Swimming in the River!
Ezekiel 47:3-5 NKJV
And when the man went out to the east with the line in his hand, he measured one thousand cubits, and he brought me through the waters; the water came up to my ankles. 4 Again he measured one thousand and brought me through the waters; the water came up to my knees. Again he measured one thousand and brought me through; the water came up to my waist. 5 Again he measured one thousand, and it was a river that I could not cross; for the water was too deep, water in which one must swim, a river that could not be crossed.
Are you living in the center of God’s perfect will in your life right now! Have you reached a level of spiritual maturity and obedience to God’s Word that you feel God wants you to have?
The truth of the matter is we all have plenty of room for improvement!
That’s what I want us to look at this morning.
I want us to see what God is telling Ezekiel about wading out into the deep spiritual waters of the Spirit-filled life.
What has happened in the modern church is that we have become too afraid to give our all to Jesus Christ.
We are afraid because we think that God may require more of us than we are willing to give. We reason within ourselves that, if I don’t commit to the work fully then I won’t be found guilty of failing in my commitment to Christ.
We are just afraid of getting in over our head.
This river of living water, coming from the Throne of God, is representative of the working of the Holy Spirit in your life.
There are many who hear the Gospel and they see what the Spirit can and is doing in the lives of others, yet that is as far as they get!
Ezekiel first saw the waters. He could not and did not go into the water alone.
We cannot enter into God’s Kingdom or experience the Holy Ghost in our lives unless we come God’s way.
God carried Ezekiel out into the water.
When the Holy Spirit deals with the life of a sinner, that sinner must respond, either in repentance or rebellion.
If our response is one of repentance, then God saves us and we begin the journey through life with Him.
1. We step into the water (ankle deep), we get our feet wet.
At this point in our walk with the Lord we still behave the way we want to. We can behave according to our own thinking.
There is very little “resistance” to our steps because we have not yet learned to recognize the Voice of God as He gently leads us into a deeper relationship with Him.
The (ankle deep) have not yet seen the importance of being faithfully committed to a cell.
As we grow in the Lord and learn to trust Him, He begins to bring us into a little deeper walk with Him.
2. Now we are getting (knee deep) in obedience to the call of God.
Serving God in knee-deep water means that we must work a little harder, study a little more, do a little more than other people.
We stay committed to doing a job that needs to be done.
Just as knee-deep water is a little harder to walk in and hides a lot of things that may cause you to stumble, beginning to walk in the fear of the Lord does so as well.
God will begin the process of strengthening you and building your faith in Him.
Here is where the commitment to at least show up at cell & the Sunday morning prayer service kicks in.
But, this is just a knee-deep commitment.
3. Ezekiel is carried out into the water until it became waist deep.
Now the going gets tougher. The demands upon your time, energy and commitment now really cuts into your already busy schedule.
God has now called you into training for leadership within His church.
Now you have to read more, study more, & become a valuable part of the prayer service & the cell God has made you part of. It is not just another meeting!
Rest assured that as you try to wade out in water up to your waist that you are going to face some opposition.
As the Holy Spirit leads you into a deeper walk with the Lord, there will be obstacles in your path. There will be those who will not commit themselves and will tell you that you are foolish for being so radical for the things of God.
There will always be those who only wade out ankle deep or who don’t even step into the water at all. These are usually the ones who try to discourage those who will step out further for God.
4. Finally, Ezekiel was carried out into water that was too deep for him to touch bottom and he had to swim.
When you get committed to God enough that even the plans that you make are scary, that’s when you are getting into this deepest walk with the Lord. That’s the place where you must learn to depend upon the leading of the Holy Spirit more than ever because you know you can’t do what God has called you do on your own.
When you are this deep, you have gone beyond your own ability.
Ezekiel had gone so far from the shore that he could no longer walk back. Wherever the river flowed, that was where Ezekiel was going. The current was so strong and the volume of water was so great that Ezekiel was in over his head. Still God was carrying him and there was no danger of the Prophet drowning. God was still in control of the water and of the life of the prophet.
Most Christians will never experience the joy, fulfillment, trust and love for God that comes with this kind of commitment because they love the safety of the shore too much.
They refuse to leave their comfort zone. They refuse to stretch and grow beyond what they can see.
Their faith is never exercised to the point that they have complete peace no matter what the world throws at them.
This is what true spiritual maturity is all about!
It is about coming to the end of ourselves and realizing just how big God really is, and that there is no way that we could ever do it on our own.
God wants us to loose sight of ourselves, our goals, our ambitions, our dreams and He wants us to be totally, 100% surrendered to Him and His will for our lives.
The God-kind of life isn’t for the ankle-deep people, because they will never catch the vision for what God wants to do. They will never have complete trust and faith in God to accomplish those things that seem so impossible.
They will only sit by and grumble because the church isn’t growing or because they don’t “feel anything” as though it was God’s fault or the Preacher’s fault.
The God-kind of life isn’t even for those who will get knee-deep in God’s work. They may sense that God wants to accomplish something great in their lives. But they will never experience the real power of the dream that the Holy Ghost will bestow upon the one who completely surrenders to the will of God.
They must put their faith in God’s ability to keep them, God’s provision for every part of life and God’s faithfulness to do what He has promised.
Ezekiel says about God that, "He brought me through the waters."
One thing that many Christians never realize is that a deeper commitment, wading deeper and deeper into a strong relationship with Jesus and allowing the Holy Spirit to have complete control of their lives, helps them to stay close to God.
Walking in water that is only ankle deep requires little effort. The force of the water against your steps is minimal and you can easily get in or out at will. It’s also easy for some outside force like wind or the push of a friend to knock you out of the water.
Since a lot of people never get more than ankle deep in their commitment to Christ, you can see why so many live such shallow lives and are so easily carried about by every little “wind of doctrine” that blows their way. My concern is that many of these “shallow Christians” aren’t really Christians at all and will not go in the Rapture of the church.
Walking in water that is up to your knees does require a little more effort and a deeper commitment. Even so, it is still fairly easy to be knocked out of the water by the same circumstances as those who are up to their ankles.
I believe that Jesus is referring to these first two categories as “lukewarm”. These are the ones that He will “spew out of His mouth”.
It is only those who will get at least waist deep and ultimately “over their heads” in a deep commitment to Jesus that will ever really experience the glory of victory in Christ.
Any good work for the Lord will accomplish great results only after someone dives into the depths of a strong relationship with God and makes a real commitment to do whatever it takes for as long as it takes under the leading of the Holy Spirit.
• What about you right now? Are you still in the shallow water? What are you going to do with your commitment to the Lord?
Some of you still haven’t stepped into the water at all. Some are in every stage of this message. Jesus is looking for a full commitment. Let the river carry you wherever the Holy Spirit leads. Allow Jesus to have the complete Lordship of your life and there is no telling what great victories lie ahead.
• Will you surrender all – or continue to walk in the shallow water? The choice is yours and Jesus is waiting for your answer.
Step into the water; get out into the deep. Don’t worry about the sharks, the jellyfish or the waves that may come.
• Have you committed your ALL to Him? Are you saved to the river over your head? Are you filled with the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in tongues? Have you said “yes” to the ministry God has been trying to get you involved in?
He is here today to meet with you & make it happen. He says will you wade into the river & meet ME here?
