After a frustrating night with no results, Peter and his crew began the laborious task of washing their fishing nets. As they worked, Peter saw the Teacher step into His boat anchored on the shore of the lake. He heard Him call for Peter to push the boat out a little from the land. Dropping his net, Peter hurried over and pushed the boat away from the shore. The Teacher then sat down to teach the great crowd gathered before Him on the shore. As He finished, Peter heard Him call again saying, ““Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.”[i] Doubtful, Peter told the Teacher, “We have toiled all night and caught nothing, nevertheless, at Your word, I’ll let down the net.”[ii] The next thing Peter knew, He and his crew were struggling to pull in the net before it broke under the weight of the huge catch. The boat began to sink and Peter signaled to his partners in the other boat, James and John, to come and help. Both fishing boats were filled to overflowing. Astonished, Peter fell down before the Teacher saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!”[iii]
[i] Luke 5:4
[ii] Luke 5:5
[iii] Luke 5:8
RECOVERY
Jesus was on a recovery mission, not of fish, but of men. During His three-and-a-half-year ministry, Jesus healed disease—opening blind eyes, cleansing leprous bodies, restoring paralyzed limbs, banishing fevers, curing all kinds of afflictions and even raised the dead. Additionally, He fed thousands from practically nothing. He considered these acts as signs of the kingdom of God coming to earth often following His miraculous works with the remark, “The kingdom has come near you.”[i]
[i] Mark 1:14-15; Luke 10:19; Matthew 10:7; Luke 9:7;
SIGNS
Witnessing Jesus miraculously feed over five thousand people with two fish and five loaves of bread, seeing only the literal results, not the spiritual sign, the crowd followed Jesus the next day to receive more free bread. Missing the significance of this miracle as a sign of God’s presence with Jesus,the crowd continued to ask for a sign to believe in Him. In the back and forth between Jesus and the crowd, the people brought up the manna which Moses provided as bread from heaven, completely missing that Jesus Himself was the bread from heaven. Instead, they complained that Jesus was only the son of Joseph, a man whom they knew, so how could He be bread from heaven?
However, the miracles of Jesus as signs of the presence of God did not elude everyone. The miraculous catch of fish caused Peter to fall on his knees as a sinful man; Nicodemus, a Pharisee and member of the Sanhedrin, came to Jesus at night admitting that no one could do the signs that Jesus performed if he was not of God; and on another occasion, members of the crowd argued that Jesus couldn’t be of the devil because He opened the eyes of the blind.[i]
[i] John 10: 21
In his gospel, John repeatedly speaks of Jesus’ miracles as signs. And Jesus Himself said, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will by no means believe.”[i] The works of Jesus were a sign of God’s recovery of a fallen world, bringing His kingdom to earth. Today, God continues to show us signs of His presence. As in Jesus’ time, these signs are read diversely. Some interpret them as evidence of God’s kingdom coming near, others explain them away as coincidence or the work of man and others simply ignore them. When is the last time you witnessed a sign of God’s presence in the world?
[i] John 4:48
God wants to recover His world and relationship to man. As I have heard it said, “He wants His family back.” He created man in His own image always intending for us to live with Him throughout eternity; however, He does not sit in heaven wishing it would happen; He works to bring it about confronting us with signs of His presence.
Lord Jesus, as You departed planet earth, among other things, You commissioned Your disciples and those who came afterwards to tell the gospel to the entire world and to heal the sick. The problem is we don’t know how to do these things.[i] The disciples had three years with you to learn, but we too must be taught.
[i] Mark 16: 15-18
We need to remember that You said we could do nothing on our own.[i] This is pretty clear when it comes to healing the sick or even converting lost souls. We cannot change anyone’s heart, bring them to repentance and belief in You, nor can we heal anyone’s illness. You are the vine, the source of life, power and authority. As branches we often, seem to have it reversed, trying to be the vine and letting You become one of the branches. You are the source, not us.
