Climbing the Mountain of God Stop Six Fishers of Men Part 2

Welcome to episode 156.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Spending time in the Word of God is the best way to spend time with God. Welcome to No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast, where we will encourage, inspire, and empower you to live your best life in Christ. Here's Greg.

Welcome to episode 156. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We are currently on the 6th step or 6th stop on the mountain, and it is Fishers of Men. And if you look at your handy-dandy mountain map, the Mountain of God map, you will see that there are 3 different levels to the mountain as I've got it kind of drawn out. I've just got to kind of have a, a general idea. And again, this is not mutually exclusive. But these are so I can kind of get my thoughts together and so I can kind of give this to you in a maybe an audiovisual kind of explanation. Each level has 3 different names. The bottom level is— I've got it labeled as follower. The middle level is believer, and the top level is disciple. And I believe you have to be a disciple before you can make disciples. And if we go back to Matthew 28:19, I want to remind you he says to go Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all the things that I've commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. And I just want to pick up a few of these words and their verbs. There's verbs: go, make, baptize, teach. And those are the 3 or 4— those are the 4 things that I think we all need to concentrate on doing And when we go, we have to go. We have to get out. We have to do something. We have to take action. We can't just sit in our prayer closet and pray. We have to go. We have to get out there where people are, and we have to love on people. And I don't mean we got to take our Bible and beat them over the head, tell them they're going to hell. That's not how you're a witness for Jesus. Jesus— I don't ever see Jesus telling all these people they're going to hell to get people saved. He— what he did is he went out there and he loved on them. Again, I want to remind you of the Jesus pattern. Where he preached the gospel, he taught in their synagogues, and he healed all manner of sickness and disease. He preached to their spirit, their dead spirits. He taught their souls, their mind, will, and emotion, and he healed their bodies. And the three parts— he did all three of those things while he was proclaiming the, the name of Jesus. He was proclaiming himself as the Son of God. He also healed— he was drawing the net in, and he was getting people's attention to get them ready to listen and to even get ready for the kingdom of God. I want to concentrate on the making of disciples, not making babies, and we've talked about this, but it's easy to make babies. It's not so much as— it's not as easy to rear them up and to have them grow up as adults and be on their own. You've got— you start with a baby and the baby's helpless. They don't know what they're doing. They need help every minute. If they— if you don't feed them, If you don't clothe them, if you don't protect them and shelter them, they're gonna die. Everybody starts out as a baby, and you've got to learn to become a follower, and then you learn to be the believer, and then you become a disciple. And then if you become a disciple, then you can create other disciples. You can't make something that you're not. And I wanna go to Acts, 'cause we're talking about becoming fishers of men, and I want you to see Peter and John were living their life. They're praising God, they're staying in prayer. They just got baptized with the Holy Spirit. They're all fired up. They're walking around. The Holy Spirit's probably still all over them. I don't know how long this was from when they got baptized to when they walked into the temple or walked towards the Temple Beautiful, but this is in Acts 3. Now Peter and John went up together to the temple at the hour of prayer, the 9th hour. And a certain man lame from his mother's womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple, which is called Beautiful. To ask alms from those who entered the temple, who, seeing Peter and John about to go to the temple, asked for alms. And fixing his eyes on him with John, Peter said, "Look at us." So he gave them his attention, expecting to receive something from them. Then Peter said, "Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk." And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. So He, leaping up, stood and walked and entered the temple with them, walking, leaping, and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God. Then they knew it was he who sat begging alms at the Beautiful Gate of the temple, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. And I just want you to notice John and Peter going out together. Remember, Jesus sent them out in pairs, and that's another one of our keys, is that we try— we don't do this alone. Is we need to pair up. And I think there's more power where two or more are gathered as touching one thing. I think there's power in numbers. And I think where two people are gathered— and there's so much against marriage— if those two people are united and they're following after Christ, there's no telling that Satan can't stop that. So the only thing he can do is he kind of twists and turns. He's such a punk, but he gets in there and he divides and all this garbage. But, and we are two totally different creatures. I want you to see John and Peter grab this and healed him. It doesn't say that he was saved. I see healing, it's kind of like a dog whistle, or it's kind of like, you know, just rattling the bell. And we've talked about this before, that this just gets everybody's attention. And I, I'm telling you, there ain't no way that you can ignore this kind of healing. The Jewish leaders had absolutely no answer to this. And that's how the church— I just believe that's how the church is going to grow. And I think that's That's why I think Satan is such a punk that he's just kind of said, well, you know, that was for, you know, the healings were for the apostolic period. And you don't see Peter and John going and healing people all day, every day. Now you do see that Peter had the healing gift, that his shadow would touch people. The Apostle Paul had the same thing. They would take his handkerchiefs and wipe the sweat where he would wipe the sweat, and they would grab those and he would lay those handkerchiefs on people. And that's— but that's exercising faith in healing and the anointing. And I'm just not here to talk about all that, but I'm here to say that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And this Jesus pattern is real. And I think that too many of us, you know, we get all twisted up in this— I mean, are you faith, are you grace movement, are you a Calvinist, are you— I mean, all of that, who cares? I mean, do you believe in Jesus? Do you read the Bible? I mean, this is soapbox moment number 342. I mean, you need to get in your Bible, ask the Holy Spirit, open up what you want me to understand. And this is what I think God wants me to understand, is that you and I need to get after this thing. And that if we— if there's someone that's hurting and somebody that needs healing, I mean, don't be scared of it. And I'm going to tell you, just Like I tell