Lisette Verri
Feb 16, 2017
I am a big fan of encouraging Christian memes and sentiments. There is nothing more inspiring than to see a steady stream of uplifting, powerful Christian memes and quotes on our social network wall as we march through our day. God knows the battles we face in our Christian walk and these incredible little messages that pop into our stream of consciousness are a welcome help and a considerable boost to our morale.
However, there is this one particular meme that I see popping up almost every other day that really bothers me. This vexed feeling I get is as if the Holy Spirit is giving me a little nudge that this isn’t quite right. This particular sentiment appears Christian and empowering on its face. When one reads it, wow! Instantly the feeling of great empowerment comes washing over and suddenly one is battle ready, war face and all.
The problem is, the message in the meme is not scriptural, not even a little bit. Nobody knows who originally penned the quote. And, its not like Salt Radio Ministries places exaggerated meaning or emphasis on internet memes, of course, not. But, this message is profoundly speaking to a large community of Christians and I felt compelled to set the matter straight.
“The devil whispered in my ear, ‘you are not strong enough to withstand the storm’. Today, I whispered in the devil’s ear, ‘I am the storm’.”
Ugh…
The first thing that seems wrong with this quote is, why are you talking to the devil? It is one thing to stand firm on the word of God, to rebuke the devil, to pray against him, to use the authority in the name of Jesus to make a command against him. But, it is a completely different matter to actually speak directly to him. Saints, we don’t engage in conversations with the enemy. I don’t care how many times you hear that from the prosperity preachers. The only conversation we have in the spirit realm is with God, through prayer.
Prayer is a conversation, among other things, that should only be exchanged with God. Prayer is a form of worship. For this reason, we don’t pray to saints, to the blessed mother Mary, to the dead, or to angels, and certainly not fallen angels. God is able to know our whole heart and mind when we pray. He can hear our thoughts and knows us so intimately that when we pray, it is essentially a communicative exchange that involves our entire being. With this, God is able to completely “hear” our petitions, our heart. When dealing with the enemy or any demonic force, the first thing we do is pray to God for God to handle this, in the name of Jesus. Don’t speak to any demonic entity directly, don’t pray to it, and certainly don’t try to exercise authority over it. The authority is in Jesus and the power of His name.
The second thing is, we are not the storm! The devil may bring a storm into your life, God may allow a storm to rage in your life, but we certainly are not the storm. The storm is an instrument. The storm is a metaphor for calamity that the enemy will use to try to break you down and destroy you. The storm is something that God may permit to rage in your life to strengthen you and bring about aspects of your character that He knows you will need for the kingdom, as a witness, as a soldier in His army.
We are not “the storm”. We are so much more.
As children of the Most High God, we are protected by the storm. Not only are we protected, but we are equipped to withstand the storm. Further, the storm has no power over us as we can rebuke the storm using the authority of Christ Jesus, the name and the power in the name, to calm the storm. We can exercise our faith in the midst of the storm to draw us nearer to God and cultivate skills of strength, endurance and perseverance to withstand any storm. Ultimately, we are victorious over the storm.
The storm is an instrument that the enemy uses for our destruction. The storm is also a means for God to strengthen our faith and bring out in us facets of character that we never dreamed we could achieve.
The storm is an illusion that the enemy uses to trick us into thinking we are unsafe and unprotected, that God has forgotten us and left us open to harm. But, Jesus rebuked the storm. As a matter of fact, Jesus woke up from a nap to rebuke the storm. Spend a minute with that.
One day Jesus said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side of the lake.” So they got into a boat and set out. As they sailed, he fell asleep. A squall came down on the lake, so that the boat was being swamped, and they were in great danger.
The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Master, Master, we’re going to drown!”
He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided, and all was calm. “Where is your faith?” he asked his disciples.
In fear and amazement they asked one another, “Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him.” ~Luke 8:22-25
The storm is so arbitrary that the Lord Himself slept almost through the entire thing! No, Saints, we are not the storm. The storm has no power, rule or reign over anything. The storm is essentially a powerless illusion, it’s high theater, a deception that is intended to terrify you, render feelings of helplessness, and toss everything in your reality to the four winds. Rebuke that storm! You are so much more than the storm!
That meme tries to tell you to talk to the devil and tell him you are the storm. How ridiculous is that?
Let’s keep the conversation going. If you have comments or prayer requests, email us at SaltRadioMinistries@gmail.com. We would love to hear from you!