Are You In Deep Water?

Picture a young girl standing on the edge of the pool ready to jump into her father’s arms in the deepest end of the swimming pool. She tests the water by putting her fingers and toes into it, but quickly stands back up, fearful of falling in. This child does not know how to swim but her father invites her to jump in. She trusts her daddy so after some hesitation and against the fear that is within her, she jumps, and daddy catches her. The smile of both on their faces is priceless.

Just as with that little girl, who stands fearfully on the edge of the pool just dipping her toes in the water, it is often the same way in our relationship with God. We only get a little wet rather than jump into the deep end with both feet. However, God calls us to be fully surrendered, fully committed, all in.

Or think of it this way- it is often difficult to fully commit to any one thing when there are umpteen things that we are involved in. It is as if we can only dip our feet into the wading pool because there is not time to get fully wet.

Today I want us to consider one verse; a verse in the middle of the story of Jesus calling His first disciples. This verse is Jesus’ invitation to Simon to go against what makes no sense and go all in with Him. I encourage you to read this story, found in Luke 5:1-11. (I just love verse 5!) In Luke 5:4 Jesus says this to Simon – “Put out into the deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.” Did you catch that? Jesus called for Simon to venture out into the deep water and not simply a few feet offshore. It is the same for us; our needs are met in the deep things of God, only found when we fully surrender and trust Him completely.

Think of God as the initiator of your faith, Jesus as the implementer, and through the Holy Spirit, your faith becomes energized. And it is through going deep with the Holy Spirit that we can fully lose ourselves and find all that God has for us. The deep waters of the Holy Spirit are always accessible to us because they are always flowing. Ezekiel gives us a beautiful picture of this constantly flowing river, one that begins like a small stream but the more we “jump in” the deeper it gets, and the more we get of the Holy Spirit’s work. Ezekiel 47:1-5 is a prophesy about the healing and restoration brought by God’s Spirit In verse 1 Ezekiel sees “the water was coming down from underneath the temple’s south side.” In subsequent verses, each time its depth gets measured, the water goes from a trickle (v.2) to ankle deep (v.3) to knee deep then waist deep (v.4), and finally in verse 5 we read, “but now it was a river that I could not cross, because the water has risen and was deep enough to swim in – a river no one could cross.”

Today Jesus is calling you to put out into deep water. Is that scary? Absolutely it is! The Holy Spirit calls us to be fully submerged in His flowing water; the water of wisdom, healing, peace, comfort, restoration, and the list goes on and on.

So, I ask you – Are you all in, finding yourself in the deepest parts of the ocean or are you only ankle deep at the shoreline playing it safe?