There are some storms we would avoid if we could. Yet storms are part of life, and learning to navigate them is vital to fulfilling our God-given assignments.
In this series, Navigating the Storms of Life, we have examined three different kinds of storms.
Each has a different source, and each requires a different response.
The first is the storm the enemy sends. The enemy attacks to destroy, derail, discourage, and keep us from fulfilling God’s purpose. When the enemy sends the storm, we stand in Christ’s authority, pray God’s Word, and speak His peace into the situation.
The second is the storm circumstances create. These storms arise through flawed systems, poor leadership, bad decisions, circumstances outside our control, and sometimes our own choices. In these storms, we must refuse bitterness, seek God for wisdom and strategy, and allow Him to steer the ship.
The third is the storm God allows or arranges. These storms have a greater purpose. God may permit them to test, refine, humble, heal, and prepare us for greater authority and destiny.
We are approaching monsoon season in Arizona. If you are driving on Interstate 10 and encounter a severe dust storm or haboob, you must know what to do. You pull completely off the roadway, turn off your lights, take your foot off the brake, and wait for visibility to improve. In a heavy thunderstorm, however, you may need to slow down, turn on your headlights, and continue cautiously if it is safe to do so.
You navigate different storms in different ways.
In the same manner, it is important to discern what kind of spiritual storm you are facing. You do not want to respond to a storm God is using to refine you in the same way you would respond to an attack of the enemy. Neither should you passively surrender to something the enemy has sent to destroy you.
Discernment matters.
Some storms are roadblocks along the path to fulfilled destiny. But as we learn to trust God, those same storms can strengthen our faith and propel us toward His purposes.
As we look back over these three kinds of storms, we should ask ourselves:
Which kind of storm have I most often failed to discern correctly?
The Lord Tests the Righteous
Psalm 11 states plainly:
“The Lord tests the righteous.”
—Psalm 11:5 NKJV
How many of us enjoyed taking tests in school? Some people performed well under pressure, but many of us dreaded test day. Yet throughout this journey called life, God frequently tests our faith.
We must remember who is administering the test.
God is good all the time. He is loving, merciful, and all-knowing. He knew us while we were still in our mothers’ wombs. He knows our sitting down and our rising up. He knows every day fashioned for us before one of them came to pass. He knows the calling and purpose attached to each of our lives.
If God is good, loving, and all-knowing, can we trust Him when He allows a season that tests, shapes, and prepares us?
We may not understand His process in the moment, but He understands the purpose.
Can I trust God’s purpose even when I do not understand His process?
Abraham and Isaac: Vision Offered and Resurrected
One of Scripture’s most profound examples of testing is found in Genesis 22. Abraham and Sarah had waited nearly twenty-five years for Isaac, the promised son. Abraham had attempted to fulfill God’s promise another way, but Ishmael was not the fulfillment of what God had spoken. Eventually, Isaac came—the son of promise, the embodiment of Abraham’s future and the visible evidence of God’s faithfulness.
Then, sometime later, God tested Abraham.
“Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham, and said to him, ‘Abraham!’
“And he said, ‘Here I am.’
“Then He said, ‘Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.’”
—Genesis 22:1–2 NKJV
Isaac represented more than Abraham’s beloved son. He represented promise, vision, legacy, future, and destiny. Yet God asked Abraham to place all of it on the altar.
Abraham rose early the next morning, saddled his donkey, split the wood for the offering, and set out with Isaac and two servants. On the third day, he saw the place from a distance.
Abraham told the servants:
“Stay here with the donkey; the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you.”
—Genesis 22:5 NKJV
Notice Abraham’s statement of faith: “We will come back to you.”
Hebrews 11 reveals that Abraham believed God was able to raise Isaac from the dead if necessary. He did not know exactly how God would fulfill His promise, but he trusted that God would remain faithful to what He had spoken.
As Abraham and Isaac continued up the mountain, Isaac asked the obvious question:
“Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?”
—Genesis 22:7 NKJV
Abraham answered:
“My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering.”
—Genesis 22:8 NKJV
This account foreshadows Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, the only Son of the Father, who would give His life for humanity. Isaac carried the wood for the sacrifice up the mountain, just as Jesus would later carry His cross toward Calvary.
When they reached the appointed place, Abraham built the altar, arranged the wood, bound Isaac, and laid him upon it. Abraham then stretched out his hand and took the knife.
