Today’s New Covenant nugget is from Isaiah 64:8
Lord, You are our Father. We are the clay, You are the Potter; we are all the work of your hand.
What an amazing service with pastor and psalmist, Nicholas Van Rensburg. If you did not attend and have not watched the service, I highly encourage you to do so.
Instead of doing a detailed recap of his entire powerful message, I will share a few nuggets from his message in this devotional.
Pastor Nicholas started by sharing the story about Simon Peter’s encounter with Jesus at the Lake of Gennesaret where Peter and the other fishermen had been fishing all night, and caught nothing… Jesus told Peter to go out one more time and cast the nets out. This led to the miracle where Peter caught a net breaking load of fish. It is a story about catching fish… but it is actually not about the fish at all!
Here are some highlights in the story as pastor Nicholas shared it…
Jesus referred to ‘Peter’ as ‘Simon’… SIMON (referring to the flesh nature, or the man of the flesh) had PETER (referring to the new creature of Christ) in him… Jesus saw PETER in Simon, then He drew the Peter in him out, just like a sculpturer draws a sculpture out of the rock… Michael Angelo the artist and sculpturer said, “Every block of stone has a statue inside of it, and it is the task of the sculpturer to discover it, and then to reveal it.” Jesus sees who we really are, deep on the inside, and then like a sculpturer, He draws us out, and reveals who we really are!
Jesus is a way Maker, He is a miracle worker! He is a chain breaker, promise keeper, but He is also a name changer! People have been calling you something all your life, but when you get around Jesus, and He gets on the inside of you, He shows you that you’re something totally different
Some of you need a name change? You’ve been living too long under the name of, “I’m sick, I’m broke, I’m broken, I’m depressed, I am a misfit.”
Say this, “God, knows my name! God calls me Healed!, God calls me Blessed!, He calls me Victorious. Peaceful, full of Joy.” When God sees me He doesn’t see sick Nick, no doe Joe, sad Dad, mad tad, slow joe; no, God sees you as He created you to be. My God is a name changer! The anointed, strong, stable, prosperous, blessed you is already on the inside of you, as with Simon Peter, let Jesus draw the Peter out of your Simon!
The process of discipleship is not God changing you into someone else… it is Him revealing who you’ve been all along, and then drawing the real you out… yield to His process!
Jesus told Simon to put out into the deep water and to let down the nets…
There’s something down there, you can’t see it, but Jesus can. God sees things we don’t see. Notice God didn’t speak the fish into the water at that moment. He just knew that they were already there. It wasn’t about God putting something there that wasn’t there, it was about God alerting Simon to what was ALREADY there, beneath the surface. That’s how it is in your life. There are things that God is bringing forth… things that are already there, waiting to be revealed!
Jesus said to Simon, “If you do what I say, you can have what I see”. If we do what Jesus says in His Word, we will have what He sees, and we will become the person He sees in us!
Jesus drew the Peter out of Simon… PETER walked on the water with Jesus, PETER was the one who stood up and boldly preached on the day of Pentecost and saw three thousand saved, when PETER’S shadow fell on people, they were healed, and PETER became the great apostle and the leader of the church in Jerusalem, after the ascension of Jesus. There is a PETER on the inside of each of you… let Jesus draw it out, and as He does, the REAL you, created in the image of God, fearfully and wonderfully made… the real you that has been MADE by Jesus to be a king and a priest in Him will do mighty exploits!
I just touched on a few points in this powerful message… I encourage all to watch it several times until revelation comes!
In His amazing love, Nick
