Are you Spiritually Focused

Why did Peter, after walking on Galilee's stormy waters, begin to sink? Was it the devil or demons or sin? Or simply that he lost his focus? Have you lost your spiritual focus? Want to recover it?

Well, stay with us, listen, and learn. You're listening to Until He Comes, a blend of prophetic and practical biblical studies with Dr. Greg Hinnant. Author of the Second Coming of Christ, His Appearing, His Return, Our Preparation. And now, author and teacher Greg Hennett.

Welcome to the broadcast. Today's message is taken from my devotional Water from the Rock. Have you lost your spiritual focus? Today, right now, at this very moment. Are you spiritually focused?

often the difference between fulfilling God's will and failing it is just in this issue of Concentration on Jesus. and his will for your life. While focused on Jesus, the Apostle Peter easily did the impossible. Matthew 14, 22 through 33 tells us the story, and I will read it for you now. Immediately Jesus made his disciples get into the boat, And go before him to the other side.

So the mission was to go to the other side. For more ministry. while he sent the multitudes away, This tells us he isolated his disciples for testing. Maybe you have been isolated. for testing.

He can't test you in the crowd.

So he has to lead you into some circumstances that Put the burden of trust and obedience on you alone. Then your faith. Your loyalty. Your endurance can be fully tested. And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up on the mountain by himself.

Yeah.

Now this is a wonderful revelation. Jesus thrusts him into the difficult test. but he was praying for them all the time. just as he is for you, my friend, to day. He hasn't forgotten where you are.

The storm that you're enveloped with right now, He knows about it, and He's praying for you at the right hand of the Father as your high priest. Just as we're told in Hebrews 3. Verse 1. Listen to what he said to Peter in Luke 22, 31 and 32. And the Lord said, Simon, Simon.

Behold, Satan has desired to have you or have at you, one translation says, in other words, as he did Job. that he might sift you as wheat, But I prayed for thee. Listen to that, friend. I prayed. for thee that thy faith fail not.

And when you are converted, that is, when you are turned back from doubt to faith, Strengthen. Your brethren, You know, this tells us a couple of things. Jesus is praying for your faith, friend. That immediately strengthens you to know that Christ is praying for you And then the end of it all is that you will be able to strengthen your brothers and sisters in Christ in a way you could not have done. Had you not gone through?

your stormy trial.

Now when the evening came, he was alone there, but the boat was now in the middle of the sea, tossed. By the waves. For the wind was contrary, so the wind was whipping up the waves. just as in our lives The powers of the air The demonic spirits, the the rulers of the darkness of this world whip up. the waves in your life and cause people to be contrary.

or to be hostile towards you.

Now, in the fourth watch of the night, Jesus went to them walking on the sea. I've always thought about this. Jesus let them toil three fourths of the night. What does that tell me?

Well, The Lord will let you be tried. With great difficulty. Why? Because he wants to build enduring faith in you. overcoming strength, and he can't do it with a short light test.

So Jesus allowed them to struggle. But then He came to them, and he will come to you. every time. And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It's a ghost. and they cried out for fear.

But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, be of good cheer. It is a Do not be afraid. You know how wonderful this is. Whatever kind of a test you're going through today, if you just turn to the Lord, He'll immediately speak to you from the Bible. and quicken to you A verse of Scripture written thousands of years ago, but by the Holy Spirit's illumination, you know God is talking to you right now in your personal situation.

How does He do that? Friend, I cannot begin to explain it to you, but that's why God is supernatural. He is awesome. And Peter answered and said, Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.

So Peter wanted confirmation.

So he said, Come. Or come to me.

So now Christ had spoken. Suddenly the situation was changed. He knew it was Jesus, and he knew he had a word from Christ. And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus.

Now, Peter is doing exactly what his master did, the impossible. And when Peter had come down out of the boat, He walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, He was afraid and beginning to sink. He cried out saying, Lord, save me or rescue me and And immediately Jesus stretched out his hand and caught him and said to him, O thou of little faith. Why did you doubt?

We see something else here, too. The constant watchfulness of Christ over our lives, that even when we fail and begin to sink, He will immediately help us so that we do not go completely under. And when they got into the boat, The wind ceased. That too is a comforting thought. The winds of adversity may be blowing terribly in your life while you listen to me right now, but let me assure you they will cease.

