimand, it's because he loves us. It's because we're his kids. And he's proud of us. Amen. He sees the effort that we're making.
He sees that we're striving to walk in obedience. And he's proud of us. He's proud of what we've done. But oh, he sees we have so much more potential. We have so much more that we can do as he works in us and through us.
My God, if Peter did that with doubt, what could he do without doubt? Amen. So we're growing. In the grace and the knowledge of the Lord, and our faith is being stretched all the time. There were times in my walking journey that I would just beat myself up terrible.
I didn't need the Lord to beat me up, I beat myself up. Because I doubt it. Because I didn't believe. Because, you know, I got a touch from the Lord, and then maybe a couple days later, I was having a problem and having trouble, and I doubted that I ever got the touch in the first place. I can't even tell you how many times I went through that.
And I hated that. And I would beat myself up then and say, Now, why then did you do that? You know the devil's going to come. You know he's going to challenge you. You should be ready for him to challenge you.
It's all easy to say that, but when you're in the midst of that, when you're in the middle of that storm, and all that stuff is hitting you from all sides. Amen. That's when you're going to find out where is my faith Remember you got it. And it's nothing wrong with it. God didn't give you any faulty, defective, weak, anemic faith.
He doesn't have that kind of faith. He gave you the good stuff. It's all he has. The thing that bothers and troubles and hinders us is when the doubt comes in. Jesus said if you believe in Not doubt.
In your heart, you're going to have whatever you're saying. And I just want to exhort you tonight that no matter what you're going through, no matter how the storms have raged in your life, I want you to know that Jesus is for you. And you may feel like he's a distant, far away. But I want to tell you, though he was up on that mountain alone, Jesus heard. He knew what the disciples were going through.
He knew what the enemy was up to. He knew what Satan was trying to do to take them out. And I want you to know that Jesus came. He was not going to let the devil get his way. He came to rescue them, and he will come to deliver you.
Amen. He will deliver you. And so tonight, let's raise our hand and let's thank the Lord tonight that Jesus is for us. He said, I am for you. Who and what can be against you?
And Father, I thank you tonight for letting the word of the Lord come to encourage our hearts. And those that are here tonight that have been through severe trials that are still walking, they're still having to walk daily by faith. And the enemy is there with his lies, his treacherous lies that you don't care. That you've forsaken them, but we cast them down in the name of Jesus. And we thank you, Lord, for applying your healing love and your word of faith to our hearts and strengthening us tonight with all might in our inner man.
And we stand upon the word of the Lord. In Jesus' name, whatever that word is that you give us tonight, and tonight the word of the Lord is stay. Amen. Like the song the brother used to sing: when you've done all that you can do, just stay. Because you're standing.
on the foundation that cannot be moved. Amen. When one word from Jesus is all you have, when you One word from the Master of the Seas is all you need. Friends, I know by personal experience that adversity never destroys true faith, it only strengthens it. Regardless of what you are facing today, you are not facing it alone.
If your trust is in Jesus the sea walker, who will never let you sink, he has promised he will never leave you nor forsake you, ever. Storms will come. Jesus said, In this world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world. I remember the level of anointing that was upon me when this exhortation came forth, and I believe that this anointed word can release faith and hope to your spirit.
So I hope you will order your CD, One Word from Jesus, for a love gift of $10 or more for the radio ministry. Request offer SK 159. Our mailing address is RG Hardy Ministries, P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Or if you prefer, go online at rghardy.org.
That's rghardy.org. Again, the offer is SK, that's S as in Sharon, K as in Knotts, 159. The mailing address is PO Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203.
Now, even if you do not wish to order today, we would still love to hear from you.
So why not write us or go online and let us know how the radio ministry is a blessing to you. Until next time, this is Sister Sharon saying Maranatha.
