“Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one!”

When you have eyes to see you will see with ease and with understanding. Your senses will be attacked, your logic must be set aside, and you must lean into the wind of God’s plan.

As in sailing you do not sail or face directly into the wind. That point of sail is called “In irons.” It is a no go point of sail.

We must not be fearfully focused on the happenings of today. Most were clearly prophesied. The winds of change we are feeling will be dealt with far more successfully if we set our sails at an angle to the wind. We must use the wind to our benefit.

One of the fastest points of sail is called “Close reach or beating” Looking at a clock, your vessel is pointed at the 1:00 position to the wind even though your destination is at 12:00. The wind is coming from 12:00 so… the angle gets you moving along with drawing your sail in tight and keeping pressure on the rudder. If you let go of the rudder, the boat will turn into the wind and stop forward motion. Our hand is meant to be on that rudder. God’s sometimes turbulent instructions are not supposed to stop you rather He is trying to empower us.

The boat is our personal life, the sails are the understanding we have of the Word and the water is the resistant sea of life we all must cross.

Our understanding of how our boat operates tells is to find the best angle to the wind. Sometimes a sailor will spot a point on an opposite shore and use it to angle the boat into the wind properly. What if a person or a need were used to point our way, even though a “storm” is brewing? What if a condition God has wanted us to deal with is a point we could aim for?

When we sense God’s fury is rising according to His Word, why should we be fearful? Why not adjust our course toward a point on the opposite shore of our problems and head that way, deal with it. It is not our final destination! It is however a way to get us to our destination successfully.

The nature of sailing through the storms of life is that we almost always have to take a different “tack” or less direct direction in order to eventually get to where we want to go. We zig-zag as it were but we know we are moving up-wind. We are getting there.

Each time we “come about” zig or zag, we are looking at different shore line maybe a different problem or person that God wants us to aim at. The Wind will empower us as we turn our rudder accordingly, feeling the resistance vibrate the rudder as we gain speed.

Remember in turning to duck, as the boom swings to the other side of the boat and  catches the wind. Do not be half hearted about this maneuver. Let the forward momentum of your successfully dealing with what ever it was the Holy Spirit had you aim at before empower your next “tack.” If the boat does not complete the process of “coming about” if it lacks enough forward motion, you will find yourself heading into the wind, “luffing” at a dead stop or “In irons.”

In John 16:5 Jesus tells the disciples “I am going to Him who sent Me.” Sorrow filled their hearts. This was a storm to the disciples. “It is to your advantage that I go away.” (vs 7)

This is the angle, the “tack,” the point of sail they needed to see. Understanding will come if they embrace the correct point of sail. The best speed to their destination is achieved as the “all truth” is revealed to them. Their (our) sail must be set to take advantage of the Wind of these times. Our rudder is held firm against life’s resistance keeping the Wind, our source of forward propulsion, in our sails. We need the pressure.

Remember that night Jesus walked on the water it was storming. When He (and Peter) got into the boat, Jesus did not say “Peace…be still” to the Storm. One gospel says,
”Then they willingly received Him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land where they were going.” John 6:21 (NKJV) 

That night God was the Storm. The disciples had failed to learn something.

“Then He got into the boat with them, and the wind stopped; and they were utterly astonished, for they had not gained any insight from the incident of the loaves, but their heart was hardened.” Mark 6:51-52 (NASB)

“If we remain in His grip, how far from His heart can we be!”

In the guardianship of Christ,

Michael

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