Go Deep

"The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God." I Corinthians 2:10....."God has called us to go deep. The cross is our holy invitation. We are not saved for superficiality." Chris Tiegreen....."The Holy Spirit of grace desires to disturb your sleep. Blessed are you if you awaken." Lars Linderot

In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus directed His disciples, who were fishermen who'd labored all night without catching any fish, to "Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch." They thought the order futile, but they obeyed, and were rewarded with a great catch of fish. In the deep they found the fish. In the deep things of the Spirit, we find Him. You'll catch no fish in the shallows, and neither will you discover the depths of the Father there. So why do so many seem content to live in the shallows spiritually? Why do we prefer spiritual superficiality to spiritual depth?

Nothing can thrive in the shallows. I remember walking around a lake well stocked with fish, but the only ones near the shore, in the shallows, were dead ones. Alongside them was decaying plant life, and silty waters. There is little or no life to be found in the shallows, not physically, and even more so, not spiritually. Yet in my nearly 40 years of ministry, I have found far more professing believers who prefer the decay and death of the shallows to the abundance of life to be found in His depths. How is it that so many prefer it?

When Jesus told Peter and the others to put out into the deep, they were reluctant to do so. They'd worked all night but found no reward for it. They were exhausted. Yet Jesus told them to go. There's a truth in this that I think we miss. There is no possible way to "work your way" to the Father. The only doorway is Jesus Christ. What I see in this Scripture is that while it is true that we cannot earn our way to Him, He can be reached when we obey His Spirit as it draws us. Our efforts yield exhaustion and failure, but when drawn by His Spirit, we reap the fullness of His Life. We have to press on into the deep, but His grace and power are limitless as we do. It would have been easy for Peter and the others to stay at the shoreline and rest, but they yielded to His call, launched out, and had the greatest catch they'd ever experienced. After this, they left their nets and followed Christ. I think we never put out into the deep because not only will we not leave our familiar shallows, neither will we leave our familiar "nets" that hold us. Jobs, relationships, attitudes, desire to control, and secret sins in order to do so. So we stay in the shallows, continue to live spiritually superficial lives, and never experience or know what life in the deep things of the Spirit will yield.

For some time now the church has been calling for a message that is "relevant" to a dying world. We seem to think that means in the main, entering into the pop culture with what too often is a pop culture message. A superficial church will never be relevant to a lost culture, no matter how trendy and modern it wants to look and sound. It will always be irrelevant. But a church soaked in the depths of God, of His Holy Spirit, will have a message and voice from the very throne room of God. This has always been the need of the hour, but perhaps never more so than now.

In closing, let me make a point put forth by the late evangelist Vance Havner. He said, "In Christian experience, we cannot move on to deeper things until sin has been faced in our lives." Too few of us are willing to do this. It's easier to deny, rationalize, or justify them. As long as we do, we remain in the shallows, suffering decay and the onslaught of death. They are an anchor, slowly drowning us...in the shallows. It is time to put out into the deep, to know in ever greater ways, the depths of the God we follow. This is the time to "go deep." Is it the time for you?

Blessings,

Pastor O