Pam Padgett - teacher
Luke 5:1 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,
2 And saw two ships standing by the lake: but the fishermen were
gone out of them, and were washing their nets. 3 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.
4 Now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon,
Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught.
5 And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled all
the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless
at thy word I will let down the net.
6 And when they had this done, they inclosed a great
multitude of fishes: and their net brake. 7 And they beckoned
unto their partners, which were in the other ship, that they
should come and help them. And they came, and filled both the
ships, so that they began to sink.
After fishing all night and catching nothing, it would surely seem futile to put their nets back into the water.
But because Jesus told Peter to go out to the deep water and let down their nets, he did it. And they saw the abundant fulfillment of what Jesus told Peter.
We sometimes are going in a way, but then the Holy Spirit speaks to us showing us to go another way. Because that word is from God, we are turned by that word and go in that way. It will not fail, and will bring about the purpose of God in the matter.
My elderly neighbor, Jim, is a widower and lives by himself. Shortly
after his wife died, he fell and injured himself, but was able to get
himself to a hospital. The next time I saw him he said in a kind of joking manner that if I didn't see any sign of him for a few days I might
check to see if he was still alive. Although he tried to make light of this, it
was obvious he was concerned.
Jim isn't outside much and it was not unusual for me to not see him
for weeks at a time. But I noticed that early every morning he
turned the light on in a room which I could see from my house. I
started looking to see if that light was on each morning.
One day a couple years ago everything looked as usual at Jim's house. The light was on, and I noticed his trash can was at the end of
his driveway to be emptied by the weekly trash service.
But around 4pm I
kept having a thought (from the Holy Spirit) that I needed to check on Jim's trash can. This seemed strange, but when I looked out
of my window I saw that the trash can was still at the end of his
driveway. Jim typically put the trash can
back in his garage as soon as the trash service comes in the morning. I
walked over to his driveway and noticed that his newspapers were still there as well. This, also, was very unusual. I prayed asking what, if anything, I should do.
Jim can't hear his doorbell, so I went back to my house and called him on the
telephone. He did not answer. During this time I remembered that a
couple years before I had not seen Jim's light on before going to work
one morning. Thinking he may have just gotten up later than usual, I
waited a couple hours then called to make sure he was ok. Everything
was fine, but he seemed embarrassed that I had been bothered with this.
Looking back, this previous experience affected me when I saw the trash
can and newspapers. Not wanting to over-react and possibly embarrass him again, I tried to
convince myself that the trash can and newspapers did not indicate a
problem. Maybe Jim had doctor appointments that
day and just hadn't gotten home yet. I reasoned it would be best to wait a couple hours before doing anything more.
But immediately a thought from the Holy Spirit told me that it wouldn't do any good to wait.
Hearing this from the Holy Spirit, I immediately abandoned my reasoning, and went to Jim's house.
After letting myself into his house, I called out loudly announcing that I was coming into the house. A very weak
voice responded "Help me".
I found Jim lying on the kitchen floor. He had fallen more
than 20 hours earlier, breaking his hip and making it impossible for him to get up. (The light I checked each morning had been on since the previous
day, and he had taken the trash can to the end of the driveway the
previous day as well.)
I was so glad to have been led by the Holy Spirit to go to Jim's house without waiting as I had planned to do. Just as the Holy Spirit spoke, it would have done no good to have waited.
(After 10 weeks in a hospital and rehab center, Jim was able to return home.)