Get Ready For The River
Our family planned to get together and tube down the Ichetucknee river. We got our tubes and everyone got to the river, and one by one they dove in, but I had to start with my toes, then work my way in, until I was all the way in. It was August, but the spring fed water was still about 65 degrees in the shade. Winnie never touched the water, she wanted to be on it, not in it... With the river of God, some folks dive right in, and other folks need some time to get confident enough to get all the way in, and other folks never get in, they only ride the tube that is in the river.
One man prayed, “Lord, I want it all, but I know You’re so vast and powerful, I can’t take very much of that, so give me what You know I can handle”
With the river of God, we can handle a lot more of it’s divine current, if we just let it flow through us...When we try to keep it, we lose it, but as we give it away, our capacity increases for greater and greater....
As followers of Christ, we come to understand that whatever gifts we may have in our lives, are given to us, to operate as He desires to operate them. The gifts are about allowing the Holy Spirit to flows through us to His chosen recipients. So, God is actually giving these gifts to others but the Holy Spirit chose to allow them to pass through us to get there. We become the delivery system, so that others may receive, and glorify Him and invite Him into their lives or make a deeper commitment to Him, or come to the next level.
1 Corinthians 12:4 “There are different kinds of gifts. But they are allgiven to believers by the same Spirit. v5 There are different ways to serve. But they all come from the same Lord. v6 There are different ways the Spirit works. But the same God is working in all these ways and in all people. v7 The Holy Spirit is given to each of us in a special way. That is for the good of all".
Everything God has given you should not stop with you, but flow through you to bless all those you come in contact with….
Jesus said to the woman at the well John 14:14 “ But whoever drinks the water I give will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give will become an endless flow of water springing up to eternal life.” To his disciples Jesus said John 7:37 “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.”
Jesus is reminding us that our belly or our center, should be a place where rivers of all that we have received of Him are flowing out of us. Peter said “Such as I have received, I give unto you”.. He has rivers to pour into us, but He has chosen for those rivers not to stop with us, but to flow through us….This principle is not about your potential, we all have great potential. But it is about using your capacity and increasing that capacity by how much you allow God to pour out of you….
LET’S ALL PLACE OUR HANDS ON OUR BELLY AND SAY “Through my inner most being, rivers are waiting to flow and I determine how much will flow out through me to increase my capacity. The more I allow, the greater my capacity”….
We are ordained to be channels of blessing to others. This is not about a bless me trip... It’s about getting plugged in so it builds up and blesses the body of Christ, and people are edified, enlarged, given guidance, and develop spiritually.
If you stick a paper clip in an outlet, you’ll get a reaction and a quickening... but if you plug a lamp into the same outlet, you’ll get light, the refrigerator will cool things, the stove will cook, the air conditioner will regulate the temperature, and the toaster will toast! I remember, when as a teen, Holy Spirit first started flowing out of me, and I felt that surge. My heart was pounding, my breathing was rapid, and when I couldn’t hold it any longer, I blasted out a “Thus saith the Lord”, and nearly blasted grandpa’s wig off and grandma nearly swallowed her teeth! But my pastor took me aside and explained the difference in a reaction and a response... It helped me tremendously to flow in the river of God...Complete the circuit!
When you feel the stirrings of the spirit, pray that Holy Spirit can flow through you in such a manner that someone will leave differently, more in tune, with more insight and understanding than when they came.
A guy went into the store for just a few minutes. When he came out there was a policeman writing a parking ticket for being in a handicap spot. So he called to the policeman and said, "Come on, buddy, how about giving a guy a break?"
He ignored him and continued writing the ticket. So he called the policeman a pencil-necked ticket abuser. The policeman glared at the guy and started writing another ticket for worn tires!
So the guy asked him if his psychiatrist makes him lie face down on the couch cause he's so ugly.
The policeman finished the second ticket and put it on the windshield with the first. Then he started writing a third ticket!
This went on until he had placed 5 tickets on the windshield... the more he insulted the ticket writer, the more tickets he wrote. But the guy didn't care, that wasn’t his car! His car was parked around the corner. We are responsible for our actions, and our words, because they affect other people.
What is it that is flowing out of us to our spouse, our children, our neighbors and others in the community….And what effect are we having on them....What is their impression of Christianity because of the way we live our lives? Gandi said that he would like Christianity if it weren’t for Christians..
The only time a rivers stop flowing, is when there is a drought, a dry season, or a famine. Or something has blocked it and stopped the flow, And that should never be the case with those who are flowing in His rivers. The river of God can overwhelm any obstacle but sometimes we are the obstacle. Beavers love to build dams that stop the flow of rivers. They don’t like the current, so they build lakes that are calm and still. Many are like beavers, they want to just be left alone to go about their business, without the quickening force of God’s river.
