How long are you willing to wait for God? Wait…without being distracted by TV, radio, food, friends, family, the mall, work or any other created thing. Wait…for the Creator of heaven and earth to fill you through all of your being, with all of His fullness (Ephesians 3:16-19). It may take a day, a week, a month or a year. Are you willing to completely empty your soul of negative attitudes, beliefs and emotions and then wait for Him to entirely fill you up with His presence?
Wait… pouring out your heart
to your Heavenly Father, praising Him for who He is and what He does for you.
Then, sitting motionless, silent and listening we focus on God. What will distract you? Will
the phone, hunger pains, stiff muscles, a headache, a knock at the door, sirens
in the distance or any other diversion draw you away from sitting quietly
before the Lord?
Having a relationship with
Jesus Christ is much more intense than practicing a religion. What we do and
say matters more than we realize. Our words and actions impact the lives of
everyone around us. A curt word in place of encouragement, a smirk instead of a
smile or a phony attitude rather than authentic interest will put a wedge
between others and us. It will also negatively influence their relationship
with Christ.
God is interested in us
living in oneness with Christ. Our body is the temple of the Holy Ghost. He
lives within us. We are not our own, we are God’s (1
Corinthians 6:19). God wants us to break
out of the status quo in our churches and in our lives. He calls us to go
deeper into the water of His Spirit and to allow Him to carry us to unknown
places of service and worship. God calls us to a deeper and deeper relationship
with Him on a moment-by-moment basis. Let us set our affections on things above
(Colossians
3:2), on the eternal aspects of life.
Then we can rise above the limitations of this mundane earthly realm.
God
directed Ezekiel to enter the river, rather than to continue standing on the
bank. As the prophet describes his experience, the water gets deeper and deeper
until he can no longer stand, but must start to swim (Ezekiel
47:1-12). Our natural tendency when traversing a river is to fear drowning or
being attacked by some animal from under the water. It is so much easier to
stand on the bank, so that we remain safe with our feet planted firmly in the
earthly realm of existence.
If we have the courage to
enter the river of life, we start in ankle deep water with a shallow
relationship with God. We continue to a knee-deep obedience to the Holy Spirit;
however, we still attempt to rely on our own works to accomplish great things
for God. As the water rises to our waist, we are forced to make a commitment to
go all the way with God.
Once our feet leave the
ground in deep water, we must turn back, swim or drown. If we dare to swim, we
enter into a place of complete surrender to God. This is where we reap the
blessings of absolute unity with the Trinity. Our constant awareness of the
Almighty brings us into a realm of oneness with Him. This total harmony leads
to complete fulfillment for each individual willing to cross the river and
enter into the Promised Land (Joshua 3, 4).
Prayer:
Father God, going deeper in
our relationship with You is a fearful endeavor. There are so many unknown
factors. We do not even fully comprehend the whole picture of what it means for
us to walk more deeply in a relationship with You. Help us to have the courage
to press on, to set our sights on the prize of Your high calling (Philippians
3:14), and not to get sidetracked or
allow fear to deter us. Give us a vision of what it means to go deeper in a
relationship with You.
Thought for the Day:
Would
you like to go deeper in your relationship with God? Read tomorrow’s post in
this blog for more details in: Go Deeper - Part 2.