They will cease. and you will come to a peaceful resolution Then those who were in the boat came and worshiped him. Saying Truly, you are. the Son of God, every test to faith that ends successfully. Results in two things.

We worship God with a new reverence. And intimacy. And the presence of the Spirit. Our worship is greatly enhanced because we've been through experiences with Jesus. And we know, in a way we could never have known before, that he is.

exactly who he says he is. The menu is not the same. Recapping the most important points from this account, Matthew tells us one stormy night the apostles saw Jesus walking on Galilee's churning waters toward their wave battered boat. Peter immediately asked permission to approach, looking at Lord, if it be thou, bid me come or come unto thee, Surprisingly, Jesus authorized him. come or come to me.

Assured by Jesus' words, Peter left the boat and amazingly. duplicated Jesus' mastery of the impossible. with his attention carefully focussed And his word again. carefully focused on Jesus and His Word. When Peter was come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus, or looking at Jesus all the way.

While Peter maintained this spiritually minded, Christ-centered, Word conscious focus. Everything went well. God's amazing grace abounded toward Peter and Peter's amazing walk astounded his fellow disciples. Then Something changed. What was it?

His focus Only his focus, everything else remained the same. Instead of gazing at his inspiring helper, Peter began concentrating on his imposing hindrances. and sinking. when he saw the boisterous waves, he was afraid and beginning to sink, says Matthew. Though scared, He had the presence of mind to pray, Lord, save me.

Mercifully, Jesus quickly stopped Peter's sinking And started His recovery. By beginning to explain to his by now all wet disciple What had happened? Why it happened so that it would not happen Again, As we dive deeper into this biblical story, please be aware that in the Bible, waters often speak figuratively of troubles. and deep waters great troubles. in Psalm sixty nine verses one and two, David described his troubles as deep overflowing waters.

Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck. I have come into deep waters where the floods overflow me. In verses 14 and 15, he identified the cause of his troubles as being caused by the words and acts of hateful enemies. Let me be delivered from them that hate me. And out of the deep waters, let not the water flood overflow me, neither let the deep Waters swallow me up.

Specifically, Peter's demise began when he became distracted. By the boisterous winds and waves that surrounded him.

Now they were rough, they were rowdy, they were dangerous. All of which were visible, audible, and felt contradictions. to what Christ had promised in the beginning, which was that they were going to the other side of Galilee for more amazing ministry. The moment Peter yielded to their pressure, Turning his attention from the faithful living Word Jesus to to the ferociously large waves, he began to doubt Jesus' authorizing word and unwisely reconsider what Jesus had plainly, clearly told him. Come to me.

In his perfect wisdom Jesus put his finger on the cause of Peter's sinking spirit. All you have little Face Why did you doubt? Little faith here means that Peter's faith was insufficient for his present test. And for your information, my friend, the New Testament identifies four degrees or measures of faith. No faith, which is in Mark 4, 5.

Little faith as we see here again when he rebuked his disciples, Faith Which two blind men had in Matthew 9:29, and through which they received a powerful miracle of Jesus. He opened their eyes. And go. Great faith, as we see in the cases of the centurion and Syrophoenician woman. That's recorded in Matthew eight ten.

Yeah.

And fifteen So Pause and think about that. There are degrees or measures of faith. Your faith can be stronger or weaker. It can be a maximum faith, of great faith, or it can be for the moment absolutely null and void. That doesn't mean you don't have faith.

You still have the measure of faith, as Romans 12 describes. But it is not active at the moment. Why was Peter's faith little? Again, Jesus' words identify the root cause. Why did you doubt.

Doubt is translated from the Greek word distazo. And this verb means literally to duplicate or in this context to think twice. or hesitate or waver. or, as it is rendered in most translations, simply, doubt, The more Peter duplicated his thinking or rehashed his situation. From the beginning in his mind.

the more he wavered going back and forth between his reasoning And it's right. or between his sense knowledge and his revelation knowledge. or between his confidence in Jesus and his supernatural promise, and his confidence in his reason and all the natural evidence that surrounded him and contradicted Jesus' promise. All of this, of course, happened within just a few seconds. And the more Peter rethought his problem and doubted Jesus' clear, authorizing word of guidance, the weaker his faith grew.

And the weaker his faith grew, the lower he sank in fear and in Galilee's churning waters.

