So, You  Want to Go Swimming,

Watch out for the Rip Tide.

 

    I grew up in Massachusetts where the ocean was no more than 40 minutes away from every place I lived. You probably think that I would have spent much of my time on the beach, right? Well, I didn't. Now I wish I did, but, in MA, summer begins on July 4th and ends somewhere around August 1st. The rest of the year is pretty much getting ready for winter, suffering through winter, and then waiting for winter to end. It would make sense that I would have moved south down on the coast, right? NOOOOO, dummy me moved to a land-locked state, a pretty boring one, also. It's beautiful here, but boring, nonetheless. It also happens to be the place that GOD had planned for me to move from before the creation of the world. How do I know that? Besides the fact that I cried for a year to move here, for no logical reason that I could deduce, I have flourished here. I have floundered a lot, (pun intended) but there were times of smooth sailing, where the ocean of life was a beautiful blue.

     Although, there were rough seas many times, I had been able to at least stay afloat. I am so glad that I moved here, because there is no way I would have eight children living in Taxachusetts. I think it’s pretty clear cut that the Holy Spirit spoke to my spirit to tell us it was GOD’s plan for us to come here. It's obvious to me that GOD spoke to my spirit to come here. He implanted the desire in my heart to come here, according to Philippians 2:13, among a host of other Scriptures that say GOD puts His desires in our hearts when we delight in Him. (Psalm 37:4). There are teachers out there who say GOD doesn't speak to humans. They say that everything we need to hear from GOD is in His Word, and that is true. The foundation of everything we hear from GOD will be in the Word of GOD and in context, not to suit a man's interpretation, but Scripture confirms Scripture. In the Gospel of John, Jesus said, "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to remembrance all that I have said to do."

      Did you catch that? Reminding us? If we don't put the information in the hard drive we call our brain, there is no way for the Holy Spirit to access a file that is not there. We may think that we don't remember all we read, but our brain is like the NSA, (National Security Agency, the intelligence branch of the Navy) which retains and archives every digit and letter typed into any phone, computer, and including pictures. The Holy Spirit is our teacher that helps us access and remember what we read and see in Scripture. If we don't read it, study it inside, outside and upside down, we won't have it in there for the Holy Spirit to bring to mind. Remember, many of our desires come from our carnal nature. If the desire appeals to the flesh or ego in any way, we can pretty much assume that the idea or thought did not come from GOD. That's why just reading it, or being spoon-fed by someone else, doesn't work. A very important Scripture could be put in the wrong file, thus, our flawed human RAM has corrupted that file. Whatever GOD teaches me from His Word, I pray on it to decide whether to hold it in or breathe it out for others to benefit. Not all that GOD shares with us from His Holy Word is for all to hear. He does have some secrets or Rhema’s that are just for us, alone. There are times when GOD will “tell” us to do a certain thing, or go a certain place, those bits of wisdom cannot be found in the vernacular of Scripture and have to be interpreted based on GOD’s character and where we think He is leading us.

      I was sitting on my swing, in my back yard, looking up at the stars, crying, again, out of the depth of my sorrow for all that I have lost, and the heavy burden GOD has laid on me, and yes, He did. It is a burden far too heavy for most people to carry. I cried out to GOD, saying, “I know we've been over this, and I know the five steps of how to know if You are talking to me. It is just so hard for me to believe, even though I know it to be truth. When we are conversing, back and forth up there in my head, it just sounds like my own voice. It just sounds like me talking to me." His answer was classic!

     I do believe the Holy Spirit said, “It your own voice. Kristina, the Holy Spirit lives inside you. Therefore, as you know, the Holy Spirit is guiding your thoughts. Just as the enemy can plant evil thoughts into your head and invoke emotions to rock you, how much more so can My Holy Spirit impart into your head and heart, from My own Word. Besides, Kristina, the Holy Spirit doesn't have an audible voice. GOD has an audible voice, Jesus has an audible voice, but the Holy Spirit is just that, a Spirit, no vocal chords, He works in the Spirit, the One I gave you."

