It is the Lord !!!

[Ebn Barbara]

Seven of the disciples try to catch fish but to no avail..
And after a long and tiring night in the open sea..
Suddenly a person, they did not recognize Him at first, standing on the shore tells them:
“Cast the net on the right side of the boat and you will find fish”..
And when they did, they were not able to draw it in because of the multitude of fish..
Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter: “It is the Lord!!!” (John 21).

The cry of John was due to the miracle he saw.. he knew it was the Lord when he saw the multitude of fish..
He knew it was the Lord when He ended the disciples’ toil of this unfruitful night with a miracle that brought a great blessing..

Do you long to see the Lord intervene in this way in your life.. in your family.. in your work.. in your ministry?
Has it been a long time since you last saw the hand of the Lord intervening in this way in issues in your life, your family and your ministry?
Do you long to shout this cry: ‘It is the Lord’.. then see the blessings have come back to overwhelm your life?
Do you long to see revival in your church?
Let us ponder together.

The miracle of the multitude of fish was not strange or new for the disciples, especially for Peter and John, for both of them witnessed what the Lord did in this realm when He called them to follow Him:
“Then He got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little from the land… He said to Simon, ‘Launch out into the deep and let down your net for a catch.’ But Simon answered and said to Him, ‘Master we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net.’ And when they had done this, they caught a great number of fish, and their net was breaking… When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, ‘Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!’ For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish which they had taken; and so also were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, ‘Do not be afraid. From now on you will catch men.’ So when they had brought their boats to land, they forsook all and followed Him. (Luke 5:3-11)

They were skilled and experienced fishermen, who have toiled all night and caught nothing, and on the basis of one word from the Lord, Peter let down the net, and the result was a great number of fish. And the journey that the disciples walked with the Lord went on for about three and a half years, before they came back and faced the same problem again, after the Lord’s death and His resurrection.

Furthermore, they were skilled and experienced fishermen, who have toiled all night and caught nothing, and on the basis of one word from the Lord, they let down the net and were not able to draw it in because of the multitude of fish.. This incident ended with an important, significant, deep and precise word that the Lord said to Peter:
“Most assuredly, I say to you, when you were younger, you girded yourself and walked where you wished; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish.” (John 21:18).

In more simple terms it is as if the Lord was saying to Peter:
“In the beginning of your calling when you were young in faith, you used to go where you wished, as it pleased you, doing what your desires and thoughts dictated to you, you caught fish your own way, relying on your own experience and potential. But, after this period of time you spent with me, the miracles you witnessed, the way I dealt with you, and the guidance I gave you, you are not allowed anymore to do what you were previously doing, but you have to grow older, to mature in your faith, and to stretch out your hands as an expression of your total surrender to Me, so that I will gird you and carry you myself, where you do not wish, according to your human logic and personal desires.”

Beloved: Are we really preoccupied with winning souls to the Lord, which is symbolized by fishing?
Do we really want with all our heart, mind and strength to see revival?
Do we want to see the Lord perform miracles through us that will bring a lot of souls?
Is your heart always aching for the souls that are dying without the Lord and are going to the fire?
And are you ready to pay the price whatever it is, to save those souls?
These are questions you have to answer under the influence of the Holy Spirit who examines all things.

What should we do?
Two major obstacles are stopping this desire from being realized:
the devil and our personalities.

“Get up, sanctify the people, and say: ‘Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow, because thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘There is an accursed thing in your midst, O Israel; you cannot stand before your enemies until you take away the accursed thing from among you’’. (Joshua 7:13).

The devil will certainly fight you at all times because his hatred for you is so strong, but you have to know that the fiercest battles he will launch against you are when you try to enter his territory to kidnap souls from him.. It is a real battle in the full sense of the word..
Here we see that the Lord is asking Joshua to sanctify the people and to remove the accursed thing from among them, so they can stand before their enemies and win over them.. Of course, we have to fight the devil and resist him so he will flee from us, but, what I want to bring to your attention today is the lesson the disciples learned while fishing:
that the victory is the Lord’s, and if the Lord doesn’t back you up with His strength you cannot defeat the devil, stand before him and kidnap souls from his territory..
At the same time, you need to know that the Lord will only back you up if you are totally sanctified to Him, living in holiness, and if there is no accursed thing in your midst..
This is the center of our meditation today.

This was about confronting the devil, how about our personalities?
“And Joshua said to the people, ‘Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.’” (Joshua 3:5).
It is the Lord who does wonders among us..
It is the Lord who brought a multitude of fish to the disciples..
And there is only one condition: “Sanctify yourselves”!!!

Beloved, let us examine a few Bible passages that will give more clarity to the picture:
“Unless the Lord builds the house, They labor in vain who build it; Unless the Lord guards the city, The watchman stays awake in vain” (Psalm 127:1).

“No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day… And He said, ‘Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father’.” (John 6:44, 65).

