Going Through the Storms of Life: Seven Truths to Know

Introduction

"No matter how long you have walked with God, how strong your faith is or how obedient you are: storms come." With these words, Agu Irukwu, pastor of Jesus House London, opens a two-part message titled "Going Through the Storms of Life." This is the first part.

The pastor starts with reality. It is impossible to get through life without facing a storm, and thinking otherwise, he says, amounts to "living in a fool's paradise." He gently teases Pentecostals along the way, who are used to picking the Bible passages they like and avoiding the ones that make them uncomfortable. But biblical reality does not change.

Before speaking next week about shelters in the storm, he lays a foundation today: seven truths to know about storms. For "knowledge is power," and ignorance is the enemy's main weapon against God's children.

Outline of the Message

1. It Is Not "If," It Is "When"

• Jesus says it to his disciples, and to us through them: "In the world you have oppression; but cheer up! I have overcome the world" (John 16:33).
• Isaiah 43:2 promises: "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you." The pastor points out that these promises say "when," not "if."
• The psalmist does not say that the wicked have many troubles, but that the righteous do, and that the Lord always delivers him from them all (Psalm 34:19). Peter adds: don't be astonished at the fiery trial that has come upon you to test you (1 Peter 4:12).
• The constant message of the Bible is not that believers will avoid trials, but that God will be with them in the midst of them, give them endurance, shape them through them and finally deliver them.
• The pastor draws on the Saffir-Simpson scale, which ranks hurricanes in five categories according to wind speed, from 74 miles per hour for category 1 to more than 157 for category 5. He sees in it a picture of life's storms: the betrayal of a close friend, a lost job, an accusation that threatens your reputation, a relationship that ends when you were hoping for marriage, a failed exam, a child who strays, a diagnosis, a painful divorce, a financial crisis, a collapsing business, a long wait that makes you believe God has forgotten you, the death of a loved one.
• He refuses to rank each trial: what looks like a category 1 to one person is a category 5 to another. But everyone agrees on one point: the death of a loved one is a category 5 storm.
• In the parable of the two houses (Matthew 7:24-27), the rain, the floods and the winds beat on both houses. The difference is not the storm, it is the foundation laid beforehand. One builder is wise, the other foolish: "You prepare before the wind rises, not during it."

2. Being in God's Will Does Not Exempt You from Storms

• A storm does not always come from a wrong action. It does not necessarily mean that God is punishing you or that you made a mistake: sometimes we bring storms on ourselves, but not always. Sometimes it comes precisely because you obeyed.
• In Mark 4:35-41, it is Jesus who says: "Let's go over to the other side." The disciples are not in the storm by accident or by disobedience, but in the boat where Jesus placed them.
• The pastor ties this to his church: God gave it a direction, and some are surprised and worried to have met so much turbulence along the way, including category 4 or 5 storms.
• Paul is on his way to Rome, where God told him to go and testify (Acts 23:11). Yet the ship is caught in a storm so violent that "all hope that we would be saved was now taken away" (Acts 27:20).
• "Our only guarantee is that we do not face it alone."

3. The Storm Reveals What Is Hidden

• Every storm is not only a test of circumstances: it reveals what you truly believe and what your foundation is. "Pressure does not create character flaws, it exposes what is already there."
• Jesus tells Simon Peter that Satan has asked to sift him like wheat (Luke 22:31). Sifting adds nothing to the wheat: it separates the grain from the chaff.
• This is why some come out of a storm bitter and angry, and others come out of the same storm with a deeper, more mature walk with God. "The storm does not determine the outcome. What was built in secret does."
• We can sing the same songs, speak the same Christian language, attend the same church. Seen from the outside, like the two houses, our lives look alike. The storm shows what each person stands on.

4. The Storm Makes You Know God More Deeply

• Before getting into the boat, the disciples had seen Jesus heal the sick, drive out demons and cleanse lepers. They had not yet seen him command nature.
• Coming out of the storm, they ask one another in great fear: "Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?" (Mark 4:41). They thought they knew him. They got into the boat knowing a teacher and a healer, and they got out knowing the Lord of all creation.
• After losing his children, his possessions and his health, Job says: "I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you" (Job 42:5).
• A sermon gives you information. A trial you have walked through changes your knowledge of God. God does not punish you through the storm and has not abandoned you in it: he is expanding what you know of him.

