In the previous few articles we discussed what it means to come out of your season of crisis as you begin to respond to the Lord again. We discussed several “signs” and things to look for as the Lord beckons you back onto the path of righteousness and obedience. Today we will continue discussing this subject going verse by verse through Jesus’ supernatural visitation which came for the disciples in John chapter twenty-one. We will start by elaborating on the “increase in the glory” that you experience when you’re truly engaging once again your vocation according to divine destiny!
TIME TO CATCH BIG FISH
(Jn.21:11)
“Simon Peter went up and dragged the net to land, full of large fish, one hundred and fifty-three; and although there were so many, the net was not broken.”
Here we see again the principle of exponential increase in the glory which comes when you begin doing what you’ve been mantled and empowered by God to do. Not only was the disciple’s net full of fish, so much fish that they could barely get it to the shore without it breaking, their net was also full of “large fish”. This would be like someone taking up the business mantle again and following the Lord again into the world, and now that they’ve bounced back and overcome their moment of crisis they’re now landing the biggest contracts that they’ve ever seen; they’re now making their biggest sales ever. Not only has God given them business, work, and clientele again, but their clientele are “bigger fish”. If before they had to fish all day to catch a certain amount, now because the fish are bigger they only have to fish a fraction of the time. This is to say God has made their entire operation more profitable and more efficient. This is increase and blessing in the glory of the Lord; fresh glory which comes upon the man or the woman that begins to say yes to God again having come through a season of trial.
God begins to bless the work of your hands once again in the area that you’re called to. After you’ve overcome by his grace and sown in tears during the crisis, God will bless you in ways beyond the financial, beyond the material, which you never experienced before. Not only are you more fruitful but you have more peace, you’re able to take more time off to rest, spend time with your family, and enjoy life. These are those extra benefits that come with doing the thing you were created to do after you’ve overcome a great test.
It is indeed one of the saddest things we see this side of eternity when we witness people working twice as hard, getting no rest, having no time to spend with their family, just to make ends meet, because they are living by the sweat of their brow under the curse (Gen.3:19). God wants you to live an abundant life. God wants you to make more than enough money so that you can have ample time to rest, relax, enjoy your family, and enjoy life. God wants you to build more than enough wealth so that you can be a great blessing to others who are in need; to step into the Abrahamic covenantal blessings of your father in the faith from (Gen.12:1-3); to be blessed that you might be a blessing to all the families of the earth. But that blessing and that kind of fruitfulness is found when you obey the Lord and cast your nets where He’s telling you to.
LET’S GET PRACTICAL
Now for this final part of this series of written articles I would like to get practical with all of my wonderful spirit-filled fiery brothers and sisters in the Lord! I’ll begin with another quote from one of my mentors of late:
“The bible is just as practical as it is spiritual.”
Earl Shoaff
For many charismatic tongue-talking spirit-filled believers this statement is almost offensive, especially to ones who are “super-spiritual”. I know because I used to be one! There was a time in my life where even the mention of “practicality” when it came to matters of Biblical Christianity would provoke offense from my heart. I saw practical advice, self-help material, personal development courses as an affront to the gospel. I thought, “Why focus on taking care of our bodies if we have faith to walk in divine health? Why go to all of these marriage seminars and family seminars to try and “learn” how to be a better spouse or a better father?” I thought just meditate on the word, do the word, and be soaked with the presence of Jesus everyday, and that will take care of everything else. My life was meditating the word, prayer, and that was just about it all the time. But I eventually got out of my twenties and got some life experience under my belt with marriage, fatherhood, the pain of doing personal finance horribly wrong, and a bunch of other stuff, and I soon realized that I needed to learn more than just how to study the word and pray.
That’s the problem with many revivalists today. They can bring down heaven with their prayer lives, and they can preach your socks off because they know the word so well, but many of them are completely ignorant and unskilled in other vital and important areas of life which eventually leads to major falls or crashes in life and ministry. This is very sad and it ought not be. Remember these words: The bible is just as practical as it is spiritual. God himself is just as practical as He is spiritual. If you can’t draw practical application from the spiritual principle you're imparting then it’s of little value in the real world. Yes, that’s right, you heard me correctly.
Paul the Apostle had to tell the Corinthian believers to shut up and quit speaking in spiritual gibberish all the time because it was not edifying to the body. Paul had to teach them that tongues were not given just so we could blabber on in the spirit for hours. Paul taught the church that there was a practical use for it. He taught them that if they tapped into the voice of the Father through tongues, they could then interpret in their own native tongue what God was saying, and then it would actually be edifying to the people attending service. What a concept?! How many mindless “spiritual things” are we doing in the charismatic church today because we think we’re super spiritual in doing them, but practically speaking those things are not edifying us, building us up, making us better husbands, better fathers, and better servants to the people around us? God wants us to be full of the spirit, but He also wants us to be full of wisdom, knowledge, understanding, and to be skilled workmen in what we’re called to do for him.
In tomorrow’s article we will finish the reading of the scriptural story of Jesus restoring Peter to the ministry in John the twenty-first chapter and we will see what “practical insights” the Lord has for us in this remaining passage!
In His Service,
Stephen Powell
.
.
*** To receive free teaching & prophecy by Stephen Powell & other anointed authors sent regularly to your inbox, subscribe to our free Newsletter by clicking: http://tinyurl.com/LLM-Subscribe
.
*** To donate
https://cash.app/$stephenpowell33
Checks made out to “Lion of Light Ministries”
PO Box 912 | Maricopa, AZ 85139