Everything in Common
message and prayer by Jason Barnes
There was a man in Cordova who was walking down to his boat in the harbor with his dog. They came across another man with his dog. The dogs started to fight and the first mans dog killed the other dog. The dead dogs owner said in anger and grief; “ your dog killed my dog. The victor dog’s owner replied; “It’s a dog eat dog world.”
It is a dog eat dog world! We have all heard that saying many times. The world has transferred that mentality from dogs to men. Today in this world people will do whatever it takes no matter what to get ahead. The bigger dilemma is that this is not just a secular problem. Even in the Christian world this mentality exists. I believe that when God looks down on this dog eat dog world and sees the people who engage in this madness. I believe that God will judge the believer more so than the non-believer.
Believer, we must believe in the word of God and act upon our beliefs. Too many of us are trying to build our personal kingdoms while too many more of us go hungry. After all of these years since the first gatherings of Christian believers in the first church described in the book of Acts, instead of growing and learning we seem to have lost the way.
In the Book of Acts chapter two starting with verse 44 it states; “Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, and sold their possessions among all, as anyone had need. So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.” What a mystery for our world today! Where is that type of living in the church today? Just from living in Cordova as a Christian for the last almost 14 years I don’t think people are even saved yearly here, are they? Maybe we need to rethink the systems.
The Lord when asked what the greatest commandment was answered, love the Lord your God with all of your heart, all of your mind and all of your strength and then the second most important commandment is love your neighbor as yourself. Love your neighbor as yourself. What a concept for our Christian’s dog eat dog world! We all want security and stability, a nice home, no debt and money in the bank. There is nothing wrong with wanting these things. But the question we need to ask ourselves is, where is our heart. Will we do what we have to do even sometimes at our brothers and sisters expense to get ahead?
Even though I have been called to be a ‘fisher of men’ my occupation is a commercial fisherman. Fishing for a living can be very lucrative and sometimes very poor. My last two years of fishing have been very poor. Last year I had a lot of work done to my boat and it cost a lot of money. I missed the first openers last year and the rest of my season was disastrous. I was unable to pay for my permit payment to the state of Alaska and the workers who worked on my boat. This year after marrying my wife and beginning my new life as a supporter of my wife and our 4 children (my wives children, my step children) and our grandson there has been an adjusting period for me. This fishing season has been even more disastrous than last years. Two bad seasons in a row is very hard and very scary. This year we put all of our money into a new restaurant business (we figured that with added business we could catch up on all of our bills and start to get even with everybody), which has yet been enabled to operate. Winter is coming and things are pretty scary. I have endured more stress than I ever have thought was out there. My body was literally aching and choking the life out of me. I would unplug the phones just so bill collectors couldn’t reach me. I have never been in these types of situations in my whole life. Relaxation and a stress free environment has been my life for 30 years so this is all new to me. I have been waking up in the morning for the last five or so months with bills on my mind. That has been normal. I have said all of that not for your pity but to let you know where I stand and to set up the following.
Last week, I was out fishing for silvers. Getting paid 50 cents a pound and not catching a whole lot of fish didn’t ease my mind much. I was making my low water set and hoping for the best. It was actually a peaceful morning and the Lord and I started to talk. This was refreshing because for the past months of living by sight, prayer, meditation and communication with the Lord had almost ceased to exist. I started to pray and ask the Lord to help me out. I asked him to get me out of these troubles with debt that I am in. I started out what most of us start out doing praying ‘me’ prayers. Then the Holy Spirit came upon me and my prayers went from me to praying for my friends, brothers and sisters. I started to cry out to the Lord on their behalves. I cried to the Lord to not let them feel the pain that I have been feeling. I prayed for God to not let them feel the stress that I have felt incapacitate me for months. Tears ran down my face for my brothers and sisters who are stuck walking by sight and not by faith. I have experience so much pain and stress lately that God was able to put a strong compassion inside of me for others in similar situations. Then my prayer language started coming out of my belly. After about 10 minutes the Holy Ghost gave me an interpretation and I started to speak the interpretation. It was a sermon on living by giving, loving our neighbor as ourselves. It was about carrying our brother’s burdens. After the sermon I said to the Lord, ‘ I understand Lord, help people to get this’.
After my time with the Lord it was time to pick the net. Not a lot of fish was being caught and the little money I did make was already spoken for. Then the Lord spoke to me and told me to pay for a Christian brother’s (who just came to Alaska and fished for the first time in his life) ferry trip back to Valdez with his son, truck and travel trailer. I immediately thought to myself, ‘I can’t do this.’ I have too many bills and bill collectors. Then the Lord quickened to me the sermon that just came out of my lips a short time before. The Holy Spirit asked, “ Do you get this?” He then said, “Remember walk by faith and not by sight.” Wow, it was so clear and I determined to pay the 400 dollars for this man’s travel expenses. (Some of you reading this might be my bill collectors and are probably saying I should have given these 400 bucks to you, but I had to be obedient to the Lord). I then remembered that I was married and had to first ask my wife if she was in agreement.
