by Dr. Johnnie Blount
When the Storm Finds You
I never imagined I would find myself in a spiritual storm as fierce as the one I am walking through right now. But in this storm, I have come to understand — truly understand — every sermon I have ever preached about faith. I have had to apply every lesson about believing, trusting, and resting in the Word. Walking in faith is knowing without a doubt. It’s believing that the Lord has already taken care of it, even before the storm began.
I keep reminding myself: “Johnnie Blount, you are going somewhere.” What the enemy means for harm, God is working for our good. So I press in. I press into rest. Resting in the finished work of grace.
James 1 says to let patience have her perfect work. When she is finished, you will be mature, complete, and lacking nothing. Some days, with tears in my eyes, I ask the Holy Spirit to help me quiet the noise in my head and silence the fears running through my mind. I ask Him to help me rest and rely on His strength.
What a Storm Looks Like
When a storm comes, it announces itself. First, the wind — blowing and pushing everything that isn’t nailed down. Chairs topple. Tables slide. Patio rugs lift and threaten to fly away. Then comes the cold rain, followed by hail. A tornado forms. Lightning flashes so bright it turns midnight into midday. Then the thunder — deep and rolling — making the very windows vibrate.
In those moments, I have to calm myself and speak truth out loud: “Thunder can shake the house, but it cannot hurt you. You are okay. The clouds only hold so much water. The hail will stop. The wind will cease. This storm — the one you are walking through right now — will come to an end.”
We seem to forget, in the middle of our storms, that we have survived storms before. So many we can’t even count them all.
The Day They Left Me to Die
I could tell you things that would change how you see faith.
I was crushed in a coal mine. They laid me on the ground to let me die in peace. I had broken ribs. My shoulder ligaments were torn and displaced. My lungs were punctured. They said I had no pulse — but I was still alive. I could hear them talking over me.
It took six hours to get me out of that mine. Then I was life-flighted from Wheatcroft, Kentucky, to Deaconess Midtown Hospital in Evansville, Indiana. When I arrived in Evansville, the doctor asked the medics why I had been flown in. They told him everything that had been wrong with me underground. He examined me and told them: there is nothing wrong with this man. God completely healed me enroute to the hospital.
What Kept Me
In that storm — that dark, underground, suffocating storm — I chose not to look at my circumstances. I believed what the Word had already declared about me. I knew the Lord had His hand on my life, and that He was not finished with me. Deep within myself, I refused to die. I refused to be broken or crippled. And I refused to let the enemy steal my purpose or my life — because I knew my Father was for me and in me.
I was standing in agreement with the Word.
Believing I was going to live to raise my son Johnnie, and to meet my son David, whom Donis was carrying — and gave birth to just two days later. I found rest because I chose to remember the goodness of God. I had seen the goodness of God through all the years, in all He had done, and in all He had been to me and my family.
Hold Fast — This Too Shall Pass
You know as well as I do: the Lord is faithful. This too shall pass.
Stay in the Word. Keep it before your eyes and in your ears. Listen for the conversations that encourage you. Do not let your heart settle on anything that is not moving you toward victory. If trials and tribulations could destroy you, they already would have.
Paul said it best in Romans 8:35–38 — Who shall separate us from the love of God? Look at everything he listed in those verses. Those same forces are still at work today, trying to convince us that the finished work is not truly finished. But we are fully persuaded. He who began a good work in us will bring it to completion. We know this because His Word cannot lie.
Why Worry?
Regardless of our suffering, trials, tribulations, and persecutions — our hearts hold fast. Because we know that the same resurrection power that raised Jesus from the dead lives in us.
So why worry?