Tuesday 12 July 2011

Fishing in the day





Today I was reading the passage below, 

it is the story of the disciples when they went fishing, all through the night, but had caught nothing. Then Jesus appeared at dawn, at the beginning of a new day, and he told them to cast their nets out to the right. They did so and their nets became full of fish, to the point of breaking their nets. 
I have been pondering over this story for about a month or two. God laid it on my heart in a time of prayer. I had the picture of this very story. I felt God was whispering to my heart, that we may be skilled at what we do, but trusting in our own strength is not going to work. These were skilled fishermen, anyone of them knew that you do not try and fish in the daytime. They would fish at night. Yet Jesus asked them to go against their own wisdom and their success was in their obedience. 
I knew God was asking me, and the church to do the same. Put aside our own great ideas of building church, bringing people to events, putting on well organised events etc.  He wants the multiples to come by his command, not mans good ideas. So what is God calling us to do? What ways of his spirit are we perhaps overlooking to do the job in our own way? 
 It also dawned on me, that Jesus was asking them to fish in the light of day. 
He himself claimed he was the LIGHT of the world, and that no one can go to the father except through him. Religion and the law was not enough. Before Christs death, there was no forgiveness or entrance into eternal life, so this story was a prophetic statement of that. Fishing in the dark was like pre-death fishing, in darkness and reliant on mans efforts to stick to the law, but after Jesus' death, things were done supernaturally in his light, His power and his command.
 Things have not changed, we are living after Jesus has died and been brought to life and as an added bonus that power lives within us! So why dont we ask the counsellor, the Holy spirit, for ways in which we should fish? It will surely go against our own man made ideas, for it will be supernatural! Yet, our nets may burst with people who need a touch from him...what are we waiting for?

John 21

Jesus Appears to Seven Disciples
 1 After this, Jesus appeared once more to his disciples at Lake Tiberias. This is how it happened.2Simon Peter, Thomas (called the Twin), Nathanael (the one from Cana in Galilee), the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples of Jesus were all together.3 (A)Simon Peter said to the others,          I am going fishing.            We will come with you, they told him. So they went out in a boat, but all that night they did not catch a thing.4 As the sun was rising, Jesus stood at the water's edge, but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus.5 Then he asked them, 
         Young men, haven't you caught anything?
   
         Not a thing, they answered.
 6 (B)He said to them, 
         Throw your net out on the right side of the boat, and you will catch some. So they threw the net out and could not pull it back in, because they had caught so many fish.
 7 The disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter,          It is the Lord! When Peter heard that it was the Lord, he wrapped his outer garment around him (for he had taken his clothes off) and jumped into the water.8 The other disciples came to shore in the boat, pulling the net full of fish. They were not very far from land, about a hundred yards away.9 When they stepped ashore, they saw a charcoal fire there with fish on it and some bread.10 Then Jesus said to them, 
         Bring some of the fish you have just caught.
 11 Simon Peter went aboard and dragged the net ashore full of big fish, a hundred and fifty-three in all; even though there were so many, still the net did not tear.12 Jesus said to them,          Come and eat. None of the disciples dared ask him, 

         Who are you? because they knew it was the Lord.13 So Jesus went over, took the bread, and gave it to them; he did the same with the fish.
 14 This, then, was the third time Jesus appeared to the disciples after he was raised from death.



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