Uncheck the Box

“When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, ‘Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.’ Simon answered, ‘Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.’ When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break…When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, ‘Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man! For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken, and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon’s partners. Then Jesus said to Simon, ‘Don’t be afraid; for now on you will fish for people. So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed Him.” (Luke 5:4-11)

I love this picture of the disciples working so hard at what they knew their whole lives, to earn their living by fishing. It was hard work with a lot of waiting, hoping, and hard physical labor but they knew it well. Then suddenly, Jesus uses it to show them a different way. When they put the Kingdom first and used their boat to help Jesus to deliver his message rather than fish some more, they found this blessing that was so immensely bountiful that it left the disciples awestruck. It was like nothing they had ever seen or experienced in all their years of fishing. It was here that Jesus calls them to leave everything and become “fishers of men.”

Jesus says in Matthew 6:33 that if you seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, that He will supply in abundance, everything else you need. The disciples discovered this as they stepped out to help Jesus with delivering His message. They were immensely blessed. It was almost more than they could contain or hold. From it, they were called to be fishers of men.

I was praying with a friend who has a ministry tonight. We had been praying for his daughter for some time who had been struggling. He just kept staying with it and doing what God called him to while we continued to pray for her. She finally had an incredible breakthrough and is now helping with his ministry and even considering leading some parts of it. His other children as well are jumping in to participate. He stayed faithful and didn’t give up and God came through for him.

As we are saved, we are all called to bring the good news to others around us. 2 Corinthians 5:18 says that “all this [our new nature] is a gift from God who brought us back to Himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to Him.”

We are all called to be ambassadors of this new Kingdom as Christ makes His appeal through us. In some way, shape or form, with the gifts that we have been provided by Him, we are all called as ministers of reconciliation. We are no longer to regard anyone or anything from a worldly point of view of getting what we want or think we need. Our jobs and everything we do are to be with a sense of mission and purpose of advancing the Kingdom of God. When we let go of ‘fishing’ to make money, we can begin living into kingdom realities of fishing for men.

For me, finance, leadership, and administration is something that I am naturally gifted at. I have learned about them by working hard over the years and gaining experience. I learned that I can meet my needs and my families’ needs by using these gifts. This is my area of worldly skill or fishing.

Then one day the Lord awoke me to Kingdom realities and things changed for me. I didn’t leave my job and feel called to go preach the Word, but things became different. I noticed places where I seemed to have this ease of anointing for certain things. Like Peter who pulled in the nets and they were full and he was astonished, I have had some of these experiences.

When I just first was coming to know the Lord, my boss had asked me to put together a program for our staff based upon a new book at the time, Steven Covey, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. I came to know the Lord through it. I created a database in Access with all the components incorporated. What was interesting is that until that time, I had never used Access. It was brand new and my boss was also asking me to try it out. As I used it for creating this leadership roll out, it just all seemed to come by divine revelation. I was astonished with the ease and the pieces coming together.

Also, with finances, and area of gifting, as I have prayed for God to meet the financial needs of my organization, I have seen Him come and move at times in power. When he was initially teaching me about this many years ago, I had prayed for funding for one of my departments that had to make significant cuts. Then shortly after, we received a huge grant I was able to help with that covered all the expenses. The number on the grant id was 333 and so I knew God’s hand was in it and He had answered my prayer.

In my current position, not only have I seen God move in areas of finances, but I had on my heart to create a leadership development program. I was told it was tried at different times and not successful. Like the database or Peter with the fish, it just seemed to all come together. Like the time that I created the Steven Covey roll out for my organization at the time, it seemed to come by divine revelation and I put the whole program together in a matter of weeks. While it took work, it was so fun as I could see God’s hand in it!

What was interesting, is that God continually manifests Himself through this leadership program as well. Everything seems to divinely align. Not only did each session last year come together so well, but this year, with having more speakers and shorter times of speaking, common themes have shined through the whole day. Each person presenting seemed to center around an overall unannounced theme the Holy Spirit was working out with us.

The only one part I don’t understand yet is a month or so ago when I had someone come in to speak on the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit. I couldn’t find a single person to speak on this. Then when I hired an AG pastor from outside, they spoke almost the whole time about praying in tongues. Most people loved it but a few people became offended and one quit the program.

