You can see greater blessings in your life than you have ever seen before. Now is the time to enlarge your vision for a better future in your family, church and in the nations of the world.

The story recorded in Luke 5:1-11 was a turnaround moment in the lives and development of the disciples. And this can be a turnaround moment for each one of us. This story has important lessons for us if we want to be successful in seeing what we haven’t seen before. 

1. You must go deep (Luke 5:4) 

2. You must let go of your past (Luke 5:5)  

3. You must obey the Lord (Luke 5:5; John 2:5)  

4. You must prepare the way for new growth (Like 5:4) 

5. You must let the Lord work miracles (Luke 5:6; 1 Corinthians 3:6) 

6. You must work together as a team (Luke 5:7) 

7. You must recognise your need and commit to following the Lord (Luke 5: 8-10) 

Apply  

1. You must go deep (Luke 5:4). Former Colombian Senator and ambassador to Brazil Pastor Emma Claudia Castellanos and a host of the recent G12 conferences in Brazil said: “going deep means you go to a place where things are naturally impossible. Going deep means you go beyond what is realistic-otherwise you obliterate the possibility of a miraculous catch. A miraculous catch is miraculous! Faith goals are a key to the supernatural. Faith goals are dreams with deadlines. Faith goals expose things that are our Achilles heel: fear of failure, low self-esteem, dependence of human strength. If you don’t have a faith goal you don’t get desperate. You don’t push to another level. Faith goals make us desperate and drive us to God.” She tells how she and her disciples, with some nervousness, went for a miraculous catch to invite thousands to a women’s meeting in a stadium that they had never filled before. And it was packed out!  

2. You must let go of your past (Luke 5:5). Your past must not be allowed to rob you of your future. You may have not succeeded much in your life, but that is no barrier to succeeding in the future. Don’t allow a negative mindset based on past ‘failures’ rule you and colour your vision. Maybe many of us can identify with Simon. ‘We’ve tried it before and it doesn’t work.” “We have worked hard but nothing much has happened. We haven’t caught much, if anything.” This is what Peter was saying, but he didn’t give up. He refused to let yesterday’s disappointments and discouragements stop what the Lord was saying to him today. You too must make a clean break from past thinking and experience.  

3. You must obey the Lord (Luke 5:5). Blessing in all areas of life comes through obedience to God’s word. We are blessed when we live God’s way, free of sin. We are blessed when we live in unity with natural and church family. We are blessed when we give our tithes and offerings. And we are blessed as churches when we don’t just focus on ourselves but in obeying the Lord’s command to ‘go and make disciples of all nations.’ When we reach out to people in obedience God will be with us and work through us. The more we reach out to the masses, the more they will come. The Holy Spirit will work with you when you are prepared to obey His prompting (John 2:5). In other words: Just do it!  

4. You must prepare the way for new growth (Like 5:4). We have to do something. We must pray, plan and prepare for the future and train up new generations. Everyone should get trained up in key areas of your life, invite your friends to hear the gospel, ask people if you would like people to pray for them, start as many small life groups as we can. In other words do something that God can work with. In the lines of a baseball film: “build it and they will come!” You may not know where the ‘fish’ are or how they are going to come but that is irrelevant! By faith you must create the capacity for them to come. As our groups and our outreaches multiply so will the catch!  

5. You must let the Lord work miracles (Luke 5:6). The Lord knows where the fish are and how to get them into the nets (1 Corinthians 3:6). God loves people and wants people them to know His saving grace in great numbers. And He knows how to do the job. When we move out in faith and obedience, He will do the rest. The more you rely on the Holy Spirit to work the greater the catch will be.  

6. You must work together as a team (Luke 5:7). Teamwork makes the dream work. Jesus trained up a team of 12 and He taught them to pray for more workers. As a church in the UK, in Windsor, London and in Robertson, South Africa, we focus on training teams of disciples to make disciples. But we need teamwork at all levels, worship teams, operational teams, serving teams and family teams. Husbands and wives need to be a team; families need to be a team. Let your kids be a part of the team, in the ministry of the church and at home with dishes, cooking, making beds and carrying groceries. What God wants to do is so big that it takes many people to partner together to receive God’s big catch. 

7. You must recognise your need and commit to following the Lord (Luke 5: 8-10). Simon Peter came to a place of brokenness. He had needed to get real about how ineffective he was and how unprepared he was for what happened. So too we must come to a place where God deals with us, and we humbly confess our need of God. We must repent of pride and lack of faith and pursue a new level of dedication to God. For sure when we come to this place in our lives, we can expect great things to follow in every area of our lives and in reaching great numbers of people for Christ. Today God is calling you to forsake safety first Christianity. He is calling you to ‘go deep’ and risk taking on bigger challenges than you have ever done before. It’s time to trust and obey the Lord and launch out in your Christian life and leadership. A big catch awaits you! You will see what you have not seen before. What do you need to repent of? Unbelief, criticism, cynicism, unreality, sin? What are the issues in your life that make you cautious about stepping out in faith goals? What will be your faith goals for the future?