Daily Archives: November 27, 2017

CAST YOUR NET TO THE OTHER SIDE

CAST THE NET TO THE OTHER SIDE

John 21:6

Cast Your Net

He said, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some”. When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish.- John 21:6

Have we ever experienced moments where we thought life have given up on us?

That doors were slammed on our faces wondering why?

And I find it surprising that after all of our efforts and energy trying to get results, we end up in vain, and yet just on the opposite spot; this is where we can find the same results we are expecting.

Is it just a coincidence or a divine intervention is at work?

Whether we like it or not, without any option left; we need to learn how to cast our net to the other side.

Let us dig deep and understand how it works because the disciple’s experience may relate somehow to our own story.

What Shall We Do Now

Here was a situation where after the disciple’s tragic experience of being with the Lord, they were still not totally recovered and were still puzzled about the past events that happened to the Lord.

For now, the disciples were on their own after years of being with Jesus. Their ministry was under lookout, no more preaching, no more teachings, miracles ceased, those who followed Jesus were hiding and some returned back to their normal life wondering what happened.

They may think that their faith in Jesus made a mess in their lives because they were identified with Jesus and now they were on the watch list.

Their movement became limited.

Their hope was slowing down. The Messiah they expected had died and missing but appeared to them while they were hiding in a closed room. Pilate was still in his seat, the Pharisees were still enjoying their lives after their presumed victory.

They may be asking themselves “What shall we do now?”

Even in our lives, under painful events and tragic experiences; we have the same question “What shall we do now?

“My spouse left me, what shall I do now?”

“My finances are on the downhill, what shall I do now?”

“My blood pressure is not getting normal, what shall I do now?”

“My relationship is not getting better.”

“My company may close any time.”

“My children’s behavior is not what I expected.”

“I cannot afford to keep my family here in Dubai anymore, what shall I do now?”

“WHAT SHALL WE DO NOW?”

With this in our mind, we console ourselves and return back to our comfort zone.

To where we fit and are accepted. To where we are best. To a life of mediocrity.

This may be the same question Peter and the other disciples were asking.

Peter demonstrated this scenario like all of us, so he returned where he came from.

Fishing.

THE WAY WE WERE

For some people, fishing is a hobby and to be one with nature. It’s good for deep thinkers.

But for Peter, he returned to what he loved and was familiar with, fishing!

Catching fish was his expertise. He knows the sea, and the timing and this made him successful.

“You don’t know what to do now? I’m going fishing.”

There was no doubt that even his fellow disciples when he asked them to go fishing, all followed him.

When our expectation fails us, isn’t that many of us settle for less?

Because we don’t want to be hurt and to fail anymore.

We grab our old boats, we use the old nets, we hang with old friends, and we do the old things.

We return back where we fit, where we used to be.

When we return back to where we fit, we cannot fit there anymore.

Caterpillar cannot go back to where it came from.

Chicken cannot go back to its shells again.

Because when we left everything to serve God, there should be no turning back.

This is what we need to know, sometimes God closes more doors than He opens.

He shuts more access so that we could get to the right door that leads us where to go. To our destiny where He wanted us to be.

WHAT IF YOUR BEST IS NOT THE BEST ANYMORE

Peter might say to them, “You don’t know what to do? Ok, come with me because I am good at this. I know this is going to work”

But what you will do if the things you know really work don’t work?

God shuts doors in our face we can’t go back to where we came from.

Being a Christian, there is no turning back because the mold that we usually fit in will not fit us anymore.

“I know this man, this is where I was good at.”

So they cast the net but it took time, some more time, and more time.

But seems the fishes were sleeping or on a holiday somewhere on that night because none of them is touching the net.

Peter at this time might be feeling red already and in excuse might say “By this time there should be fish already”.

BY THIS TIME AND SURELY BY NOW

So they waited for some more time but there were no fish.

Peter at this time might be feeling red already and in excuse might say “By this time there should be fish already”.