“Lift up your eyes, look around and see; All these gather together and come to you… then you will say in your heart, ‘who has begotten these for me, Since I have lost my children and am desolate, A captive, and wandering to and fro? And who has brought these up? There I was, left alone; But these where were they?’ Thus says the Lord God: ‘Behold, I will lift My hand in an oath to the nations, And set up my standard for the peoples; they shall bring your sons in their arms, And your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders; kings shall be your foster fathers, And their queens your nursing mothers; They shall bow down to you with their faces to the earth, And lick up the dust of your feet. Then you will know that I am the Lord, For they shall not be ashamed who wait for Me’. Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, Or the captives of the righteous be delivered? But thus says the Lord: ‘Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible be delivered; For I will contend with him who will contend with you, And I will save your children’.” (Isaiah 49:18-25).

The Lord builds the house.. the Lord guards the city.. the Lord draws the souls.. the Lord gives us the multitude of fish.. the Lord lifts His hand in an oath to the nations for the children to come back to His house, and He makes the evil spirits bow down at our feet, the Lord takes the prey from the mighty.. He is El Shaddai.. King of kings and Lord of lords.. Trust in these words, believe them, and you will see them become a concrete reality then you will be able to shout to those around you: “It is the Lord!!!”

Do you want more: even the faith that makes you see those promises come true is not from you but a free gift from God:
“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8).

And here you may ask me: So.. isn’t there any role for me? What is it?
Of course there is a role for you:

Sanctify yourself for the work

Stretch out your hands so the Holy Spirit can gird you and carry you where you do not wish.

Be sanctified to the Lord.. totally set apart for Him.. leaving all things to follow Him.. and living a life of true holiness.. totally surrendering to Him so He can take you where He wishes and where your body and personal desires do not wish..
Yes you have a role.. a great role.. otherwise how would you explain what Paul did and what he went through for the gospel and souls winning. But he is the one who said:
“But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me” (1 Corinthians 15:10).

“For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13).

He works in us by His grace both to will and to do what pleases Him.. and our role when the Spirit works in us is to comply with His work and to submit to the working power of His Spirit.. this matter is not a mathematical equation you learn and memorize and the subject is closed.. it is a perfect way of life that you live, you experience, in which you grow, and that you practice every day. It is the school of the Holy Spirit which will only end when your journey on this earth is over.. It is important for you to have a heart that wishes to have victory, to live a life of holiness and total surrender, whatever the sacrifices and prices are. Therefore, you will experience God’s dealings with you; see His miracles in your life, much fruit and the multitude of fish, then you will shout again, may be after a long absence: “It is the Lord!!!”

Peter did not learn this easily.. when we examine his life we discover the dimension of the stumbles he faced, the dimension of the confrontations the Lord faced him with, and the reprimands He rebuked him with. We all know the incident where he denied the Lord because he was relying on his own strength, his own capabilities and his personal views to find solutions to the problems..
And in the passage we meditated on earlier, he went back fishing when the Lord ended this for him when He called him, saying:
“From now on you will catch men (and not fish)”.

Moreover.. he dragged the disciples with him outside the plan of the Lord.. seven disciples out of eleven, i.e. two-thirds.. how dangerous it is to go out of the Lord’s plan and to drag the others with us.. let’s then be careful..

When the Lord stood on the shore they didn’t recognize Him, and even though the opinions are divided as to the cause of it, what the Holy Spirit led me to meditate on regarding this subject, is that their eyes were not focused on the Lord’s matters anymore, thus they followed Peter and went fishing, which the Lord had stopped them from doing, so their eyes became heavy and they did not perceive the Lord’s presence.

Where are you today regarding what we meditated on?
Have you gone astray?
Has your love for the Lord grown cold?
Have you given up your calling?
Are you serving Him as it pleases you or are you concerned about what the Lord wants from you?
Were you attracted again by fishing and worldly matters?
And maybe have you influenced other people and led them outside the Lord’s plan as Peter did..
Have you, are you and were you?

That’s alright.. let’s forget what’s behind and go forward.. the Lord will always give us a chance and keep the doors open.. His mercies are new every morning..

Thus, at the same place, in the open sea and after a tiring night without catching any fish, the Lord came, stood on the shore and performed a new miracle.. He had a decisive encounter with Peter, and He is ready to do the same with you today.. you only have to respond to His word..

Peter was the only one concerned by this miracle, so don’t ask yourself why He doesn’t deal with others the same way.. rather thank Him for this honor which He has favored you with..
And maybe today you are the only one concerned by those words, you went astray from the Lord’s plan, you serve with a motive that needs to be purified, or you serve in a ministry that pleases you but is not according to the Lord’s will, and He wants to tell you:
“Tend My sheep”!!!

He said to Peter: Other people are none of your concern.. You follow Me.
And today He is saying to you: Do not be concerned with what is happening to others.. You follow Me..
So are you going to respond to the invitation?

And remember that the cry: “It is the Lord” is waiting for the person who seriously misses it.

[بنت معلم الاجيال]

Thank you

very beautiful