Many will be asked the same question that Peter was asked in the courtyard before the Lord’s crucifixion. Those that only profess to know Him, will deny Him, as Peter did in the courtyard centuries ago.

But Peter had an excuse, he did not have the Holy Spirit yet, who gives us the boldness to stand for Jesus. Peter represents every man on earth, there in the courtyard.  A type of man who loves the world, and the things of the world.  And the Lord calls him forth to throw down his nets to follow Him.  Now with the type of man Peter represents, this is the hardest of all.  He is a man who is self-sufficient, used to taking care of himself, and successful in the world’s eyes. Yet the Lord says to him, throw down that idol of a business you have, and that idol called self, and come and follow me.  And He does do that, yet, he is constantly struggling with this thing called self. He is successful, and used to being his own man, and this is hard for him to do.  He loves the world and the things of the world, so this constant battle rages in him, as it does in all men who are the Peter’s of this world.

First, when the Lord tells him that he will deny Him, Peter boasts with his mouth, "No Lord, not me, never." This man will speak one thing with his mouth, but when he is faced with danger, or self-preservation, he will deny the Lord.  Before he is filled to overflowing with the Holy Spirit, he will depend on his own skills to get him through the little trials.

He is not yet a man of faith, but of words - which have not taken hold of his heart.  They are professions of faith, but they are not faith.  Faith is what happens when your back is against the wall, and you are faced with your self preservation, as Jesus was in the wilderness.  When the devil offered him food for self preservation, Jesus refused, because he loves his Father more than self.

When a man is faced with saving his own life (self-preservation), then that is the moment of truth. Will you walk forth and trust the words of the Holy Spirit, or will you run back to Gomorrah for the safety of  the world’s comforts? Will you walk forth in faith trusting Him and His Promises to you?  Do you really believe the words of the Lord in the Bible, or are they only words to you?

Faith is birthed in trust. We can only have faith as we trust in Him, walking forth into unchartered waters, with total trust. That is faith.  It is easy to walk where we have been before, but to trust him and to walk forth into the water, that is what births faith.

Look at Peter before the Holy Spirit, and then after he had the Holy Spirit.  Before the cock crowed, he denied the Lord, just as the Lord had said to him.  In self, he was a coward, and by hiding, was trying to save his own self. This is every man, without the Holy Spirit in him.  Anyone who has been in war will know this is true.  What a man will do when faced with his own life, is the most horrible truth a man must face.  He will suddenly see his true nature.  When trusting in himself, he is a coward, and tries to save his own skin, his own self. Will he hide to save himself, or will he give his life for another man? This is what every soldier faces in combat.

Peter, who then was only basically body and soul Christian, not yet filled to overflowing with the Holy Spirit, when faced with saving himself, denied Jesus. He did all the things a man of body and soul would do.  He cowered and hid in fear and denied ever knowing Jesus.  He didn’t want anyone to  know he was a follower of Jesus.  He then was asked face to face, are you a follower of the Lord, and he denied Jesus again. All to save his own soul.  He denied his Lord, and then the cock crowed 3 times, and suddenly he began to weep.  He realized that what Jesus foretold concerning him, had just come to pass.  He sees himself in all his pitiful cowardice.  He was faced with himself, and it was so ugly.

When He denies the Lord, in this body and soul type of Christian, trying to save his own soul, type of man, he shows us the man of body and soul who does not know God, or who is a Christian but does not yet know the Holy Spirit.  He represents all of us, before we were born again or after we were born again, but yet not filled with the Holy Spirit. We were cowards still. The cowardice of self, the self preservation of man, wants only to save his own soul, even if that means denying another his life. It is the selfish vile nature of the man of body and soul, all of us, in our nature that wars against God. The man who wants only to take care of himself, denies God, and denies that he needs help. That is what Peter represented here.

Then we see what happened to him when He became filled with the Holy Spirit.  After the day of Pentecost, in the upper room, is what changed Peter and the apostles, that were hiding behind closed doors for fear of the Jews. The Holy Spirit changed them. He took the fear out of them, and made them men of boldness, so that they came out and spoke like changed men.  They were changed from the  inside out.  That is what the Holy Spirit does to us; He changes us from the inside out.

But Peter is still the type of believer who represents the man who is a worldly man in the word of God.  He is very self sufficient and used to doing it himself, and has been successful.  God calls him; he comes, but he still wars daily with his true nature and the self-sufficient worldly part of his nature.  I believe that Peter was a successful business man, he was worldly and he loved to be "his own man".  And he was a man of the world too.