When I got to the dock my wife and our youngest daughter met me at my boat the, “Fisher of Men.” I told my wife that I had the most awesome experience with the Lord and told her about how the Lord spoke to me about giving and carrying our brother’s burdens. I then told her that I had something to ask her and needed her to pray about it. When I said that the Lord had told me to pay for the Christian brothers 400dollar ferry expenses. She totally agreed with me and confirmed that indeed I did hear from the Lord. You see God wanted me to make sure that I got the message. A whole lot of times God will speak to us directly or through His word and we will say, ‘Awesome, that is a great word of the Lord.” Then we leave it at that. We never mix our faith with action and all we end up with is some unused knowledge. Brothers and Sisters we need to start mixing our faith with action. God is good, so good and He has our backs.
God is looking for willing vessels to have his Words and teachings manifested in their lives. God wants us to start living the Word every day. This is our witness, that God’s word is alive in us. The church as a whole is busted, broke and disgusted. Warped prosperity messages have been plaguing the body for long enough. Christians hear these messages and start sowing only because they want a hundred fold on their dollars. They sow because they think that they will get rich from it. They keep building their kingdoms.
When my wife discussed this story with a close friend. Her reply was, “Well where do you want to go?” My wife asked what she meant and she said that we sowed money for somebody to make a trip and we would have a trip coming back to us. My wife replied, “ Our blessing was that this person was blessed.” “We don’t expect a trip in return.” Our friend said, “ Well that is the way it works, you sowed a trip for somebody and you will get a trip in return.”
We believe in the hundred fold message and sometimes God might bless us in monetary manifestations but if that was the only way God ever blessed his people, all givers would be multi millionaires by now. Obviously all givers are not millionaires so there must be other ways that God blesses his givers. What price or monetary value would you place on the salvation of a loved one? Say you sowed a thousand dollars into a ministry or somebody’s life. A hundred fold would be $100,000.00 or could it be peace in your life? Could it be joy in your life? Peace that surpasses all understanding. How about, just joy and contentment that somebody was touched because they were praying and you happened to be the willing vessel that blessed them. What about, the satisfaction of obedience to God? I guarantee you that some of the billionaires in this world would pay millions for ‘peace that surpasses all understanding.
I believe that when we pray for God to meet our needs, God wants to do just that. I believe that after our prayer God starts looking for willing vessels to meet those needs. God needs people who lives are instruments of righteousness, people who will say yes Lord. Are you willing to be a willing vessel? Did you know that you might be the willing vessel God has been trying to tell that your neighbor has a need that you can take care of it? That is if you are willing. God gives us choices. Be thankful to God but also thank God that somebody out there was obedient to the voice of the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit asked some person to meet your need and they did, do you understand it took someone to be obedient to the word of the Lord? Would you be obedient to the Word of the Lord? The Lord everyday is asking you and I to be willing vessels. He is asking us to forget about our problems and bless a brother or sister or someone who soon will be.
The world is looking at us and they call us hypocrites. In every job place the world sees the Christians participating in the dog eat dog world. I know that in the fishing world a lot of times the non-Christian watches the Christian fisherman cut the throats of non-Christians and fellow Christians alike. Here is a story that happened to me recently while fishing.
I got out to the fishing grounds late do to some mechanical problems. I found the place I wanted to set. There was a boat stuck on the sandbar that I was going to make a set off of. Slack tide was coming up quickly and I had to make my set soon. Getting ready to set I felt my self being convicted by just letting that boat sit there stuck. Knowing how much I hate to be stuck, I decided to go and try pulling him to deeper water. Rushing over to his boat and throwing him a line, I towed his boat towards another Christian fisherman’s net (who was just sitting and watching him go dry). I let him go and he thanked me so I ran to the spot I wanted to set and started letting out my net. Trying to keep the tide from sweeping me down the channel, I only kept out about half of my net floating so it could be towed in one place until slack water came. I then noticed that the boat I just pulled off was stuck again. Not being able to do anything for him because my net was only half out, another Christian boat named the ‘Watchman’ was picking up the end of his net. I tried to flag him down and to ask him to go and pull the stranded boat a little further to deeper water. He seen me but kept going, had to make his money. So I laid the rest of my net out and ran over as fast as I could and pulled the boat to deeper water. He was very grateful and was able to make a low water set (the first low water set during silvers is your bread and butter, if you miss that you might as well go home). That day my conscience and my spirit felt good.