[i] John 15: 5
PRAYER
It always seems to come back to prayer. Talking with You is the starting point. We must discern Your will and then obtain it in prayer. We can know Your will in general, but we need to know it in the specific. Didn’t You often withdraw to pray, to talk with the Father so You could only say and do what He told You?
THE WORD
George Mueller, the nineteenth century evangelist who founded a series of orphanages in Bristol, England, learned to combine his praying with the reading of the word. For years, Mueller’s habit was to start his time with God each morning immediately praying. Often however, he would find himself distracted, wasting a lot of time before he could really get down to praying. When he changed his approach, reading the word first, He would soon find himself praying for his requests under the direction of what he was reading. This is a strategy worth considering.
When we neglect praying and reading the word under the Holy Spirit’s guidance, we can become discouraged. We’re trying so hard to believe and see God work in our lives, but it’s not working. It probably won’t work as long as we’re not spending time talking with God, listening, and reading His word under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
OWNERSHIP
Lord Jesus, most of all we must surrender to You, giving You ownership of our problems. It is as if I have a sandal with a broken strap. I carry it to the shoe shop, show it to the repair person and ask him to repair it for me; however, instead of leaving it with him, I take the sandal home with me. What then will happen to the sandal? Nothing. The repair man can’t fix my broken strap if I am unwilling to leave the sandal in his possession.
The leprous man, kneeling before You, saying that You could heal Him if You were willing, gave You His leprosy; Jairus, the synagogue leader, gave You his dying daughter; and the two blind men who followed You right into Your house, gave You their blindness. All these and others who came to You for healing gave You their sicknesses, not in resignation but with expectation. They put You in charge. We must do the same whether for ourselves or others; otherwise, as with the broken sandal, nothing will happen as long as we hold onto our problems.
Releasing our problems to Your ownership does not mean doing nothing. We still need to pray and act but it will be different. We will not feel the weight of the responsibility as we’re no longer in charge.
THE HEART
Finally, Lord Jesus, if we are to bring signs of Your presence to the world, we must let You check our attitudes. In Matthew’s gospel, You speak of persevering in prayer by asking, seeking, and knocking and You conclude this discourse by urging us to deal with others as we want them to deal with us.[i] At first, this final statement appears out of place. Why not simply end with the thought that we should expect our prayers to produce good gifts from a heavenly Father who wants to give us good things? Why go off on what seems like another track, urging us to consider how we deal with others? It is, however, not there by accident.
[i] Matthew 7: 7-11
Rethinking this final statement, it seems that You are taking the opportunity to emphasize God’s goodness as our standard for praying. Thus, if we are to do the works of God as signs of His presence, our hearts and attitudes must be aligned with His.
THE PAINTING
In life, we want things to work, not be dysfunctional. As author Kyle Idleman observes, broken things are flawed.[i]
[i] Idleman, K. (2015), The End of Me, David C.Cook publisher, Colorado Springs, Co.
The divided, separated forms signify the dissatisfaction of brokenness. With most of the painted forms, it’s difficult to even discern what their final form might be if the separate pieces were brought together. The interrupting spaces have taken over. The parts are all present, but without connections. they are dysfunctional. As a metaphor for our lives without Jesus, the painted forms hold potential, but are in waiting for a wholeness that has escaped them. A certain definitiveness seems to.be suspended.
SUMMARY
God wants to show signs of Himself to the world as Jesus did when He was present on earth. Since the first century God has been doing this through the body of Christ. As members of His body, if we want to be in on this, we must abide in Jesus. He told us that it is through abiding in Him and His word that we will produce much fruit. Fruit is the presence of signs of God in the world.
We must let Jesus be the source, the vine, the One in charge and we must take our roles as branches who receive from Him through the Holy Spirit. We must learn to let Him have ownership of all that touches our lives; to listen, and only do what we hear our Father telling us to do and say. This will not happen all at once, but will be a continual process of growing as branches.
Sydney Walker, October 23, 2023
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