It is difficult to comprehend the depth of trust involved in that moment.
Then the Angel of the Lord called to him:
“Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.”
—Genesis 22:12 NKJV
The fear of God described here is not terror or servile dread. It is reverential awe, worship, trust, and surrender. Abraham demonstrated that he valued God above even the promise God had given him.
Abraham then looked behind him and saw a ram caught by its horns in a thicket. The sacrifice had already been provided.
“And Abraham called the name of the place, The-Lord-Will-Provide.”
—Genesis 22:14 NKJV
The name Jehovah Jireh, or Yahweh Yireh, carries the idea that the Lord sees, understands, and provides. God saw Abraham’s need before Abraham reached the mountain. He understood the situation completely, and His provision was already waiting.
Afterward, the Angel of the Lord called to Abraham again:
“Because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son—blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore.”
—Genesis 22:16–17 NKJV
God continued:
“In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”
—Genesis 22:18 NKJV
Abraham’s surrender released something far greater than he could see in that moment.
Often, a vision or promise from God must be surrendered completely, tested, and sometimes even appear to die before God’s greater purpose can emerge. God can resurrect vision from the ashes once it has been fully yielded to Him.
Perhaps God has given you a promise, a calling, a ministry, a career, or a dream. It made you come alive, and for a season, everything seemed to be moving forward. Then you entered a period in which the very thing you were holding on to seemed threatened.
Maybe God asked you to surrender a ministry you loved. Perhaps He asked you to leave a career that provided financial security, benefits, identity, and comfort. You may have wondered, “God, why would You ask me to release something You gave me?”
Sometimes God asks us to place the promise on the altar to determine whether we love the promise more than we love Him.
The storms and trials God permits can be intense, but they are intended to move us toward destiny with stronger faith and greater spiritual authority. The storm you are navigating today may be preparing you to calm greater storms in the future.
What promise, vision, or dream may God be asking you to place fully on the altar?
When Tucson Became Our Mission Field
Carolyn and I had a deep heart for missions. We had traveled to different nations, lived in Haiti for a season, and participated in mission work in many places. When God brought us to Tucson, we felt as though we had been slightly hijacked. No one had adequately warned us how hot the summers could become!
Nevertheless, we came because God said, “Go.”
After we arrived, God began speaking to me about planting a church in Tucson. I argued with Him. My vision of missions involved traveling to other nations, but the Lord spoke very clearly:
“Bob, Tucson is now your mission field. I want you to do this work here.”
That did not mean international missions ended. In fact, God promised that if we obeyed Him in this city, He would send us and others to more nations than we had imagined. Over the years, many people from this church have gone on mission trips, and we have touched different places around the world.
But Tucson itself is a mission field.
It is easy to overlook what God is doing directly in front of us while dreaming about something far away. The gospel is preached here every Sunday. People are prayed for, discipled, encouraged, and restored. During one recent week, approximately 1,500 pounds of food were delivered to the church and distributed to people in need. The love of Christ is being demonstrated in practical ways.
God is on a mission to reach the lost, the last, the least, and the broken. Sometimes the field to which He calls us is not across an ocean. It is the community outside our front door.
Three times God asked me to leave good-paying jobs that offered security and benefits. In one of those seasons, the Lord said, “Your job is your Jordan River. You cannot get where I am taking you until you cross it.”
The life of faith has involved one test after another. There have been many Monday mornings through the years when my prayer was simply, “Oh, God. Help me.”
This walk of faith is not always easy.
Yet Jesus promised:
“Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”
—Matthew 6:33 NKJV
God desires to bless and prosper His people, but He is not interested only in our comfort and security. He is also committed to His redemptive mission.
The question is whether we will say yes.
Jonah: A Storm That Moved Him Toward Obedience
Jonah was a prophet who heard God clearly. His problem was not an inability to recognize God’s voice. His problem was that he did not like what God said.
“Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, ‘Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me.’”
—Jonah 1:1–2 NKJV
Nineveh was a major city within the Assyrian Empire. The Assyrians were brutal. They attacked Israel and other nations, and their cruelty was notorious.
Yet in His sovereignty and mercy, God wanted to send a prophet to warn this pagan nation. God desired that they turn from their wickedness and repent.
But Jonah did not want them forgiven.
