DISCERNING STORMS

1.  Once Upon an Intelligent Storm

It is critical to discern storms.  Some storms are natural, some are not, and nature carries its markers of times and seasons (Matthew 16:3; Genesis 1:14).  For instance, the “great storm” that “arose” to challenge Jesus and His disciples on their collective mission to “the other side” of their further missionary assignment was no ordinary storm.  It was a storm that could “obey,” meaning that it could hear, meaning that it had ears, meaning that it had some kind of volition and intelligence (Mark 4:35-41).  Maybe it was a he or a she of some strange sort, as modern meteorologists would categorise.

That storm “arose,” as if it had been sitting tactically still, monitoring the sea, until Jesus with His disciples, like a long-tracked enemy, appeared on its marine radar.  It was a storm whose strange and sudden ‘arising’ had to be matched with the superior arising of the Master of the storms and the seas in that boxing arena of the Galilee Sea.  It “arose … And he arose.”

The first malevolent ‘arising’ of that Great Storm (what a name, what a title!) had forced the disciples into sudden panic, so the Master had to arise, as Commander of the Armies of Heaven.  At that second ‘arising,’ the “great storm,” which had terrorised the sea until then, was promptly overruled with a “great calm,” to the wonderment of the hitherto threatened disciples (Mark 4:35-41).  From “a great storm” to “a great calm.”  It had been no contest at all between the two.

2.  The Limits of Technical Tools

That Galilee Sea storm was one that needed to be spoken to, rather than be engaged with the famed tools of years of fishermen’s experience.  That was where the disciples missed it, until they discerned the storm and cried out to Jesus, “Master!” calling Him by His proper title in those circumstances where the enemy had previously been hailed as “GREAT Storm!”

Alas, the losses that they would have suffered, as on Jonah’s ship, if they had gone on blindly trusting their natural tools to deal with a supernatural storm.  It is sometimes the temptation from those believed to be learned, who mock trusting disciples, that they waste their time calling upon a sleeping Jesus to stop their pestilent storms when they have their technical tools from years of experience for dealing with a stormy challenge.  Alas, spiritual storms do not answer to technical tools.  Devils do not respect professors.

3.  A Metrological Logic

It is critical to discern storms, even the world does, and has learned to give them human names, as if they know something that we do not.  Some storm is a he, and the other a she, as if there is more to the names than they would say.

I remember Hurricane Katrina, in August 2005, reputed to have been the costliest and one of the deadliest ‘natural’ disasters to have visited the United States of America.  She rode through the Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama coasts, killing an estimated 1,300 people, and causing damage valued at over $120 billion, smashing the record previously held by Hurricane Andrew, an earlier visitor in 1992, who had destroyed hundreds of thousands of homes, causing a hitherto unrivalled economic destruction, especially in the states of Florida and Louisiana.

There was Allison in 1995, and Opal and Erika and Alene and Harvey and Winifred, and there was Niki, who tore through Hawaii in 1992, causing an estimated property damage of $1 billion.  As in boxing and wrestling, where contenders are rated from “super heavyweight” to “lightweight” or “featherweight,” storm personalities are not only given names and gender, they are rated from Category 1 to Category 5, according to their relative strengths in wind speed, as if to emphasize that “the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light” (Luke 16:8).

4.  Lessons from Jonah’s Storm

Note this lesson: When even fishermen who are ordinarily used to the sea begin to cry out for help, like the disciples in the Galilee storm; when experienced sailors begin to cry desperately for help beyond themselves, like those on Jonah’s ship, it is no ordinary storm.  Jonah’s storm appears to have been of a spiritual kind (Jonah 1:3-16).  After the mariners had tried everything they knew in the book, and it had failed, they suddenly realised that it was a different kind of storm; a kind never taught in the Ivy League of marine schools, never cited in the prestigious journals of the time, never seen in the practical ‘laboratory’ of all their years of being on the sea and dealing with storms.  They quickly changed approach and began to seek a spiritual solution, calling upon their gods.

I wonder how they would have handled the Harvard Professor of Meteorology, blinded by books, who rose up to tell them in that storm that they were stupid and superstitious, spiritualising a natural storm that merely needed a better reading of their compass and a slight adjustment of the rudder of their troubled ship.  They might have thrown him to the fishes before they got to Jonah.

You waste efforts when you fail to discern your storms.  You lose time and goods overboard when you keep applying natural solutions to supernatural storms.  Discern your storms.  When they persist, when no one seems able to resolve them, when they prolong, you might be dealing with a different kind of storm, for which you might need to throw someone overboard, or call upon the Master, or arise and speak to the storms yourself in the name of the Lord.  Some storms will hear a superior voice, but others may never cease until some ‘strongman’ Jonah is ‘sacrificed.’  Sometimes, that does not take the hand of God; it takes informed human hands.

From The Preacher’s diary,

December 10, 2025.

Plan to attend the 20^th Anniversary retreat of The Preacher in the United Kingdom.

Expected speakers: Prophetess Sharon Stone, Pst Jonathan Oloyede, Prof Kontein Trinya

Date: May 1 -3, 2026

• Single occupancy: £240 for the 2 nights
• Double occupancy: £200 per person for two people sharing the room for the 2 nights
• Children under 4: free
• Children 5-11 are priced at £100 for the 2 nights
• 12 years and above are priced the same as an adult
• Day delegates (on Saturday): £35 per day – which includes buffet lunch
• A non-refundable deposit of £60 will be needed by March 29th/Sun and the balance by April 15th/Thurs, before the start of the retreat

Account Name: The Preacher UK

Sort code: 20-44-91

Account no: 23974367