God Calls People:

God Himself works through leaders and He places great importance and weight upon leadership. God gives us a pattern of how He operates; He calls people to partner with what He desires to do. When God wants to accomplish anything on the earth He always starts with an individual for example Moses was called to set the nation of Israel free from bondage. Others such as David, Esther, Paul, Peter and of course the most outstanding human leader ever – Jesus Christ all were active participants in the purposes of God! An individual may not always be a leader at the onset (or even willing) at the time of their calling but they certainly end up being one along the journey. In addition, there are other great leaders that are found outside of the pages of the Bible, for example Martin Luther, Winston Churchill, Mother Teresa and Abraham Lincoln to mention a few. These people shaped nations, touched lives and made an incredible impact in their sphere of influence.

Leaders Provide Vision:

Leaders look into the future and see possibilities; this is called “vision”. According to John Maxwell, “Leaders see farther, see more, and see sooner than most people”. They capture the “preferred future” in conceptual form and desire to make it a reality in the “here and now”.  In other words, leaders want to make their dreams a reality for themselves and for others. Abraham Lincoln understood that all men were created by God to be equal and free, the vision that he saw, his “preferred future” did not include slavery.

Leaders Lead the Way:

Part of leadership is to be a pioneer, in other words, to blaze a trail where no one else has ever dreamed to travel or ever thought was possible. Leaders break down barriers of resistance and tear down walls of negativity and opposition. They constantly challenge the status quo and detest being “average”. Their focus is on what is possible instead of what cannot be accomplished. Christopher Columbus challenged the accepted “fact” that the world was flat and sailed around the globe and discovered America in the process.

Leaders Bring About Great Change:

Change is a critical factor of human life. Without change, things stagnate, deteriorate and eventually die. The truth is that nothing changes without someone leading the way.  Leadership is about influencing others for good. Great leaders desire to improve the quality of life for themselves and for others; they desire to see people experience freedom, health and happiness. Before Alexandre Yersin led the way an estimated 25 million Europeans died because of the Bubonic Plague.

Leaders are an Example

The earmark of an outstanding leader is that they are willing to be held to a higher standard than the masses. They understand that people will only follow leaders that they deem to be stronger and/or farther ahead in the process than they are. Leaders are qualified to lead others because they themselves have been “there”, paid their dues and have the results to show for their labour. There are many examples of leaders who are ahead of their time and because of this they suffered, they were misunderstood, criticized and even rejected. In fact, they can only truly be appreciated after their time. Consider Christ who was crucified and died a criminal’s death however, millions upon millions have received Him as the Messiah and Saviour of the world in the last two thousand years.

Indeed, leadership is critical and essential but far too few answer the call or understand the importance of it!

But what were these seven disciples doing out in the middle of the sea anyways? After all, Christ had risen from the dead and had appeared to them twice before this, was there not something more important to do than fish? Although the text does not come right out and give us the motivation for them being on this fishing expedition consider some possibilities. At the center of this story is Peter the leader of the Apostles. It was his idea to go in the first place and the others were right behind him. Peter is at a point in his life where there are probably more questions than answers. His denial of Christ (three times no less) was a colossal failure that was only eclipsed by the betrayal of Judas.  Even though Peter cried many tears of repentance he is far from restored at this point. To intensify the matter, Christ has appeared to all of them twice and yet He has not addressed or re-reinstated Peter.

In fact, Christ appears and disappears at will and the all the Apostles seem confused and maybe even disillusioned with all that they have experienced in the last three years.  Their future must have seemed clear as mud at such a critical time in their lives.  Being an impetuous leader, Peter decides to go fishing; an activity and lifestyle he is familiar and comfortable with. Can you imagine his irritation when he cannot be successful at the thing he knows best! Perhaps this explains the short and curt answer back to Christ – “NO” to His inquiry of the catch. How often we as believers venture back to a familiar lifestyle of the past when we deem that God has not worked things out for us in manner that we had envisioned. Generally speaking many poor decisions are made in this season because we take matters into our own hands and try to change our lives for the better but in fact we may be working against the “process” of God.

Furthermore, all the disciples find themselves in a “holding pattern”! This can be described as a transitional season, a grey area, moving from one place to another without much clarity or direction.  They were stuck between the joy of the resurrection and the empowerment of the Holy Ghost.  This season of transition is not a unique thing just for the Apostles.  In fact, our faith walk is a series of transitions and shifts. These seasons may be accompanied by times of discouragement, loneliness and rejection as well as other powerful emotions. In these times it is all too common for us to fill our lives with endless activity in order to realize fulfillment. However, this may actually work against us in the long run as our daily routine can become so busy that it produces fatigue, frustration and even stress. Dr. John Miller of Elim Bible Institute has coined an acronym for the word B.U.S.Y. – ‘being under Satan’s yoke.” At times, God will place our lives in a “holding pattern” so to speak, so that He can work on our character as well as our destiny.  Maximization requires that we identify and eliminate activity that bears no fruit.

From the shore, Jesus asks them a logical and straightforward question “Children, have you caught anything?” Having worked all night at a craft they made their living at and showing no fruit for their efforts they answered with a resounding and perhaps frustrated – “NO”! When God asks us questions He is not looking for information but rather wants us to stop and consider what we are missing. Christ tells them to cast their net on the other side or the right side of the boat. At that point, they were probably willing to try anything and to their surprise and delight they got the catch of their lives – yay God!

The disciples wasted an entire night putting out maximum energy and get nothing back for their labour. But when Christ shows up on the shore one command makes all the difference. In fact, their win-fall was literally a few feet and seconds away and they did not know it. The disciples were fishing on the wrong side of the boat but once they acted on the Word of Christ they immediately realized a plentiful harvest.  According to Prophet Larry Randolph, “A minor shift and a minor tweak in our thinking can bring us into the fulfillment of our destiny”.  The disciples moved from an unproductive venture to instant productivity. One word from God is worth an entire night (or season) of labour! How farther ahead would our progress be if we would just stop, look and listen to the wisdom, instruction and knowledge that God desires to download.

Small adjustments that come from the proceeding Word of God make a huge difference in our lives. The disciples were fishing on the wrong side of the boat and their fruitlessness proved it. Prophet Larry Randolph indicates, “You know you are fishing from the wrong side of the boat when you are putting our maximum energy and receive very little in return.”  But this story is not about how to catch a ton of fish; it is about the impact that Christ makes to our productivity when we listen to His voice and obey His ways.  How essential it is to our spiritual progress that we learn to discern the instructions of Christ and follow His subtle impulses quickly and completely. This story illustrates that God desires to give His people a greater return on their investment, increase their harvest and spend much less effort in the process.

Unfortunately, the disciples had forgotten the preferred future – their destiny! Christ had called them to be fish for something much greater than sea creatures, “Then He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” [Matt 4:19]. The truth was that they had been enlisted by God to catch souls and make an eternal impact for God, but because of their circumstances they chose to believe the facts rather than the truth. The fact was that they were are on their own and their Rabbi whom they followed day and night for three years was no longer at their daily disposal. The fact was that they were discouraged and in need of a fresh infusion of vision. But the truth had never changed; they were called to be world changers, to communicate the most powerful message, to continue where Jesus left off and to declare the acceptable year of the Lord.  At times, the facts can be so convincing that we can easily forget the truth of who has called us, who we are and what we are called to accomplish.  Maximization requires us to know, believe and declare the truth despite the facts.

After this encounter with Christ, Peter and all the disciples for that matter transitioned into the preferred future that God had already prepared for them.

By: Rev. Tony Soldano