Nineveh lay in one direction, so Jonah traveled in the opposite direction. He went down to Joppa, found a ship sailing toward Tarshish, paid the fare, and attempted to flee from the presence of the Lord.
Have you ever tried to escape the persistent voice of God?
You cannot.
When we were children, we would sometimes wrestle until one person cried, “Uncle!” That meant the person had surrendered and the wrestling match was over.
Sometimes we wrestle with God until we finally have to cry, “Uncle! Lord, I am fighting against You, and this is not working.”
Jonah paid money to travel away from God’s assignment. But then the Lord sent a great storm.
The sailors on the ship had done nothing to cause Jonah’s rebellion. They had merely accepted a paying passenger. Yet Jonah’s disobedience placed everyone around him in danger.
Eventually, Jonah admitted that he was the source of the storm. He instructed the sailors to throw him overboard, and when they finally did, the sea became calm.
The Lord then prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah.
Inside the fish, Jonah had time to reconsider his decisions. He discovered that even there he could not escape God’s presence.
David expressed this truth in Psalm 139:
“If I ascend into heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.”
—Psalm 139:8 NKJV
I have occasionally tried to get away from things God wanted me to do by going fishing. It does not work. In fact, some of the largest fish I have ever caught came during times when I was upset with God and decided, “I am going fishing for a while!”
God was still there in His mercy.
You cannot escape His presence. Since we cannot escape Him, we might as well align our hearts with His.
From inside the great fish, Jonah declared:
“Those who regard worthless idols forsake their own Mercy.”
—Jonah 2:8 NKJV
Those are important words coming from a man inside a fish.
Eventually, the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land near the very place he had been trying to avoid. The fish was not transporting Jonah away from his destiny. The entire time Jonah was in distress, it was carrying him toward it.
God can use creation, circumstances, unbelieving sailors, and even a great fish to move someone toward His purpose.
The journey may be rough, but God is able to use it all.
When Judgment Becomes an Idol
Jonah finally went to Nineveh and proclaimed God’s warning. The city was so large that it required approximately three days to cross, yet the people began repenting almost immediately. From the king downward, the inhabitants humbled themselves, fasted, and turned from their wickedness.
God extended mercy to them.
Jonah became angry.
He sat outside the city, upset that the people had repented. God caused a plant to grow and provide shade, but when the plant died, Jonah became angry about that as well. He was angry that Nineveh lived and angry that the plant died. Jonah was simply angry.
What was Jonah’s idol?
His attachment to judgment had become an idol.
An idol is anything that keeps us from God’s greater purpose and mercy. It is anything we love, protect, obey, or preserve more than we love and obey God.
Jonah knew God’s character. He knew that if the Assyrians repented, God would forgive them. Jonah wanted punishment, but God wanted repentance.
God’s mercy triumphs over judgment.
Jonah had made his own agenda greater than God’s heart. He wanted the Assyrians to be judged for what they had done. If we are honest, most of us can relate at some level. Have you ever been angry with a person or group and thought, “Lord, perhaps just a little fire from heaven would help”?
We may not say it publicly, but we have sometimes wanted justice to arrive quickly for others while asking God to extend mercy patiently toward us.
Jesus said:
“Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.”
—Matthew 5:44 NKJV
God’s mercy toward Nineveh delayed judgment for generations. One generation listened to the word of a wayward prophet, turned from wickedness, and experienced God’s compassion.
Jonah was delivered when he yielded.
God is on a mission to reach humanity. He loves people. He may nudge us to speak to a coworker about Christ, pray for a sick neighbor, stop for someone standing on a street corner, help distribute food, serve children, or show kindness to someone we would rather avoid.
It is often easier to remain home in the air conditioning. But God is on a mission, and He invites us to participate.
Is there a Nineveh you are avoiding because your agenda is competing with God’s mercy?
Storms That Break Hidden Attachments
Some storms and trials are intended to expose and break hidden attachments in our lives.
The attachment may involve an activity, addiction, fear of people, a relationship, a personal influence, a career, a position, or even a ministry passion that has taken a place only Jesus should occupy.
An idol almost always requires something more from us than what pleases the Lord.
Compromised living can create idols. God may allow trials to bring these attachments to the surface—not to destroy us, but as an expression of mercy so that we can repent and return to Him.
God may desire to heal rejection or abandonment in us, but that healing may come through a storm that makes us desperate enough to cry out for deliverance. He may allow our false sources of security to fail so that we rediscover Him as our true refuge.