How many of us expecting something and until now waiting for it to come?

“By this time, I should be with my family already in the Philippines but I’m not yet ready to retire”.

Then you pull the net up, “Surely by now I should have already a husband…”

Pulling it up once again, “Surely bow now I should have already children”

Surely by now, I should have already gone home for good.

But the Bible says they had CAUGHT NOTHING.

Peter doesn’t know that on that night, God shut the door for him.

No matter how good and intelligent we are, how gorgeous and beautiful you are when He shuts the door, we can do anything.

God puts us in a position to realize that without Him we can’t do anything.

God will humble us.

He will give us success, not from the success offered by this world.

ABNORMAL FAILURES

We must be aware of any abnormal failures.

We should always suspect unusual failures because it means that there is something spiritual going on.

An uncommon letdown means God is talking to you somewhere.

You can call for help from anybody but when He slams the door, no one can help you.

It’s about daybreak and from the shore, someone yells at them and asked ‘Children, have you caught any fish?” and they said “No!

This is not a question of insult but it’s time to inspect ourselves. Ask the question why and what happened.

Evaluate what is in our boat.

WORDS OF DIRECTION

We need to admit that nothing is working.

Our skills are of no use until we humble ourselves.

And when they admit that they can do nothing, Jesus said to them “cast your net on the right side.”

Take note that it’s the same boat, the same net, it’s on the same lake, only a change of sides.

The blessing comes not because of a new net or a more sturdy boat or a new lake but the difference lies in the obedience to a Word of Direction.

Because when God speaks in our life, He gives us Words of direction.

Therefore the problem is not on our skills or our technique but on our obedience.

I would rather have words of guidance than a bunch of inheritance. Even if I have that much without direction, I can lose it all.

May you have His Words of Direction

Mikesendon

THE PROMISE IN THE DESERT

Leave a reply

The Promise in the Desert

DEUTERONOMY 8:2-10

In all of our sufferings, sacrifices and troubles, is it not our desire that we could go out from all of these experiences and have a life that is to the FULLEST?

In the text of Deuteronomy, we can learn that Israel was on the staging period to claim what were promised to them by God.

The freedom from the hands of the tyrants Egyptians into a promised land with flowing milk and honey.

Deuteronomy means repetition of the law, it is where Moses after that forty long years of journey and being in transition, Moses was preparing his people into a new territory, into a new life, into a new relationship with God.

Here comes a destiny that will be changed because of a promise and a covenant of God to His people.

The topic is interesting and exciting because it’s a prelude to a new challenge in the life of God’s chosen people, the Israelite.

We may not see the complete blueprint of His plan in our life right now but He will allow us to have a glimpse of His promise even when we are in our own desert experience.

ENTERING A NEW DOOR

In our life, after all the trials, the hardships and sacrifices; we come to a point when we are about to enter a door that leads us to what God had promised us, because we refused to quit.

We remained to endure and be faithful regardless of all our circumstances.

We thought that those doors lead us to a mess and we thought that God brought us to suffer but unknowingly, that same door leads to another doors of opportunity.

Because in life, God sometimes closes more doors than He opens.

So that He could point us directly to a door that is open. To a door that He wanted us to enter in.

THE PHASES TOWARDS GOD PROMISE

The Desert Experience

God is taking us out from where we are right now.

He don’t want us to stay where we are; in our sickness, in our fears and anxieties, in our miseries and agony.

Sometimes you are already contented and happy in where you are right now, but God will take you away from your own comfort.

God made a way to bring us out because He knows and understand what we experience.

This is what God did to His people in Egypt, He had chosen Moses to lead them out from being slaves, from a miserable conditions they were in.

But instead of thanking God; they murmured, they complained and rebel against Him.

The whole congregations of the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. –Exodus 16:2

They thought that God brought them out to kill them in the wilderness.

Sometimes, that is what we thought with God when we don’t understand His will and His promises.

God want us to enter into a new territory but sometimes we are not yet ready.