While everything seems so divinely aligned, I’m not sure what this was about. Was it to test me if I would shut it down? Was it just a mishap? I had spoken to a close friend at one Evangelical event in the past not to bring up tongues and this close friend confronted me that “I was quenching the Spirit.” Was this the Spirit’s way of testing or challenging me on it? Had I hurt His feelings in the past not wanting to bring up this gift? Honestly, I think I might have so I was careful what I spoke about it after.

So how does this divine alignment happen? How do we move from this place of being work centered [the old life] to a place of being Christ centered? How do we transition from a place of labor, stress, and hard work to a place of rest, trust, and ease? How do we continually do our work from this place of anointing?

I think most of this has to do with alignment. When we are aligned with Kingdom realities and operating out of them, with a vision to advance the Kingdom, we make room for God and invite Him into our work. It comes from a place of God sufficiency and not self-sufficiency.

God keeps bringing me back to the scripture from Matthew 6:33 to seek His Kingdom and His righteousness and He will supply all that we need. He will give us wisdom, direction, counsel, abundant provision and most important, His fellowship. Whatever we do and wherever we go, will be blessed as we follow Him. His word promises a blessing on everything we do and that He will fill our storehouses with all the grain we need.

When we do a job for other reasons, such as our own advancement, recognition, security, support, position or power, we operate out of self-sufficiency and don’t make room for God. We are missing the point of it all that we are ambassadors of Christ with a purpose of advancing the Kingdom. He wants us to live in reliance upon Him and always mindful of His unfailing love.

While we may be called back into the same place we came out of, we are no longer citizens of the worldly order. We are ambassadors of this Kingdom realm and need to operate with this in mind. We are called to live and do differently than in the past. We need to let go of and bring to the cross every desire for position, power, popularity, or prosperity that would draw us out of position of receiving His immense love.

Restoration of all things looks like us walking hand and hand in fellowship with the Lord, living in His immense love. This is the place where no fear exists, no striving exists and we are in complete peace with both Him and the world around us. We can rest in His goodness.

This brings me to the last point, not only does God want to be in our work and all we do during the day, He wants to be in our relationships and connections with each other. When He called the twelve to Himself, He called them in fellowship with each other as well. They were influencing each other and building themselves up in the Lord as they were together.

Like David with Jonathan, Paul and Silas, or Paul and Barnabas, as they walked together, something happened between them. They stepped into things that they would have not done on their own. They greatly encouraged each other and strengthened each other in the Lord.

When the original church formed, they shared everything with each other. They no longer thought of themselves individually but the collective. In this place of community and unity, there was not only deep fellowship, but such power that people were afraid to join them. Their combined faith not only was an adding together but a multiplying.

Some months ago, God gave me a dream. He wrote on the white wall in front of me the words “3 Delease.” Three speaks of divine power. In the relationship of three, there is divine power that comes with unity. We see this at various places in the Word of God such as with Moses, Aaron, and Mariam or with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.

When I looked this word Delease up, two things came up. The first thing that came up with a person in who there is great delight and pleasure in. And what the name itself represents according to www.meaningslike.com, is someone who has “compassion, creativity, reliability, generosity, loyalty and a love for domestic [family] life.”

The second thing that came up, through Wikipedia, was a colonial body of the Supreme Command of the Italian Armed Forces. It functioned as an army command which three army corps commands subordinated. It was a powerful force that was used strategically in war.

This specifically speaks to me about intercession. In the place of unity in intercession between those in divine union who are walking in the delight of the Lord, walking out living according to His Word, and praying for the darkness to be pushed back and the Kingdom of God to come forth, there is divine power. God will cause His purposes and plans to come forth.

“There is power in the name of Jesus. Every war He wages will be won” sings in the background.

Ephesians 3:16-17 reminds us that that we have unlimited resources available to us to empower us through His Spirit as we trust in Him, so that we can grow down deep into His love. As we move forward into His purposes, like David from the Bible, we find the vastness of His love meeting us at every turn.

Lord, as we align with Your Kingdom, let Your purposes come forth in power. We are so grateful for the ways that You love us and grow us. Help us to live for the audience of one and let go of all else that would hinder us or get in our way.