Soon his faith was overcome by his fears, and just before the waves overwhelmed his body, He let loose with something we have all experienced at some point in our faith training: a panic prayer. Oh, Lord, help me, save me, I'm about to go under. You prayed that, and so have I in the past. The text tells us he cried saying, Lord, save me.

So instead of fulfilling Christ's will that he continue walking stably by faith on the stormy waters, Peter failed his will. all because he changed his focus But note this sweet fact. Even though Peter's faith failed, Jesus' faithfulness did not. This month, for a gift of any amount, we are offering one of Dr. Hinnant's three devotionals, Not By Bread Alone, which offers 122 spiritually rich biblical messages designed to refresh your heart, strengthen you in your daily trials, and help satisfy and increase your thirst.

For more of Jesus. For a gift of $60 or more, we'll send you the complete four-volume. End times prophecy collection: The Second Coming of Christ, The Tribulation Story, Revelation Notes, a verse-by-verse commentary on Revelation. And the Day of the Lord commentary, which interprets all Old Testament prophecies and foreshadowings of the end times. You may give your gift today by visiting the donation page at greghinnantministries.org or sending your checks to Greg Hinnant Ministries, P.O.

Box 788-08. High Point, North Carolina. Or by calling. 336-882-1645. And if you are a Logos Bible Software user, you may purchase The Second Coming of Christ, The Day of the Lord Commentary, and Revelation Notes from the Logos Online Bookstore.

Now, again, Dr. Hinnant. Verse 31 tells us immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand and caught him. And as I stated earlier, Jesus immediately began Peter's corrective. Training.

Let's now focus on this. Peter's failure of faith did not have to happen. If Peter had recognized he was being distracted, and quickly refocused he could have maintained his overcoming position fulfill Jesus' will and won a significant spiritual victory. which would have inspired his fellow disciples. and they in turn would have followed his example, and won their own significant victories.

Which would, in turn, have inspired countless Christians down the centuries to follow their examples and win their own. Significant spiritual Victories.

So, to avoid Peter's error and win our own spiritual victories in these last days, Between now and the Lord's return, let's consider four things. Number one, the importance of being spiritually focused. Number two, the power of distractions Number three, some typical spiritual distractions and number four, when distracted, how to refocus. First, Focus or concentration is essential to all success, worldly or spiritual. To excel in any field or activity, we must harness our mental powers and keep them focused and fastened on the tasks at hand.

The dentist's eyes focus on the tooth he's drilling at the moment, The surgeon's gaze is fixed on the incision he is making, or organ he is removing. The politician's advisers remind him constantly, stay on message. All these, as they remain focused, fulfill their missions.

So will we, my friend. To walk with God, keep our faith and finish our course, we must become and remain spiritually focused. Jesus gave us a clear focal point. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, Matthew 6, 33. Are you seeking the king and his kingdom purposes and work in your life?

First every morning. First in every decision. First in every test. If so, you will build a spiritually focused life. you will experience close, sweet fellowship with Jesus.

and live by strong, stable trust in his faithfulness and enjoy unshakable confidence in his every word. With this kind of closeness and certainty you will rise above all the waters that challenge you. Unless you're distracted, You see, in this world, distractions are everywhere and they are powerful. For instance, in war, an army attacks one city to draw enemy forces from another. which it then successfully assaults.

In court, the clever defense attorney attacks the credibility of the prosecution's witness to divert the jury's attention from his own client's guilt. While driving, the motorist looks away from the road briefly to send a short text message, which is his last. These situations display the power and consequences of worldly distractions. Spiritual distractions also have great power and consequences. Anything or anyone that unduly interferes with our walk and work with Christ Is a distraction and a threat.

to our spiritual success.

Some common spiritual diverters are these. Politics. My goodness, Christians, certainly in America, are so wrought up with politics, some can see little else. It's a great distraction to their spiritual life. Money making.

You know we all have to work to earn money to live, but Do we live? To make money? If some mammon is our God, monies and deposit these securities rather than The living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy. Relationships. We all want friendships and Many are seeking to have a a mate to find a husband or wife.

And so that is certainly important to them, but is it more important than their relationship with Jesus? That is the one unfailing, abiding relationship. Past times. I think it's great for all Christians to have a Hobby or avocation, it's a really enrichment to your life. But does your pastime become and consume most of your time?

