Day #130 - Over your Head

The Presence - A Devotional for living in Thanksgiving, Worship and Wonder

“As the man went eastward with a measuring line in his hand, he measured off a thousand cubits and then led me through water that was ankle-deep. He measured off another thousand cubits and led me through water that was knee-deep. He measured off another thousand and led me through water that was up to the waist. He measured off another thousand, but now it was a river that I could not cross, because the water had risen and was deep enough to swim in—a river that no one could cross. He asked me, “Son of man, do you see this?” Then he led me back to the bank of the river. When I arrived there, I saw a great number of trees on each side of the river. He said to me, “This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah, where it enters the Dead Sea. When it empties into the sea, the salty water there becomes fresh. Swarms of living creatures will live wherever the river flows. There will be large numbers of fish, because this water flows there and makes the salt water fresh; so where the river flows everything will live. Fishermen will stand along the shore; from En Gedi to En Eglaim there will be places for spreading nets. The fish will be of many kinds—like the fish of the Mediterranean Sea. But the swamps and marshes will not become fresh; they will be left for salt. Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river. Their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail. Every month they will bear fruit, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing.””

‭‭Ezekiel‬ ‭47‬:‭3‬-‭12‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Photo by Amy Coley on Unsplash

Have you ever been in over your head?

Do we not usually use the phrase being “over your heard” as a negative statement? But what I want to know is if you have ever been in over your head in a good sense? Have you ever been so deep in something that you got carried away into love, goodness, power and breakthrough?

God has a place for us to get over our head in His river, where we cease from our own fleshly efforts and allow His Spirit to move us where and how He pleases.

Ezekiel is taken into a vision of a future temple and from the temple, the place of God’s presence, a great river flowed. This is in some ways a picture of the future reality of the believers and of the church who individually and corporately become the temple of God and out of the temple flows a mighty river bringing life wherever it goes.

This experience with the prophet Ezekiel is powerful because he is invited into this river and he gets to experience the river at different depths. He goes to his ankles, then to his knees, then to his waste and then it is so deep he would get in over his head. As the river gets deeper and continues to flow it brings life and healing.

This river is like the life of the Holy Spirit in us who believe. But how deep do we want to go? Are we content with partial surrender to the Holy Spirit? Are we okay with knee deep or waste deep spirituality? Or are we ready to surrender all the way?

The Spirit is calling us to get in over our heads. In some ways, we seem to have as much of God as we want. Surrender to the river of God and get in the flow of His empowering presence.

Holy Spirit, I hear Your call. I surrender to You and let go of controlling my own life. I want to get in Your river over my head. I don’t want to live in ankle deep, knee deep or waste deep encounter. I choose to be all-in on my pursuit of Your presence. I want to know Your power and see the flow of Your river bring life and healing everywhere it goes. In Jesus name, amen.