“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….” Luke 5:1-2
Notice
that the people were “pressing upon Jesus to
hear the word of God.” Whenever we take a step toward the Lord, He
will respond and begin to draw us closer to Himself.
There will always be “two ships” (two possibilities) in our spiritual life experience. These are
placed in our path by the Lord to cause us to make a choice. Jesus will
never enter the ship that relates to our self-life (our being in control of all that we
say and do). When we make the right choice, Jesus will
enter the ship that relates to His will and purpose
for us, and become active in our spiritual life
experience.
“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.”
Luke 5:3
The
“land” speaks of our self-life, in which
we are in control and can do as we please. The “water” represents the realm of the Spirit, where the Lord is in
control. For us to be “thrust out a
little from the land” speaks of giving up the right to do as we please,
so Jesus can bring us into a submissive, cooperative relationship with Him.
Here, we will be “made ready” to function
in the deeper realms of the Spirit (He sat down and taught the people). As we continue to make the right choices, the
“water” will gradually become deeper and deeper until our
feet can no longer reach the bottom!
