If you feel like you had some momentum and began stepping into a new season when, all of a sudden, you felt halted, this Word is for you. It’s like you’re in a holding pattern, and things have not been progressing.
God gave me an image of a pool. This pool—like many—had a couple of steps into the water with progressive depth on each step. After that, the pool gradually sloped down and deepened from one end to the other.
You have felt a call to “come deeper,” but you have not seen any more “steps” appearing in the natural to do so. God says the way into the deep is simply continuing to move forward. Just like the pool vision, you can’t see visible steps ahead of you, and you think that because the Lord worked through big steps in the last season that it will look the same.
Instead, you are continuing to go deeper, but it is a gradual deepening that is happening as you simply continue to believe, press in and move forward. The spiritual reality is that not seeing giant steps means you’re already in the pool deep enough to where the water is going to gradually deepen. To the eye, it may seem as if nothing is changing, but that is not the case.
I was listening to Lisa Bevere’s Unrivaled, and she cites in it a familiar statistic. Most drownings occur within six feet of safety. Whether it’s six feet to shore or six feet to the edge of the pool, disorientation sets in, and people panic because they feel the edge is out of reach. God says, “don’t drown six feet from your destination”.
In a Matthew 14:31 moment, God is reaching out to you. “And immediately Jesus stretched forth His hand, and caught him, and said unto him, ‘O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?”. God is pulling you up above the water to see that you are progressing. He does still have your next divine appointment ahead. Going deeper doesn’t always come in visible increments.
Look for the signs. In a pool there are signs posted regarding depth and safety in that area (ie don’t dive, three feet, etc). Without these, three feet can look a lot like five feet, and when you’re four-foot-six (like our son) that can make a big difference in how you move in the water. God is placing before you signs. He is not only reminding you of the progress you have made to get to this current depth, but He is guiding you in what needs to be done, and not done, in your current “depth.”
Don’t be fooled by the wave pool. Some of us have experienced a “wave pool”. In the natural these are large artificial pools with automatically generated waves. Waves, as they recede give the appearance of decreasing depth. In reality, the same depth is just being temporarily redistributed. If you’re in a one-step-forward-two-steps-back season, don’t be fooled. You have not lost any depth. Look beyond the waves.
Don’t just float. Recently I had to remind our oldest son as he went to ride the waves at the coast on his boogie board to not just float. I told him to keep his eyes on our brightly colored tent on a beach so he wouldn’t drift. Drifting (whether on the road or in the water) is our natural tendency when our eyes are not fixed.
While keeping our attention on God is more of an exercise of dependence rather than independence, it’s still an exercise! Just like in a pool or ocean you must tread or plant your feet or hold on to the edge in order to stay in a specific position or location, we must seek God on what it looks like to stay actively engaged. To spiritually plant our feet, tread water, or hold on depending on our season. It may not be effort-less, but it will take exercising different spiritual muscles.
Community and revival will flow from you. In several instances (Ps. 107:35; Isa. 41:18; Isa. 35:7; Ps. 84:6), there is a moving out of the wilderness or dry place and into the pool as an indicator of spiritual blessing and fruitfulness. The wilderness can be used to describe hard times, just as drought is difficult for growth, but it can also describe quiet, isolated (in a good way) time with the Lord.
Either of these may describe your previous season. While alone time with the Lord is always needed (as Jesus modeled), the more important byproduct of our getting “filled up” is becoming a conduit of Holy Spirit’s refreshment in community. For most of us going to the pool or beach almost always means we’ll be there with other people. God is drawing us out of the wilderness and into refreshment, community, and revival.
Deeper places of healing are coming from continuing deeper with the Lord in the pool. As we don’t “float away” (lose the vision to distraction), or “drown” (give up), God is calling us to partner with a healing move (both on hearts and bodies) that He is doing in and through the entire church body. The pool of Bethesda (John 5:4) and the pool of Siloam (John 9:7) are famous Biblical pools that were the sites in which God chose to restore both vision and mobility in ways that were both miraculous but also partnerships of the individual believing and acting in obedience. God is doing the same thing in this day- both spiritually and physically- restoring our vision and mobility through growing our trust and partnering with our steps forward. This is why it’s so important that though it seems not much is changing, to not give up because this is the time the Lord is bringing you deeper.
Activation Prayer: Lord, I trust beyond what I can see that you are bringing me deeper. I say “yes” to more, and I ask you to give me the signs and instructions for this current depth so that I may be obedient in partnering with all you want to do in and through me. Reignite in me that hope and help me to be flexible to progress looking differently than I expected. Thank you that through this you are bringing revival, healing, vision, and mobility. In the name of Jesus we pray, Amen.
Sara Whitten is the author of Uncommon Vessels, a speaker, equipper and the founder of Arrows of Zion Ministry. She and her husband are pastors for the youth of Impact Christian Fellowship in Kerrville, Texas. Sara is a prophetic writer that is featured on Elijah List, Spirit Fuel, Charisma online and more. She hosts Hear God Every Day on the Charisma Podcast Network, a podcast with tools to help amplify the voice of God amidst the noise of everyday life. To access Sara’s blog, visit her website at arrowsofzion.com.
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