My Center Revealed in the Storm

My Center Revealed in the Storm

“Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give you. Let not your heart be troubled , neither let it be afraid.”
John 14: 27

“As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in my love.”
John 15:9

“These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulations, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” John 16:33

“I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as you, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.”
John 17: 20-21

Jesus promised that His disciples could be as safe, satisfied and successful in the world as He was. Not just in the world to come but in the world as it now is. They all could be as safe, satisfied and successful as He was in the world. He promised.

It is in the direction of this safe, satisfying and successful place that all disciples are to be led by those who disciple them. They are to be led to the safe, satisfying and successful center where Jesus Himself lived. Spiritual directors from ages gone by called this leading process “centering.” Jesus called it abiding.

“Abide in Me, and I in you.” John 15: 4

Every human being lives from some center where they have been led to live. It is the center where they feel their best chance for safety, satisfaction and success can be attained. Discipleship of any kind is about finding and living from this kind of center.

Jesus led His first disciples to His center. He called His center “oneness”.

“I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.” John 17:23



The apostles led others to this same center.

"For I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me…” Galatians 2:20

The quality of our personal discipleship centering is tested and proven in the very real storms of the world. The storms reveal the quality of our center.

As our personal storms intensify, the quality and durability of the centering of our lives is revealed. The question of Christian discipleship always is “Will the center from where I truly live and find my life remain safe, satisfying and successful as Jesus said it could during the storms?”

Any discipleship centering that is not equally available for all believers 24/7 and moment by moment is less than Jesus lived and promised to all. Oneness means it must be there for all at the same time and in the same quality. We need a universally available center.

Any discipleship centering that cannot deliver and keep its promise for security, satisfaction and success in the storms of life for all is less than Jesus lived and promised to His disciples. Peace (safety), good cheer (satisfaction) and love (success) in the storms is the universal mark of a properly centered or discipled christian. Peaceful, satisfied, relentless love in the world as it is remains the goal of Christian centering or discipleship.



The storms of our personal worlds are intensifying and discipleship systems that have not centered believers in Jesus are failing. As good and necessary as some systems may be to the experience of the church in the real world, they are being revealed as imperfect and inadequate because they are imperfect and inadequate as a equal center for all. Nothing short of a perfect center for all will stand the storms.

Matthew 7: 24-27 “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them. I will liken Him to a wise man who built his house on the rock; and the rain descended, the floods came, and he winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.”

As the storms increase the inadequate centers from which disciples attempt to live will leave them out in the storms. The good news is there is still a perfect center in and for every believer. That perfect center is a Person.

Jesus' last command to His disciples about centering people centered in Himself.

Matthew 28:18-20

“All authority is given to Me…. I am with you always.” This universal command begins, centers and ends in Jesus.

Jesus' last words to His disciples left no doubt where the disciple should center themselves and others.

John 15:1-8

“ I am the Vine…You are the branches…Abide in Me…. without Me you can do nothing.”

A branch can only live centered in the Vine.

The Apostle Paul left no doubt about where the true center for his discipleship was and where he led disciples

I Corin. 1:30 “But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption—that, as it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.”

I Corin. 2: 2 “For I determined to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.”
Galatians 4:19 “My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you.”



All discipleship centering that does not lead believers in the perfect, personal, loving, eternal presence of Jesus within will cause people to fail in the storms. They are failing already. Too many are not centered in Jesus. Too many fail to abide.


In a strange way, the sooner these good, important things we have centered people in fail the better. The storms are increasing and the disciples that failed to center their lives in Jesus’ perfect presence within are failing. Those who failed to center disciples in the perfect presence of Jesus have failed Jesus’ followers and Jesus Himself.

It is too late to ask for smaller storms. We need to ask for centered disciples not smaller storms.
We need disciples so centered in Jesus that they, like Jesus, can remain safe, satisfied and successful in the storms. Disciples who can go in the direction of the pain and the storms as unrelenting love are in short supply. Abandoned crosses litter the hallways of our churches.

We need to stop fasting and praying for smaller storms and return to and then live from a perfect, personal center that is constantly overcoming the storms. That perfect center is Jesus—the true Vine. This perfect center is in every believer right now. All other centers, no matter how good and noble, must be abandoned as the center. The storm is here but so is the kingdom.