Not ready to leave our old friends
To leave our comfort zones
To leave our sins

We usually looks on the hardships and difficulties rather than the hidden opportunities.

We focus on the suffering rather than on the promised blessings.

That is why we complain and grumble.

We become a whiner and loss the chance to be a winner.

But whether we like it or not, we are in transition like a baby that is about to breakthrough from a mother’s womb to birth.

In preparing to the new dimension of our life, we need to remember who we were and where we are going to.

So Moses reminded them on their desert experience.

You shall remember all the way which the Lord your God has led you in the wilderness these 40 years, that He might HUMBLE YOU, TESTING YOU. TO KNOW WHAT IS IN YOUR HEART whether you KEEP THE COMMANDMENT OR NOT.”- Deuteronomy 8:2

He humbled you and let you be hungry to understand that He is the God that provides the manna.

He made us thirsty to understand that He can make water out of rocks.

He humbled us an employee that we desire to be an employer and understand the feeling and situation of an employee.

He humble us in scarcity that we may desire to save and be a good stewards of any blessings we received from Him.

He humbled us in our sickness to understand that He alone can restore our health and the God who heals.

Our experience, our desert experience should not demotivate and demoralized us rather be a learning stage, that we be molded and formed by God into having character He wanted us to possess.

Our desert experience shall test us how grateful we are in spite of our situations.

Our conditions shall give us hope that God will deliver us, putting our trust and faith more unto Him.

Desert with Manna

Even the people complained, God provides them what they need.

Moses said, “It is the bread which the Lord has given us to eat.”-Exodus 16:15

Even in our desert experience, God takes care of all our need.

His promise is not to harm us for but to have a future, to be blessed.

We should understand that our God is not only concerns about our destination but He is in charge of the itinerary as well.

We need to acknowledge that everything comes from God.

In this desert with manna experience, we usually forget to value the manna and the blessings we received because now it becomes normal.

Is it not a miracle that something you don’t know falls every morning from nowhere? A miracle that something nobody knows could be eaten.

But the manna after months consistently comes every morning becomes normal, the Israelite don’t consider it as miracle anymore.

That is the problem with all of us, any blessings we received regularly becomes ordinary.

We consider now that the provision becomes God’s obligation.

And because of this, we forget to be thankful.

We place more value now on the gifts rather than the giver.

We became complacent and we don’t now desire for something more great because it’s readily available.

Our desert with manna becomes our comfort zone.

We become lazy and passive.

We don’t aspire anymore because everything we need just come without much effort.

When everything is given to us, we don’t desire for something great anymore.

We should remember that this is just a staging area and not yet the final destination God prepared for us.

God want us to move from Desert with manna to a promise land experience where we can grow, we can multiply and we can be more productive.

The Promise Land experience

After forty years the fall of manna stopped.

When manna ceased, this does not mean that God’s blessing also stopped.

“The manna ceased on the day after they eaten some of the produce of the land, so that the sons of Israel no longer had manna but they ate some of the yield of the land of Canaan during that year.”- Joshua 5:12

God wanted us to be self-sufficient.

He wanted us to participate in the works of blessings because when we do it by ourselves, we have that accountability and care for the fruit that we reap.

In the promise land experience, we start to be a partner with God in taking care of his creation.

We start to work with full faith and hope that He will bless every works of our hands.

“Nasa Diyos ang Awa, nasa tao ang gawa” which means man does the work but the grace and mercy comes from God.

When we do it by ourselves, we put our passion, we use our gifts, we put our love on it and instead of receiving, we learn to offer and sacrifice every fruit of our works for the glory of God.

As God blesses us as we work, we blesses God in every fruit of our produce.

In the promise land experience, you till the land and sow the seed but its Him to let your seed grows.

You plant the seeds, He make sure that the sun shines, the rain to water the land and send the bees to pollinate the plant.

In the promise land experience, we don’t just wait for a miracle but we participate in making miracles to happen.

May you receive His promise even in your desert experience,

Mikesendon