Launch out into the deep!
The words Evangelist Nathan Morris spoke this past weekend at my church, Cape First, have been running through my mind as if on repeat.
“Launch out into the deep!”
But HOW?
What do I DO?
What does “launching out into the deep” actually look like?
HOW do I go deeper with the Lord?
These are the questions that I’ve asked over and over since Sunday night.
Finally, after speaking with my own personal pastor-on-demand (Nate), he helped me to realize the following:
He said, “Launching out into the depths of God is not about striving to ARRIVE. But striving to ABIDE.”
I’ve always struggled with a “works” mentality. But, we can’t just DO things to earn the presence of God We can’t just strive to arrive at the next best thing. Step one, read three chapters a day, get up at 5:30, pray this long, do this, do that. No. Obviously those things help, but that is not how our relationship with Him is supposed to be. Instead, we should strive to ABIDE in His presence, THEN He will take us to new levels of His glory and presence. Abide means to remain in place. We have to remain WITH Him. All day, not just during our devotion, but when time is up. Remain in Him when we are sad, remain in Him when we are frustrated, and even when we are feeling frustrated with Him and life.
Let’s take Luke 9:28 for example.
Jesus TOOK Peter, John and James with him and went up onto a mountain to pray. 29 As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning. 30 Two men, Moses and Elijah, appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus. 31 They spoke about his departure,[a] which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem. 32 Peter and his companions were very sleepy, but when they became fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men standing with him. 33
Jesus TOOK Peter to the Mountain. Peter didn’t take Jesus.
The Glory of Jesus was being revealed, even when Peter was sleepy. Peter didn’t cause any of Jesus’ glory to appear. But Jesus still invited Peter into His glory. How did Peter get invited to such an amazing display? He was with Jesus earlier. He was with Jesus BEFORE Jesus went onto the mountain. Peter was always abiding with Jesus.
Now, I’m not saying we can just sleep and the Lord will invite us into His glory. I’m saying, we can’t WORK to release more of the glory. Jesus took Peter into a new level of Glory because Peter was WITH Him. I think if WE abide in Him, he will take us to new levels of glory, or new levels of the deep too!
Nathan said we had to give Jesus our boat as a vessel and launch out into the deep. The thing about that is Peter wasn’t alone in His boat when he launched out. Jesus was with Him. We can’t go any deeper in the Lord WITHOUT the Lord being present with us! We don’t launch our boat out to find Jesus somewhere in the deep, He is WITH us on the journey to GET into the deep.
I only share this because it helped me, and if you have had those same questions this week, maybe it can help you too.
Written By: Katie Ammon
Katie Ammon, is the wife of Pastor Nate Ammon, of Cape First Church, Cape Girardeau, MO.
Reposted with permission from Katie Ammon’s Facebook.
