PRINCIPLES OF POSTURE IN PRAYER 6: Keeping the Net from Breaking

 Luke 6:37-38 says, ³⁷ “’Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.” ESV

Give so the net does not break –This principle or law of reciprocity stated in the passage above, alone will be highlighted in this post because the body of Christ has been in its majority, ignorant of it, and for that reason, the enemy has been stealing, killing, and destroying from them more than he should have been allowed to. We are called to be connected one to another and just as we are called a body and have many parts, one cannot function apart from the others. That is why when one part of the body hurts, perhaps because of an accident, or because of negligence, or because we ignored a warning to not grab an object that was too hot or too sharp, the whole body is affected one way or another.

So, if the hand hurts, the whole body is affected because of the sensation which makes us feel the pain. And even though we may try to go about our day without using the hurting hand, things are not accomplished as efficiently as if we were having full use of it. So the expected thing to do is to seek help to heal and restore our hand so it can be fully and efficiently in use again, and that way, the whole body will feel good about not hurting an can accomplish things more optimally.

The same thing happens with us when we, as members of the body of Christ ignore the promptings of God to take good care of its members, to avoid unnecessary suffering, unnecessary strife and division, unnecessary delays, unnecessary problems, unnecessary exhaustion and frustration, unnecessary loss of opportunities to advance, and unnecessary discouragement. This in turn creates many prodigals who leave because not everyone is strong enough to stay in these conditions and endure as long as they have been made to wait by those who ignore and neglect them. So some of the ways we are called to be connected and take good care of other members of the body while we sow seeds for our own times of need include:

Prayer and intercession – When we ignore the promptings of the Lord to pray and intercede for someone else, this person may not receive the necessary help in times of their need because things happen in the earth as we call them down from heaven. If the brother or sister is backsliding and goes stray because there are not enough intercessors that take their position seriously and call them back to the sheep pen through their prayers, fasting, and counseling (as the Lord leads), and this way warring to tell the enemy to take their hands off of them, this person will continue to go down the wrong path, but it will be counted against us, and when we or a member of our family is going astray and we may need someone to pray and war on our behalf, we will receive the same treatment we gave to the one God called us to drop everything for and go after in prayer.

We are not to pray according to what we see, much less we are to criticize and judge, slander and gossip about the person, but according to the counsel of the Lord, as explained in other posts of this series, we are to use righteous discernment because it is then that we can pray the will of God and not our own desires or ideas. Praying in tongues helps us to always pray exactly what is the will of the Father about the person or circumstance, especially in cases when we do not know what to ask the Lord about it. So know that when you do not obey God’s prompting to help and take care of another member of the body through your prayers, you are sowing seeds for others to ignore you in their prayer times because what you make happen for others, God makes happen for you. This is also called the principle of sowing and reaping which I will expand on below.

Finances and resources – The same thing happens when we see someone in need and God asks us to help them in their time of need. If these people have been crying out to God for help and He gave them a promise that He would help them, and then tells us to be the answer to their prayers, and we ignore the prompting of the Lord, know that ignoring the prompting will not make the Lord look like a liar to them. He will raise help for them some other way, but the one or ones who ignored the command have just sown seed for their own times of need. 

The result will be that they too will be ignored by God because they ignored Him when He gave them the command to be an answer to someone else’s prayer. We never know where we will end up at some point in our life that will require others to give us a helping hand. Therefore, as children of God, we need to be mindful of our call to make ourselves available to God to use us with the finances and resources He has given us to help others get closer to Him and have the material things they need for that to happen.

Pouring out on others what God has poured out on us – In addition, many times God will command us to pour on others the wisdom and revelations we are given that we are allowed to share (some revelations are to be kept for an appointed time and God will make that known to us and we need to obey that too). Once again, because we are all connected as a net with knots that hold each other together, what we help others know and understand that will help them get closer to God and also to what they are asking of God for that can lead them in their path of righteousness towards their destiny is what we are called to do as a body. God has given us this command stated in Matthew 28: 19-20,

¹⁹ “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’” ESV

God is not a liar, and He will make accessible to the people whatever it is that He has promised them, and it is our job to have listening ears and watchful eyes to be the answer to the prayer of our brothers and sisters when prompted by the Holy Spirit, so we do not behave like Cain who told God, rather blatantly when asked where was his brother Abel, that he was not his brother’s keeper (Genesis 4:9). But the truth of the Word is that we are to be each other’s keeper in the way God asks us to. Numbers 23:19 explains,

