Digging Deeper

Digging Deeper

Intro

***Ill.  Who likes crackers?  Have saltines and a glass of water.  Have them eat, but don’t give them water.

          *they did something to make themselves thirsty, they created thirst within themselves.

We know that water is a building block for life, perhaps the most important one.  Without water you have desert conditions where life cannot be sustained.  If you get stuck in the desert the first thing you look for if you don’t have it, is water.  You can go weeks without food, but only a few short days without water.  It is the search for water that I want to talk about.  Once a man named Ponce De Leon left the known world in search of a fountain of water that was supposed to provide eternal youth.  Our scientists are on a similar hunt for water.  They just launched or are about to launch a Mars probe that is going to be hunting for signs of water on the Red planet, because they know the importance of it; for where there is water, there is life!  Jesus of course knew the importance of water as Creator, but He spoke of an even more important water that we should seek.  In John 4 speaking to the woman at the well, He spoke of Living Waters, and revealed Himself as the source, the wellspring, the Dayspring from on high who had come to quench her thirsty soul.  We should constantly be seeking and flowing in that Living Water as Christians.  But there are some wrong ideas that have crept in through the years.  We have forgotten how and where to look. 

I.  God’s Presence -Genesis ‘til now

*First we find that God was dwelling in perfect tri-union with Himself as Father, Son, Holy Spirit

*Then Creation was formed and with it man.  We then find man and later woman dwelling in perfect unity together with God’s Presence.

*After the fall we find God again dwelling in perfect union in Heaven, but longing for fellowship with man again.  At different times there were those special men who were justified by faith, and God spoke to them.

*Later the Ark of the Testimony (or Covenant) was shaped according to the Lord’s direction overlaid with God rich with symbols of what is seen in Heaven and there He dwelt among the Children of Israel

*Next as the wonderings of the people ceased a beautiful temple was constructed out of precious materials to house the ark where God’s Presence could be sought.

But all these places were imperfect.  Only a select group of people could carry the ark, only one man per year could go into the Holy of Holies, when it was God’s desire to have perfect True Intimacy with His people…any and all who sought it.  It was for this reason that Jesus left Heaven came to earth and lived as a man and died in our place…to purchase this intimacy, to pay the price of our sin.  Because our Creator would rather die than live without us. 

Then in Acts Chapter 2 we see the fulfillment of the mission.  We find the final perfect dwelling place for the Holy Spirit…it is in us, though we are imperfect, marred by sin, our hearts are traitorous, yet we have been bought at a price.

1 Corinthians 6:19(NLT) "Or don’t you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself,"

There are some noticeable differences.  For example, where they drew lots before to determine the replacement for Judas before the Day of Pentecost, now we see them praying and laying hands on people.  We see them constrained or prompted by the Holy Spirit for direction.  And except in the case of those being saved where he Holy Spirit is the agent of regeneration and the seal of the promise, we never again see any type of filling from Heaven in the New Testament.  Every time someone is filled or healed it is through the laying on of hands. 

So we know that God is among us and in us, if we are born again as Christians.  Yet why does it seem so dry sometimes?  How come it can feel like we are dry and weary land where there is no water?  Where should we look?  What should we do?

II.  Be Filled

Ephesians 5:18(NKJV) "And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit,"

We know from the verbage used in this verse that when it says to “be filled” it is not talking about a one time occurrence but instead is saying to “continue being filled”

Here’s where the problem comes in…we know that we are the temple of Holy Spirit.  So therefore God is in us and with us.  If we are to continue being filled with His Presence, did He go somewhere?  Do we leak?  Does He go for a vacation sometimes?  What’s the deal?

III.  Digging Deeper

I believe that the answer is found not in looking upward, but in looking inward or digging deeper. 

We know that the Lord has made us His residence.

We know according to Ephesians 1:3 that the Lord “… has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we belong to Christ."

We know that He will never leave us nor forsake us.

So the answer must be within. 

