Instructions

I am reading A.W. Tozer's book entitled Jesus, Author of Our Faith, and he emphasizes the need to not just read about God like we are reading a school book or a novel. We should realize how real our God is, that we are reading about and experiencing Him at a real, deeper level, and that will come from the faith that many times will confuse others who see God in a different way. When Jesus was teaching and healing those following Him, He was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, and getting into one of the boats on the shore, He told one of the fishermen named Simon to push out a little, and He began to teach people from the boat. The following scripture speaks to this very event in Luke 5: 1 Now it happened that while the crowd was pressing around Him and listening to the word of God, He was standing by the lake of Gennesaret; ² and He saw two boats lying at the edge of the lake; but the fishermen had gotten out of them and were washing their nets. ³ And He got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little way from the land. And He sat down and began teaching the people from the boat.

Simon didn't even know Jesus at this point, but when Jesus gave Him instructions, Simon did just that; he pushed his boat out into the water to let Jesus teach. After Jesus was through teaching, Simon experienced the effect of the power of the Son of God as Jesus told Simon to put his nets in the water. Simon explained they had fished all night to no avail, and no fish, but he followed the instructions Jesus gave Him. Here is what happened next. Luke 5: ⁴ When He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” ⁵ Simon answered and said, “Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing, but I will do as You say and let down the nets.” ⁶ When they had done this, they enclosed a great quantity of fish, and their nets began to break; ⁷ so they signaled to their partners in the other boat for them to come and help them. And they came and filled both of the boats, so that they began to sink.

Conclusion: When Jesus says to do something, it is best to DO IT! The hymn Have Faith in God has a beautiful message about faith that we should really listen too when we sing it. Here is verse two and the chorus: Verse 2 Have faith in God when your prayers are unanswered, Your earnest plea He will never forget; Wait on the Lord, trust His Word and be patient, Have faith in God, He'll answer yet. Chorus Have faith in God, He's on His throne; Have faith in God, He watches o'er His own; He cannot fail, He must prevail; Have faith in God, have faith in God. This illustrative truth of how Jesus impacted these fishermen should prompt us to have faith in God, and one of the elements of this event jump out to me. Simon followed the instructions of Jesus and the end result blessed him and the other fishermen by filling their fishing nets with a big catch. We live in a world that preaches relativity, from the perspective of man's wisdom and knowledge. Relativity (def) - a 20th-century physical theory, formulated primarily by Albert Einstein, defining space, time, and energy as interdependent and relative to an observer's frame of reference, rather than absolute.

As believers walking our faith walk, we come from a very absolute reference, which is powered by our faith. This absolute belief in the power and presence of God drives how we follow Jesus, and it produces a faith that follows His instructions per the Word of God. We miss out on many elements of this faith, encouraging and strengthening us if we do not study the Book, the Bible. In the Word of God, we read instructions left to us by Jesus, the Word, and thus our faith suffers. You don't have to be Einstein to realize our faith is vital to our very life and growth as a believer. The result of Simon following Jesus' instructions was a great catch, but it was only the beginning for Simon Peter, and the following happened because of his following Jesus' instructions. Luke 5:⁸ But when Simon Peter saw that, he fell down at Jesus’ feet, saying, “Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man!” ⁹ For amazement had seized him and all his companions because of the catch of fish which they had taken; ¹⁰ and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not fear, from now on you will be catching men.” ¹¹ When they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed Him.

The writer of Hebrews spoke of our faith walk in Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. ² For by it the men of old gained approval. ³ By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible. We are instructed to have faith, so I believe it is requisite for us to follow Jesus' instructions and have a God-pleasing faith. Hebrews 11: ⁶ And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.

Do the possible and have true, deep faith in the God who created the universe and created you and me. God loves His creation, and He sees our faith as a follower actually, truly following Him, and then He enables us to live this life of possibility through faith in the one who makes it all happen. In our weak condition as fallen people, we can't do a lot, but with faith, all things are possible, because we serve our God, who is not held back by anything. He is our AWESOME GOD!! Read the book, and follow His instructions.

The Pilgrimage Continues,

David Warren