John 4:14 Jesus told the Samaritan woman that it would never run dry and that she would never thirst again. His rivers of the Spirit are always flowing, no matter what is happening around us. The source of that river is not of this world, so the world cannot touch it, we only need to surrender to the river. Jesus is calling us to let His rivers flow in all the dry places of life, and to all who have a dry season in their lives….(Have another drink)!!
Matthew 10:8 “Freely give, even as you have freely received.” Oh, Yes, Let it flow through you… You can go weeks without food, but only days without water.. God will meet us atthe level of our desire. We can have as much of God as we wantand there’s more than enough. We don’t have to Force it, we just need to let it flow!
Bill Gaither wrote the line that says “We give the things we cannot keep, to keep what we cannot lose”….
The key to the principle we’re talking about today, is to struggle less and surrender more… Jesus said “out of your inner most being shall flow (please get that word..) FLOW…rivers of living water, flow”…
I have never seen a fruit tree straining and struggling to bear fruit. Or stressed out because it had to produce.. It knows that there is a law of productivity. Apple trees produce apples, peach trees produce peaches, and so on….We produce the fruit of the spirit, if the river is flowing and we’re allowing Holy Spirit to move.
It is in surrender to their purpose, that trees, vines, animals, fish and birds, reproduce and flourish. It is in surrender that they fulfill their purpose. We hear a lot about “surrender” but what does that really mean? Well, there is no one-step way to surrender to God, it’s a daily, moment by moment choice to give it to God. Let’s look at some ways that we can surrender to God spiritually… You can never truly enter into prayer without surrender. You can’t hallow His name without surrender. You can’t pray, “Your will be done, without surrender. Scripture shows us that this is the way Jesus began and ended every day… He shifted the focus off of himself and toward the Father. He said “Whatever the Father tells me is what I do. Whatever the Father says is what I say. I do nothing except what the Father tells me.
You and I will not continue to do something or be consistent about something that has no value to us or importance in our lives. It doesn’t happen in a day or a week, it’s a life pattern you begin to develop, because of a deep desire to do the Father’s will… We will all continue to be God’s unfinished projects, until that which is perfect is come.. But we press in....
A boat builder named Andrew Higgins, heard about the D day plans and notified those in command that they would need smaller boats to be successful in the Normandy landing. They brushed him off. He tried again to give them his proposal several times and they brushed him off again. So, as the invasion date got nearer, someone said, how do we get the troops from the battle ships and carriers to the landing site? And one of the generals said, “small boats... I’ll call Higgins”... So Higgins was called and told that time was running out and they had made a critical error, they would need some kind of landing craft. He told them, he had been waiting for the call, and he had already switched all the machinery over to the landing craft design and could begin immediately.
The boats were ready in time, because one man had the answer, when no one else knew there was a problem. Those boats were able to drop 20 to 30 troops at a time on the beaches of Normandy. Eisenhower said that Higgins won the war, because he was able to see ahead and solve a problem that didn’t even exist yet!!
When God’s river is flowing, that’s what happens.... It not only flows where we are, but it’s has already flowed where we’re going!
David wrote in Psalm 46:4 “There is a river, whose streams make the city of God to rejoice, the holy place of the most High”. If that river makes the heart of God to rejoice, then we should certainly rejoice that it is available to each of us.
It’s our connection to the Father, sending His love, His resources, His desires, and His thoughts and intentions, before you need them.
Fasting unstops the river. It is really a form of more intense surrender to the heart of the Father. It’s an important tool in opening our Spirit and bringing our soul and our flesh into submission. All through the bible we see breakthrough which is brought about by fasting and prayer.
Moses fasted and brought the commandments down from Sinai, written by the finger of God. Jesus initiated His ministry with 40 days of fasting. Fasting is an opportunity to increase our spiritual capacity… Our flesh is the enemy in surrendering to God more fully, and the purpose in fasting is to diminish the pull and power of the beavers of the flesh and empower the influence of the Spirit.
Fasting is a choice to deny ourselves, of food, of pleasures, and all that distracts from our greater need that I decrease so He may increase in me… Our bodies were fashioned to need seasons of famine and seasons of feasting… Christians are called to live a fasted life. We put aside other things so we can give our time, our finances, and our priorities to greater purpose
We fast to transform, then we can feast to celebrate….
Matthew 6.33 “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” God is a rewarder, so there will be plenty of time to celebrate...
Fasting is part of God’s surrender package, which taps into the supernatural. We’re tapping into the ending He has already written. So we can enter the fast, with celebration, and come out celebrating! As we surrender it creates an environment for miracles to flow. We bring ourselves under God’s power and authority. An atmosphere is created for heaven to touch the earth and transform our circumstances of lack, chaos, and fear into God’s opportunity to usher in His peace, to supply our needs and saturate the atmosphere with faith for others to receive as well.
