Keep Moving! part 3

Because it was holy ground, Moses had to remove his sandals from his feet as he approached the burning bush and received his assignment from God. The altar is where we remove our shoes of personal ambition and self-will, so we can embrace our divine destiny in Christ. To put it as clearly as possible: the altar is the place where the old self dies, so the new self, in Christ, can live. 

Remember Jesus’ words in Luke 9:23: “If anyone wants to follow after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me” CSB. And the Apostle Paul’s wrote these Holy Spirit inspired words in Galatians 2:20: “I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
 

The river of God’s presence and power starts at the altar. The depth of the work of the cross at the altar determines the depth, width, force and power of the river flowing through us. First, the River runs to us then it’s in us; and finally, it runs through us. The deeper Ezekiel went into the river, the larger the river became. In other words, the more Ezekiel died to himself, the more the river of God’s life could flow through him. The deeper his flesh went down, the stronger the flow of the river was in his spirit.

This is what the Holy Spirit is saying to us today: There is more! Keep Moving! The Christian life is progressive: progressive death, and, progressive life. It doesn’t matter how mature you are in your faith journey, or how anointed you are, the truth is that we haven’t seen anything yet, so Keep Moving! There’s no place to get comfortable and complacent. Just “Keep Moving!” 
 

The Christian life is not automatic. There is no cruise control or auto-pilot. One has to choose to get up and get moving. One has to choose to let go of the comfortable, the convenient, and the familiar to Keep Moving! One has to choose to boldly and aggressively press in and stretch themselves, to go deeper, to Keep Moving! One has to choose to dive into the Word, and search out the hidden riches found there, to Keep Moving, to keep growing, maturing, and being filled with the Holy Spirit. We have to choose to separate ourselves from the world and live a holy life, to Keep Moving! We have to choose to, “Seek first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness” (Matthew 6:33). We have to choose to “lay aside every hinderance and the sin that so easily ensnares us” (Hebrews 12:1).
 

And remember: going to church doesn’t make you holy, any more than parking a smart-car under a Cadillac sign makes it a Cadillac. We need to choose daily to do all the stuff that keeps us growing in Christ. We need to Keep Moving!
 

Somebody said, “Pastor I’m going through such a hard place right now, I’m really struggling.” Praise God, that’s great! Wait! What? You say “It’s great?” Why would you even say that? Because your struggle means you are still in the fight. It means you’re not dead yet. It means that you haven’t been conquered. It means there is still the possibility of you possessing everything God has promised you. It means you are still disturbing hell or the enemy wouldn’t be fighting you so hard. So, you have to Keep Moving!

Continued tomorrow.