everybody, if you don't pray for them, we know they're not going to get healed. And if you do pray for them, and I'm not talking about begging God to do it, I'm talking about a specific, "Silver and gold have I none, but what I do have I give to you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk." Peter didn't start going, "Oh, I'm nothing, I'm a worm." He said, "What I have, I give to you." You transfer the thing that you have to that person that needs it. That's the love. And that is what healing is about, is taking that power. It's not your power, it's not my power, it's God's power. And it's on the inside of you. And if you are endued with that power, that means it's on the inside of you and it's on the outside of you. And if you're broken and then it's oozing in between— I don't know how it all works, but that's kind of how I've got to see it. And so when you touch somebody or you touch something with all of this power flowing through you, things are going to change. And if you expect things to change, signs and wonders will follow them that believe. And I just believe the word of God. I'm not into any kind of apostolic— I'm not going to argue whether there's apostles, or the Bible says there are. I don't know if there's a big A apostle, and that's just the people that are just saw specifically Jesus and walked with him. So there's no more— I mean, who cares? Just read the Bible. And ask the Holy Spirit, "How does this affect me?" I don't need a title to go out and proclaim the Word of God. I don't have to be called an evangelist. In fact, I don't think I am an evangelist. I think I've been given a commission to help teach people about Jesus, and I'm not gonna back down from things that are uncomfortable. I mean, I just don't care. The fear of man is a snare, and I may have 30, 40 people that listen to this regularly, and I hope I'm not upsetting any of you, but I didn't write a word in this Bible. I mean, I'm reading it and I'm proclaiming what I'm reading and what I'm gonna be— I'm gonna be held accountable for the things that I teach you on this podcast when I go to heaven. So when I start bringing this to you, this is something that I'm gonna have to answer for. And if I back down from talking about something 'cause it's a little uncomfortable, I don't understand it all the way, Again, I don't understand electricity, but you know, why sit in the dark and why not use a computer? I don't understand all the O's and zeros and, and all that computer language, but I still click the mouse button and I still go and surf around the web and find things. So you don't have to understand everything to use it. And I'm just telling you that if you're endued with power, if you have been baptized in the Holy Spirit, the next step is is to become fishers of men. And we are just at this 6th stop, and I know this is just introductory stuff, but we're going to get deeper in. I think I'm going to have to go to each stop, and I'm going to have to have a deep dive on each spot. There's an awful lot to take in. This Christian walk thing is a big deal, and it's— there's a lot of knowledge, there's a lot of information that we, you and I, need to, to get into our spirits. I just briefly want to show you God's going to use Whatever you do in your life to draw people, if your goal is to help build God's kingdom, the way you build God's kingdom is to proclaim his goodness and his love and his mercy and his kindness, and to give love one to another. And that's not just to say, oh, I pray for you, brother. I mean, if somebody— you tell somebody's hungry, or if you hear that someone doesn't have food, or whatever, take them some food if you got some food.. And if you know that somebody's house burnt down and they need clothes, and if you've got clothes that would fit them, take them some clothes. I mean, that's love one to another. And you ain't got to do it and tell them, hey, I'm doing this because I'm a Christian. And I mean, you just do it because you— I mean, you have compassion for people. And when you start doing the right things and you're doing them for the right reasons, God's going to give you an opportunity to share his word. God is not in a hurry. God's not anxious or nervous. It says to be anxious for nothing. Now understand that we're not promised tomorrow, and this is what I want to leave you with, that if you say something— and I, you know, I've told people this before, but you know, I've heard people, what if I mess up? What if I say something and it offends them? Or what if I say something and they don't accept Christ? And this is my response, is if you say something, if you're being fishers of men and you're out just giving your testimony and you say something and you don't mean to, but your heart's right, but you say something and it offends that person. If they had not accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, if they do not accept Jesus, they're going to hell. I mean, that's the way I read it in my book. That may be a little too harsh for somebody listening, but I'm sorry, that's the way I read it. So if they don't have Jesus, if their spirit man has not been born again, they're sent to the lake of fire at the end. Now, if they— if you say something that upsets them and they don't accept Jesus, you have not hurt their position at all. Nothing has changed. They're still on the same path. They're still taking the wide gate. The narrow gate is a little more difficult. I think you just go back to the drawing board, just pray for them. And if you've offended them so much where they punch you in the mouth or tell you to never talk to them again, then you just pray, God, send somebody else to them. And then you start watering. But if you truly have compassion for the person you're sharing the gospel with, then when you share that, ask the Holy Spirit. I mean, you're supposed to pray that God would draw them to you and that God— or that God would draw them to himself. And so if you're praying that Father would start drawing some of your friends and family or some of these people to God himself, that they'll be ready to hear it. And if you start casting your pearls before swine, as the Bible says, then you're probably not going to get the response you're looking for. But that's enough right now. Let's pray. God, I thank you so much for the person listening to this episode. I pray in Jesus' name that you would just lead and guide and direct them, Lord, how to be fishers of men. How is it that you want them to lead their life, Lord? Who is it in their life that they need to draw out, Lord? I, I would hate to think that I'm going to end up in heaven not by myself, but without bringing anybody with me. Lord, I pray that you would continue to put people in my path that I could visit with and I can talk to and I can tell them about you. And then this person that's listening, Lord, I pray that you would just encourage them and inspire them and empower them to share their faith and their testimony with the people in their world. And God, I pray that you would just anoint it and give it power. God, we thank you, we love you, we ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, thank you for being a part of this, and I look forward to visiting with you on the next episode.

Thanks for listening to the No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast at www.nodoubtonlybelieve.com.