Sleeping on Standby during a Storm. (Martial Arts of the Spirit)
“After they had sent away the multitudes they took him even as he was in the boat. And there were other boats with him. And a great storm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that it was already filled with water. But he was in the hinder part of the boat asleep on a cushion. And they awake him and say to him, “Rabbi, do you not care that we are perishing?” And He arose and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace, be still.” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. And he said to them, “Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?” And they feared exceedingly, and said to one another, “Who is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” (Mark 4:36-41).
You remember this story. Jesus fell asleep in the stern, and the waves were filling the boat in which the disciples and He were sailing. And they started awaking Jesus! Usually people are careful to awake someone, realizing that a person may be in some kind of trance, and it is of good culture not to awake people. They awoke Jesus out of their own fear and started with reproaches: “Lord, do you really not care that we are perishing?!” It feels like a family scene. They began with reproaches. There is so much manipulation here!
Jesus rose up, rebuked the sea and there was a great calm. They saw that they had already drawn to the shore.
I ask a question: what kind of sleep did Jesus sleep? Jesus as a Man was a Man of discipline. Yes, He was hungry and tired once, tired and sat down by the well when He met the Samaritan woman. But I think that He was waiting for her as a prophet, but as a Man, He was tired.
And here is the same thing – what kind of sleep did Jesus sleep? I think it is a martial art of the spirit – sleep during a storm in a standby mode.
The first question arises: why did Jesus sleep? If we look at the Scriptures, we will see that He was a Man of great discipline. He was very powerful in sacrifice. When the disciples, the men, the Apostles, were tired and slept, He prayed. And they spent the day together. He was not just in a tent, like Napoleon. He moved with them in plain sight, He also walked, on His own feet. And when everyone “fell” to sleep, He would quietly rise and go out to pray, and return in the morning. And we also read that Jesus suffered more than others.
Why did He sleep when everyone was awake? My answers are all joyful. Jesus never slept the kind of sleep we mean. Spiritually, Jesus never even closed His eyes.
I believe He never fell to live according to the flesh. This is the Lord. He never sinned. It is unthinkable that He could manifest any carnal manifestation. One could say that about Paul, and about Peter, too. But in no case about the Lord, because He is the Messiah. He was in a waiting mode.
What was Jesus waiting for? Why was He sleeping? If He allowed this sleep, then I would ask Him: “Lord, what is the point of all this?” Such a storm, and such behavior – completely opposite to a professional! And the Lord is a professional in storms, He creates them!
And one more question: what would have happened if the disciples had not woken Jesus? It seems to me that no one would have died that day! The answer is very simple.
I insist that He was sleeping in a waiting mode. Because the Lord rebuked them: “Why are you so fearful, O you of little faith!” And He said: “Peace, be still!” And there was a great calm. Then the disciples were amazed: “Who is this that commands both storms and waves!” Such a big difference was between Him and the disciples, even in human terms.
I think that as a result, the storm was supposed to bring something. But since the disciples provoked this conflict, Jesus sped up the events. Jesus had accelerate it, compress the time, and bring this critical situation into the will of God, otherwise He would not have rebuked them.
That is, Jesus was taking it all somewhere. If they had not interfered, if they had not raised a conflict, gotten hysterical, then something would have happened. Jesus was heading for a miracle. I think that it would have been so that everyone would have become witnesses of a certain event or result of this spiritual work, because everything that Jesus did was lessons, it was a demonstration of the instruction, He is the Teacher! Do not call anyone a teacher, for you have One Teacher – Christ. Everything He did was teaching, everything He was, was instruction, because He was flawless. Everything about Him is a parable for us.
Also our situation, and similar situations that arose with the disciples, the first instruction is “Do not be afraid!” He told them so. This is the first thing – do not be afraid. Who among us can fulfill this commandment? Many are full of fears. They need to be constantly told not to be afraid, so that they hold to faith at least a little. Even after reading this, many will forget these things. And they will catch things of the level they are in, or what is profitable or pleasant.
I said before that the most useful people for us are most inconvenient people. Convenient people are the most harmful, because they lull us to sleep.
The second thing is “Do not marvel!” That is, do not be surprised. I warn you that you will not escape anywhere. These things shall be: earthquakes, famine, diseases and lawlessness that will prevail in the human environment. Moral decline, dehumanization – the man of the latter days will be distorted by the fall from the height that the Lord created in man. They will accept the Antichrist easily, comfortably and harmoniously: he will practically be their brainchild, they will raise him up, he will come from among people, and not from hell.
The next thing is “Watch and pray!” Do not fear, do not marvel and watch to abide in this. And also – act in strength. It is written that “those who are wise shall be strong and shall act.”