When a storm has arisen because of our own resistance or disobedience, we usually know it. Jonah knew he was the source of the crisis on the sea.
When that happens, we should cry out for mercy.
Jonah prayed:
“I cried out to the Lord because of my affliction, and He answered me.”
—Jonah 2:2 NKJV
Even when our choices have been poor, God remains merciful. Even when we have helped create the circumstances, we can cry out to Him.
What hidden attachment might this storm be exposing in you?
Humility and the Limp
A. W. Tozer made a challenging statement in The Root of the Righteous:
“It is doubtful that God can bless a man greatly until He has hurt him deeply.”
When I first encountered that statement years ago, I struggled with it. It sounded harsh. God is loving, merciful, and kind. Why would He allow someone to be hurt deeply?
The point is not that God is cruel. The point is that, in His mercy, God may allow us to be humbled so that we are prepared to receive His blessings without being destroyed by pride. He forms us so that we can be entrusted with greater authority.
Scripture tells us that God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.
Jacob wrestled with the Angel of the Lord throughout the night. In the end, the Angel touched Jacob’s hip, leaving him with a limp. His name was changed from Jacob to Israel—a prince with God.
Jacob fulfilled his destiny, but he did not do so untouched.
Most of us will limp into destiny rather than run into it.
That is not defeatism. It is an honest acknowledgment of how God humbles and forms His people. He is the Potter, and we are the clay. He is continually working in us, shaping us into vessels He can use.
Someone once said, “Never trust a man who does not walk with a limp.”
The longer I have followed Christ, the more truth I have found in that statement—and the more I have noticed my own limp.
The places where we have wrestled, suffered, failed, surrendered, and experienced mercy often become the places from which we minister most effectively. Weakness can make us safer for authority because we know that everything we carry comes from God.
Where has God used weakness, humbling, or limitation to make you safer for greater authority?
Refined for Rich Fulfillment
Psalm 66 describes the refining journey of God’s people:
“For You, O God, have tested us;
You have refined us as silver is refined.
You brought us into the net;
You laid affliction on our backs.
You have caused men to ride over our heads;
We went through fire and through water;
But You brought us out to rich fulfillment.”
—Psalm 66:10–12 NKJV
The purpose of testing is to form men and women who display God’s character and glory before the world and the powers of darkness.
Paul wrote that God’s manifold wisdom is made known through the church to principalities and powers in heavenly places:
“To the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places.”
—Ephesians 3:10 NKJV
God displays His wisdom through redeemed, tested, and transformed people.
Silver and gold are purified through heat. As the metal is heated, impurities rise to the surface so they can be removed. The refiner controls the process and determines how long the metal remains in the fire.
In the same way, God knows the exact duration required to refine our faith.
The crucible reveals what is within us. God may allow the temperature to rise—not to destroy us, but to make us usable.
Jesus lived on earth for approximately thirty years before beginning three years of public ministry. The eternal Son of God, through whom all things were created, embraced a lengthy season of preparation before His public assignment.
God works through process as well as power.
The Net and the Burden
The psalmist said:
“You brought us into the net; You laid affliction on our backs.”
—Psalm 66:11 NKJV
That describes something we cannot handle or carry in our own strength. God may allow us to be bent beneath a burden until we finally cry, “Lord, I need Your help. I cannot do this by myself.”
If you feel trapped or weighed down, the Lord may be refining, testing, and strengthening you. He may be inviting you into something greater than you have imagined, but you must be willing to surrender and walk through His process.
Where have you been carrying something that God intended to use to teach you dependence?
The psalmist continued:
“You have caused men to ride over our heads.”
—Psalm 66:12 NKJV
Just when we think we have gained a position, title, or measure of authority, someone may come along and strip it away. God can move us out of comfort and into greater purpose, but the process can be humbling.
Peter wrote:
“That the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
—1 Peter 1:7 NKJV
Faith that has been tested and tried becomes pure and enduring. Like properly hardened steel, it is far less likely to break under pressure.
Proverbs warns:
“If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small.”
—Proverbs 24:10 NKJV
The Message paraphrases Psalm 66:10–12 vividly:
“He trained us first, passed us like silver through refining fires, brought us into hardscrabble country, pushed us to our very limit, road-tested us inside and out, took us to hell and back; finally he brought us to this well-watered place.”
