Did you ever notice the arrangement given us in Peter about the promises? Does he say, “Here are the promises; we take them to God and believe these prom­ ises and then we become partakers of the divine nature?” No. Instead he writes, “Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises.” (2 Pet. 1:4) The promise is given to us. It comes from God - He takes the initiative. We believe that which He gives to us and then the miracle takes place. Do you remember the miracle of Peter walking on the water? That was a very no­ ble desire - to be out on the water walk­ ing with the Lord. But wait! Supposing Peter, thinking how beautiful that would be, had recalled some word of invitation which Jesus might have spoken previously, such as, “Come unto me”, and he would have said, “Oh yes, I remember once when He said, ‘Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden’; so He won’t mind if I venture out to go to Him.”

What would have happened? No doubt he would have sunk, and he should have done so. But was it not in God’s thought for him to want to go to the Lord? Yes, but that was not the word of the Lord for that situation. We know that they carried on a little conversation and that Peter was enough to say, “Lord, if it be Thou, bid me come unto Thee on the water.” (Matt. 14:28) And the Lord said, “Come”, and Peter walked, not on the water, but on that word, “Come”. His feet were on the water but Peter really walked on the word which Jesus gave him. As soon as the Lord had said, “Come”, he walked on the authority of that word from the Lord, although his feet were on the water. What was the miracle? That he walked on the water? No, the miracle was that he dared to believe the authority of that word and to thrust himself out upon it. I trust the Lord will bum this truth into your innermost being to avoid your hav­ ing all these strange experiences. Walk in the Spirit and let God intimate to you the things He wants. The question is not the

authority of the word, but which promise pertains to the situation in which you find yourself.