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This is a multi-part message about fishing

Fishing is something most Christians understand in principle at least because Jesus told His disciples that He would make them fishers of men.
Luke’s account is a good starting point.

One day as Jesus was preaching on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, great crowds pressed in on him to listen to the word of God.
He noticed two empty boats at the water’s edge, for the fishermen had left them and were washing nets. Stepping into one of the boats, Jesus asked Simon, its owner, to push it out into the water. So he sat in the boat and taught the crowds from there.
Luke 5:1-3.

I am sure it will reveal some profound truths based on a humble little fishing line or net and I am confident that these stories and personal anecdotes will bless and encourage you.

This is a lengthy story, so I have broken it down into different portions. This should make it easy for you to follow and return to key points that interest you at any time. We start with a fishing fleet

Different techniques

At this point, we should remember that there are differnt techniques involved when fishing.

This is equally as true in ministry. If we are to be truly successful, we should allow God to direct us in the way He wants us to go and not try to do something that He has not authorized. We can also be attempting to do the right thing, but in the wrong manner or at the wrong time.

I am an avid amateur fisherman and enjoyed an assortment of fishing activities that ranged from fishing on the Great Barrier Reef of Australia to the small rivers and estuaries and an occasional trip to some of our lakes. Each place was different. The fish were different. Fishing techniques therefore had to be different. Trout were caught in fresh water, using fly tackle, but out at the reef, heavy tackle was the order of the day and a line of one hundred pound breaking strain was common, whereas fly fishing for trout required very fine equipment. In the rivers and estuaries where I spent most time, the techniques differed again and even more so, depending on the desired species. Some fish fed on the bottom and others on or near the surface.

Some species fed on diets of weeds, whereas others required the use of various baits, live or otherwise, or lures.

Sometimes I bought bait but preferred to catch my own and there again, the techniques greatly varied, depending on what kind of fishing I intended doing.

Fishing at night was different to fishing during the day and no two excursions were ever the same.

I preferred incoming tides, so liked to be fishing when the tide was either at its low point, or close to it.

At the ebb, the water was absolutely still, almost lifeless, but as the tide started to turn and run in, the fish started feeding.

The spiritual lesson I learned is that for every endeavor in God, we must determine the best way to go about it—and how to go about it, which of course requires us to obtain the mind and will of God on that particular occasion.

Jesus applied this principle. He used great variety in His ministry and I will use healing blindness as an illustration.

He touched blind people and they were healed.  He cast evil spirits out of people and they received their sight. He spat on the ground and made clay with which He placed on the blind person’s eyes with a command to wash and the blindness was healed. He spoke to blind Bartimæus and he was healed. He laid His hands on one man twice to restore full vision.

For us to do what He told us to do, we have to follow His example.  There are no set formulae. Every situation and circumstance differs, so we must find out from the Holy Spirit what to do on that occasion.

What this incident tells me is that Jesus clearly wants us to catch so much that we cannot contain it. It also tells me that we cannot do it alone and it also reveals that we need a specific word from the Lord because it is at His word, we receive the authority and the ability to do whatever it is that He has asked us as an individual to do. Peter had received a word from Jesus and responded to that particular word and it worked!
It defied logic. It did not make sense.

What we are to do never makes sense but it does make faith!

We now turn to the second part of our story that goes as follows-


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