Heaven Land Devotions - The Three Phase Following of Jesus Christ

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When Jesus first came to the first four fishermen one morning, He stood on the seashore and said to them, "Follow Me." We read that they "left their nets" and followed Him. Some time later we read about Jesus standing on the seashore. Multitudes were pressing on Him to hear the word.

He entered into one of the two boats, and sat down and preached from there. Afterwards, He told Peter to let down his net and he would catch fish. They all let down their nets and the catch was so great their nets broke, and their vessels were sinking under the weight of the magnitude of fishes.

At that moment, the power of the Holy Spirit was mightily present. Peter fell down at Jesus' knees and begged Jesus to depart from him saying, "for I am a sinful man!" We see Jesus revealing Himself to Peter as "Lord," and Peter seeing Himself as the filthiest sinful man. I get the feeling what Peter was seeing and experiencing was so powerful regarding his sinful state. I don't think anyone could begin to put it in words. We might even get a glimpse in a sense of what the Great White Throne Judgment will be like in this moment.

James and John were the other fishermen, and seeing what happened, I seem to think had experienced the powerful presence of Jesus Christ too. How could they not? Look what it says, " For he [Peter] was astonished, and all that were with him, at the draught of the fishes which they had taken: And so was also James, and John, the sons of Zebedee, which were partners with Simon. And Jesus said unto Simon, Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men. And when they had brought their ships to land, they forsook all, and followed him."

This was now the second time they followed Jesus, but not because He asked them to, but now they wanted to of their own volition. Notice they did not just leave their nets. They "forsook all and followed Him."

Later after Jesus death, burial and resurrection, Jesus was seen by seven of His disciples standing on the shore in the morning. They had fished all night and caught nothing. But they heard Jesus tell them to do the same thing as last time, and obeying Him, they now caught a major catch and the nets did not break.

When they all got to shore, Jesus asked Peter if he loved Him, and all three times Peter attested to the fact that he did. Jesus then told Peter how he would later die in his old age. Then afterwards He said for the third and final time, "Follow Me." Now Peter was ready, as well as the rest of them to follow Jesus.

This is how I see our walk and following Christ in a threefold phase of maturity. Jesus knows how to teach you to follow Him. Following Him is never easy when time goes on with Him. There are many challenges. But He always knows how to reveal Himself to those that keep on following Him and to mature them into great fruit bearing trees unto His Father and ours for His namesake.

“If Christ is not all to you He is nothing to you. He will never go into partnership as a part Saviour of men. If He be something He must be everything, and if He be not everything He is nothing to you.” “The Lord's mercy often rides to the door of our heart upon the black horse of affliction.” ~Charles Spurgeon