Stream or River?

The season I am in right now is a season of surrender.  Now I say that with a half grin as it seems I am ALWAYS trying to surrender.  It has not been easy.  

There are things in my life, that I nurture my flesh with.  Things that feel good to engage in.  Oh, how my flesh loves to fill itself with food.  How it is a pacifier when I feel anxious or stressed.  And then when my binge is over, I am left feeling empty, and separated from God.  It has become an idol in my life.  It does not truly fill my life it robs me.  It is a thief that steals my peace, my focus, and it shows that I am not in full obedience to Him.  In the last few months I have been handing that over to God, but I find myself wavering back and forth, some, and I am frustrated with myself. 

Can you bear witness with that?  

I want to be a captive of the King of Freedom not a slave of emptiness and false idols. 

Today, He spoke to me.  He said, "Jennifer, I am Everlasting to Everlasting.  Therefore I have so much to fill you with.  I need your complete and total surrender.  There are things that you feel nurture your soul, but they don't.  They rob.  They rob the very essence of who I created you to be.  There is a Stream of my work, my anointing, that is flowing in your life, but if you lay those things down, it will open up the gates to a river.  Don't be satisfied with a stream.  Be engulfed in MY RIVER!"

Praise God!  Who doesn't want the fullness of the RIVER??

Think about this.  Everywhere there is a river, the vegetation is most abundant next to the river.  The soil is the most fertile.  Next to the river is where animals come to get refreshed and fed.  The nomads or wanderers would set up camp next to the rivers.  Life flows from the river.  

In Genesis 2:10 a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden.  Numbers 24:6 talks of gardens beside the river, and all throughout the Bible, and history, and even now, people DRAW from the river.  

Not only that, in scripture, God promises that He will open rivers on the bare heights, and fountains in the midst of valleys. Is.41:18  Do you feel like your in a valley?

I want to encourage you to open yourself up to the RIVER.  Yes, a stream is okay.  It travels from the rivers and it feeds the trees and animals.  A stream still provides and is still refreshing, but is that all you want?  If I am fed by only a stream then only a stream is what is flowing through me, and only a stream amount around me can be fed and nurtured.  BUT, if full Rivers of Living Water is flowing, the refreshing and feeding in my life is so much more abundant, therefore I can be a vessel to feed more and more!  The fruit and vegetation of the gardens around me will be more lush!  The wanderers in this world will find a home in Christ!  People will DRAW from the River of God because Life flows from the RIVER!

Ezekiel 47:3-12

 ³ Going on eastward with a measuring line in his hand, the man measured a thousand cubits, and then led me through the water, and it was ankle-deep. ⁴ Again he measured a thousand, and led me through the water, and it was knee-deep. Again he measured a thousand, and led me through the water, and it was waist-deep. ⁵ Again he measured a thousand, and it was a river that I could not pass through, for the water had risen. It was deep enough to swim in, a river that could not be passed through. ⁶ And he said to me, “Son of man, have you seen this?”

Then he led me back to the bank of the river. ⁷ As I went back, I saw on the bank of the river very many trees on the one side and on the other. ⁸ And he said to me, “This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah, and enters the sea; when the water flows into the sea, the water will become fresh. ⁹ And wherever the river goes, every living creature that swarms will live, and there will be very many fish. For this water goes there, that the waters of the sea may become fresh; so everything will live where the river goes. ¹⁰ Fishermen will stand beside the sea. From Engedi to Eneglaim it will be a place for the spreading of nets. Its fish will be of very many kinds, like the fish of the Great Sea. ¹¹ But its swamps and marshes will not become fresh; they are to be left for salt. ¹² And on the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither, nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing.”

Bottom line...Stream or River?