Fishing for Souls - Casting Nets for Jesus

The old axiom for evangelists is that we go fishing for the souls of men and women. We catch em' and God cleans em', but a more accurate saying would be that God catches them and He cleans them. We only hook em. God reels them in, or actually the Holy Spirit does this work. It is not a work of any man or woman but of the Holy Spirit alone. But God does require someone to take the message to the people and that is our job of the Great Commission. It is an imperative command, not a helpful suggestion (Matt. 28:18-20/Acts 1:8).

Jonathan Edwards book about church revival, called The Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God was remarkably revised by Archie Parrish and R. C. Sproul into a new book that I highly recommend, called The Spirit of Revival. [1] Discovering the wisdom of Jonathan Edwards is like mining gold to me.. In this amazingly good book, Jonathan Edwards describes the church and evangelization (witnessing) to a fishermen's net used during the time of Jesus' ministry on earth and was the means to making a living for some of His disciples.

Before revival can begin or even going door to door, Jonathan Edwards makes a beautiful correlation between fishing nets and the church, saying that "Nets had to [first] be washed (p. 154). So too must believers be cleansed by the blood of Christ and must live by according to their faith to be an effective witness. The net (by extension, the church's fishing for souls) collected both the clean and the unclean fish, including much debris like seaweed and trash. I was part of such debris at one time.

The net had to be "...dried in the light of the sun, so believers must spend time in fellowship with God's Son (p. 154)". If the net were not allowed to dry completely in the sun, it would rot. By analogy, the church and particularly the Outreach members would have to be exposed to the purifying Son so that it would not rot.

Also, "The net had to be mended, so believers must be trained..." or the weight of the catch would break it. I was mended by Him and only then have I been able to gather souls, by the work of the Holy Spirit; but I needed training in how to witness to people. A broken net will allow the good fish (perhaps those the Holy Spirit is drawing) to pass through the nets and the nets "...were not accomplishing what they were made for" (p. 155). We too can procure wear and tear and being frail, feeble and made of dust (Psalm 103), Jonathan Edwards says that to repair torn nets, "...believers must be trained to use the means of grace properly". The means of grace he spoke of was our purifying by redemption made possible by Christ and by using the Word of God (the Bible). The Word has power in it, I have none of myself.

In my job as Outreach coordinator for my church, I simply love going door to door and sharing the Gospel with the community as a whole. I don't avoid liquor stores, the bars, grocery stores, the Post Office or convenience stores, but I primarily go into the community and go house to house. By experience, witnessing became easier and easier, but I have faced hostility, rejection, scorn and had many doors slammed in my face, yet it became easier and easier with each passing day. Next to being a Sunday school teacher, there is nothing more rewarding to me than this. This is literally my greatest passion of all in the church.

I used to be terrified of this, supposing that rejection of the Gospel message was a personal rejection of my. But it was really the message they hated and not me personally. However, I have discovered that the way to conquer fear is to go out and get scared a lot of times. The most important part was, far and away, that of my own right relationship to God and a heavy dose of prayer. Without either of these, I was destined for futility.

In the summer of 2008, I trained with an Evangelist, going door to door. It was not my first training but perhaps my best. One lady told us she was not sure she was saved but was baptized as an infant and so she didn't need to join a church or "get saved". I thought of the thief of the cross who believed on Jesus and was saved on his last day on earth. He had no chance to come down from the cross and get baptized or join a church or partake in the Sacraments, yet he was still saved without these. This incidence from the Bible came to my mind instantly when this lady made this comment. It was the work of the Holy Spirit that brought it to remembrance, not my only rote memorization of scripture or me thumbing through the Bible for an answer to give while she waited. If I had done that, my witnessing might have been thwarted. Thank God, literally, that we had prayed before we left that evening. We had specifically asked the Holy Spirit to bring to remembrance any scripture that we might need in order to answer for the hope that is within us (I Pet. 3:15).

One night, when the disciples were fishing all night long and had caught nothing, Jesus approached them and told them to caste their net right where He told them. In this story in John, Chapter Six, the disciple's skepticism and frustration was obvious, since they told Him they had already been fishing all night and had absolutely nothing to show for it. Jesus told them to caste their nets again, but this time in a particular area, and when they tried to pull in the net, they could hardly haul it into the boat because it was overflowing with fish. It was a miracle the net didn't tear.

The obvious lesson is that unless Jesus directs the fishing, the fishermen fish in vain. Unless He is in charge of our efforts, we will catch nothing but a cold! We don't catch anything. This is the work of the Holy Spirit (John 6:44) under the power and authority of Jesus Christ that He gives us (Matt. 28:18-20/Acts 1:8). But He does give us the means and the awesome privilege of partaking in the Great Commission; that of fishing for men's and women's souls. It is an imperative command given to the church. It is not a "hope you will do this" but a command from Jesus Christ Himself to "Go!"

I made a sign on my study room. I hang in on the door handle if I'm gone. It reads "Gone Fishing!" Go with me. He tells us where the really good spots are. The fish are biting.

1. The Spirit of Revival. Archie Parrish and R. C. Sproul. Crossway Books, Wheaton, Ill.

Copyright, 2009. ISBN 1-58134-137-7. Based upon a revision of Jonathan Edwards book, "

The Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God ".