From now on you will be catching men alive.’ So they brought the boats back to land, and abandoned everything and followed him.” (Luke 5:4-11) In view of Jesus’ invitation, can we now ignore this more important reason for appreciating the value of our perceptive powers and, looking to God’s Word to train these, advancing to maturity?

17. What, then, is one of the first requirements in fulfilling our commission as ministers, and why is this so?

¹⁷ True Christians today must likewise be fishers of men. The way of the ministry is clearly marked out as a vocation for all who come to life. It is a full-time vocation, whether all or only part of the Christian’s day is spent in preaching from door to door, and it requires all of one’s powers and abilities to make it a success. Training our perceptive powers is also a full-time matter and one of the first requirements in fulfilling our commission as ministers. If we appreciate this fact we will practice it as diligently as though our life depended on it, because it does.

Training Your Perceptive Powers

 1. To what was the profession of the Christian ministry likened in prophecy, and how did Jesus make clear its meaning?

THOSE who follow the profession of true Christian ministers today were likened in prophecy to fishers and hunters. Foretelling a time when God would perform a work of reconciliation, Jeremiah recorded: “‘Here I am sending for many fishers,’ is the utterance of Jehovah, ‘and they will certainly fish for them; and afterward I shall send for many hunters, and they will certainly hunt for them from upon every mountain and from upon every hill and out of the clefts of the crags.’” (Jer. 16:16) The meaning of this prophecy was made clear when Jesus told his disciples: “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.”—Matt. 4:19.

 2. Why is the training of our perceptive powers important to the ministry, and how is this illustrated?

² If we are to qualify as expert hunters and fishers of men, we must be followers and imitators of Christ Jesus. We must first of all acquire an accurate knowledge of God’s Word as Jesus did, grasping its full significance so that we are able to discern clearly the outcome of our course of action. This means applying ourselves seriously to the training of our perceptive powers for use in the ministry. Coming out of the world, we are novices in the art, tenderfeet. Anyone can carry a gun into the woods, but that does not make him a hunter. The skilled hunter is intent on his objective, with eyes and ears alert, watching for any sign of quarry. He knows that otherwise he might go hungry or, worse, stumble into a lion’s den or step on a deadly snake. The successful hunter learns to recognize every sign of game, he learns to interpret these signs properly in