Acts 27

In this Chapter, we see that while Paul is right in the Centre of God’s will, he finds himself right in the middle of a storm too! This is very different from the story of Jonah who found himself in the middle of a storm on account of his disobedience to God’s commandment!

Paul along with other prisoners were on their way to Rome under the authority of a centurion named Julius, vs 1. Aristarchus, a Macedonian from Thessalonica also accompanied Paul on this journey, vs 2. Julius, treated Paul kindly and allowed him to go to his friends in Sidon, so that they could provide him with what he needed, vs 3.
This shows us that God is faithful, and will never allow us to be tempted beyond our ability to bear, 1 Corinthians 10:13, and when a man’s ways please the Lord, He causes even his enemies to be at peace with him, Proverbs 16:7.

This is the kind of favour that Paul experienced! As they changed a ship and touched many different coasts in the course of their voyage, they began sailing with difficult, as contrary winds began to blow, vs 4-9. Paul advised them not to continue the journey for there would be considerable loss to both life and cargo as well, vs 10.
However, the centurion was more convinced by the captain and the ship’s owner than by what Paul said and the majority decided to put out to sea from there, vs 11,12!

Initially, all seemed to go well, however, not long after this, a hurricane-force wind called the northeaster blew down from the island, vs 13,14, and from then onwards, a violent storm continued to batter them, until they finally abandoned all hope of being saved, vs 15-20!

At this point, Paul stood up and on rebuking them for not listening to him in the first place, he encouraged them in accordance with a visitation by an angelic messenger, that even though the ship would be lost, yet no life would be lost, vs 21-26, and eventually, even as they listened to Paul, ate some food and did not permit the sailors to escape, vs 30-32, that is exactly what happened, vs 27-44!

Thus we see that when we walk in obedience to God’s perfect will, it does not mean that we won’t encounter a storm. However, as we seek God for prophetic direction, that storm will not be beyond our ability to bear and God’s favor will rest upon our lives too, enabling us to give wise counsel to those who are facing the storm with us on account of their disobedience and thus, God will make us a blessing to many through that storm!

On the other hand, if we are facing a storm on account of our own disobedience, like Jonah did, then repentance of our sin and putting our trust in Jesus for forgiveness and grace to obey Him is a must, if we desire to be delivered from that storm, just as we see from the example of Jonah, Jonah 1,2!

Therefore, let us ensure that the storms we face are not because of our disobedience, so that we can end up becoming a blessing to many. Amen.

Rowena Thomas
Mumbai, India.