Praying in the Storm
by T. W. Barnes
1996 · Camp meeting
Kind: conference session
Scripture: Isaiah 25:4, Mark 4:37-41

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/t-w-barnes--praying-in-the-storm
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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Thank you, brother Founders. Praise the Lord, everybody. You know the Lord is answering our prayers. We watching day after day, night after night how the Lord is moving among us in a very special wonderful way. We welcome all the saints this morning and all the ministers and our missionaries that's here in this service today. And the Lord just impressed me that we need to pray a special prayer for our missionaries. You know, we we've been talking about the world outreach of prayer and network of prayer. Sister Tenny is pushing that and we'll be talking about it tonight. And the missionaries is a big big part of that. Amen. They need our help and they need the faith once delivered to know that God can bring revival in any place wherever we may go. The revival is in the word. It's in prayer. And wherever we believe he can, he can. Yes. Amen. Amen. I want you to stand. Let's pray for our missionaries. We have some here and they're out outgoing and we want God to bless them. Father, this is a great day, a great day of victory, a great day of power. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. In the name of Jesus, bless these wonderful people. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Praise God. Well, the greatest thing that can happen on the old campground is for somebody to receive the Holy Ghost. Yes. And they did. Many of them received the Holy Ghost last night. I wonder if anyone knew if the Church of God ministered. I wonder if he's here today. He was in the altar stammering lips last night when I left. It looked like he was about to get it. wondering. Yeah. Good. Praise the Lord. Yes. Who? One of the deaf girls. All right. The Lord's able to make her hear, too. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. I didn't understand. Good. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. One of our ministers told me yesterday that he saw a light in the tabernacle night before last that was much brighter than the lights in the building. So we have a visitation the supernatural. I guess if our eyes could be open and we could really see what the Lord's doing and the heavenly visitors that's always around us, we'd probably never be discouraged. But we've got to walk by faith. The Lord intended that he'll let us see angels sometimes, but not all time. Amen. I want to read a scripture here, and you can be seated.

Uh, one of them here is in Isaiah the 25th chapter and the fourth verse. For thou has been a strength to the purr, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat. when the blast of the terrible one is as a storm against the wall. Then in Mark the 4th chapter and 37th verse and there arose a great storm of wind and the waves beat into the ship so that it was now full. And he was in the higher part of the ship, asleep on a pillar. And they awake him, and say unto him, Master, curest thou not that we perish? And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. And he said unto them, Why are you so fearful? How is it that ye have no faith? And they feared exceedingly and said one to another, "What manner of man is this that even the winds in the sea obey him. Praise God." My text this morning is praying in the storm. Let's pray. Father, thank you for the Holy Ghost. For the word of God. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. I pray that you'll grant miracles here today and bless this people. But we need your touch. Praise the Lord. Jesus. All right. You may be seated. Praying in the storm. You know, there's a whole lot of things that we don't have to put up with. We don't have to put up with the devil. You know, he he may come, but we don't have to put up with him. we can resist the devil. And what did the Bible say? He had flee from us when we resist him. And how do you resist him? In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we resist the devil and the devil will flee. Now, the Bible said that a lot of times I pray for people and the devil's gone and I knew it, but they didn't know it. And they said, "I don't feel any different." You see, they were dependent on feelings, not the word. If you resist the devil in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, believe he's already gone because he is. But you can keep tormenting yourself thinking maybe maybe he didn't go. There's no maybe about this. If the Bible says he'll go, he'll go. Amen. Now, praying in the storm. we'd like to talk to you a little about preparing for the storm. And some people runs from the storms and some has learned how to pray through them until they see the rainbow. And we want to talk about praying in the storms. They do come, don't they? And we're talking about spiritual storms. And we on earth, we have learned to fight far with fire. And when it comes to spiritual things, you've got to learn to fight the spiritual forces of Satan with spiritual power. And we have more than enough to take care of him. Amen. The baptism of the Holy Ghost is more than enough. Amen. It makes us more than conquerors. Amen. We just I don't like this preaching hoping we'll make it by the skin of our teeth. I don't like that. I want to go sweeping through the door. Don't you now preparing for the storm since we know there will be storms because there's a devil out there and the Bible's talked about principalities, spiritual wickedness in high places. And