WOW! Now, that's how we know GOD is talking to us. He says something so profound that we slap ourselves up the side of our heads and think, that's so obvious, why didn't I think of that? Then that voice says, "You just did, because I put it in your head to think that." BAM! He got me again

      Now, with that, comes the dangerous part, and I mean very dangerous part. When we enter the Spiritual Realm, to speak to the Almighty, I must warn you, it’s not always a safe place. There are demonic influences there, also. Now, Satan cannot read your thoughts, NOR is he omnipresent, because he is a created being, not divine. He does however, assign minions to us to mess with our thoughts. Besides the carnal flesh, there are demonic thoughts implanted in our heads. We must be careful to distinguish the Holy Spirit’s thoughts with demonic influences. It’s like going swimming in the ocean, every once in a while, there will be signs that it’s not safe to swim, for example, DANGER RIP TIDES, enter at own risk.

     GOD likened the Spiritual Realm to me, like the ocean. If we dabble in a place where there are rip tides, we can get so overwhelmed that we are pulled out to sea to dangerous places, and at times, we may never be able to return to shore. Rarely does a person survive such a powerful force intended on taking them under, and keeping them there, forever. The dark side wants to take us under, so that we get so submerged in the lies from the enemy and his minions that there is no way out and we drown in them. This is what Paul meant when he said in Ephesians that we wrestle against authorities and principalities of this dark world. (Ephesians 6). Note, all those weapons in the armor of GOD were defensive weapons. Jesus never taught us to engage the enemy, but He gave us the tools to defend ourselves.

     So, if we compare dabbling in the Spiritual Realm to swimming in the ocean, we will find different kinds of swimmers. Some will only go above their toes, or knees, or waist and stop there. They complain about feeling dry, about not every hearing from GOD, gee, I wonder why? Some of us are more adventurous, and we want to dive in, and let that salty water engulf us as we float suspended in water. That's when we are at risk. For those prayers who want all in, we better know everything there is to know about the 'water' and how to spot a rip tide before we submerge ourselves in it.

     How can we know for sure what a rip tide looks like? Well, it won't be by dabbling in marine biology books, reading random paragraphs with no context to what we are reading. We can't just jump in the middle of a science book, read a few lines, and become a marine biologist. We have to become immersed in the textbook and course of study. With the Word of GOD, we need to know every bit of it, from Genesis to Revelation. We need to know the historical context to the Scripture, the order in which the events took place. We need to know all the people involved. If we only know the last half of the biology book, we will fail the course. If we only know the New Testament and toss the Hebrew Scriptures as if they are obsolete, we will get caught in the devil's rip tide. Whenever I think GOD is telling me something or leading me in a direction, I always look for a precedent in the historicity of His people. He told Isaiah to walk around naked for three years, no, I'm not going to walk around naked, but the principal here was to expose myself, take the risk that something I've lived through, someone else is drowning in the same sea of despair.

      The reason why I constantly question whether GOD is talking to me, is because I know the danger of the rip tide and I have to test the waters to make sure I am in the safer part of the sea. I have to be able to recognize when the water just doesn't feel right. The problem with many false teachers and prophets is that they have been taken away by the riptide, but they don’t even know it. They are convinced they are swimming and in control of the water, but in all actuality, the water has overtaken and sent them further out to sea for them to be able to get back to land. This is why we need to pray for them, not accuse them. If we don't know the historicity or cultural context of the Scriptures, then just picking and choosing a verse here or there is only going to teach us that the water is salty. If we don't understand how the current flows and has since GOD first divided the waters, we are likely to be taken away by the rip tide by the beauty of only what our eyes have seen, the beautiful shoreline and the hypnotic ebb and flow of the sound of the waves. We must always test the waters and note the current, the only way to know that is to know the Scriptures, inside, outside and upside down. That takes years of study. Just like a new swimmer won't be put up in the lifeguard's chair, GOD will never send a new believer out to rescue others caught in the Spiritual rip tides.