I once saw a video of a moose in a river cooling off when a wolf came out of the woods into the water and latched onto the moose. No matter how much the moose tried to stomp on the wolf, the wolf had latched onto a spot where the moose could not stomp on it…right behind the moose’s front right leg. The moose was able to get the wolf to let go once by holding the wolf under the water until it released its vice-like grip. But, then as the moose ran, the wolf gave chase! The moose ran and ran and eventually began to run out of energy, with the wolf hot on its trail. It wasn’t until the moose ran into the deeper part of the river that the wolf had to finally back off.
This is a great illustration of how that, as long as the Christian stays in the shallow waters of living, the enemy can easily chase after them and, if the Christian is not growing stronger, the enemy can latch onto that Christian’s life in such a way that, no matter how much that Christian tries to fight him, the devil has secured a spot that the Christian cannot reach unless they change the way they do things and decide to go out into the deeper waters of living for God! Thank God the Christian has a deeper place to which they can go and find refuge and strength! That place is in the deep places of God’s strength and protection!
After calling His disciples, Jesus tells Simon Peter in Luke 5:4 …Launch out into the deep… and that’s just what I want to encourage you to do starting today…right now! LAUNCH OUT INTO THE DEEP!
Launch Out into the Deeper Levels of Thinking
Contrary to popular belief, Christianity was never meant by God to be an autopilot lifestyle, and yet that’s the way many Christians seem to think about and therefore treat their Christian lives. The world and satan take advantage of this lack of understanding and therefore cause people in Christian churches to think and believe all kinds of things…even unbiblical things!
Everyone thinks they’re a “deep thinker” until they have to look at facts and think deeply. Then you find they will spend more time and energy defending the way they have always done things and ignoring, or flat out refusing, to hear anything different!
While it is in every person’s human nature to go along with the bare minimum status quo way of doing things, they may even defend their bare minimum level of shallow thinking. This could be in the form of such phrases as “At least I’m saved and on my way to Heaven and that’s enough for me!”. Shallow thinking brings shallow emotions, shallow actions, and shallow reactions!
Christians are not called to the shallow end of life, we are called to Launch Out into the Deep! Concerning the things of God, the great Apostle Paul puts it in 1st Corinthians 2:10 But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
It is in our human nature to want the shallow and easy things of life. This is why we need to be born again and to receive the divine nature of God! Only then can we truly want to launch out into the deep! There is a deeper level of living for God that awaits all of His children who will take the time to cultivate this kind of relationship with Him!
Launch Out into the Deeper Levels of Learning
There is great protection in knowing the truth about things! Our Lord Himself tells us in John 8:32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. When you know something is true, you are protected against believing lies about it and when you know something is a lie, you are protected against believing it to be true. If you and I can get THIS, we will have unlocked a great deal of blessings and power in our lives!
There are so many people who know so much and yet understand so little and it shows in their daily lives. It shows in their attitudes, in their marriages, in their family life, in their professional lives, in their financial lives, etc. When discussing those who are educated, but are easily carried away by their lusts, the Bible says in 2nd Timothy 3:7 Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
I’m talking about getting so consumed with intellectual knowledge that you can speak Hebrew and Greek but completely miss what’s actually being said! These people know so much about what the Bible says, that they don’t know what the Bible is saying. (Really, they know what it says to others, but don’t seem to pick up on what it’s saying to them.)
Launch Out into the Deeper Levels of Understanding
Just because we know something, does not mean we understand it. You may know that a car cranks when you turn the key or push the button, but you don’t necessarily understand combustion engines. You may know the cell phone works when you turn it on, but you may not understand how motherboards, resistors, and RAMs work.
As God’s people, if we choose to stay in the shallow end of the pool of understanding, then we will not experience the joy of understanding the deeper things of God! There is so much more to knowing God than the children’s prayer of “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soda keep. If I die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soda I can take!”. We expect that kind of prayer from a child, but not from a maturing Christian who is launching out into the deeper things of God!
For the maturing Christian, we are told in Hebrews 6:1 …let us go on unto perfection… We are also told in Hebrews 5:13-14 For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. (14) But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age (Meaning those who choose to Launch Out into the Deep), even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. The word for “senses” is the Greek word aistheterion which means “an organ of perception”. This explains why there are so many Christians who can memorize scripture and study the Bible, all of which we should do, but still seem to not understand the very basic tenets of God’s word. This leads us into our next section.
Launch Out into the Deeper Levels of Discernment
Deeper levels of discernment can only be discovered when first built upon the foundation of deeper levels of learning and understanding (both of which we discussed earlier). In the Bible, discernment, from the Greek words diakrino and diakrisis, means to separate thoroughly; to properly discriminate; etc. Another way of saying it is: the ability to sense the differences between two or more things. These things can literally be objects, ideas, activities, actions, or people (when it comes to people, this also entails being able to accurately sense their true intentions as well).
In order to gain this ability to sense the differences between two or more things, we must first learn and understand the word of God. The reason for this is that we’re told the word of God Hebrews 4:12 …is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. The more you learn and gain understanding of God’s word, the more you will receive from God a sense of the things of this life and be able to discern between what is good and evil; what is the will of God and your own will. This takes a sense of commitment that many are not willing to give. This leads us into our final section.
Launch Out into the Deeper Levels of Commitment
We’re given an illustration of the man who obeys the word of God in Luke 6:48 He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock. (For all the women: Proverbs 14:1 Every wise woman buildeth her house: but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands.). Women have the power and responsibility to help build the house on a deeper foundation as well.
The man in Luke 6:48 had to DIG DEEPER than the man in Verse 49 in order for his house to stand during the time of flood and storm! It took a deeper sense of commitment and a deeper act of commitment on his part and it’ll take the same deeper sense of commitment and deeper act of commitment on our parts if our spiritual house is going to stand during the time of flood and storm! God calls us to be fully committed to the cause of Christ! Fully committed from our hearts!
Jesus just wants people to commit and be faithful and He was content even when it was just a few who were committed on a deeper level (which is how it usually was when He preached about commitment).
This deeper level of commitment is built upon the foundation of learning and understanding that launching out into the deep and committing ourselves to God is an expectation from God. If He committed His Son to us, and His Son committed His life to us, shall not we do the same for Him?
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