These two incidents have a number of things in common. Both times the disciples were hesitant and skeptical. Both times they had caught nothing, and both times, obeying Jesus' instructions, they had caught a massive amount of fish, and both times they were incredibly surprised. In these two stories there is a positive message and a negative one.

The negative message: why do we think the disciples were fishing out of one side of the boat? Because that's what they always did and they usually caught fish. In the process of fishing for people, we like to work in the same way; reduce it to a predictable pattern because that's how we've learned to do it; however, it does not require the initiative of God. Throughout the history of the church, this has gone on all the time. We recognize God is at work in a certain way, and try to reproduce it. In doing so, we diminish what God does to a pattern or program that becomes human activity, and then wonder why it is we are not catching fish.

When a Christian revival has broken out in another part of the world, we put our journalists, photographers and strategists on a plane for the site. The journalist reports what's happening, the photographer snaps his pictures, and the strategist reduces it to a method or formula, documents it, and travels around, giving seminars on how to have a great revival. And we wonder why that doesn't work. Revivals and movements of God rarely live beyond a generation and it's because we're excited about it, so we don't want to lose it, and again the way God is working is reduced to formulas and techniques. Oswald Smith once said, "God raises up a man. The man has a message. The message becomes a movement. And the movement turns into a monument."

Other times we'll hear of a church nearby that God seems to be richly blessing as many people are coming to Christ. We'll send someone to see what's making the difference, and try to incorporate their methods, but it doesn't work. Then there are our seniors who have seen God work deeply in peoples' lives. They treasure their memories, and are more comfortable with familiar ways in which they've seen God at work, but the danger is that they begin to limit God. Why is it that often newly planted churches tend to be the most effective? It's because they haven't yet got their formulas in place, and they're looking to God for direction. Once they've been going for a few years, the next generation steps in, simply adopts the programs, and eventually the church begins to lose its life. That's why every generation needs to say, "Lord, You are the head of this body, and that means you have the prerogative to say, 'Stop fishing on this side of the boat.' 

We cannot afford to imitate what God has done elsewhere. We have to allow the Lord Jesus, Himself, to direct us and to be the origin of how we are going to reach out to people. We can never tie Jesus down to a pattern or put Him in a box. We simply will not be fruitful operating in automatic mode. It's only when our relationship with Jesus Christ is alive and fresh every day that He initiates, directs and guides. We should not be looking at a pattern of what God is doing, but look at the principle that lies behind it. The patterns we bury, but the principle remains the same, and that is dependence on God, obedience to Him, and allowing Him to call the shots.

The positive message is that Jesus Christ, as Head of His body, the church, has the prerogative to move us around to put us in the right place at the right time for the right purpose that only He may know. John 12:26 says, "Whoever serves me must follow me." That means we keep in step with Him. Then Jesus says, "And where I am, my servant also will be." The fixed point is where Jesus is, and sometimes keeping in step with Him will involve taking us off the beat and track to unexpected places in unexpected ways.

The Apostle Paul is a prime example. He had his plans all mapped out. After a two year stay in Ephesus, he was going to Spain, where the Gospel had not yet been preached, but stop in Jerusalem first, and then in Rome to visit friends. While in Jerusalem, he was falsely accused of bringing a Gentile into the temple. There were those who wanted him dead, a mob ensued, and for his safety, he was taken down to Caesarea. Because he refused to pay a bribe, he was imprisoned for two years before his case was heard. Being a Roman citizen, he appealed to Caesar, and was then put on a boat to Rome. He ended up being shipwrecked off the coast of Malta, where he spent the winter months, ministering and healing the sick. Then finally onto Rome where he was confined another two years under house arrest, chained to a guard.

Paul's plans for Spain went up in smoke because God had other plans for him. In Philippians 1:12, Paul writes, "I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ." Between the lines, Paul is saying, "Hey, don't worry about me," and he tells them in Philippians 1:16, "I am put here for the defense of the gospel." At the end of his letter, he says, "All the saints send you greetings, especially those who belong to Caesar's household." Why was there a church in Caesar's household? Because God had vetoed Paul's plan. His net was unexpectedly cast from the other side of the boat. Jill Briscoe quotes Steve Brown on a CD who says, "If you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans."

The privilege given to us if we are genuine disciples of Christ is the exciting adventure of God's plans for us, which we'll often see in retrospect. Paul didn't call himself a prisoner of a corrupt Roman system, nor of Jerusalem gossipers, but he rejoiced in calling himself "a prisoner of Jesus Christ." I am here by divine appointment. It doesn't matter who the jailor is. What matters is that Jesus Christ is the fixed point, and in relationship with Him, we learn to discern His will, reading into it all the circumstances of divine providence and divine initiative that works out a purpose. And that means being prepared to cast our nets in different ways and in different places for God's agenda in this world and in our lives.