Does he take all of your time? And then entertainment. We are an entertainment mad world. We have entertainments of every kind, and many people just are consumed with entertainment about 24 out of the 24 hours of the day.

Well, we should enjoy entertainments that are clean and wholesome, but not let them be the center of our lives. Investments. If you have extra money and you invest them, that's good, but don't forget you should be giving to the kingdom work first. Not just To use your capital to gain more income for yourself. That, of course, is a part of your life if you are blessed with extra funds.

But first, invest in the kingdom of God. And then Hal says we all need a place to live. But does buying a house? become the end all be all for your existence? Oh, my goodness, let me encourage you to seek another house that's in another world that Christ said he was building for you.

In my Father's house are many mansions. Make those mansions your goal, not houses here in this Fast fast. Falling, crumbling world. Automobiles, you know, we all have to get around in some kind of a metal and plastic chariot. Yeah.

And so that's a necessity unless you have public transportation or someone else to. Uh transport you. But do you live to buy this certain automobile And then you take great pride in it. Oh my goodness, that's worldly, that's materialism, that's carnal. The Internet.

We all use the Internet, I would say, just about everyone, but Do you stay on the Internet endlessly just searching around for things that really have no value at all. And some of them, which are positively evil, Use the internet. But don't let it Destroy your faith or spoil your walk with Christ. Technology, we use technology in many different ways, but we shouldn't make a God out of it. faults and failures.

You know we're going to fail at times. And if sin should occur or failure, we should go to the Lord and confess it. But do not allow that. to dominate your life. Confess your sin, receive cleansing by the blood, and move forward.

Disagreements with contentious people and contentious Christians are This can really distract your life with Anger and bitterness, don't let it happen. Forgive quickly, don't let anger rest in you. Ephesians forces don't let anger remain Overnight? Don't give plush to the devil. Financial needs.

We all have needs financially. But do we let those needs consume us with worry, or do we take that worry to Christ? Laid at his feet, refuse to worry and choose to trust him to provide for us or show us how to find provision. health issues, we're going to have those, that's for sure. learn to trust the great physician for your healing, whether it is through medical science or divine healing.

Delayed promises and visions. Oh, my goodness, sometimes the Lord gave you a vision and a promise, but it's a long, a long time in coming. Learn to endure in faith. If God is promised, God will fulfill. And by the way, enduring faith is very important to Christ.

We must learn it before He comes. Church programs and activities. Ironically, church itself can be a distraction from Jesus.

So you have a plan and a work to do at church. Pursue it. But don't let it distract you from Jesus. No ministry. No church work is more important than Christ.

So Presently, American Christians are distracted in so many ways, and many are overwhelmed with their distractions. If you are overwhelmed, remember take time to refocus. And how do you do that? Whatever makes you closer to Jesus and stronger in spirit, pursue it. For instance, examine yourself.

not others, identifying, confessing, and forsaking all sin, All disobedience to the known will of God, which, by the way, is the greatest weakening agent, just ask Saint. Yeah, I think it's a very good idea. Take extra time to feed on God's Word, slowly, thoughtfully, pondering and noting timely promises, passages, and references. the prophet Samuel said to King Saul, Stand thou still awhile, that I may show thee the word of God, and give you insight and timely personal application. Oh, that's so important.

take that text to heart. Then pray more. Pouring out your heart to God, as Psalm 62, verse 8 says, We're renewed in prayer. We're saturated again with the Spirit. Offer sacrifices of praise to God and hearty hymns of Praise and sweet songs of worship.

return to using the spiritual gifts Christ has given you. to help his people and build his kingdom. These things will help you refocus on Jesus and fulfill His will for your life.

So again I ask my friend, are you spiritually distracted? And Are you spiritually focused? If you're distracted, well now, You know what? to do. We are so glad you tuned into the broadcast.

In our next episode, we will present another message from one of my three devotionals to strengthen your faith, devotion, and obedience to Christ. Namely, we will discuss how the Heavenly Father, by His Holy Spirit, draws the lost to Jesus to be saved. Be sure to listen in and invite a friend to join you. If this message has blessed you, tell your friends and please consider helping us stay on the air by sending your tax-deductible donation to Greg Hennett Ministries. Also, remember, you may download the Until He Comes podcast from your preferred podcast app.

May you walk closely with Christ and trust and obey Him in your daily tests of faith and patience until He Comes. This is the Truth Network.

Okay.