Just off the coast of Dubai, engineers have built small manmade islands. They were meant to expand the water’s edge and then be sold for unseemly amounts. They did just that. However, over the years the waters in-between the islands have grown stagnate and undesirable. The reason is simple: there is no water flow. The ocean’s current has been cut off leaving the waters still, trapped, and sluggish. The dormant sea has no allure as it blocks the natural flow from the outgoing tide.
Oft times what looks enticing is a great inhibitor to the flow of the Holy Spirit. Daily desires that lead us away from the Cross become devices of great consequence. When a person becomes spiritually stagnate, they lose their sensitivity to the Lord’s direction. It happens everyday. Because we live in this world and deal with the constant pressure, there is a battle over our thoughts and desires. It is here that the church must learn how to focus. The priorities of Jesus Christ must become our life’s ambition: reach the lost, spread the gospel, and raise our families under the banner of holiness, all of which culminating in making Heaven our home.
Those city planners and engineers are still working on making the small islands inhabitable. Some will succumb to the allure of their uniqueness even though hydrologists say that without the ocean’s natural current, the waters will never fully recover. Inhabitants will forever fight the affects of what has been cut off. They will work to clean and refresh; spending the duration of their time and money propping up something that pulls them down.
This is the story of all those who are enamored with the shallow things of this life. It is the downfall of all who were once filled with the river of the Holy Ghost, but now have become stagnate in their walk with God. What cost so much has turned out to have so little value.
The Spirit is speaking today: We can ill afford to ignore the weightier things that pertain to our eternal soul. We are racing toward Eternity. Therefore, let us lay aside EVERY weight and sin that so easily besets us and let us run to obtain the prize!
Pastor Jeffrey Harpole