“Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net” (Luke 5:5).
There is a good chance we all have felt like Simon in this situation. Simon and his fellow fishermen had spent all night toiling, struggling, and doubting that they would catch anything. Now this account in Scripture is interesting because Simon was not a novice when it came to fishing. It was his livelihood. If anyone knew what he was doing, it was him. So, when Jesus spoke directly to Simon, “…Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught” (Luke 5:4), I can imagine he had some doubts. Perhaps he even thought that nothing would come of this.
How often do we allow just enough doubt to creep into our minds, when God asks us to just follow His Spirit and trust Him? Have you ever said, “Lord I have already done this. You mean to tell me that this time it is going to be different.”? Well, it turns out that for Simon and all those who were on the ship, it was different. Jesus was on the scene, and He was there to teach them a lesson all the while glorifying the Father.
When they let down the nets as Jesus had commanded, it says that
“…they inclosed a great multitude of fishes: and their net brake” (Luke 5:6).
Not only did they catch enough fish to fill their nets, but they caught so many that their nets broke, and they had to call another ship to help them. Just as Simon did, we will find that when we are obedient to God’s Word and His Spirit, He will rain on us blessings on top of blessings, so much so that it will overflow to those in our vicinity.
In this account, Jesus not only showed His power, but He made it clear that without Him we can do nothing. If we don’t have the Spirit of the Holy Ghost in everything that we are doing, it is meaningless. The Spirit is everything. It gives us the words to say, it guides our steps, and it convicts the hearts of man. We, as a body of believers, can afford to “do” everything He says. We must, as Bishop R.O. Covey wrote in his book Delving the Depths, “Consider your [our] ways.”
As we have just started a new calendar year, I thank God for more opportunities to “Launch out into the deep.” I want to encourage all of us to launch out with our prayer and fasting. I know we have all fasted and prayed before, but we must continue to launch out deeper. This may require us to pray harder or to fast longer. The Holy Ghost will direct us when we stay in tune with His Spirit. We can’t allow doubt or distractions to take away from our prayer lives. Simon and those with him were amazed at the miracle that Jesus did. God has already proven Himself to us, so we have no reason to doubt Him, even when He tells us to do something we’ve done before or have never done before.
“10 …Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men. 11 And when they had brought their ships to land, they forsook all, and followed him” (Luke 5:10, 11).
Jesus told these men not to fear and that from here on out they were to catch men. This still applies to us today, young people. I know that this present world is full of sin and darkness and that you may feel you are the only one who desires to serve God in a sea of people. I want to encourage you and let you know that this is not the case, there are those out there who are seeking truth, those who are seeking to find something that can take away their pain and fill their empty hearts. We simply have to follow the Holy Ghost and let down our nets when and where He tells us. There are great things in store for God’s people, if we will only cast our doubts and preconceived notions aside and launch out into the deep!