In the old days they used to have to dig wells in order to have fresh water.  Sometimes those wells got clogged up, or they just dried up.  They either dug new wells or dug a little deeper to hit the water table where underground rivers were flowing. 

I believe that it is time that we stop looking to God for the things that He has already provided in Christ by the Holy Spirit and just start digging a little deeper to find the flowing Living Water that is there. 

We’ve stopped looking inward, we’ve stopped letting God have His way with our character, we’ve stopped letting Him shape us and form us into the image of Christ.  Instead we look to Heaven for some sort of spiritual goose bump experience that we can label a breakthrough.  Breakthroughs aren’t about Jesus kicking in our walls, but us tearing down our defenses and kicking down our own walls to let Him in!

OT picture of this

2 Kings 3:15-20(NKJV) "But now bring me a musician.” Then it happened, when the musician played, that the hand of the Lord came upon him. And he said, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Make this valley full of ditches.’ For thus says the Lord: ‘You shall not see wind, nor shall you see rain; yet that valley shall be filled with water, so that you, your cattle, and your animals may drink.’ And this is a simple matter in the sight of the Lord; He will also deliver the Moabites into your hand. Also you shall attack every fortified city and every choice city, and shall cut down every good tree, and stop up every spring of water, and ruin every good piece of land with stones.” Now it happened in the morning, when the grain offering was offered, that suddenly water came by way of Edom, and the land was filled with water."

picture of filling today.  The man of God  spoke that water was available.  In order to receive the blessings of the water, (notice what they were…blessings of provision, abundance, AND it was going to cause them to have victory over their enemies) they had to dig.  Notice where the water came from…not from the sky, not from the heavens, but from right where they were at.  I think that they hit an underground river, it didn’t come from the sky. 

They had to carve out a place for the blessing!  They had to dig to make room for what God wanted to do.

IV.  How to Dig

2 Timothy 1:6(NKJV) "Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands."

Back in the 90’s God did an amazing thing in Pensacola, FL.  It was called the Pensacola outpouring.  Hundreds of thousands, including myself, traveled from all over the world to sit in a service and be filled.  Sure enough when I was there, I could feel the Presence of God in that place.  It was thick, and I got blessed.  But I wonder, was it an outpouring or an instirring that happened.  They had been praying for years for what they called “revival,” and I believe through the prayers of faith being lifted up and the digging within that they hit the River, and it gushed out and flowed in and through them.  It impacted the whole world. 

Pastor Bill and I are united in that we don’t believe that we need another string of “old time revival” services.  What we need is for the river of God to begin to flow in and through our people in a new and fresh way.

1.  Fast and Pray.

          Spend time in His Presence without an agenda, and let the Holy Spirit speak to you, convict you, cover you.

2.  Get in the Word

          You cannot go deeper in your walk with Christ apart from the Word of God.  Get back to memorizing Scriptures, do some topical Bible studies, do your daily devotions

3.  Get involved

          God has you here for a purpose.  Get involved in a ministry of His choosing and allow yourself to be held accountable, allow Him to stretch you.  When you are truly committed you find yourself having to dig deeper to stay committed.  It tough to serve and minister to people.  People have issues!  But remember if you want the Living Waters to flow through you, that water has to have somewhere to flow out of you, or you will wind up like the dead sea. 

Summary/Altar

Are you unsatisfied with where you are at?  Are you thirsty for more?  Then don’t go wandering around looking for an oasis, you have water right there within you…all you have to do is dig a little deeper.

The Lord is done with “places” for His Presence.  It is His children where He resides. People must stop looking for buildings or places to find the river of God. 

If we do this I believe that when we come together on Sundays it can be to CELEBRATE what God has done in and through us the previous week!  Not so that we can get our Jesus fix so we can barely scrape through another week of existence.

Jesus when He was here said that He was the Light of the world, but now we are the Light of the World because of Who is in us.  We should be living like we have the light and the life of the world flowing through us at all times.