Great Speed of Whirlwinds

Pastor Saroja’s Message - Sunday Feb 20, 2011

Zechariah 9: 14 “And the LORD shall be seen over them, and his arrow shall go forth as the lightning: and the LORD God shall blow the trumpet, and shall go with whirlwinds of the south”. Prophet Zechariah prophesies here about Jesus’ Second Coming, he says Jesus will come with whirlwind. This whirlwind will be of great speed. Nahum 1: 3 “The LORD is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked: the LORD hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet”. During the times of Noah, God sent wind for the first time on this earth, to dry up the flooded waters. Hence, from the beginning times we see ‘Wind’ was a sign of the Holy Spirit. Exodus 10: 13 says“And Moses stretched forth his rod over the land of Egypt, and the LORD brought an east wind upon the land all that day, and all that night; and when it was morning, the east wind brought the locusts”. Exodus 14: 21 “And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the LORD caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided”. When the Israelites were freed from Egypt and were travelling back to the Holy land, Pharoah’s army was following them with great anger and vengeance. The Israelites were caught in between the Red Sea ahead of them and Pharaoh’s enemy behind them. Our great God rescued them from this impossible situation. God spoke to Moses and commanded him to stretch his staff upon the sea. Moses obeyed God’s command and He sent a great wind upon the sea, the waters piled together on both sides as a wall. Thus God dried the land and helped His people cross the Red Sea with great victory. Indeed this was one of the greatest miracles God performed in the lives of the Israelites.

But, in spite of seeing such a great miracle, the Israelites soon forgot God’s mighty work. They again started grumbling for meat. Number 11: 31 “And there went forth a wind from the LORD, and brought quails from the sea, and let them fall by the camp, as it were a day's journey on this side, and as it were a day's journey on the other side, round about the camp, and as it were two cubits high upon the face of the earth”. God was sorrowful and Moses was angered on the people’s attitude. God once again sent strong wind and with it brought quails along. Our God is powerful, His spirit appeared to the people in different forms - storms, wind, fire. Psalm 148: 8 “Fire, and hail; snow, and vapours; stormy wind fulfilling his word”. In this passage, we see fire, hail, snow, storm everything fulfills and obeys Gods command. Our God’s word is indeed powerful.

When Jesus fed the 5000 people with five loaves and two fish, people thought staying with Jesus was beneficial, because their need for hunger would be satisfied. Jesus Christ sensed this thought, He went away from them. John 6:11-20 “And Jesus took the loaves; and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down; and likewise of the fishes as much as they would. When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost. Therefore they gathered them together, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above unto them that had eaten. Then those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, This is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world. When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take him by force, to make him a king, he departed again into a mountain himself alone. And when even was now come, his disciples went down unto the sea, And entered into a ship, and went over the sea toward Capernaum. And it was now dark, and Jesus was not come to them. And the sea arose by reason of a great wind that blew. So when they had rowed about five and twenty or thirty furlongs, they see Jesus walking on the sea, and drawing nigh unto the ship: and they were afraid. But he saith unto them, It is I; be not afraid. Soon the disciples also followed Jesus, thinking that he has gone to Capernaum . They go into a boat and suddenly there was storm in the sea and the disciples were afraid. Their faith was shaken for a moment. Just then, they saw Jesus Christ walking on the stormy sea and approaching the boat. Now they were calmed, seeing Jesus. Here, we have seen how the stormy sea also calms with God’s command.

Prophet Zechariah prophesies that Jesus’ Second Coming will be in a whirlwind. When that happens, will the evil be able to withstand this whirlwind?Psalm 1: 4 says “4The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away”. Godly people will blossom and flourish for the Lord. They will be able to withstand the whirlwind. If we are not with the Lord, we will be blown off like chaff in the wind. In the scriptures, there are various types of winds..viz stormy winds, whirlwind, calm blow of breeze etc. that our Lord exercised in different circumstances of lives of those whom He loved. We see in 2 Kings 2 Prophet Elisha was carried away in the whirlwind. God receives Him in heaven into his arms . When we have accepted the Lord, our Lord will be in our sailing boat. Remember the famous song “With Christ in the vessel, we can smile at the storm…smile at the storm” and thus we will reach Zion sailing smoothly, without any fear. 1 Timothy 1: 19 “1Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck”. Many people do not have the worthiness of the this faith and thus their ship has wrecked. We need the Holy Spirit with us always. Once, when Apostle Paul was sailing, he encountered a huge storm known as Euroclydon. But he did not fear the storm. He let the ship sail with the storm but never lost his focus from God. Likewise, we must also be focused on God, no storm on this earth can deter us. Evil can bring many obstructions in our lives. We must weary about nothing, because our God will give us victory through all the storms. But, we must always ensure that God is in our sailing boat.

