Peter did the right thing. He did not say "I believe, I believe, I believe," hoping to generate enough faith to deliver himself.

Peter cried out to the Lord.

This is the error of the current "faith message." It counsels us to look to our faith instead of to the Lord. The problem is, the faith it proclaims is not the faith of the Scriptures but metaphysical faith, that is, the effort of the adamic nature to believe the miraculous.

I have been healed miraculously of arthritis and near-sightedness—near-sightedness that I had from an early age. In neither case did I first make an attempt to believe or "speak the word of faith." The healings were sovereign acts of the Lord. The only faith I was required to exercise was a determination to keep that which had suddenly and sovereignly taken place.

When my knee began to hurt again, I jumped up and down on that leg and told my knee it had been healed and I was not going to accept anything less.

The point is, I was walking on the water and Satan was trying to get my eyes off Jesus and onto the symptoms. It was Jesus who initiated the healing, not I. My part was to go with the flow, as we say.

Peter cried out, "Lord, save me." The Lord Himself reached out His hand and caught Peter. Peter did not set in motion "faith principles" or anything of the kind. Peter was dealing with the Man, Jesus of Nazareth.

May we always deal with the Man, not with spiritual principles!

Then Jesus rebuked Peter. "You of little faith. Why did you doubt?"

Peter doubted because he took his eyes off the Lord and considered the howling wind, the tumultuous state of his surroundings.

When the wind and the waves are roaring in the days to come we are to keep looking steadfastly at Jesus, not considering the impossibility of our surroundings. Then we can experience the miraculous as we never had thought possible—the powers of the coming age.

Who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, (Hebrews 6:5—NIV)

One thing Satan cannot tolerate is to have people fasten their eyes on Jesus. He demands attention and worship.

I spoke previously of the current practice of addressing Satan when we are afflicted in some manner. We are not to address Satan or rebuke demons unless Jesus tells us to do so.

The name "Israel" means he struggles with God. As Jacob of old, and as also was true of Job, our struggle is with God. Even in the case of the wicked lords in the heavenlies, we fight against them by the blood of the Lamb, the word of our testimony, and by loving not our life to the death. In other words, we fight against Satan by interacting with God.

Our presumptuous flesh desires to ride gloriously into the battle, trusting in the name of Jesus. Satan enjoys this bravado immensely. While we are hurling defiance against the enemy, preening ourselves on our spiritual might, Satan sneaks in behind us and leads us astray.

To be continued.