Yielding To The Move Of The Spirit by Pastor Dolapo Lawal: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

Peter Walking on Water

Matthew 14:25-29 — about three in the morning, Jesus came toward the disciples walking on the water. When they saw Him, they were terrified, crying out, "It is a spirit." Jesus immediately answered, "Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid." Peter answered, "Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water." Jesus said, "Come," and Peter walked on the water to go to Jesus.

1. In Fear, They Cried Out

All twelve men in that boat were afraid, and their response was to cry out. In religion, when you sin or find yourself in trouble, you hide from your Father. In Christianity, when you're in trouble, you call your Father. Whatever season of tension or transition you're in, staying away from God will not make it better — what you're looking for can only be found with Him, even if what He gives isn't the exact answer you expected, but simply peace, rest, or a different door opening.

Job wrote forty-two chapters, and only about eleven percent of his recorded words were actually spoken directly to God — the rest was complaint. Yet it was at the end, once God answered him with questions rather than explanations, that Job said, "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee." Isaiah 55:1-3, 6 — "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters... Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near," with the promise of an everlasting covenant to those who incline their ear to Him. A prolonged season of silence in your walk with God is often simply a test — and a teacher does not talk during the exam, because what matters is what comes after you pass.

What qualifies God to hear you is your heart, not eloquent language. Don't recite phrases you don't mean — cry out honestly, the way the disciples did, rather than performing composed prayers you think will sound more spiritual.

2. Jesus Responded, "It Is I"

The Greek behind "it is I" is ego eimi — "I am." Jesus wasn't merely identifying Himself; He was revealing His identity as the great "I Am." John 5:39-46 and Luke 24:27-45 — Jesus said the scriptures, from Moses through the prophets and the Psalms, all testify of Him; the central theme of all scripture is Christ. Every miracle of Jesus has an Old Testament echo: He multiplied bread as Moses did in the wilderness; He didn't need a rod to part the sea the way Moses did — since He is God, He simply walked on it. Genesis 7:18 — the ark "moved" upon the waters, using the same Hebrew word later used of God "walking" in the garden in Genesis 3:8. Jesus walking on the water was Him presenting Himself as the true ark — the one who preserves us through judgment. When God is about to move powerfully in your life, it will often first look like everything is being taken apart before it's rebuilt — like a potter who must crush the clay before he can mold it.

3. Only One Person Was Bold Enough to Respond

Peter's request was conditional on a command: "If it be thou, bid me come" — the Greek word means "command me," or literally, "superimpose Yourself on me." Peter understood that walking on water would not happen by sheer willpower or resolve — it would happen by the hearing of faith. Romans 10:17 — faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Had Peter climbed out simply because he saw Jesus doing it, without being told to come, he would have sunk regardless — it isn't about attempting something because it looks possible; it's about doing something because you've been authorized to.

4. Peter Understood the Heart of Jesus

Peter didn't merely see a miracle — he recognized a pattern in Jesus's own discipleship framework: "greater works than these shall he do" was already the shape of what Jesus was building in His followers. His request to come out onto the water wasn't impulsive; it came from recognizing that pattern and wanting to step into it. That door only opens when you signify your own interest — He will not tell you to come if you never ask Him.

5. Peter Walked Toward Jesus

Matthew 14:29 — Peter walked on the water to go to Jesus, not simply to prove he could walk on water. His miracle had a destination — he wasn't performing, he was pursuing. What sustains the supernatural is a fixed gaze on Jesus, not on the water beneath your feet. The wind and the waves were already boisterous before Peter ever stepped out — that storm didn't begin because he left the boat, and it didn't cause him to sink either. What made him sink was the moment his attention shifted from Jesus to the wind. As long as his focus was fixed, the natural circumstances around him were overridden by something greater sitting on top of them.

6. The Boat Can Look Like Safety, But It Isn't Where Jesus Is

All twelve heard Jesus say, "It is I" — only one moved. The other eleven stayed in what looked like the safer choice, but the boat wasn't where Jesus was; the water was. The move of God is not about taking a risk for its own sake — the move is simply wherever Jesus is. If He's sleeping, the move is to rest. If He's sitting quietly, the move is to be still. If He's on the water, the move is on the water. The goal was never the water itself — it was proximity to Him.

Don't Let a Small Mind Explain Away the Move of God

Luke 11:19-20 — Jesus said if He casts out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon those watching. When people resist a genuine move of God, the problem is rarely the event itself — it's their interpretation of it, filtered through a mind unwilling to be surprised by God. Ephesians 5:18 — "be not drunk with wine... but be filled with the Spirit"; someone genuinely overwhelmed by the Holy Spirit can look uncoordinated to onlookers without that meaning it isn't real. A mind that has decided in advance what God is and isn't allowed to do — where anything unfamiliar is automatically dismissed as not being God — is its own kind of blindness. Heaven is not quiet or subdued; scripture's call to be "sober" means serious, not somber — we can seriously rejoice.

There are people in this church who came in with real, specific needs and left with them resolved — an usher prophesying accurately over someone's family situation, members praying for a stranger's deafness and watching his ears open on the spot. That is not the norm of church life for most people, but it is meant to be. Whether you've been walking with God for ten years or ten days, when you learn to move with the Spirit rather than merely study about Him, you can find yourself walking on water sooner than the years you've put in would suggest.