Swimming In Gods River

I am going to try to recap our Sunday Sermons so this will be the first recap. The sermon was given by Pastor Angel Roman. I have a copy of his outline and will translate it from Spanish to English . In green are the Pastors words.

The sermon started with a reading of Ezekiel 47:3-5

3 When the man went forth eastward with the line in his hand, he measured a thousand cubits, and he caused me to pass through the waters, waters that were to the ankles. 4 Again he measured a thousand, and caused me to pass through the waters, waters that were to the knees. Again he measured a thousand, and caused me to pass through the waters , waters that were to the loins. 5 Afterward he measured a thousand; and it was a river that I could not pass through; for the waters were risen, waters to swim in, a river that could not be passed through.

It is my prayer that this message is of great blessing and edification in your lives and that God through His Holy Spirit give you the bravery and confidence to follow in His glorious path.

I would like to remind you of the story of two men who had to confront the rivers in their lives and were triumphant and powerful in God as a result. These men experimented the power of God in their lives in an extraordinary way.

Joshua

Joshua became the successor to Moses and brought Israel to the promised land but not without crossing a river. Joshua could have remained looking at Jericho from a distance and not cross the river to conquer it BUT he was obedient to the voice of God and crossed the river.

Don't remain on the riverside, watching the blessing flow by, it is necessary to cross the water and conquer the promise.

In the Book of Joshua , The High Priest had to wet their feet and the water stopped.

The Lord helped Joshua lead the Hebrew people into the Promised Land. When they entered this land, the Israelites had to cross the Jordan River. At God’s command, Joshua told the priests to take the Ark of the Covenant into the river.
No sooner had they wet their feet in the water than the river parted. The water that flowed from the upper reaches of the river came to a stop like a wall, and the lower part of the river flowed down to the sea and all the people crossed over the dry river bed.

You have to wet your feet in order to receive the blessing from God.

In 2 Kings Chapter 2 :13-14, we see the prophet Elisha standing at the edge of the river to strike the river with Elijah's cape and in this way receive a double portion of The Spirit. We cannot just watch the water of the river flow by us. We can pray and those prayers can strike the rivers in our lives and open a path.

There are three levels we must pass through to finally be completely submerged in The Spirit, ankle length, knee length, loin length and finally, completely submerged.

There are three categories of people in life, today. Those who;

1- Make things happen

2- Watch things happen

3- Don't know what's happening

Ezekiel saw a great revival and a healing in the waters. To be able to experiment it we must at least begin with getting as deep as our ankles. If we want to begin to experience a life full of miracles, blessings, and a life fuller in The Spirit, we should allow The Holy Spirit to reach our ankles . We should be at least ankle-deep in the river, but we can't stay there.

Ezekiel says that The Measurer in the story measured another 1,000 cubits (which by the way, according to http://www.csgnetwork.com/cubitscnv.html is equivalent to 20.5 inches or 1.7 feet for those who want a clearer picture). The Measurer made the man go into the water until it reached his knees. We note that this time he brought him in a little deeper. He is now knee-length.

God wants us to shed our fears and have deeper experiences.

We should not conform to simply touching the blessings of God, ankle length, but we should allow ourselves to get knee-deep.

Ezekiel goes on to say that The Measurer measured another 1,000 cubits and made the man get waist deep. We realize that every time The Measurer measures, God submerges the man deeper. It was not enough to be ankle deep or knee-deep but now the man had to be waist-deep.

As time goes on God wants us to experience more and more of Him and submerge ourselves deeper in Him.

The Measurer finally measures the last 1,000 cubits and the man arrived at a point in the river where he could not pass unless he submerged himself completely and swam.

God does not only want to bring us to deeper places, but he wants us to learn how to swim in them, that we may experience a great revival and not remain on the riverside watching it go by. He wants us to experience His power and majesty.

What distances you from experiencing a great revival in your life?

A complete surrender.

You must surrender completely to Christ to experience the revival in your life.

God Bless You

Measuring Your Committment

God wants to use us in an extraordinary way. It all depends on how much of an instrument we want to be for God. In the verses above the man could contemplate/reflect on the river, watch the river flow by or get in it and move with the current. As he gets into the river, he gets deeper and deeper.
The Measurer guided and instructed the man to go with the current in the river and onto new ground.

We can choose to stand by the river and look across it and wish we were there or we can get in and let it lead us to newer ground. We should not be afraid of the current in the river it will take us to a better place.

The river here is symbolic of The Spirit of God and the current is symbolic of how we should allow ourselves to be fully submerged in His Spirit and let the current of the Spirit lead us to new ground and follow the path that God has set before us.

In the verses above we see that the man is led to the water and the water reaches his ankles, then farther on down reaches his knees, then the water reaches his loins and eventually the water is so high that the only means to navigate would be to swim.

Sink or Swim.

You can be an ankle length Christian and just dab your toes in the water. A Christian who does not want to delve too much into The Spirit or you can be a Christian who is submerged in The Spirit.

What Makes Me A Christian?

I have been observing the world around me, reflecting.
I decided an evaluation was necessary. I do this often and highly recommend it to others.
I asked myself this question, "What makes me a Christian?", and the obvious answer is because I am a Christ follower.

What does that mean?
Really?
Does that mean I must live a perfect life?
A life without sinning, sadness, anger, fear?

According to some around me, what makes a person a Christian is perfection. I must be perfect. I can not stray from the path in the slightest. Any infraction will cause me to lose my salvation and be condemned to Hell and damnation. That's pretty harsh. Things have been going on in my life that have caused me much sadness, fear and anger, does this make me less of a Christian?
There was a time when I wanted to die and now I am eager to live for Christ. I laugh a lot and but sometimes I am sad. I used to hold things in and try not to lash out in anger.
Many may say that perhaps my spiritual life is faltering and I need to work on it. Others may say that due to the circumstances that are surrounding me, my recent emotional ups and downs are normal for any human being Christian and Non-Christian.

Jesus Christ himself showed anger when the moneychangers were at the temple selling thier wares. He was appalled and said, "This is a house of Prayer" He knocked over the tables displaying the merchandise and told them to beat it(paraphrased) Matthew 21:11-13

If my anger is justified and due to some type of injustice then I suppose I can still be a Christian. If my anger is rooted from nothing, no reason at all then there is a problem. Being angry for the sake of being angry, bitter or resentful is not really Christ-like. The Bible shows me that Jesus was sad at times too. He cried just before His crucifixion. He cried when His friend Lazarus died. I think my emotions do not make me less of a Christian. A Christian will be angry at the abuse of others, injustice, discrimination and then do something about it.

What makes me a Christian is if I am truly saddened by the circumstances around me, The War, Darfur, child abuse,death.
What makes me Christian is if I, in some way or another to the best of my abilities do something about it, pray, donate time or money, protect, nurture or mourn.

The fact that things around me get me angry should not be judged. The fact that I cry because I am sad does not mean I have no hope left or that I no longer trust in God. It makes me more human. It makes me understand my world and the people in it even more, having gone through similar circumstances that cause certain emotions. I, personally am not edified or comforted by anyone who claims they never went through any drama in thier life and life is nothing but perfect for them. I find comfort in knowing people around me have gone through what I have gone through and survived.
I find it abnormal that a person can walk around self righteous,"perfect" without sin that attitude is just creepy. "Judge not lest thou be judged." "He who has no sin cast the first stone"

This is my favorite Bible story. Condensing the story; A woman was about to be stoned to death for adultery and they tried to justify this action but Jesus said, "He Who hath no sin cast the first stone." Go ahead if your perfect cast the stone. Of course no one did.

Just some thoughts