The centers that will fail are not new but those who redesign them and rebuild them for today’s storms will find themselves and their disciples unprepared for the wind and the rain that is upon us.

Here are a few of the discipleship centering systems that must be abandoned as centers from which we live. No matter how good they may be when used correctly in Jesus’ name, all of them must be abandoned as the center of Christian life. They are not perfect and they are not universally available to every believer so therefore they cannot be the center. They cannot produce oneness.

If you have centered yourself in one of these they will not keep you safe, satisfied and successful in the storm. A storm will come and their imperfection with be revealed.

Abandon them as the center in order to find their true place as servants of the center.

The failing discipleship centers are….



Centering on Jesus’ special leaders.

Centering on safe, satisfying and successful leaders will fail in the storms.

The inscription over this center is “Everything depends on the anointed ones.”

Be near the anointed ones and be safe, satisfied and successful.

The central belief is “Discipleship is in them.”


Centering on Jesus’ special churches.

Centering on safe, satisfying and successful churches will fail in the storms.

The inscription over this discipleship center is “Well led churches take us above or through the storms.”

The central belief is “Discipleship is Mobilization.”

Be led well by them to be safe, satisfied and successful.



Centering on Jesus’ special power..

Centering on Jesus’ power for safety, satisfaction and success will fail in the storms.

The inscription over this discipleship center is “Faith can still every storm.”

The central belief is “Discipleship is supernatural power”.

Be powerful like Jesus to be safe, satisfied and successful.


Centering on Jesus’ special commands

Centering on Jesus’ special commands for safety, satisfaction and success will fail in the storms.

The inscription over this discipleship center is “We must all be the same.”

The central belief is “Discipleship is Conformity as a group.”

Conform together to be safe, satisfied and successful.



Centering on Jesus’ special information.

Centering on information for safety, satisfaction and success will fail in the storm.

The inscription over this discipleship center is “Supernatural information prepares for the storm.”

The central belief is the “Bible information is discipleship.”

Learn the Bible to be safe, satisfied and successful.


Centering on Jesus’ special works.

Centering on the special works of Jesus for safety, satisfaction and success will fail in the storm.

The inscription over this discipleship center is “God is with those who do the good works Jesus did.”

The central belief is “Imitating Jesus is discipleship.”

Imitate Jesus’ works to be safe, satisfied and successful.


A Universal Fact.

No one ever abandons the center from which they live until a better center from which to live appears. Only when a safer, more satisfying and more successful way to live appears will a person make the move to the new center.


Knowing this move is only made when such a center is placed within reach of all, Jesus’ plan for new centering or discipleship is revolutionary. It is beyond special things, people or plans. It is perfect. It is available to all equally right now. In his own words Jesus said it was near. It is within.

Every believer need only look within to find the perfect center from which the Christian life lives. It is “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Safety, satisfaction and success abide in every believer right now. Safety, satisfaction and success are not a place. It is a living center named Jesus.

How strange it is that we work so hard to build special places to center disciples when the perfect center for all discipleship is a person who abides in every disciple from the moment of new birth. We frantically build outside as if something outside could become perfect enough to be an equal center for all. As we frantically build our new, special cathedrals for centering disciples, centering perfection waits unnoticed and unwanted within.


Whether the reason for building these special Jesus places is good or bad, these very special things and places cannot be the center from which believers live and find safety, satisfaction and success. As centers they must be abandoned. As manifestations of the center, may they grow and be governed from the center!

Make no mistake, many things in which we invest so much of our time and effort can be special. Still, they are never perfect and never available equally to all They are never available equally to all in the storms so they cannot be the center Jesus promised. Anything that is not the same for all cannot produce oneness.

Only abiding in Jesus, who is the center of our lives, makes us all one in the only true safety, satisfaction and success. Centered in Him, let the storms come.

The church is one to the extent that it lives from the same center. That is far beyond the oneness we seek in the special things we do in Jesus’ name.

Jesus is the true center. Are you centered? The storm is upon you. The perfection is within you.



Abide in the true Vine to be safe, satisfied and successful.

“Be of good cheer.”