of course, a lot of these storms we can keep from ever coming. And some of them the Lord allow us to come to help us to grow and to learn how to fight. You know when men go into the army to make soldiers, they teach them how to fight. they go through all of this training because they know there's coming a time the real thing is going to happen out there. And so they are getting prepared. They know what to do. They're told how to do it and when to move forward and when not to. Listen to your leader. Listen to your commander. All right. Praise the Lord. Now, there was a man in the Bible that we very familiar with didn't prepare for the storm that was coming. He evidently didn't believe it. He said, "Uh, I'm going to tear these old barns down. I'm going to make new and greater barns, and then I'm going to say to my soul, uh, take your rest now, for you've got goods laid up for many years." Here's a fellow that was planning to live many years, many years. And that was the last night. As he sat there at his table, probably drawing the outline of what he wanted, in walked a storm called death. And he was not prepared for this storm. He had money in the bank. He had workers. He had farms. He had barns. He had everything but what he needed. You're right. And the death angel said, "You're going to die tonight, and then whose things shall all these things be?" Amen. So that's why we meet and pray. That's why we go to church. That's why we read our Bible. We're preparing. Amen. I don't know how old this rich man was, but if he wasn't 70 years old, he could have lived out his aotted time. But he had his eyes on the world. He said no doubt many times, "Money is power, but not powerful enough to keep the death angel away." We don't know what's coming or when it's coming, but we can be prepared. And that's why we repented and got baptized in Jesus' name and filled with the Holy Ghost. That's why we go to church. That's why we live right. That's why we pay our tithes. That's why we stand behind our pastor because we know the storm will come then we'll be prepared for it. Now I read about one fell in the Bible that he shouldn't have been running but he was running from his storm. You ever try that? You know just plain run from it. I don't know why in the world Elijah I've often wondered why he didn't just go ahead and call far down on Jezebel and get her out of her misery. He just got through calling it down on a hundred and he could have called it down on another 50 if they hadn't acted right. He had the power. Here is a man that the ravens fed him and the Lord caused the brook to run and for him everybody else's spring and well had gone dry because he's the fellow that said it's not going to rain till I say so. And here's the fell calling far down, stopping the rain, God feeding him miraculously every day. And now he's running of all things. Where is your faith, Elijah? But he was just human. We'll all do a little of that running sometimes. Yeah, we And he ran and he ran and he ran and he finally fell out under the juniper tree. And but there's a different chair. This was God's man. The rich man was not his. The rich man didn't survive his storm. But here's God's man. Even though he ran, the Lord took care of him. He sent an angel with a big loaf of bread. Amen. That was powerful bread. That was I'd like to have a meal that lasts me 40 days.