¹⁹ “God is not a man, that He should lie,
Nor a son of man, that He should repent.
Has He said, and will He not do it?
Or has He spoken and will He not make it good and fulfill it? AMP

Because God will make good on the promise He made to the person or people, Galatians 6:7 warns those who decide to ignore what God is asking them to do by reasoning the prompting too much until they dismiss it altogether, or because they downright refuse to obey because they think they own everything they have when in fact, God chose to put it in their hands and gave them the power to obtain it, but they are unaware that many times what we are given to raise is not for us, but we raise it for others to use, and we are to give it to them when God says to. The Scripture says,

“Do not be deceived, God is not mocked [He will not allow Himself to be ridiculed, nor treated with contempt nor allow His precepts to be scornfully set aside]; for whatever a man sows, this and this only is what he will reap.” AMP

Psalm 24:1 reminds us that everything belongs to the Lord, even us to worship Him and obey His commands, "The earth [b]is the Lord’s, and the fullness of it,
The world, and those who dwell in it." AMP
2 

Deuteronomy 8:18 continues to say, "But you shall remember [with profound respect] the Lord your God, for it is He who is giving you power to make wealth, that He may confirm His covenant which He swore (solemnly promised) to your fathers, as it is this day." 

That is also why Esther 4:13 admonishes, ^“Then Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, ‘Do not imagine that you in the king’s palace can escape any more than all the Jews. ¹⁴ For if you remain silent at this time, liberation and rescue will arise for the Jews from another place, and you and your father’s house will perish [since you did not help when you had the chance]. And who knows whether you have attained royalty for such a time as this [and for this very purpose]?’”

Caring for the net – In order to keep the net that we are as members of the body of Christ, there are things we need to do to keep it from breaking such as:

1.    Mending and cleaning the nets, as stated above, by being mindful and obeying the promptings of the Lord to give a helping hand, pray, or whatever else the Lord leads to do on behalf of others to be the answer to their prayers. Mark 1:19 says,

“Going on a little farther, He saw James the son of Zebedee, and his brother John, who were also in the boat mending and cleaning the nets.” AMP

2.    Washing the net – to make sure that no contamination of the enemy gets in it or humanistic views or the like, that could affect its optimal and efficient functioning, and instead that every potential thing we can accomplish together led by God, can be accomplished as we take care of the members of the body assigned to us, for this creates exponential growth and advancement. Luke 5:2 says,

“That He saw two boats lying at the edge of the lake, but the fishermen had gotten out of them and were washing their nets.” AMP

3.    Prepare to go into the deep – This needs to be done not only in times of struggle to go in to rescue others, but also when we are preparing for a mighty catch of victory. For this, working in unity and making sure all members around us are taken care of and we respond to their cries in the way instructed by God, as expected of us. Luke 5:4 says,

When He had finished speaking, He said to Simon [Peter], “Put out into the deep water and lower your nets for a catch [of fish].” AMP

Luke 5:5 also states, “Simon replied, ‘Master, we worked hard all night [to the point of exhaustion] and caught nothing [in our nets], but at Your word I will [do as you say and] lower the nets [again].’” AMP

Many have been left to work to the point of exhaustion and their loads have become heavier than what they are able to support due to those who chose to ignore the commands of the Lord to be the answer of their prayers and help them carry their load (Galatians 6:2).

So Luke 5:6 also tells us that not caring for the net (the body) properly causes it to reach the point of breaking. When this happens, any victory or breakthrough is short lived and this creates bigger problems for those who are carrying the load in a way that makes it heavier than it was supposed to be. It says,

“When they had done this, they caught a great number of fish, and their nets were [at the point of] breaking;” AMP

However, John 21:6, 8, and 11 describes how many times, because things have been done improperly in the body, the Lord has to step in and put everyone in their correct stance by sometimes rebuking or removing the obstruction or ignorance that was keeping them from acting in His desired way so the net does not break and everyone, as they work in unity, can have the sure and lasting victory that can lead to more because every knot in the net or member of the body is cared for properly and promptly. The verses say,

⁶”And He said to them, “Cast the net on the right-hand side of the boat (starboard) and you will find some.” So they cast [the net], and then they were not able to haul it in because of the great catch of fish.” AMP

⁸“But the other disciples came in the small boat, for they were not far from shore, only about a hundred yards away, dragging the net full of fish.” AMP

¹¹” So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net to land, full of large fish, a hundred and fifty-three [of them]; and although there were so many, the net was not torn.” AMP

To God alone be all the glory. ■

Images curtesy of Google images.