Heart Soul Mind Strength

Follow Me

“Then He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Matthew 4:19

Jesus Christ called unto Himself the disciples God gave Him, and immediately they came. He has the power to draw all men unto Himself. He also has the authority to grant us repentance from our former enslaving sins. The right to show mercy by pulling people out of the mirey clay all comes from Him. He is in the position of High Priest from whom we ask for grace to overcome all things when we come before His throne in need.

It is unfortunate that human tendencies are to invent our own clever strategies for carrying out the objective Jesus gives in Matthew 4:19 instead of simply following Him and seeing God bring the fish into the nets. “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.” Proverbs 3:5-6

Human way of thinking says, “Ah, I can be a liaison between God and humans since I know what humans respond to.” Human ways of persuading other humans include such dirty methods as psychological manipulation to stir up a panicky fear to motivate people to turn from sin to avoid intense pain. Instead of understanding that a loving God is trying to save them from death, people get the idea that God is whipping people into submission to fill His desire for attention.

God actually does not need us like that. God alone is already complete and perfect. He rescues us out of compassion. He does not want to see us suffer. His motivation is pure love for us, not a selfish or petty need for our obedience. “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends (John 15:13.)”

Since we cannot see inside of other people’s hearts, our human methods for being successful ‘fishers of men’ often devise complicated constructs for us to ‘diagnose’ whether people are repentant or not and whether people truly believe or not. These constructs, such as ‘raise your hand,’ ‘walk down the isle,’ or ‘pray this prayer’ confuse the simple gospel. ” ‘repent from sin, believe on the LORD Jesus Christ, and receive salvation.’ John 1:12 attributes all saving of souls to God’s will and power, saying: “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”

Trying hard to get the job done by our own understanding causes us to need visible gestures to indicate the moment of salvation. We are interested in a single point in time event of getting a soul ‘saved’ so that we can record favorable data to our credit. This is thinking as humans in terms of individualistic accomplishment leading to personal acceptance and glorification. Philippians 2:3 tells us “Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.”

God’s kingdom doesn’t work like that at all. As Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 3:6: “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.” Our appointed role to be fishers of men is not focused on the credit of the disciple, but on the salvation message reaching everyone.

We do not need to divide our focus from sharing the gospel onto administrative actions such as collecting data points for works credited to our accounts. All credits belong to God and Jesus shares His abundant favor and the fulfillment of every requirement (righteousness) with those who trust in Him and do what He tells us to do. Our status is either believing or not believing. The works we do, we do by His power and according to the prompting of the Holy Spirit who lives in us. We’re not accumulating enough points by our own actions to obtain glory for ourselves in His name. Galatians 2:20 puts it like this, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

God sees our hearts either loving Him and living by the Holy Spirit’s guidance unto fruitfulness; or we are just loving ourselves, trying to look good, seeking to feel like we earned it or deserve it. We are accepted based on faith, as Ephesians 2:8-9 says: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”

Instead, let us recognize that God knows every one of us intimately because 1) He created us, 2) He is a present witness of every moment of all of our lives, 3) He hears every inner thought and senses every deep feeling in our hearts, 4) He has experience being human. Hebrews 4:15 tells us, “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.”

Consider that: God created everything. God brought the animals to the ark; Noah simply trusted and obeyed. God separated a nation for Himself; Abraham only trusted and obeyed. God delivered His people from Egypt; Moses just trusted and obeyed. God brought His Son into a hostile world; Mary and Joseph humbly trusted and obeyed. Jesus brought the fish into the nets of the disciples, they trusted and obeyed. He made them fishers of men, and said “I will be with you always” in Matthew 28:20.

It has always been very sweet to me that Jesus prayed specifically for “those who will believe in Me through their word” in John 17:20-23. My fellow believer, Jesus prayed to the Father for us. He prayed, “that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.”

Let us not think we will accomplish this assignment by our own individual cleverness, creating fancy lures with hooks or by studying what draws the fish to the hook. Jesus told us what will draw His sheep to Himself from all over the world. He will draw them through our faith, our love for one another, our quiet, humble laying down our own lives / rights / comforts for each other and for them.

This transformation from within us is God’s salvation work, which we cannot do apart from yielding to the Word of God and the voice of the Holy Spirit. He will teach us, reprove us, correct us, and instruct us faithfully through Scripture and in person (2 Timothy 3:16.)

God wants us to listen and obey His instruction to love one another and proclaim His gospel. He will bring His own to Himself.