just not have to worry about eating, you know, get up in the morning, have to go eat and all this, you know, and just go 40 days without a bite. And he was sound asleep when the angel woke him up and said, "Arise and eat." Well, he did and went right back to sleep. Oh, Lord, help. He wasn't praying too much. He'd already prayed. That was the good thing about it. The Lord loves us. Even when we run, his people, even when we make mistakes, he still got his angels around to help us. Aren't you glad of that? If he had to wait till we was all perfect, he'd still be waiting. Amen. And then the angel woke him up again. arise and eat. And then he sent him into some storms. Man, he he really he's running from one, but God had some storms to teach him a few lessons. And so I'm glad the Lord loves his own. Here was a man prepared for his storm. Although he'd given up, you know, he he thought everybody was backslid with him. And the Lord said, "Oh no, there's 7,000 over there that hadn't bowed to Baal yet." Praise the Lord. You know the whole story here. But we're talking about preparing for the storm. The Lord will take care of us even if we do air a little bit and run sometimes because Elijah finally turned around and the greatest miracle of all times happened. Praise the Lord. right after all of this praying in the storm. You know, it pays to pray when the sun's shining. It pays to pray all time. You know, if the sun's shining and everything is rosy and beautiful and lovely for you, it's not for your neighbor or somebody else in the church. There's somebody walking through their valley. And if you'll pray for them during your days of sunshine, I'll assure you one thing to God, you'll have less storms than the average person. Now, the Apostle Paul teaches us a beautiful lesson here. He was in a great storm. Every person on that ship had given up all hope, threw everything over aboard and just sat down and give up. But the Apostle Paul prayed during his storm. He was down in that ship somewhere praying and he prayed and he prayed and the winds blew and beat upon the ship and it rocked and no doubt was throwing him to one side to the other. But he prayed on and on and on. Praying in the storm. Praying when it looks hopeless. Praying when everybody else has give up all hope. He prayed until the angel came. Hallelujah. Here's a man that prayed through in the storm. It's a lot easier to pray when the sun's shining, but blessed is the saints that can pray when the church is going through a storm. We have storms hit the church sometime. Some of them just old dry storms, you know, the east wind, just the heat and it's dry and looks like everything is dead. Uh, but I tell you what, sometimes the Lord allows this to happen. We, you know, I don't know why he puts up with us as much as he does. He just loves us. But, you know, we we just have the greatest services like we're having this week. Everything's wonderful and glorious and what do we do? Don't even thank him. He said, "All right, you're not going to thank me. Not going to praise me. I'll just let a dry spell come. And then they start laying it off on the pastor, laying it off on the deacon board, laying it off on somebody in the church that's not living right. And everybody but theirel. And the cause of it is somebody didn't praise the Lord. Somebody didn't pray. Somebody didn't put first things first. Praying in the storm. Now, some of these storms the devil send. Some of these

storms God sends. And some of them we make. And some of them are imaginary storms. Lord help. I deal with them a whole lot. They just imagine they're backslid because they don't feel a certain way. They just imagine the church is going down because they went through a dry spell. All these imaginary storms, they're they can be pretty real sometimes. I don't know we have enough of trouble without thinking up some. Why don't we use our imagination to think about good things? Amen. You can. Hallelujah. You can. As a man thinkketh in his heart, so is he. Yes, sir. If he thinks about peace all time, he'll have peace. Yeah. If he thinks about trouble all time, he'll have trouble. If he thinks about sickness all time, well, he'll have it. Yes. I used to have a woman my church, bless her heart, she was so negative, it's pitiful. She said, "Whenever I feel good," said I can't enjoy it because of thinking about when I'm going to feel bad, praying in the storm. Now, Jonah was the cause of his storm. I tell you the truth, God has a way to take care of us. You know, you can run and you can disobey. And he got on that ship and he is headed out away from Nineveh. He was going to Tasha, he thought, but God sent a storm. And I want you to know when he sends one, you know, when the devil sends one, we can pray and say, "Devil, in Jesus name, get out." But when the Lord sends one, he's not going to stop his storm until you stop the one inside of you. And everybody tried to help the old boy. They didn't want to throw him overboard. He told him, he said, "I'm running from God." and they tried to help him, but they they finally decided we're all going down, so it's better for one. So, they threw him overboard. There comes a time that if we disobey God, nobody can help us but God. He gets us in that shape sometime. Pastor can't help us. Saints can't help us. There's only one person. That's you. When you pray through, God can stop the storm and God can speak to the thing, whatever it is, and tell it to go. That's right. But he won't until he gets what he wants. Thank you, Lord, for the storms of this kind to straighten us out. Now, when the storm is over, and I always enjoyed good old days, you know, I still do when the storm's over. Natural storms, the winds blowing. Not long ago, we had a storm in mind. I guess it destroyed every roof shingle in town. We all had to have new roofs put on. Man, I stood there and I watched that hail and beat everything and beat the leaves off, bouncing around out there in the yard and a little bit passed and the sun was shining. Good feeling. The storm has gone on. The hail still out there in the yard. Here's the signs of it, but it's gone. And I have watched a lot of them pass. And then the rainbow, the rainbow. Aren't you glad when you pray through your storm? And there's the rainbow of hope. Hallelujah. All fresh. Praise the Lord. Those that pray through this storm will see the rainbow. Those that belly ache through the storm will never see the rainbow. So why not pray and love the Lord right on through the storm?

