From the archives of Oral Roberts – Third of three parts
The third thing you must do to prosper is to find your depth.
Luke 5:1˗3 says, And it came to pass, that as the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God, he stood by the lake of Gennesaret, and saw two ships standing by the lake: but the fishermen were gone out of them, and were washing their nets. And he entered into one of the ships, which was Simon’s, and prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land. And he sat down, and taught the people out of the ship.
Jesus needed an elevated place where he could preach to the huge crowd that followed Him. What could be better than to be in a boat and thrust out from the shore maybe 100 or 200 feet? That would allow the people lining the shore to see and hear Him preaching the Gospel to them.
The boat belonged to Peter, the one who denied Christ, but who finally became a tremendous Apostle. Peter and his friends were having some bad fishing times. But that is where Jesus likes to meet you – at the point of your need. Your need is what He feels. He feels what you feel. He sits where you sit. He walks where you walk. He hears what you hear. He’s at the point of your need.
So many people really don’t grasp the fact that giving is an opportunity to plant a seed, an opportunity to give to God, and that it’s the opening up of the miraculous for their lives. When you give, God is under obligation for you to receive. For instance, if you give seed time, then it’s His responsibility to make it harvest time.
It may take a little prayer to bring you and me into the position where we give to God with a free heart and believe that He will multiply our seed sown. But when we give, He says we will receive! (See Luke 6:38.)