Fishing for Men

In John 21 Peter decided to go fishing and the others said that they would go with him. After they had fished all night they had caught nothing. When the morning came and they looked over at the shore they saw that Jesus was there. This is the first indication that they were not in God’s will. Jesus was not in the boat with them!

Even worse, they didn’t even know that it was Jesus on the shore! They were so out of the spirit that they couldn’t tell that it was the very one that had been with them for three and a half years. John was the first one to realize that it was the Lord.

They had gone off on their own fishing for men that they thought would be good and had utterly failed. Why? They never asked the Lord if He were doing it. Obviously He was not. Without Him in the boat how could they succeed in the Lord’s work?

This story is a picture of our service to the Lord in fishing for men. Whatever we do without the Lord will be a failure. Only He can say to cast the net on the right side of the boat. When He leads He not only told them when to through the net but even on which side of the boat to through it. He will give the when and the where and all the details if we will spend the time with Him. We not only need Him to give the direction but we need Him in the boat with us. Then there will be success.

The disciples had not yet learned the lesson that the way to success in any venture that is for the benefit of the Kingdom of God is by the cross. All the self, the opinions and all the natural means and energy must go to the cross. Before there is life there must be death to self. Everything of self must be brought to the cross, pass through death into resurrection life. Then out of our innermost being will flow rivers of living water to supply people with what they need so badly: Christ who is our salvation.

If we would begin to do a work for God and we discover that there is no blessing and we don’t even realize that the Lord is not in what we are doing, we should stop, trace back our steps until we are with the Lord again. Then find out what He is doing and proceed remaining in Him We all make these kinds of errors and we learn more of our Lord. Then by His mercy begin to know more and more the way we should go on with Him.