Life crises can be good. You read it right: crises can be good if you know how to handle them. This statement doesn’t seem so unusual when you know the definition of crisis. Meridian Webster’s dictionary defines crisis as a juncture whose outcome will make a decisive difference.
Hence, crises can force us to make necessary changes that benefit us in the long run. Or we can ignore or mishandle a crisis and end up in a much worse state.
Everyone will deal with crises at some point in life. It’s inevitable. The question is not if but when we face crises. How we deal with those crises determines whether we experience progress or repeated failures.
If we speak doubt-filled words we will reinforce the crisis and give it power to destroy us
No Turning Back
Mark 4:35-41 records a crisis that confronted Jesus and His followers. Specifically, they had to face a grave and life-threatening storm as they traveled to a neighboring town to minister to a demoniac man. Jesus employed a five-step method to not only overcome this crisis but teach His disciples how to use crises to further their purpose.
Below I briefly discuss these steps. I encourage you to incorporate them into your spiritual repertoire, so you will have the tools necessary to overcome any crisis. Let’s go.
Rest in faith
The first thing we notice about Jesus during this crisis was he almost slept through it. Apparently, the storm didn’t deter Him a bit. He was oblivious to it. He could not have cared less about it. He never feared that it would destroy him. Why not? Simply because He was resting in faith. He knew the storm was coming, but it didn’t matter. So again, step one is to rest in faith during the crisis.
Rebuke the storm
Like Jesus, we’ll eventually need to rise and exercise our authority and rebuke the crisis. We rebuke it with our faith-filled words. Our faith-filled words are stronger than any crisis. That’s because faith is a law, and it supersedes all other laws.
Therefore, when Jesus rebuked the storm it had to stop. The storm couldn’t resist the power in His faith-filled words. Our faith-filled words have the same power to stop the violent winds of any crisis that may confront us.
Conversely, if we speak doubt-filled words we will reinforce the crisis and give it power to destroy us.
Boldly tell the devil that he cannot destroy you because you still have work to do
Release His peace
After Jesus rebuked and stopped the storm, He released His peace over the raging waters. Let me explain. Every crisis has violent winds and raging waters. The winds are the cause of the raging waters. After you stop the violent winds, you must calm the raging waters. For example, demonic activity may be causing a crisis on your job or at home.
Hence, you will have to rebuke the demons before you can call forth peace. The broader point is that you must identify and rebuke the source of the crisis before you can release His peace.
Remember your purpose
The crisis cannot cause your demise when you’re faithfully pursuing your purpose. The faithful pursuit of purpose protects you from destruction. Hence, Jesus was able to sleep during the storm. He knew God would never have caused or allowed any crisis to defeat and prevent Him from fulfilling His purpose of dying for humanity.
Similarly, if you remember your purpose you can have this same confidence when crises come. You’ll be able to boldly tell the devil that he cannot destroy you because you still have Kingdom work to do.
Recall past victories
Jesus asked His disciples why they were so fearful and had no faith. I believe He was astonished at their lack of faith because they had witnessed Him work multiple miracles. Therefore, He wondered how they could doubt His ability. Likewise, Jesus expects us to recall past victories and miracles. This practice will enable us to trust God through any crisis.
Conclusion
Great leaders, nations, churches, businesses and so forth became great precisely because they responded well to crises. For instance, during the Civil Rights movement, Dr. King, and his followers faced the crisis of the horrendous and infamous 16th Street Baptist Church bombing. It could have destroyed the movement with hatred and bitterness.
However, with the five-step method, I outlined, Dr. King used this crisis to further the goals of the civil rights movement. It became the turning point of the movement.
So, both Christ and His follower, Dr. King, demonstrated that we can indeed rise above our crises and use them for good if we employ the five-step method outlined in this article.
Comments are closed.