Eze 47:5 Afterward he measured a thousand; and it was a river that I could not pass over: for the waters were risen, waters to swim in, a river that could not be passed over.

Life is not something to be grasped it is something to be lived. Many folks have an iron grasp on life, they have been holding on so tight for so long that they are not even consciously aware of it anymore. Today is the day to let go and live. Not ankle-deep nor up to your knees or even your waist but fully immersed and surrendered to the depths of the river of life that flows from God. In the depths of the river we are abandoned to its current. Wherever the river flows that is where we go.

Now everywhere you go, when you are flowing in this river, you will bring life and healing. In the scriptures this river brought healing to a dead sea. This river brought healing to everything it touched. If we are to be used of God we must not be standing on our own two feet, something that is so admired by this world, we must be abandoned to the river of life. It takes spiritual eyes to see why you are truly here. There are a million and one distractions to hinder you from the very essence of why you exist. You exist to be in relationship with God. Your primary purpose here on earth is to glorify Him. Now what happens when we lose sight of this, when we are bound and determined to direct the paths of our own lives and cannot see the bigger picture? But the miry places thereof and the marshes thereof shall not be healed; they shall be given to salt.(Eze 47:11) In another translation it says in the stagnant places. When we have a firm grasp of our own life we become a stagnant pool. It is very dangerous to drink from a stagnant pool, it is full of disease and bacteria and does not give life but produces sickness. Why is there so much sickness in the Body of Christ? Spiritual life, like a river, is designed to flow, we must be found flowing in the river of God and being directed by His current. If you are still standing on your own two feet, not matter what depth whether ankle-deep or knee-deep or waist deep, you will never truly be used of God until you are immersed in a river that cannot be crossed. Dive in today and let it take you where it may.

Be anxious for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. (Php 4:6-7)

A favorite verse from a favorite book of mine. Yet there was a whole year it was not my favorite verse. That is how long the Lord made me dwell on this one Scripture. And time and time again in that year I was tested on it and I failed. I still fail occasionally. I was a man who feared everything. Now I am not talking about before coming to Christ at the age of 27, although that was surely true. No, I am talking about somewhere between 10-15 years after coming to Jesus and I have been saved now for 23 years. I was plagued by fear and anxiety and that included the fear of man and the desire to please man. I hid it very well, but at the root of it all was a deeply insecure man whom God was working on. There were two things that brought me victory over this. First and foremost was the Word of God. I could not get away from the instructions that I read in the verse above. If the Lord has commanded me to be anxious for nothing, then it must be possible. And the second key which came as a revelation to me at the end of that year was this, and people will say I am harsh but I am simply being truthful, to be fearful, to be anxious was, at it’s very core, sin. I was so astounded when the Lord opened that up to me, and He did not do it in a condemning way, it was simply shown to me as a matter of fact. I became deeply ashamed at this revelation from God. The God whom I proudly told people was to be trusted in all things, for their very eternal souls, I was, on a daily basis, not trusting Him.

People will say ” well I am just a born worrier, it’s in my nature.” Listen brothers and sisters whose nature resides in you? If we should decrease so that He may increase, then should not our anxieties be decreasing every year we are in the Lord? Or, is fear and insecurity triumphing in your life over the call of God? Let me give you a very simple personal example from my own life. In my life, in my nature I am an eminently practical man. I typically know what must be done and I do not consider any of these things rocket science. And so many years ago I got a terrible call from Scotland. My sister had collapsed and was in a coma. She had suffered a brain aneurism. She was not expected to make it. I needed to come home right away. I arranged a flight that very night and I was to fly out in the morning. As I hurriedly packed, I got on the phone again with my mum and asked her whose report are you going to believe? Did not the Lord promise you your daughter would be saved? Then how is it that you believe she is going to die? Either the doctors were wrong or God’s promise would not be fulfilled. Sounds wonderful right? Just minutes after getting off the phone I was grabbing my black suit and about to pack it. Now I know why I was packing that suit, practical man that I am. And you know what the Lord said to me ” put that suit back.” I would like to report to you that I began to rejoice that God was going to save my sister and that I joyfully put that suit back. But that would not be true, that suit went back and forward quite a few times. My very nature and unbelief was struggling with the word the Lord had spoken to me. I left the suit and my sister did not die.

The promises of God. Do we believe them? When God tells us to consider the lily’s of the field, how they neither toil nor spin and yet Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed with such splendor Therefore if He so cares about the grass of the field and every sparrow that falls from the sky, how much more does He care and know and meet your needs? Anxiety is just another name for fear and we know that God has not given us such a spirit. Rather He has given us a Spirit of power and love and a sound mind. When we take God at His word then we will have a peace that surpasses all understanding and Christ Himself will guard your heart and mind. Remember saints, and I do not remind you to put you in any kind of bondage, quite the opposite in fact. To live in fear is to live in sin. Are you living in fear today? Note that I said ” living,” or I could have said “practicing.” God’s word promises that we do no have to live in fear/sin. Faith is the opposite and the antidote to sin and fear. Trusting and resting in God and in His word and in His promises, that is for you saint. You can be victorious over this, and any voice you hear that says differently is a lie from the pit of hell. He whom the Son sets free is free indeed. Begin today to trust in God and live a victorious overcoming life.

Here’s How the New Christian Left Is Twisting the Gospel.

This article above, while making some good points, is a clear indication that there is a new generation of Evangelicals ready to rise up and defend their system. This is a reactionary piece from a growing panicked evangelical movement. The writer bemoans the passing of a moral majority generation. In a state of decline, evangelicals swing wildly from the right to the left and then back again. The very system itself denies Jesus His preeminence . The Ark has left the Holy of Holy’s and the religion reacts in an effort to desperately maintain the status quo . How sad to think folks have to fight to regain lukewarmness. Make no mistake, the birth of the Pharisee came out of living amongst a very un-godly post-exilic people. The Jewish people had lived in Babylon for seventy years and lived in a very worldly way. The Pharisee was a reaction to that. Now today, there is a great danger that the younger folks coming up will be even more political than their parents and grandparents because they see such un-godly lifestyles among their own generation. They never really question the system that produced such ungodly lifestyles amongst their peers. Now they say, ” If we could just get back to ………” you fill in the blanks. ” We just have to be more active politically.” “We have to retake the moral high-ground.” And so we repeat the damning cycles of the previous generations and are blind to the fact that the religious system itself is, at its very core, the problem.

It was those generations who believed that the way to change things was through Washington. It was those generations who really gave us cheap grace. It was those generations who raised their children under the wings of the all important American dream. Go to church on a Sunday morning-Tick that box. Drop of your children at Sunday School and let some pimply faced kid teach your children-Tick that box. Take little Johnny to baseball practice-tick that box. What, prayer meeting is on Wednesday night? sorry, that is little Jenny’s dance practice night- tick the dance practice box. Do a check of all your boxes at the end of the week. Yeah, that looks good. Christianity became just another box to tick while pursuing the American dream. Little Johnny knew fine well that his parents had no concept of being content with food and clothing. Jenny knew that her parents knew nothing of being content with where you were or that there was great danger in the pursuit of wealth. She did know that if her grades dropped below honor roll status she would be in deep trouble. She also knew that she could fail Scriptural truth all day long and her parents would never even notice. Jenny and Johnny become sold out to a system because they were taught that. What system, the religious one? Noooo, that was lukewarm and a mere addition, an adornment to their parent’s life, no the system they were sold out to was the American dream and all that it offered. Seek ye first the Kingdoms of men and all these other slightly less important things will be added unto you.