Can you picture the whole scenario? This man was stuck during the gravy tide surrounded by three boats that were watching him go dry. One boat decided to help him out and it saved his period. All three boats that surrounded him were Christians. What if we all let him go dry? We could have. I let others go dry before because I was too worried about myself. What witness would this man see? The man whom I have never met personally turned out to be a Christian brother. That day I happened to be a willing vessel and a brother in Christ who was praying for miracle got it. There have been many times before that I wasn’t a willing vessel. Did you know that when I get out fishing the people I don’t like fishing around are the Christian boats. In my experiences Christians (not all but many) are more cut throat than the non- Christians. Why is that?
In my opinion, I believe that from this whole prosperity message Christians believe that God is out to bless them in any form or fashion. Christians have the mindset that it is ok to cut the throats of non-Christians because God is trying to bless them. They need their hundred fold returns, it does not matter who it hurts. That is wrong.
Sorry, got a little side tracked or did I?
Somebody is praying right now who is in need of a blessing. God is searching for willing vessels to be obedient and be that somebody’s answer to that prayer. God has found others to be your answer to prayer. Are you willing? Will you help out a brother in need? Will you bring that brother or sister up beside you so they quit falling behind? Have you ever forgiven someone of his or her debts against you? If you have a brother who owes you money did you know that you might have the power to free them from pain, strife, stress? You could lift their burden and free them to become a blessing in somebody else’s life.
Two bad season’s in a row, I know what it feels like not to have the resources to pay some bills. I have always paid my bills and when you are unable to pay, it hurts. It has hurt me physically and emotionally. It has put stress on my marriage. Some of my biggest bills are from Christian people. It is true that I incurred the debt. I made the mistakes. Am I unforgivable? Believe me, I know the pain. I know what is like to get up in the morning and immediately start living by sight instead of faith. I know what it is like to be too ashamed to look somebody in the face that I might owe money. I also know what it is like to have brothers and sisters in Christ who don’t care what happens to you as long as their personal kingdoms grow larger. I know what it is like to owe my gramps money and stay away from his home because of being to ashamed to face him because at the moment I can’t pay him back. I know that it hurts your brain and can hurt your body physically to feel inadequate. But praise God.
Praise God that I know what it is like to be a blessing to somebody who needed one! Praise God that my gramps told my mom he missed me (that is worth a million bucks to me)! Praise God I know that the Lord loves us and said that He would never leave us or forsake us! Praise God that I know Christian Brothers and Sisters who want to be willing vessels! Praise God that I know it feels much better emotionally and physically but most of all spiritually to walk by FAITH and not by sight! Praise God that I know He is my healer and my provider, He is everything to me! Praise God that He will give my family more and more opportunities to be answers to others prayers. Praise God that our lives are but a mist, one moment they are there and the next moment they vanish.
Our time is short in this world. Are you going to horde your talents to promote yourself, to build your wealth, to create your own personal kingdom? Or can God count on you to be a willing vessel? Build up those treasures in heaven. They are the best ones! Leave that dog eat dog world to the world. Remember that we are aliens to this world. Sometimes we allow ourselves to be so much a part of this world that we forget that we are in the world but not of it. We should no longer conform to the patterns of this world. Be a blessing, God is calling you to be willing, willing to forget yourself and willing to serve others.
If you are struggling, I pray that God gives you the strength to walk by faith, not by sight. If you are on top of the worldly food chain, I pray that God gives you the courage and the love to sell everything you have and give it to the poor. Build HIS KINGDOM, forget your own. Be willing to give your last cent to further the kingdom of God. Be willing to sweat for one another. Be WILLING and you will be rich in peace, rich in joy and rich in love!
Thank you for the message Mr. Barnes. I too used to tag along with my dad and grandfather while they fished. But we've never seen rivalry like you described. We fished near Kotzebue, this was years ago. But I do believe in the prosperity message. The prosperity message is not like the dog eat dog world message. When I see others who act not so christian like, I pray for them, prayer works. We all have faults and we all have sinned. But we have forgiveness when we ask, amen?
Posted by: childofGod333
Quote:
Originally Posted by jbarnes90
Everything in Common
message and prayer by Jason Barnes
{SNIP}
Alaska
Thank you so much for your message! It was very touching as well as truthful! I pray the Lord bless you and your family. I bet you're as good a fisherman as you are a writer!
Sharon
Posted by: jedijeb
Thank you for posting this, I am in a similar position with money that you are so I know the feeling. But what I want to mention is that your post spoke to me on another topic in my life also. You mentioned living by faith not by sight, that has been my shortcomming lately. I am having trouble in a relationship and every time I pray and ask God what to do He just tells me wait and all will work out. He tells me what I have felt and know is exactly what He wants for me, but looking at it from the worldly view, it looks like she is gone and there is no hope. But who am I to question God! My vision of what is happening is so mear sighted and imperfect that I can not know what is truely happening. I must live by faith not by sight. Your words have been yet another encouragement to me to go with the multitude of other encouragements that I have been given lately that God will bless me soon. I thank you for your obedience to God in posting this, and may the Lord generously bless you for listening to Him.