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Just do it! Song: Now that the battle is over (3x)
Don't modify the Word, either. Do it just the way God says. Don’t say God will understand. If you do that, you'll miss out on the full measure of God's blessing. That's what happened to Peter the day he allowed Jesus to preach from his boat. After Jesus had finished preaching, He wanted to bless Peter so He gave him some instructions. He said to Peter, Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught" (Luke 4:4). Notice, Jesus had already prepared that blessing for Peter. The fish were already out there waiting on him. But Peter had to do something to receive that blessing. He had to act on Jesus' word. But Peter didn't fully obey that Word. No doubt, he thought. What does this carpenter-turned preacher know about fishing? I can't catch fish in the daytime. The fish will see the net and swim away. What's more, I'm tired. I've already washed my nets and I want to go home and sleep. After all these thoughts ran through his mind, Peter answered Jesus and said, "Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken in nothing; nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net" (Luke 5:5). Do you see what Peter did? He modified Jesus' Word. Instead of putting all his nets back into the water, he just put down one net. What caused him to do that? Three things: Human Reasoning, Unbelief and Laziness. The first was human reasoning . What Jesus told Peter to do didn't make any natural sense. More often than not, that's the way God's Word is. It doesn't make natural sense. If we go by human reasoning, we'll never obey God. If they had trusted human reasoning,
Most time we will not understand why God is telling us to do certain thing but we must trust Him to do it anyway. The second thing that kept Peter from fully obeying Jesus' Word was unbelief . He didn't believe he would actually catch that draught of fish that Jesus promised. One thing we'll have to settle within our own hearts if we're to enjoy the full blessings of God is the integrity of His Word. We must dare to believe that what He says…He will do. We must believe that not just in our heads but with our whole hearts. We must settle the fact that He - and therefore, His Word - can absolutely be trusted. The third hindrance Peter encountered was fleshly laziness. He'd already washed his nets. He was tired and wanted to go home. How many times have we heard the Lord say to us, "Spend some extra time in the Word tonight," or "Get up early tomorrow morning and pray about this situation." But our flesh rebelled. It was lazy and instead of taking authority over it, we yielded to it…and missed out on a boatload of blessings just like Peter did. When he let down that one stingy net, the Bible says, it encompassed such a great load of fish that it broke! Of course, Peter immediately realised his error and called his partners out to help him but he still lost that first load of fish! Over the years I've realised we are the ones who determined how richly we are blessed. God has already provided all the riches in glory for us. We can disobey God completely and miss out on all of them. We can obey Him half the time and end up halfway blessed. Or we can obey Him all the time and be 100% blessed! Why not decide today to a part of the 100% group? Make up your mind to start every day by choosing God's way, by saying, "Lord, I'm going to live for you today. I'm going to put the Word first place in my life and I'm going to do what You tell me to do." Don't just think about God's Word anymore. Don't just talk about it. Start acting on it! Step out and put your feet in the Jordan. Set your miracle in motion by acting on the Word. Then watch God roll back the waters of impossibility for you. God has already given you the Promised Land of victory in every area of your life. He's given you His Word to show you how to take that land. Now it's up to you. So go on JUST DO IT! St. Augustine said: ‘When reasoning stops, faith takes over.’ God bless you Evang. John B. Oseh |