Perhaps you feel as though you have been pushed to your limit, ridden hard, and taken to hell and back. But the intended end of the journey is not destruction. God desires to bring you into a rich, abundant, and well-watered place.
He knows the end He intends for you.
Can you believe that God’s intended end is abundance even while you are still in the refining fire?
Let God Do His Deeper Work
I first sensed God’s call to ministry when I was approximately twenty years old and serving in the Navy. I had recently given my life to Christ while assigned to an aircraft carrier carrying roughly five thousand men.
The Protestant chaplain heard about my conversion and asked to meet with me privately. I had been raised Catholic, though I had not been particularly devout. After surrendering to Jesus, however, I fell in love with Him.
This chaplain was a Southern Baptist, Spirit-filled pastor, and the life of Jesus seemed to flow from him. He gave me a Gideon Bible and told me to begin reading it.
Then he said, “Son, I believe God has a call on your life. I believe you are called to ministry, and I believe you will be a pastor one day.”
I had no idea what that meant.
Little did I know that the following ten years would include many ups and downs as God prepared me.
When Carolyn and I were newly married and attending a church in Central Florida, God began revisiting those earlier words. I was working as an engineer, earning decent money, and enjoying a measure of stability and security. Then God began speaking about ministry, Haiti, and other assignments.
Once I finally said yes, I became anxious to begin preaching. One Sunday morning, I cornered the assistant pastor in the lobby.
A word of advice: please do not corner pastors on Sunday morning and pour out your deepest life issues. Make an appointment!
I told him, “Gary, I just have to preach!”
He looked at me and said, “Bob, calm down. You will preach one day. Let God do His greater work in your life first.”
He was right.
Looking back, my only regret is that I did not allow God to go deeper and work longer during that season. At the time, preparation seemed slow. Now I realize how quickly those years passed. I could have learned more, received more, and been even better prepared.
Through the years, people have sometimes become frustrated because they were not immediately released into ministry. Yet healthy ministry requires process. We must learn to know one another, walk together, and allow God to develop character as well as gifting.
God wants to bring us to the place where we no longer attempt to accomplish everything through our own strength.
This principle does not apply only to pastors or missionaries. Every born-again believer is a minister of reconciliation. God calls us to represent Him in our families, neighborhoods, workplaces, and communities.
Be the best electrician you can be. Be the best plumber, doctor, lawyer, engineer, teacher, mechanic, business owner, or stock clerk you can be. Whatever work God has placed before you, do it with excellence and shine for Jesus.
God wants us to be His witnesses wherever we go.
Joy and Endurance Under Pressure
James, the brother of Jesus and a leader of the Jerusalem church, wrote a practical letter emphasizing genuine faith, Christian duty, endurance, right living, right motives, right thinking, and healthy relationships.
He wrote:
“Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.”
—James 1:2–3 NLT
It is one thing to say “Amen” to those words on Sunday morning. It is another thing to live them when the test actually comes.
When trouble arrives, our first response is not usually joy. We may feel disappointed, confused, frustrated, or overwhelmed. Yet James instructs us to consider the trial from a different perspective. He does not say the trouble itself is joyful. Rather, he says the trial can become an opportunity for joy because of what God is producing through it.
The early church understood this deeply. Believers faced persecution, rejection, imprisonment, loss, and even martyrdom. For them, enduring to the end was not an abstract theological concept. It was essential to faithful Christian living.
The Greek word James uses for trials refers to genuine obstacles and severe difficulties, not mere inconveniences. It can describe something like a ship encountering a reef—an obstruction powerful enough to threaten progress and expose weakness.
James continues:
“For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.”
—James 1:3–4 NLT
The word translated endurance carries the idea of persevering under pressure with a hopeful and steadfast attitude. It is not passive resignation. It is not merely surviving while becoming bitter, cynical, or withdrawn. Biblical endurance is cheerful hope under pressure.
James 1:4 could be understood this way: allow your steadfast attitude of hope to develop fully so that you may mature, become sound in mind and character, and lack nothing necessary for your assignment.
Testing and trials foster enduring faith.
Enduring faith does not give up when life becomes difficult. It does not abandon God because the process is painful. Mature faith learns to rest in God and becomes less easily shaken by circumstances.
Jesus demonstrated this kind of peace when He slept in the boat during the storm. The storm around Him was real, but the peace within Him was greater than the storm surrounding Him.