The disciples came and said, "Do you care?" He said, "I'll show you. Peace. Be still." He can still do the same thing. If you're having battles today, I'm closing here in just a few moments. So, we're going to pray. I know you've been praying, but you know, there's a time to some people that would be better off if they never prayed the way they pray. It's a negative prayer. It's a prayer of doubt. It's a pray prayer of of fear. It's really just a a prayer calling for a little sympathy. It's not the prayer of faith that'll battle hell and stop the storm. It's not the kind that a man would pray, "Stand on your two feet and fight." Now, these people are just praying the thing on and making it worse. Oh Lord, I hope this thing will pass, but if it don't, what in the world am I going to do? Oh, we've tried everything in the world. Now we'll try God. You may say, "Keep trotting." You know, we need to put him first. Put him first in everything. I don't care if you do go to the doctor, you better put Jesus first because I can tell you and he can tell you if he would, there's a whole lot of things he can't do and there's a whole lot of things he don't know. Nobody knows it all but God. Right. Amen. Praise the Lord. So while the storm is raging, we can pray, we can sing, we can shout. I've told this before, but old brother be eckles and fits in so well here. He said he was an unbeliever. His dad was an oldtime shouting Pentecostal, just shout and pray. And of course, he'd leave the house. He didn't want to hear all of it just as soon as he could. But one day they looked out and there's a cyclone coming across the field and man it was jacking up trees and everything else. And oh, Grandpa started shouting, running up and down the house, hollering, "Praise God, hallelujah." He said, "Now old dad's lost his mind." that he's finally lost it. And he said, "You know what? That cyclone just lifted up over the our house and went on and hit again on the other side." Oh, he handles the tornadoes. Yes, sir. Anyway, he said that convinced me. My dad could shout in the storm. Amen. I needed that. Everybody needs the old time salvation to help you shout in the storm. Pray in the storm. Believe in the storm. Go to church in the storm. Amen. Amen. Yes. Give when you don't have it. You'd be surprised how the Lord bless you if you'd borrow $10 and give it to the Lord. That's right. You ain't got a dime in the world. You got to give the Lord something. So, you borrow and you give it to the Lord and then the Lord will help you pay that back and and give you a four-fold blessing. So, we're talking about prepare for the storm. And that's what we're doing today. Stay in church. I said it after Sister Tenny was talking believe last night, night before. They have I read it in the readers judge. No, it was in the time or newsweek. I forget which one now. That the people that attend church regular are the healthiest people. They're healthier than the people that don't. Well, that's easy to understand. They hear the word and there's healing in the word. Amen. You'd be surprised if you only knew how many times you got healed while the preacher was preaching. Amen. Amen.

Hallelujah. We have a tithing march. Bring it down every Sunday morning. Put it in the off pan. And you know, only God knows how many of those people he healed on the way down because he's promised to bless the tithe payer. He promised to do that. So how many of those faithful ones would have died of cancer 10 years ago, but the Lord saw it coming and healed them? Said, "These are people strong pillars in the church. I've got to keep them healthy so they can bless the church and let me bless them. Praise the Lord. All right, let's stand. Now, the old eagle flies over the storm. Praise God. Praise God. Eagle saints flies over the storm. They say that old eagle will watch the storm and when the he waits until the wind hits then the very thing that would blow him out of the tree, he spreads his wings and flies over the storm. People that know how to pray is always flying over their storms. Praise God. There's something about prayer is one wing and faith the other. It'll put you over there. Amen. Amen. We closing them with praying for our speakers today and tonight. Our superintendent, all the speakers, singers, whatever part they have today. Let's put our hands up and pray. Father, in Jesus name. In Jesus name. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Thank the Lord. Amen. Bless brother Tenny. Bless our Bible teacher. Bless brother Anthony. Every preacher that preaches in Jesus name. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Now, thus sayith the Lord, some of you that's been walking through your storm, praying your way through, and thus sayith the Lord, this week you'll see the rainbow. Praise God. Praise God. Oh, hallelujah. Thank God for the rainbow. Thank God for the rainbow. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Bless the Lord, oh my. Thank God for the rainbow. Don't you know that was a most welcome sight to Noah and his family to look up in the sky and see that rainbow after their storm was over. Thank God.