Soaring Above Disaster

We can strive to be so full of the Word of God and in fellowship with His Spirit that we can release His wisdom into our hearts, our minds, and our actions.  We can be in tune or in sync with Him so
that we have inspired decision-making ability in Him. Galatians 5 states:
16 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.

God has a way in which He intends for us to walk - He has given us, through salvation in Christ, access to the Holy Spirit, who will lead us according to His will.  The more we know the Scriptures and fellowship with Jesus, who is alive in our hearts, the more sensitive we are to know what pleases Him.  The enemy would desire to get us off track and on a path of destruction, but we can discern the way that God's Spirit would intend for us to walk, so that we might bring Him glory.

+++++

God will direct us by His Word and His Spirit in the way we should walk - we can sense His presence with us and discern His direction. Ephesians 5 addresses walking in His light:
8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light
9 (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth),
10 finding out what is acceptable to the Lord.
11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.

On the morning of Friday, September 28, a pilot for Batik Air Lines, Captain Icoze Mafella, was feeling uneasy.  He was scheduled to fly from Ujung Pandang to Palu, in Indonesia. According to the God Reports website, "to displace his feelings of unease, Captain Mafella – a strong Christian – began to loudly sing worship songs on his flight from Ujung Pandang to Palu. 'Usually I only hummed, but that day I wanted to praise the Lord as best I could,' he said." His Muslim co-pilot joked that he should make an album of worship songs.

Mafella recounted his story for a Jakarta church on the following Sunday.  According to the article:

When they were about to land at the Palu Airport, the wind was unusually strong and he “heard a voice in his heart” directing him to circle again before landing.

The Palu airport is squeezed between two mountain ranges and some pilots refer to airports situated in this way as “valleys of death,” so once again, the pilot felt prompted to be extra careful in landing and recited the 23rd Psalm:

“I may walk through valleys as dark as death but I won’t be afraid. You are with me and your shepherd’s rod makes me feel safe,” he said.

After they landed, the Holy Spirit prompted him once more that he needed to be quick. He instructed his crew to take a shorter, 20-minute break, before the plane was due to take off for Jakarta via Ujung Pandang.

It was a quick turnaround, and the article says that "Captain Mafella barreled down the runway." He is quoted as saying, “I don’t know why but my hand kept pushing the lever causing the plane to speed up as it took off..." The article related:

As they sped down the airstrip, the massive earthquake began to strike Palu and both pilots felt the plane sway noticeably to the left and right. The Muslim co-pilot glanced at Captain Mafella with a look of fear in his eyes.

“If I had taken off three minutes later, I would not have been able to save the 140 passengers, because the asphalt on the landing strip was moving up and down like a curtain blowing in the wind,” he testified.

How massive was the earthquake?  God Reports states:

The epicenter of a powerful 7.5 magnitude earthquake struck Friday September 28th in a mountainous area of Central Sulawesi, 48 miles from the provincial capital of Palu. Only minutes later, underwater landslides apparently triggered a massive 10 to 20-foot tsunami that swept through Palu and other coastal areas.

CBS News reports, as of last Wednesday, the death toll was in excess of 2000 people and the search for bodies has ended.  More than 80,000 have been displaced.

The God Reports story also related that an air traffic controller wanted to make sure that Mafella's plane had safely taken off.  Just after that, the controller jumped to his death as the tower began to collapse.

The story concludes by saying:

Many others are calling the air controller a hero – along with Captain Mafella.

“It is important that we are hear the voice of God,” he said.

“And whatever happens we must be calm, not in a panic, so that we can clearly hear the voice of God coming to us by the Holy Spirit.”

There is certainly much to consider in response to this story.  First of all, we can be motivated to learn to listen to the promptings of the Lord.  After all, Jesus said that His sheep hear His voice. We can learn to recognize the presence of the Holy Spirit as He directs us in God's ways.  The Captain had a sense; some might call it a check in one's spirit, or a sense of discomfort, so He followed what He believed were the directives of God in a time of danger.

We can also be reminded to trust the Lord to be our rescuer and give Him the glory when He does rescue us.  How often do we hear those stories of divine intervention, where people, walking according to the Spirit of God and attentive to His presence, got involved in the lives of others.  Perhaps we have experienced a manifestation of His safety directed toward us.  When we see Christ expressed as our rescuer, we can be careful to give Him praise.

In the midst of His time of uncertainty and discomfort, you might say the Captain doubled down on making sure He was walking in the Spirit.  He participated in singing worship songs, even in the presence of his Muslim co-pilot. Worship songs can calm our spirit and connect us with God.  Faith Radio is devoted, in addition to providing sound Bible teaching through which we can live according to God's principles, to sharing music that lifts up the name of Christ each day.  We can recognize how God wants us to know His presence consistently.