Launch Into the Deep

lately, i've been battling a bit of depression by various degrees and at various intervals. nothing major and I certainly don't want to sound like i'm complaining but just want to be open & honest with where i'm at right now. I am finding that the Christian walk (meaning, walking with Jesus vs not trying to be a 'good, moral' person in my own strength or to practice religion better with my own resources) is a study in contrasts. When we are weak, He is strong. When we are brought low, He lifts us up. When we are needy, He proves Himself abundantly on our behalf. When we are grieving over sin or the broken world we live in, His Spirit is keenly at work. When we press into the Spirit through prayer, asking for a fresh infilling of Him, and through studying God's WORD, the enemy loves to come and bring oppression, discouragement, and all that other stuff that would seem in direct contrast to how you would think you'd feel after spending increased time in the Word, prayer, and crying out for the Holy Spirit's personal ministry.

Yes, all of those things mentioned above indeed bring joy that's deeper than anything in this life. Yes, going deeper into Him can also bring greater illumination of Scripture or 'new' insights that just keep jumping off the page, times of encouragement, rejoicing, and supernatural strength/insight/power through the workings of the Spirit. Going deeper can bring a heightened sense of empathy or gut-wrenching compassion for those around you, be it the well dressed young woman passing you in the Target shopping aisle whose beautiful face is heavily made up only to ineffectively hide severe swelling & bruising from what i could only chalk up to demonic domestic abuse or the seemingly happy-go-lucky friend at church who is inwardly battling an eating disorder, believing the horrid lie that 'Christians just don't struggle with stuff like this, so what's wrong with me?!' and she therefore, keeps it under wraps for fear of her reputation being ruined if she were to (God forbid!) open up to someone about it and seek help*. (sorry for the run-on sentence!)

Pressing deeper into the Word, through the power of the Spirit at work in those of us who love Jesus and are bought by His redeeming blood, can just as easily mean inviting times of weeping,  overwhelming (and what i believe is 'righteous') anger over the stories of gross injustice we daily confront, and deep sorrow for the people all around us who are trying their best to just put one foot in front of the other while bleeding from deep battle wounds that God wants to heal. Going deeper can bring times of feeling so ridiculously discouraged, laughably inadequate, and utterly helpless to the point where the only resort you're left with is to fall flat on your slobbery tear-adorned face before a holy God and say, 'HELP!! I CAN'T DO THIS ANYMORE'

....and you know what??








He always shows up. (2 Tim. 2:13)







I love how Spurgeon talks about how the diamonds of divine providence shine most brilliantly against the velvet black backdrop of our trials (Beside Still Waters). He also says that the King stores his finest wines in the darkest cellars. Now, i'm not saying i'm this brilliant diamond or a fine wine but well...I am, in the sense that I have been bought by the blood, redeemed, set free, made whole, and am now a co-heir with Christ, already seated in the heavenlies (Eph. 2:6). Like a precious diamond or unique, fine wine, we are beloved of God and treasured by Him (Is. 43:4).

Out of His great GOODNESS, He allows us to walk through trials in this life that perhaps we would not have chosen for ourselves (Rom. 8:28). He will always, ALWAYS uphold the lives of His people, even in the most desperate, dark circumstances (Lam. 3). His purpose are always redemptive toward us, never punitive since Jesus took the full punishment for all or our sin & fallenness upon Himself at the Cross. Like a Father, He disciplines us because He LOVES us and seeks to refine us like gold in fire (1 Peter 1:7). And sometimes, we are not being disciplined at all but rather just facing very real opposition from the enemy (the devil) and his forces as a result of pressing deeper into Christ (Eph. 6:12). Yet even then, nothing can touch us apart from the providential permission of God (see the book of Job) for God is all sovereign, all loving, all powerful, and fully in control of all things.

Today, I received this beautiful and perfectly-timed encouragement from a very dear friend who has spent a bit more time with Jesus than myself and is truly one led by the Spirit in encouraging others. She sent this to me after I tearfully opened up to her about some things I am currently battling (thank God the VICTORY over ALL of our battles has already been WON!! It is FINISHED!!). I was speechless reading it. Totally resonated with my heart and what the Lord's been speaking to me about lately. I pray it blesses you, especially if you are desiring to press more deeply into Jesus through the precious Holy Spirit He has given us whilst on this earth and through the STUDY of His precious, all powerful, living WORD! Amen & Amen!!

This is from the devotional, Streams in the Desert by L.B. Cowman

(buy it if you don't already have it!! seriously. her personal testimony is um amazing):

“Launch out into the deep.” (Luke 5:4)

How deep He does not say. The depth into which we launch will depend upon how perfectly we have given up the shore, and the greatness of our need, and the apprehension of our possibilities. The fish were to be found in the deep, not in the shallow water.

So with us; our needs are to be met in the deep things of God. We are to launch out into the deep of God’s Word, which the Spirit can open up to us in such crystal fathomless meaning that the same words we have accepted in times past will have an ocean meaning in them, which renders their first meaning to us very shallow.

Into the deep of the Atonement, until Christ’s precious blood is so illuminated by the Spirit that it becomes an omnipotent balm, and food and medicine for the soul and body.

Into the deep of the Father’s will, until we apprehend it in its infinite minuteness and goodness, and its far-sweeping provision and care for us.

Into the deep of the Holy Spirit, until He becomes a bright, dazzling, sweet, fathomless summer sea, in which we bathe and bask and breathe, and lose ourselves and our sorrows in the calmness and peace of His everlasting presence.

Into the deep of the Holy Spirit, until He becomes a bright, marvellous answer to prayer, the most careful and tender guidance, the most thoughtful anticipation of our needs, the most accurate and supernatural shaping of our events.

Into the deep of God’s purposes and coming kingdom, until the Lord’s coming and His millennial reign are opened up to us; and beyond these the bright entrancing ages on ages unfold themselves, until the mental eye is dazed with light, and the heart flutters with inexpressible anticipations of its joy with Jesus and the glory to be revealed.

Into all these things, Jesus bids us launch. He made us and He made the deep, and to its fathomless depths He has fitted our longings and capabilities. –Soul Food

“Its streams the whole creation reach,

So plenteous is the store;

Enough for all, enough for each;

Enough forevermore.”

The deep waters of the Holy Spirit are always accessible, because they are always proceeding. Will you not this day claim afresh to be immersed and drenched in these waters of life? The waters in Ezekiel’s vision first of all oozed from under the doors of the temple. Then the man with the measuring line measured and found the waters to the ankles. Still further measurement, and they were waters to the knees. Once again they were measured and the waters were to the loins. Then they became waters to swim in–a river that could not be passed over. (Read Ezekiel 47). How far have we advanced into this river of life? The Holy Spirit would have a complete self effacement. Not merely ankle-deep, knee-deep, loin-deep, but self-deep. We ourselves hidden out of sight and bathed in this life-giving stream. Let go the shore-lines and launch out into the deep. Never forget, the Man with the measuring line is with us today. 

*the story about the girl in Target is real; the one about the girl with an eating disorder is fictional. just wanted to clarify that for anyone wondering.