Swimming In The River!

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.