We were blessed to have had the opportunity attend a family camp this past week. ( sorry, that’s why I was absent on here! I thought I had prescheduled some posts but unfortunately, there were some technical errors.) One of the ministers there preached a message about going deeper in your experience with the Lord that really spoke to my heart. If you remember the post from last week about the danger of losing depth, (https://tiphaniesizemore.wixsite.com/mysite/post/the-danger-of-losing-depth)
the Lord had already been dealing with me about getting deeper on my own personal experience with God for the last several months. So when the brother began to expound on the topic that the Lord had been been prodding my heart about, I definitely sat up and took notice.
He preached amazing and really explained the importance of “living out in those waters to swim in”. He brought out something in the Word of God that I had never saw before despite having read that passage hundreds of times before. (Isn’t it amazing how you can read the Bible and God can open something up to you that you have never saw before or a preacher will preach and something will just pop out of the scriptures that you have read time and time again and just bless and minister to your soul?? )
He said one of the biggest reasons we must live in the “deep waters” in our experience with God is because “being deep” will enable us to have dominion (or power) over Satan and demonic forces. He read this passage:
Luke 8:30-33 KJV
[30] And Jesus asked him, saying, What is thy name? And he said, Legion: because many devils were entered into him. [31] And they besought him that he would not command them to go out into the deep. [32] And there was there an herd of many swine feeding on the mountain: and they besought him that he would suffer them to enter into them. And he suffered them. [33] Then went the devils out of the man, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the lake, and were choked.
He said those demons in that man were afraid of the deep. There is power over them in the deep (through God)…That’s where they are defeated and overcome. Satan and his forces prey on people who live their lives in the “shallows” spiritually. But if we want to have victory over the Devil and his demonic forces, we must dive deep into our experience with God! We can’t splash around in the shallows and play with the world, then expect to have victory in our lives. True Victory is only found out in the deep! We must endeavor to go deeper in God.
He also revisited the text over there in
Ezekiel 47:3-7
[3] And when the man that had the line in his hand went forth eastward, he measured a thousand cubits, and he brought me through the waters; the waters were to the ankles. [4] Again he measured a thousand, and brought me through the waters; the waters were to the knees. Again he measured a thousand, and brought me through; the waters were to the loins. [5] Afterward he measured a thousand; and it was a river that I could not pass over: for the waters were risen, waters to swim in, a river that could not be passed over. [6] And he said unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen this ? Then he brought me, and caused me to return to the brink of the river. [7] Now when I had returned, behold, at the bank of the river were very many trees on the one side and on the other. …
He pointed out that Ezekiel was led out by the man with a measuring line in his hand out to the ankle deep waters, then the knee deep, and finally loin deep waters…and then he was brought out to the river that had risen so much that it was flooded, it was so deep you couldn’t walk across or feel the bottom—if you wanted to cross the river, you were gonna have to swim across. He said that at all those “water levels” Ezekiel was led by the other man but after he was led, in latter part of verse 6 and in the beginning of verse 7, Ezekiel said that the man caused him to return to brink (or the bank) of the river. He had been led into the shallows of being ankle deep and knee deep, all the way up to waist deep and he had been shown the deep waters, but at that point, it was 100% his decision if he wanted to go out farther and swim out into that deep water. In our own spiritual lives, no one can force us out into the deep water (spiritually). The men of God can encourage us and instruct us and even lead us out into that ankle deep, knee deep, waist deep waters, and they can even show us the “deep living water” but having that deep experience with God is completely up to us! The man of God can’t make us go there. It has to be our own choice. We must pay the price to get there. It’s not easy living. We have to be moving to stay there.
Think of a pool—it doesn’t take much effort to stay in the 2-3 foot shallow end of the pool— most of us can simply stand there or sometimes, we may even be able to sit there, splashing in the water. It’s easy to stay there. No work is involved if we are just sitting in the water, but if we swim on over to the deep end— out in the 9 foot deep or more water, it takes a lot more effort to stay on that side of the pool. You have to swim! You have to stay in motion! You have to work at it! You can’t just sit down on the bottom and splash around. You must exert energy and effort to stay above the water.
Likewise in our own spiritual lives, it’s not hard to stay in the shallows of carnality and easy living. We hear those demonic lies of “Just add Jesus to your life! You don’t have to be different or radical in your faith” or perhaps, we just are blinded by the enemy and we are allowing the cares of this life to distract us and keep us “sitting on the bottom”, just splashing around…with no real spiritual experience—
How can we determine if we are living in the “shallows” ?? I’m glad you asked…Well, when something comes up, if we react like the world, if we get mad, if we blow up, if we lash out.
If we hold grudges, harbor bitterness, nurse resentment, and cause discord among the brethren…If we are critical and negative of our fellow believers, if we are quick to accuse and slow to forgive. Yes, my friend, all those things are telltale signs that we are indeed living in the shallows!!
We must refocus and realize we MUST be living in the deep!! We can’t afford to stay in the shallows! We may not make it to Heaven if we refuse to launch out into the deep…Despite the effort and work “going deep” requires, it is sooo worth it! We must have feed the spirit and starve out this old flesh!! We must have victory over this old flesh and the Devil. We cant allow there to be any vacancies (room) in our hearts for sin, carnality, Satan, or even just the “weights” of this old world !!
We must be full of the Holy Ghost!
His presence will make all the difference!
We can be victorious! We can have that peace that passeth all understanding! We can have joy unspeakable and full of joy! We can have power with God! We can make a difference in this last day! We can have a prayer life and intercede for souls! We must work while it is day for night cometh when no man can work!! The Lord is soon to come and we must realize the only thing in this life that matters is what we do for the Lord! We cannot be so carnal and caught up with our own selves that we forget what we were actually put here to do!!
We were put here for a greater purpose!
We must get busy about the Father’s business! May I encourage “US”,
Let’s go deeper in our experience with God!! It’s gonna take it to make it!!
From my heart to yours,
-Tiphanie❤️
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