Page 8 - Of Course You Can Walk On Water - eBook

"Come!"

Lord, if it is you, bid me come to you on the water.'"

Jesus' response to Peter's appeal was not to give permission, but to command. "Come!"

No further word did Jesus speak. He gave Peter no verbal assurance that he would,
indeed, walk on the water. The disciple must draw his assurance solely from Christ's
command. That command, spoken with the confidence of Divinity, was given to inspire
Peter with assurance, and to prompt him to obey.

That is frequently the way God acts with us. Often He does not go into much detail when
He calls.

"'Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and
offer him there as a burnt offering upon one of the mountains of which I shall tell you'"
(Gen. 22:2). In these words there is only enough information for Abraham to know what
God wanted. Nothing more.

"As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon who is called Peter and

Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. And he said to
them, 'Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men'" (Matt. 4: 18, 19). That was all.

"As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax office; and
he said to him, 'Follow me'" (chap. 9:9). Just two words.

For years a paralytic had been brought daily to the Pool of Bethesda in the hope of being
healed at the troubling of the waters. "When Jesus saw him and knew that he had been
lying there a long time, he said to him, 'Do you want to be healed?' The sick man
answered him, 'Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is troubled, and
while I am going another steps down before me.' Jesus said to him, 'Rise, take up your

pallet, and walk'" (John 5:6-9).

Then, it seems, Jesus simply walked away. For a moment later when the man, healed,
looked around for his benefactor, He was gone.

"Now as he [Paul] journeyed he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven
flashed about him. And he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, 'Saul, Saul,
why do you persecute me?' And he said, 'Who are you, Lord?' And he said, 'I am Jesus,

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