5. The Storm Passes, and It Shapes You

• No storm is stationary. Even a category 5 hurricane eventually runs out of strength when it makes landfall or fades out on the open sea. "If you can stay on your feet, the storm will pass."
• "Weeping may stay for the night, but joy comes in the morning" (Psalm 30:5). Paul speaks of our light, momentary afflictions that produce an eternal weight of glory (2 Corinthians 4:17).
• In Matthew 14:25, Jesus comes to his exhausted disciples in the fourth watch of the night, just before dawn. The storm had a limit. "No storm has the last word. The morning always comes."
• The storm also shapes faith and character. James says to count trials as all joy, "knowing" that the testing of faith produces endurance (James 1:2-4). That "knowing" is the key: you can see what will come out of it.
• "No gym builds muscle without resistance. No seasoned sailor ever became skilled on a calm sea." What you ask God to spare you from may be what he is using to shape you.
• We even glory in our afflictions, knowing that affliction produces perseverance, perseverance produces character, and character produces hope (Romans 5:3-4).

6. The Storm Often Prepares You for the Next Mission

• Many want a promotion, a breakthrough, without going through the hardships that are necessary steps along the way. Several of the Bible's great turning points happen in a storm or right after one.
• Joseph is betrayed by his brothers, sold as a slave, falsely accused by Potiphar's wife and sent to the king's prison, a place you left only if the king remembered you. All these storms were preparing him for God's plan.
• To his brothers, he says: "As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to save many people alive" (Genesis 50:20).
• Jonah's storm did not destroy him: it brought him back to the mission he was running from and led him to one of the greatest revivals recorded in the Bible.
• Paul's shipwreck brought him to the island of Malta, then to Rome, where his ministry could expand (Acts 27 and 28).
• "Don't waste your storm trying only to get back to where you were." Ask God what he is preparing you for through it.

7. God's Presence in the Storm Guarantees You Will Not Be Destroyed

• In Mark 4:38, Jesus sleeps on the cushion at the stern of the boat while the disciples panic. He does not sleep out of indifference: his peace does not depend on circumstances.
• His presence did not stop the storm from rising and did not calm it right away. But it meant that the boat would not sink.
• "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me" (Psalm 23:4). "He will not fail you nor forsake you" (Deuteronomy 31:6).
• He may seem silent, asleep, unconcerned. That is far from the truth: he is concerned, involved, fully present.
• "Storms are not a sign of his absence, or of his anger, and certainly not of his forgetting you." They are part of life in this world and of growing in Christ.
• In conclusion, the pastor asks a simple question: is Jesus really in the boat of your life? The foundation of all the others is peace with your Creator. He invites those who have not yet welcomed Jesus as Lord and Savior to do so, because he is knocking at the door of their heart.

Key Takeaways

• Storms come for everyone. The question is not whether they will come, but what foundation you will have laid beforehand.
• A storm proves neither God's punishment nor a mistake on your part: you can go through it while standing at the center of his will.
• Pressure does not create what is in you, it reveals it. What is built in secret decides the outcome.
• No storm is stationary. It passes, and it shapes your faith, your character and sometimes your next mission.
• Jesus' presence in the boat does not prevent the storm, but it guarantees you will not sink.

Personal Application

1. What storm are you going through right now, and have you wrongly concluded that God was punishing you or had forgotten you?
2. What did your last trial reveal about your foundation: bitterness, or a deeper walk with God?
3. What did you learn about God in a past storm that you did not know before?
4. Instead of only trying to get back to where you were, have you asked God what this storm is preparing you for?
5. Can you say with confidence that Jesus is in the boat of your life?

Verses Cited

• Matthew 7:24-27
• Mark 4:35-41
• John 16:33
• Isaiah 43:2
• Psalm 34:19
• 1 Peter 4:12
• Acts 23:11
• Acts 27
• Luke 22:31
• James 1:2-4
• Job 42:5
• Psalm 30:5
• 2 Corinthians 4:17
• Matthew 14:22-33
• Romans 5:3-4
• Genesis 50:20
• Psalm 23:4
• Deuteronomy 31:6

Frequently Asked Questions

If I am in God's will, why am I going through a storm?

For Agu Irukwu, being in God's will does not exempt you from storms. The disciples are caught in the storm while obeying Jesus, who told them to go to the other side (Mark 4:35-41). Paul is shipwrecked on his way to Rome, where God was sending him (Acts 27). A storm does not necessarily mean that God is punishing you or that you made a mistake. The only guarantee is that you do not go through it alone.

What does a storm reveal in a Christian's life?

A storm creates nothing new: it shows what lies beneath the surface. Just as sifting separates good grain from chaff, pressure reveals what you truly believe and what you stand on. This is why some come out of the trial bitter and others with a deeper walk with God. What decides the outcome is what was built in secret.

How can I prepare for life's storms?

In the parable of the two houses (Matthew 7:24-27), the storm strikes both buildings. The difference comes from the foundation laid before the storm. Agu Irukwu reminds us that preparation happens before the wind rises, not during it. The foundation of all the others is peace with God: welcoming Jesus as Lord and Savior so that he is in the boat of your life.