Have you ever gone swimming in a river? If so, you’ve stood at the edge and taken a first step in. Immediately, you are ankle-deep. Wade a little farther, and you’re up to your knees. Keep going, and the water is waist-level. Then chest-level. Then up to your neck. And if you really want to go for it, you let yourself go all the way under. 

Intimacy with God is much like that. You can go ankle-deep. You can keep going and let the water flow past your knees, your waist, your neck, or even over your head. You can keep pressing in for a day, a season, or a lifetime. But many people don’t go that far. They stop when they’ve had just a bit, a trickle, a little affirmation that yes, God is there, you and He are connecting, and all is well until the next time. 

God gave Ezekiel a prophetic picture of this kind of river. The prophet was shown waters coming out of the temple in Jerusalem that gave life everywhere they flowed. At first, the river was just ankle-deep, then it was knee-deep, then waist-deep, and then it was too deep to cross. This is how the Father’s love and the Holy Spirit’s power works in our lives. This vision has several meanings at different levels, but one one of them is to represent our experience of the presence of God. And if this river represents God’s presence, it must also represent the flow of love into our hearts. 

Some people think they are satisfied with a taste of it. Others cannot be satisfied with just a taste. They know they need more. Some keep on going because they can never get enough. They want total immersion, a baptism in an ocean of love in the depths of their spirit. But they also want more than a baptism. They want an ongoing flow. 

God has enough love for that. You can swim in that ocean of love. There’s enough for you to go to the nations and represent His heart to the multitudes. I encourage you to dream big like that, but also to go ahead and start representing love where you are. You can envision huge revivals and movements sweeping across nations and regions and the world, but there also has to be enough love in you for your wife or husband, your children, your boss, and your neighbor. 

Many people long for the kind of love that transforms nations but have trouble with the kind of love that reaches out to a difficult relative or neighbor. They want the Father’s love for ministry purposes. All of it is available, but it does not work well just to go for helpings of certain kinds of love like they are items on a buffet. If you want to go for it all, then it is very important to go for it all.

But you will also need to recognize seasons in your life. Revelations of love come in waves, with God preparing you for the times that are coming and then giving you more when you are entering into a new season. And a least some of His reasons for doing that are up to you. You often get from Him whatever you are prepared to give to others. 

Remember God’s purpose from the very beginning–to fill the earth with His people who bear His image. To put this another way, to fill the earth with His glory through the people who will carry it. 

This is why the heavenly family of love created human beings, why the Son of love became Love in the flesh, and why He breathed the Holy Spirit into His followers. 

You were made for this mission, but you cannot carry it out unless you meet God in a place of intimacy and let Him love you. This intimacy may begin with droplets and trickles of His presence and love, but an increase is always available to those who steward these foretastes.

Interested in learning more about this topic? Purchase my book The Love Awakening by clicking here!

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