And it came to pass, that, as the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God, he stood by the lake of Gennesaret, And saw two ships standing by the lake: but the fishermen were gone out of them, and were washing their nets. And he entered into one of the ships, which was Simon's, and prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land. And he sat down, and taught the people out of the ship. (Luk 5:1-3)
The people wanted so badly to be taught of Christ that they pressed upon Him to a point where He had to go into the lake to teach them. As I look out at church services on Sunday I witness something quite different. I don’t see flocks of people overfilling the churches. Quite to the contrary, I see churches with empty pews. I see small numbers gathered at many churches, and even these small numbers don’t press together at the front of the church to hear the words of God…they spread out, not even sitting next to others in the Body of Christ unless compelled to by force.
As I look at the Church from this inside perspective, I wonder what those outside of the Church see as they witness our Sunday mornings. As a neighbor sees a Christian family arguing and fighting because they’re so rushed to get out of the house on time…as they see so few who call themselves by the name of Christian going to church…as they see so little power among those who do go to church.
We claim to be the children of God…we claim to have the Word of God, which is the power to save!...and yet, looking in, they see so little of this power.
May God awaken His people to the discipline of pressing in to hear His words…that we would be encouraged to pray for God’s mighty power to show forth…that He would be brought much glory in this world as we intently seek to feed upon His words.
May we be brought to our knees in prayer as we rely on God to bring Himself glory by the means that He has declared – the Church!
If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples. (Joh 15:7-8)
Notice that we shall ask whatever we want and it will be done! ANYTHING! The key to this wonderful access to the Father is in the fact that we abide in Christ and His words abide in us. How can His words abide in us unless we press in with the craving of an addict to be nourished by them?
Particular attention should be paid to the purpose of God answering our Christ-centered, Kingdom-focused prayers – that the Father would be glorified and we would be Christ’s disciples by the fruit that we bear.
Good Christian, we must bear good fruit, there is no other that can be brought forth if we are in the good vine, Christ Jesus! And we can’t bear it unless we first go to God in prayer, relying on Him as the vine-dresser that we might bear an exceeding amount of good fruit!
God did not call us to Christ so that common people would come to a common church and do common things. He called us to Christ so that common people could be emptied of themselves, filled with Christ, and be powerful in the pulling down of the Enemy’s strongholds to the glory of God!
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