Remember how Peter, when discouraged, went back to his successful business of fishing.  Now, as happens with every other man who has thrown down his nets to follow Jesus, he had suddenly has come to a crossroad of his life. Before he was filled with the Holy Spirit, he is professing to know Christ, but has not yet been given this new birth of the Holy Spirit.  He is basically still walking by his body and soul, and does not know the Holy Spirit yet.   He has not yet gone been filled to over flowing with the Holy Spirit, and is still walking as a body and soul Christian as I have been calling it. He gets discouraged and returns again to the business of fishing, because he feels things are just too hard to deal with.  Jesus has left him there in the middle of this crossroad, and he is discouraged, disgusted, because he has not yet been filled to overflowing, and is still walking by his five senses. Things are not going well, so he goes back to where he came from, which was fishing.  To the place he had been successful in the world, he returned. But suddenly, Peter can’t fish anymore, and he is totally disgusted after trying to make a buck for a few days, and then along comes Jesus again.  Peter returns to the things that he had left before he met Jesus, back to the world.  But suddenly he can’t catch fish, and he realizes after a time, that he can’t fish anymore.  Another crossroad in our walk with Jesus lies before us. We are suddenly before this place, where we realize we can’t even make a good living any more, and we are worthless in the world now.  Peter, at that fishing expedition, was faced with himself again.  And suddenly after all day and evening fishing, the great fisherman has come up with nothing. No fish, no bread to eat, nothing of himself has worked. And suddenly, <u>we</u> are face to face with Jesus again.  Jesus lets us go fishing for a while, until we realize we can't do it anymore, and we return full circle back to the beginning of our fishing expedition, and we see that we have gained nothing in the world.  The Lord then comes to Peter and says to him, "Throw out your nets."  He speaks a word to us, which is totally contrary to our worldly thinking.  Our minds say, "Hey! Not for nothing have been doing this for a long time. I think I know better than you how to fish.  I know there is not a fish out there."   Peter, still being a man of body and soul, and thinking he knows better than the Lord, (because he is the great fisherman), in disbelief, throws out a half hearted attempt to believe, which consisted of one net.  Half-hearted attempts.  Just professing trust.  Not really believing the word of the Lord to him.  He did it for a show to Jesus, to say, okay I will do what you said, but I really don’t believe what you are saying is truth.

Look at the truth in that verse.  He is not really trusting so he throws out one net, like when we just profess to know the word, a half-hearted attempt to know him, and trust him, so we go out and put out one net. We know better than the Lord is our rationale. We are so religious, and think we know more than the Lord, so we go and throw out a little net.  And we say, "See, I told you Jesus, it wouldn’t work." We are not trusting Jesus, but still in the self-trusting mode at this crossroad.   Then of course, we have to lose it all before we gain, to get this truth of the word of God.  We lose it all - the catch of the day - because we did not trust Jesus' words to us. We speak words saying we do, but they are only words we speak, not really trusting and believing. 

We think we know more than God.  So we go forth in half hearted attempts, trying to walk on water, and it doesn’t work.  Then we say to Him, I told you so.

But Jesus is so wonderful with us.  He suddenly takes our hand and we walk on water with Him, as He teaches us about trusting in Him.  In our unbelief, failing so miserably, sinking in the water, He comes and takes us to a new place, with new heights, and He shows us, little by little, the walk of faith.  When Peter looks around at the circumstances surrounding him, he began to sink in the water.  When he trusts Jesus and believes His words, and keeps his eyes on Him, he is walking on the water.  When Peter threw out one net, the net broke with the weight of the fish. If he had trusted Jesus, he probably would have had the catch of the century there.  But he is learning from all this.

Another great crossroad we have reached: growing in Him. Next we see Peter in the upper room, where he receives the promise of the Father, the Pneuma Hagion, the new birth.  That day he and the others are filled to overflowing with the promise of the Father, the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is given to them to overflowing.  They are all filled with the gift and the promise from the Father, and suddenly they are transformed.  Now Peter, who was a body and soul Christian before, suddenly is a man with no fear. He comes forth a new man, bursting with power, and speaks fearlessly before the multitude.  What changed this man who was hiding before behind closed doors for fear of his life, was the new birth, the infilling of the Holy Spirit, the new birth. That is the only thing that changes a man: the new birth, the filling of the Holy Spirit in that man, the overflowing of the Holy Spirit in him.  

The reason there are so many lukewarm Christians that are walking around in the churches today, is because they do not know the Holy Spirit.  They are saved, but do not know the Holy Spirit.  They have not been filled to overflowing with the Holy Spirit.  Without the Holy Spirit overflowing from you, you will never walk as you should walk in Jesus.  Many have not been set on fire by the Holy Spirit.  It is that fire that consumes our hearts in passion, that overflowing with the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which makes us like Peter and the others on that day of Pentecost.

It is that consuming fire that makes us fearless in the face of danger, not afraid to speak, and to face the enemy fearlessly. Peter and the others stood fearlessly before the multitude and spoke for Him, when they were filled to overflowing with the Holy Spirit.  That is the only way to stand, and to be fearless.  To know his voice, and to be consumed by his fire.  That is what he is looking for in these last day, a people who will worship Him in spirit and in truth.
 
 

Much Love in Him,
Gloria Shepherd
May 1, 1999