One more thing. The next martial art is “Learn to pay the price.” Some people who have achieved something, they are respected, free in communication, in society, in business, people who are integral and accomplished – they have a habit of paying. And low-class people expect no one to ask from them, they hope that it will be free. The habit of paying is a good habit of people who are developing, moving forward, because they realize that everything costs something. They do not look for freebies and are not greedy for freebies.
I have the blessing of giving. I am learning to receive when they give with love. But I understand that giving is an art. Because sometimes it spoils people – when they expect from you something that you aren’t prepared to give them, they begin to treat you negatively. I think of how in India people expect help from you, but they themselves have houses, cars, a personal driver, and you don’t have any of this, and you still have to give them. This is the mentality of a beggar, the mentality of a slave.
Jesus says these words: “Go, buy from Me gold refined by the fire.” Buy! And to those maids He tells to go to those who sell and buy oil. He says to buy twice.
There are things that cannot be obtained if you don’t pay the price. There is a position when you are looking for someone to pay for you. If you look for this, you will never get anywhere. First, you will be forever poor, and second, you will live without authority. You will never have it. Because authority always comes to people with a broad soul. I am talking about the right authority. Do not look for where it is cheaper. Where it’s cheaper it’s worse. That is how the world works. The very spirit of where it’s free and cheaper – is a vile spirit.
Learn to pay the price. Serving God is sacrifice. In general, Christianity itself and its concept are that of bringing sacrifice. And the Scripture says: “Present yourselves as a living sacrifice”, first of all, mentally. Life as a sacrifice. Jesus paid with His Blood for our salvation. He opened for us access to the throne of grace. We received it for free, because it is impossible to estimate how much it costs, there are no limits, no price. But Jesus paid it! He didn’t receive it for free. He truly shed His Blood, died in suffering and torment. He experienced torment and descended into hell. That is, He really went to the very bottom of suffering. That is the price that He bore – it is very high!
Today, Christians are some of the most corrupt people. They think that everything will be free. And this spirit of poverty, servility, slavery cripples our anointing, makes it cheap – when the anointed one is a beggar.
The dignity that He gave us is His dignity. Maybe you never had it. You don’t know what dignity is. So you need to take it from Jesus and keep it, not scatter it. Because He doesn’t behave like that. And serving God is sacrifice, first of all.
We must become keen to God, princes, kingdom, be worthy of the spirits of the righteous, who have been made perfect, the elders on the thrones with crowns. We must be worthy! Not to come to the kingdom in rags, but to come perfected, to look into the eyes of these people, and they will say: “Strong man! I want to be your friend!” You look into the eyes of such a person and think: “Oh! You have gone through battles and you have taken from there not the bitterness, but the nectar of life. This is a warrior! Only victors look and speak like this!”
Brother Roger, who was stabbed to death at the age of ninety right in the service, told a story about an old man who met a young man, they looked into each other’s eyes, and the old man knelt down before the young man. The young man acted as if he were an old man, he asked: “Why are you doing this?” And the old man answered: “I know that you have suffered more than I have.” The young man allowed him to embrace his feet. And this beautiful picture, where the young man stands like Jesus, who was about thirty, and the elders worship Him, because He is the Conqueror.
This royal spirit must be in us, brothers and sisters! How much you have and what you have is not important. What is important is who you are…
What is the sacrifice for then? What cannot be taken for free?
The first is maturity. Spiritual maturity cannot be gained for free. Maturity in God is not free, maturity in God is bought by experience, knowledge, sweat and blood. The more you pay, the higher you rise. But many run to avoid paying. They have been believers for years, but don’t know God. He never paid for anything, he has no sacrifice. Such a person will keep getting poorer, he will own nothing.
Godlikeness is impossible to gain for free. Christlikeness is achieved by always saying “no” to yourself, and “yes” to God. You have learned such an art as self-denial, when you say to yourself: “No!” more and more often, and to God – “Yes!” This completely tips the scale on God’s side, and this IS Godlikeness.
Much fruit is not an accident either. I am talking about fruit that lasts, not fiction and replicas. It is impossible to have authority and love of the people for free. You will not be loved for your pretty eyes, or because you are attractive, or because you are sociable. The time of trials will come, and you will see that they don’t love you not because they are bad, but because you are not worthy of their love. Why should they love you if you have done nothing for them? That is why people are lonely: they do nothing for others. To gain much fruit – one has sacrifice.
The labor of love. Love is a verb. To grow in it, you have to pay. Love is a sacrifice. It came to us covered in the blood, in the form of Christ.
And also in transforming life into a living sacrifice. My life is like a sacrifice. I hover over the altar. Lord, give me time on this earth so that I can become a living sacrifice! Like Paul, who considered himself a sacrifice: “I am becoming a sacrifice for the Sacrifice.” He calls Christ the Sacrifice. And he calls not himself a man, but a sacrifice, he reached this point when he said that he was becoming a sacrifice for the Sacrifice.