Fasting sensitizes my Spirit to hear the voice of God. When we are at a crossroads and don’t know which way to turn, fasting helps us to hear God’s direction. When we are facing a difficult decision, or when there are too many voices in our heads, when like Job, our friends are encouraging us in the wrong direction… we need to put it all aside and give priority to the most important voice of all, and let God speak.
Fasting establishes our priorities….We come to places where what used to satisfy us doesn’t satisfy us any more. More food, more clothes, more television watching, more trips, more stuff, doesn’t do it anymore! We’re at a new place and we need a new plan. Our spirit is telling us something. It’s time to listen…We could miss an opportunity, or a connection, or a warning...When nothing else works, it’s time to fast!
Our Spirit becomes weak and vunerable, when we fail to nourish it with fasting, prayer and God’s word. When we allow our Spirit to rule and reign, then the power of God within us, will create opportunities and transform circumstances so that He can accomplish what we never could.
An important key to surrender is alignment. I can’t get to Hartford Connecticut, if I get on a plane going to Virginia beach. I can’t order a meal at Outback, if I’m looking at a menu at Denny’s. I can’t expect a paycheck at Publix if I’m working at Winn-Dixie…. There has to be alignment. Let me show you a scripture on alignment… 1 John 5:14 "This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us--whatever we ask--we know that we have what we asked of him." Well, that’s what we all want, right?
The words “confidence in approaching God....asking according to His will.... and if He hears us we know we have it”... leap out to us.... Unforgiveness will get you out of alignment....God’s word clearly tells us that His will is to forgive. Why would anyone allow the person who victimized you to keep victimizing you by letting them control you emotionally and spiritually. Unforgiveness is Satan’s way of holding you hostage. Unforgiveness is agreement with the Devil to let him hold you hostage. If your prayers aren’t being answered, check your forgiveness dip stick, you might be a little low.... Matthew 7:2 For with the same judgment you pronounce, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. 3 Why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but fail to notice the beam in your own eye? Unforgiveness is just another way of judging someone, and God didn’t put judging others in our pay grade!
When you surrender in forgiveness, You bring yourself into alignment with freedom, healing, and breakthrough, so, rip out the roots which feed your unforgiveness....resentment, bitterness, revenge, pride, a judgmental spirit, and self love.
Luke 9:23 “And Jesus said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me”.
The cross is always our symbol of victory over the flesh, the intellect, the soulish emotions, and unprofitable patterns of behavior.
Acts 3:19 “Repent therefore, and be converted (ep-ee-stref'-o)”… This Greek word, connected to repentance, (ep-ee-stref'-o)means “return to the obedience of God”….”To turn around and come back”…. This is spoken as a command and not just a suggestion… If someone you loved was about to get hit by a car, you would not make a suggestion. You would immediately be in a command mode… “STOP, Turn around and come back, NOW”… If someone’s house was on fire, you would not suggest, you would command... “GET OUT OF THE HOUSE NOW!!”
There is an urgency here, that there is danger, that the alignment is urgently needed… “REPENT AND BE CONVERTED”….(or be aligned) There is an urgency from the Holy Spirit… There is too much that hangs in the balances, we may not see it, but He does….
Conversion is about establishing something right in place of what was wrong... that’s about transformation, into something different than what you had or were doing before...
It is important that we understand here, that scripture requires both Repentance and conversion. Repentance is not enough if conversion doesn’t take place as well. Someone may feel the need to repent, but never take the next step to turn around and begin the journey that goes the other way….
Alignment is what takes place beyond the repentance, and into the conversion process. Acts 3:19 “Repent therefore, and be converted”. So we surrender and come into Alignment because we value God’s presence, His plan and His purpose in our lives and we desire His anointing, His power, and His desires to flow through us, that many may know and follow Him….We eliminate all barriers and blockages which the busy little beavers want to keep building, so the river can flow!
Lord, let it flow through us, so that others may know, repent, believe, and be converted…Let us be willing to change directions, change priorities, and lock into Your priorities at the moment....
Give us ears to hear, eyes to see, and a heart to submit....Prayer.....Father, You are the Source of all Living Water, and we yearn to go so much deeper in the river of God. Lord, for times of refreshing, healing, and deliverance, keep us all in the river.Thank you for flowing all across this land with the river of God.
Today, we declare over our lives a new beginning, and a deeper walk, as deep calls unto deep. Holy Spirit our Comforter and Friend, we thirst for the rivers of mercy, let the rivers of grace keep pouring down over us. Holy Spirit flow through our day.
Show us things we have never seen before. Forgetting those things that lay behind us we press on towards the high calling in Christ Jesus. Give us the wisdom and discernment to know the how, when, where, and to whom of the river’s purpose. Let us never be the same, as we leave the dry parched places behind us, and we open ourselves to Your divine flow. Let us never be the same as Your spirit fills us again and again. Release those Living Waters You have placed inside of us and may the river of God's power flow mightily through us. We long to be used more and more for Your Glory, in Jesus name....Amen.