That is what God desires to form in us.
Trials become opportunities for the love, peace, joy, and faithfulness of God to shine through His people. When the world sees believers walking through genuine hardship with supernatural peace and hope, it becomes a testimony to the surpassing greatness of God’s power.
Paul wrote:
“Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say, rejoice!”
—Philippians 4:4 NKJV
He did not say to rejoice only when circumstances are pleasant. He said to rejoice in the Lord. Our joy is rooted not in the absence of trouble, but in the unchanging character and presence of God.
This does not mean we deny pain, pretend everything is easy, or refuse to grieve. It means that beneath the pain, there remains a deeper confidence: God is with us, God is working, and God will remain faithful.
Is my reaction to this trial forming endurance, or is it feeding complaint and despair?
James continues by telling believers what to do when they do not understand the trial:
“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.”
—James 1:5 NKJV
In the middle of a storm, we need more than relief. We need wisdom.
We need to know what kind of storm we are facing. Is this an attack of the enemy that requires us to stand in Christ’s authority? Is it a storm created by circumstances that requires strategy and wise navigation? Or is God allowing this season to test, refine, humble, heal, or redirect us?
God does not rebuke us for asking. He gives wisdom generously.
James then adds:
“But let him ask in faith, with no doubting.”
—James 1:6 NKJV
We may not receive an immediate explanation for everything we are experiencing, but we can receive wisdom for the next step. God often gives enough light for today without revealing the entire journey.
Faith trusts Him one step at a time.
God Is on Board in Every Storm
As we bring this series to a close, one truth must remain firmly established in our hearts: God is on board in every storm.
He will never leave us nor forsake us—not for the slightest moment.
Psalm 148 declares:
“Fire and hail, snow and clouds; stormy wind, fulfilling His word.”
—Psalm 148:8 NKJV
Even the stormy wind must ultimately fulfill His Word.
God watches over His Word to perform it. That includes the promises He has spoken over your life. No storm can cancel God’s purpose. No attack, circumstance, delay, failure, betrayal, or season of refining can overthrow what God has determined to accomplish.
The enemy may send a storm intending destruction, but God can use it to strengthen your faith.
Circumstances may create chaos, but God can provide wisdom and steer you safely through it.
God may permit a storm to refine you, but His purpose is not to destroy you. His purpose is to bring you into maturity, freedom, authority, and rich fulfillment.
The Holy Spirit lives within every believer. He knows the way through every storm. He is not confused, intimidated, or overwhelmed by what you are facing.
No matter the source of the storm, God is with you.
The storms we successfully navigate become testimonies to others. The strength, wisdom, and compassion gained in one season often become the resources we draw on to help another person survive a later storm.
What you overcome today may become the testimony that gives someone else courage tomorrow.
The comfort you receive may enable you to comfort another person.
Paul explained:
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble.”
—2 Corinthians 1:3–4 NKJV
God does not waste pain surrendered to Him.
Your storm can become someone else’s lighthouse.
Your survival can become someone else’s evidence that God remains faithful.
Your testimony can silence the lie that there is no hope.
How might God use the storm you survive today as a testimony that strengthens someone else tomorrow?
A Storm-Riding Child of El Shaddai
See yourself as a storm-riding child of El Shaddai, God Almighty.
You are not abandoned. You are not powerless. You are not merely a victim of every circumstance that arises.
In Christ, you are an overcomer.
Paul declared:
“Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.”
—Romans 8:37 NKJV
You are more than a conqueror through Christ. You are His ambassador of hope and reconciliation. You carry the presence of God into dark, difficult, and unstable places.
All three kinds of storms are common to humanity, but you are an uncommon vessel. You are a child of God, deeply loved and carefully watched over by your Father.
He is for you, not against you.
Nothing and no one can separate you from the love of God revealed through Jesus Christ.
“For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
—Romans 8:38–39 NKJV
The storm does not define you.
Your Father’s love defines you.
Christ’s victory defines you.
The indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit defines you.
Learning to Discern and Respond
As we conclude, remember that each storm requires the appropriate response.
If the enemy sends a storm, stand in Christ’s authority. Pray God’s Word and speak His peace into the storm.
If circumstances create the storm, refuse bitterness. Seek God for wisdom and strategy, and allow Him to steer the ship.