Paul encountered Euroclydon storm. Likewise we will also encounter various storms in our lives, known by different names viz….jealousy, anger, hate, pride, ego, lying lips, condemning tongue, false accusers etc. Evil will always raise people against us. Like Apo. Paul, we must be focused on God alone. When the driver of our sailing boat is ‘Never Failing God’, He is the one who will fight against our enemies and destroy those who come against our sailing boat. Ephesian 6: 12 says “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places”. Our focus must always be God, He is before every storm in our lives. Genesis 1: 2 “And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters”. The storms of this world cannot withstand God’s power. God’s power is above all storms.

Remember the ‘Day of Pentecost’, Jesus called his disciples and blew His spirit upon them. John 20: 22 “And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost”. Jesus blew His spirit upon the disciples and said “Receive the Holy Spirit”. Acts 2:17 “And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams”. God has promised to blow His spirit on all His sons and daughters and thus we will become His chosen vessels viz.. prophets, apostles, servants etc. to carry out His work and plans in this world. He will empower us all and equip us to do His service in this world. Remember, Jesus Christ must always be in our sailing boat, only then we will sail forward and move towards Zion. We must be disciplined, we must fear the Lord and be conscientious about our Lord. When Lord blows his breath on us, we become truly blessed. It will bring unity, compassion, love, salvation in our lives. There are several holy scriptures to support this ; Acts 2: 44 “And all that believed were together, and had all things common”. Acts 2: 21 “And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved”. Acts 2 ; 1 “And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place”. Acts 2: 47 “Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved”.

Apostle Paul cautions us, he says many people have ruined the sailing boat with their disbelief. Spirit of God is very important in our life. Or else, if qualities like jealousy, anger, hatred, lying lips, sinful heart are within us, our boat can sink without God’s help. It will be ruined. As the saying goes, if one fruit is rotten, throw it away or else it will ruin other fruits in the basket. The Bible says “If one eye is not sinful, pluck it, we might as well go to heaven with only one eye”. Acts 2: 26 “Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope”. When Holy Spirit comes into our lives, our heart will rejoice and it will bring countless blessings in our lives. Without the blow from God i.e. Holy Spirit, our sail boat will not move an inch. God needs to blows His spirit upon us, in order that our boat sailing and move forward. John 14: 17 “Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you”. The world will not know who is within us. But we know, if Jesus Christ is residing in us. Hence, we will fear nothing . We the children of ROS Church know that God had chosen this place, He has chosen us as his sheep and added us as His flock. We are in His love fold here. Since we are His children, He alone will lead us to His heavenly place. In the book of Revelation, John hears God’s voice when he was imprisoned in the island of Patmos. Revelation 6: 1-2 “And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see. And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.” God has reigned the world and conquered it forever and ever. God loves our church, He knows each one of us and our hearts. He alone can help us sail us through all the storms in our life and reach Zion.

2 Kings 2:11 “And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven”. We see in this scripture, how Prophet Elisha was carried into heaven in a whirlwind and God receives Him in heaven. Psalm 1:4 “The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away”. But the evil and wicked will be blown away like chaff in the wind and will be destroyed. We must never underestimate God, He alone will help us reach Zion. Zechariah says in Zechariah 9:14 “And the LORD shall be seen over them, and his arrow shall go forth as the lightning: and the LORD God shall blow the trumpet, and shall go with whirlwinds of the south”. With the blow of trumpet and whirlwind from South, Jesus will come in all glory. As we read in Psalm 1, the wicked will be destroyed. In this world, we have to work one whole month to earn a salary at the end of the month. Only, if we have a railway pass, we are permitted to travel by train. So also God must be within us, only then God will let us sail in His boat that He has prepared for us. We must be His children first, then we can travel safely with Him. Once we are with Him, He will never leave us nor forsake us even in the darkest times of our life. We should always stay focused on God and smile at the storm.

May this message be a blessing in our lives and the in the lives of those who read this message.

- Pastor Saroja M.