Let down your nets. After going through some Scripture and consulting other writings, I wanted to talk to you a little bit about listening to God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. A lot of us pray on a daily basis, but how many of us listen on a daily basis? Below I have Scripture from Luke chapter 5 versus 4 through 8. After you read that please see commentary below. 4 When He had stopped speaking, He said to Simon, “Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” 5 But Simon answered and said to Him, “Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net.” 6 And when they had done this, they caught a great number of fish, and their net was breaking. 7 So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. 8 When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!” I know that the Scripture above seems fairly innocuous, but its anything but. It is a classic symptom of not being obedient to the Word of the Lord. In most instances being disobedient to God may seem like a small thing at the time. When in reality, it can turn out to be a very big deal. When we have done wrong and feel a deep conviction within, that is the Holy Spirit telling us that we have done wrong. Thats not a good feeling, been there, done that. As I am sure everyone who is reading this has had that same feeling. Sometimes we pray for things. And the prayer doesnt get answered right away, that doesnt mean that God did not hear our prayer. It just means that He was not ready to answer our prayer right then. Sometimes He doesnt give us what we ask for at all, that is because He has something better in store for us. After all, who knows whats better for us, than our Lord? There is many times when we are talking to the Lord in prayer, when we should be quiet and listening for the Lord to talk to us. God wants us to talk to him often, like we want our children to talk to us often. But many times we want to listen to our children so that we know what they want and what they need, and we always want our children to listen to us. But we, are Gods children, so we need to always be ready to listen to our heavenly father. Im not saying that if you are quiet during prayer that you are going to hear an audible voice that tells you what to do. But Im also not saying that you wont hear an audible voice telling you what to do. Chances are youre going to hear in your Spirit from God. God has given us His Holy Spirit to dwell within us. It is a precious free gift given to all who have received the salvation of the Son. All we have to do is ask for Gods free gift in order to receive His Holy Spirit. So about the Scripture above, here is the moral of the story: Simon Peter and Jesus got on the boat. Jesus told Peter launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch. Now I can hear Simon Peter, in my mind it goes something like this: Peter says to himself, Im a professional fisherman, I know this sea like the back of my hand. I know where the fish are and I know where the fish arent. Ive been out here all night and havent catched the first bait stealer, and here you are, a rabbi who knows nothing about fishing and youre going to tell me how to catch fish. So, out of respect for who Jesus was, Simon Peter launched the boat out into deeper water and he did not listen to Jesus! The reason I say he did not listen to Jesus is, Jesus said, launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.. Where Peter was disobedient is found in verse 5, nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net. Do you see the disobedience? Jesus told Simon Peter to let down his nets for a catch, yet Simon Peter, only let down a net. Where only missing one letter off of one word, but that single letter turns out to be the biggest eye-opener to date in Simon Peters life. Jesus said nets. Peter did net. NET(S). Because Simon Peter was disobedient and only letting down a net it caused him trouble. Because when he let down his net, they caught a great number of fish, and their net was breaking. That is in verse 6 of the Scripture above. Back then, breaking a net was a big deal. Me being from Florida, I have torn and ripped my nets before while fishing. I just simply drove to the nearest place that sold fishing nets and bought a new one. I do not believe there was a Marine outfitter back in A.D. 30. :-) The nets that were damaged had to be repaired by hand. That is a tough job! Back in Peters day, they washed the nets after every days fishing journey. Fisherman today dont wash their nets after every journey. There lucky if they get washed off once a month. So now we have seen the command and the disobedience and we are beginning to see the punishment of the disobedience. As we saw in verse 6, the net started to break. Moving on to verse 7, we see where Peter had to signal to his partners in another boat to come and help them. Heres another part of the punishment. Simon Peter. Now instead of having the entire catch to himself, and making all of the profit from the proceeds of the fish for himself, has to have help from another crew and another boat. Therefore, sharing in the proceeds of the catch. His disobedience cost him a little bit more money in the end. And I would say a final part of the punishment, if were really gonna call this punishment… It certainly would be for me, both of the boats began to sink. Jesus gave Simon Peter a very simple task. That task was to launch your boat out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch. Peter messed up by launching out into the deep and letting down a net. By the simple disobedience of letting down a singular net Peter was disobeying God. If he wouldve let down all of his nets like Jesus had said in the beginning, the nets would not have started to break, the entire bounty of fish wouldve been all Peters to sell, and all the money would have been his. But moreover, Peter showed Jesus just how stubborn man always is. We think we have all the answers when we basically dont even understand the question. Later on down the road, Simon Peters faith grew. That is evident in his ability to listen. Jesus told Peter that he would be the cornerstone of His church. So Peter went from being a disobedient man, to being the cornerstone of the church of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Yeshua HaMashiach. It just goes to show you. If you have a little faith, and an open ear to the Holy Spirit to hear what the father wants you to know, there is nothing in this world that you cannot do. Catholics today hold exorcisms that go on for hours and days. Has anybody, ever seen anywhere in the Bible, where Jesus held an exorcism that lasted for any longer than the amount of time that it took Him to speak the word demons be gone? I know I havent. Thats just one more subject for a later time on why Catholicism is a bad thing. Jesus told us that we have power and authority in His Great Name! We are to gather together and anoint our brothers and sisters with oil and speak healing into them. Were nowhere near the level of Jesus or any of the apostles or disciples, but Jesus said we have the power. When we get to heaven and realize the power that we had here on earth that we did not use, we will be kicking ourselves in the butt. We are to lay hands on one another, and pray for one another. We are to speak healing and prophetic blessings to our family and our friends. But I think my word for this little story is simply: LISTEN. I heard as a little boy, you cant learn as long as youre talking, you need to listen. So I urge us all when we are in prayer, to give God a little time to talk back to us, a time for us to listen. As always, my friends have faith. Remember that Yahweh loves you and Yeshua Jesus is with you always. With prayers for peace and blessings, Ken.
Posted on: Fri, 24 Jan 2014 03:03:01 +0000