If God allows or arranges the storm, surrender to His refining work. Ask where you need to yield, obey, repent, trust, or come into alignment with His purposes.
We should learn to pray:
“Lord, what kind of storm is this?”
“Is this an attack I need to resist?”
“Is this a circumstance requiring wisdom and strategy?”
“Is this a season You are allowing to test and refine me?”
“Where do I need to surrender?”
“What are You forming in me?”
“What are You asking me to release?”
“How do I come into alignment with Your will and Your way?”
We will not fully surrender until we say yes to God’s will.
That surrender does not mean we understand everything. Abraham did not understand how Isaac could be offered and still fulfill the promise. Jonah did not initially understand the depth of God’s mercy toward Nineveh. Jacob did not know that his wrestling would leave him with both a new name and a permanent limp.
Yet in each case, surrender opened the way to destiny.
God’s processes can be difficult, but His purposes are redemptive.
Trusting God in the Storm
Perhaps you are presently facing a physical storm. You may need a miracle in your body. You may be battling cancer, multiple sclerosis, chronic illness, pain, or another serious condition.
Perhaps your storm is financial.
Maybe it involves a fractured relationship, a prodigal child, a troubled marriage, grief, disappointment, or uncertainty about the future.
The storm may seem like a three or four on a scale of ten, yet it still affects you. For someone else, the storm may feel like a nine or ten, and they are unsure how much longer they can endure.
Whatever its intensity, God sees you.
At times, we become so focused on determining the source of the storm that we forget the most important reality: God is present with us in it.
We do need discernment, but we also need strength, comfort, peace, and perspective.
Whether the storm came from the enemy, circumstances, our own choices, or a refining season God has allowed, we can cry out to Him.
He remains merciful.
He remains faithful.
He remains close to the brokenhearted.
He remains the God who provides.
He remains the God who redirects.
He remains the God who refines silver without destroying it.
He remains the God who brings His people through fire and water into rich fulfillment.
A Prayer for Those in the Storm
Father, I pray for every person walking through a storm.
For those facing attacks from the enemy, give them courage to stand in Christ’s authority. Remind them of Your Word, strengthen their faith, and teach them to speak Your peace into the storm.
For those caught in storms created by circumstances, poor decisions, broken systems, or events outside their control, give them wisdom and strategy. Keep bitterness from taking root. Take the helm and steer their ship.
For those in a storm, You are allowing, grant them grace to surrender. Show them what must be released, what must be healed, what must be confronted, and where they must come into alignment with Your will.
For those carrying physical illness, release Your healing power. For those facing cancer, neurological disease, chronic pain, or other severe conditions, let Your mercy and strength be revealed.
For those in financial distress, provide daily bread, wisdom, opportunities, and supernatural provision.
For those facing relationship struggles, bring reconciliation, humility, truth, forgiveness, and healing.
Touch those who feel exhausted. Strengthen those who feel they cannot continue. Comfort those who are grieving. Speak clearly to those who need direction.
Holy Spirit, give each person a word from You.
Reveal whether they must stand, seek strategy, surrender, or simply rest in Your presence.
Let Your perfect work be accomplished.
Remind us that You are with us through every storm and every trial. You will never leave us nor forsake us.
In Jesus’ name, amen.
The Intended End
God’s goal is not merely to help us escape storms. His goal is to transform us through them.
He desires to form people who trust Him deeply, obey Him fully, love others generously, and carry spiritual authority with humility.
Abraham placed the promise on the altar and discovered Jehovah Jireh.
Jonah yielded in the depths and was carried toward destiny.
Jacob wrestled through the night and emerged with a new identity and a limp.
Israel passed through fire and water and entered rich fulfillment.
The early church endured hardship and revealed the power of Christ to the world.
Your story is still being written.
The storm may be real, but it will not have the final word.
God’s Word will have the final word.
He has destined you to overcome through Jesus Christ and fulfill His purpose. The refining fire has an appointed duration. The net will not hold you forever. The burden will not remain permanently on your back. The fire and water are not your final destination.
God intends to bring you out into a well-watered place.
Trust His love.
Trust His presence.
Trust His wisdom.
Trust His process.
Trust His intended end.
You are a storm-riding child of the Most High God. The storm does not define you. Your Father’s love, Christ’s victory, and the Holy Spirit’s presence define you.
The Lord is with you in every storm.
