The River You Think You Cannot Cross

Are you at the edge of what feels like an uncrossable river? Does the challenge in front of you, or the weariness of a long, difficult season, feel unsurmountable? No matter how big the challenges facing you are, the truth is that there is never an uncrossable river when it is Jesus leading us through! What we might be discovering in this season is simply that we just can't cross a deeper river without a deeper experience of His love and His life within us.

The Big One

I have been on the edge of the river a number of times in my life... you know, the place where it feels like 'this is too difficult' and 'I can't see over the top of this'. If you've ever stepped out to grow in your life, you've probably been there yourself a time or two. Yet sometimes we hit the big one... the place of such weariness and hope deferred, that though you want to cross the river, you actually don't know if it's even possible for you to do it, or if there's going to be a promise still awaiting you when you get to the other side. It's the place where just putting one foot in front of the other, or facing the day is almost unthinkable.

It's not even because we're doing the wrong thing - often that river is there precisely because we've been doing the right thing and have been growing! What do you do when you're on the edge of that river, and everything in the world is screaming at you to curl up, give up and turn back?

You do what Jesus did - the one who's very life flows through us. It's pretty safe to say that Jesus knows what it's like to be on the edge of an uncrossable river, since when He stood in that place in the Garden of Gethsemane, He was so strained by the horror of the river that was before Him, that He actually sweated great drops of blood! Yet He said, Not My will but Your will be done (Luke 22:42), and He entrusted Himself to His Father, who would carry Him through.

I've never sweated drops of blood while getting my heart to align with God's will for me, but I know what it is to be at the edge of the big one in my life, not knowing how on earth I could possibly move forward and feeling horrified at what was in front of me. Yet when I found myself there, what did God say to me? He reminded me that the unbreakable, 'It is finished' spirit of Christ lives within me, and that He was the one who was leading me across the river, and that He'd never let me drown before and wasn't going to start now.

Measuing as he went, he took me along the stream for 1,750 feet and then led me across. The water was up to my ankles. He measured off another 1,750 feet and then led me across again. This time the water was up to my knees. After another 1,750 feet, it was up to my waist.... Ezekiel 47:3 - 4 (NLT)

Of course, when He had previously led me across ankle deep, knee deep or even waist deep waters, it had been uncomfortable, and sometimes painful, but even those river crossings were not comparable to what was I was then faced with. But I had to make a choice. Would I believe His voice to my heart saying, 'I will lead you across to the other side'? Because I knew that indeed He was the one who had to do it... for there was nothing in me, no strength of my own that could possibly get me to the other side of that river. There was literally no possiblity that I could walk through it... I needed Him to take me to the other side.

Are you facing water that no one could possibly walk through? Yet He can. And He will walk you through it. Did he take you across to the other side when it was ankle deep? What about when it was knee deep? Waist deep? He'll carry you over now. But we have to realise that's it's Jesus who has to do it. You can't do it with a bit of help from Jesus... He has to carry you across, with no help from you!

Yet knowing that we have to totally rely on Him to get us across brings us to our #1 problem, which is whether we actually trust Him to do that.

How often does our mouth say we trust Him, but our heart falters? How often do we think He'll do something for others, but wonder whether He'll do it for us? And how many times do we face our problems looking at our own identity and our own selves, instead of believing the Word which says that ...it's no longer I who lives but Christ who lives in me (Gal 2:20)? We actually don't need our own strength or strategy to get across that river - we literally have all of His!

His Life in You Will Carry You Through

You see, it comes down to identity - what we believe about God and what we believe about ourselves. When we think about who we are, do we think about who WE say we are or who GOD says we are? Because while we keep looking at ourselves and how we act, in order to validate our identity, we are seeing ourselves as separate from Him. The reality is that the one who is united to the Lord becomes one Spirit with him (1 Cor 6:17), therefore we should never look at ourselves and only see ourselves.

While we think that we are limited to ourselves and our eyes are therefore on us, we will look at that river and think it's impossible to get to the other side. Yet any time we look at the truth of our identity and realise that Christ Himself lives inside of us and that the same 'It is finished!' Spirit dwells inside of us that took Jesus through Gethsemane and the cross, we will know that it's actually His life in us which will carry us through. The uncrossable river suddenly becomes crossable.

His 'It is Finished!' Spirit doesn't quit when things get tough. It will never leave us halfway across the river, languishing in the water. The only thing we can do to stop us from getting to the other side is to go back to looking at the river in our own strength instead of His. He has promised to carry us through to the other side and He wants us to believe Him.

The New Level of Love for the New Level

What do we believe about who God is and His heart towards us? Many people want a program, a step-by-step path or a checklist for 'how to get across this river', but God doesn't work like that, because HE Himself is the way (John 14:6)! When we believe that He is for us, and connect our hearts with His, He will strengthen us, reveal Himself to us and lead us. Yet if we don't trust Him, He can't help us.

In a world where it's all about do, do, do, it goes against the grain to think that we can actually get to the other side of impossible circumstances when we STOP doing, and start being. How do we take giant leaps of faith and progress in our journey, just by consistently spending time with Him and soaking in His Presence? It defies logic, yet it's true.

As I went through about a month of wondering if I would ever get across the river, the Lord was so beautiful to me. He spoke to my heart and said, YOU CAN'T GET TO THE NEW PLACE WITH THE SAME LEVEL OF SEEKING.

And I realised what it was all about - His love! I had experienced enough of His love that I could trust Him to carry me across the ankle deep, knee deep and waist deep waters. Yet I needed to actually experience a deeper level of His love to be able to trust and allow Him to take me across this over-my-head level, because I knew that if He let me go, I would drown.

I had to experience enough of His love that those 'Don't you love me God?' type of questions no longer came out of my mouth when I looked around at the impossible circumstances I was in and felt that in some way I wouldn't be in them if He loved me enough. Well the truth was that He loved me enough to die for me, and to pay the price to give me a full inheritance and victory on every side. If something wasn't lining up with victory, it wasn't because He didn't love me or that He wasn't doing all my heart was giving Him permission to do, to bring me out of it.

I realised that I actually couldn't trust Him to take me through the big one, without a deeper experience of His love. I had to determine that God was true and every man (even myself) was a liar (Rom 3:4), and that if God said He was love and He'd paid every price for my full inheritance, then that was fact. When I determined that I was going to believe His love for me despite what I saw around me, stop blaming Him for holding out on me and believe wholeheartedly that there was a Kingdom answer to my circumstances, that's when things started to turn around.

I pressed into experiencing His love, and I heard Him say to my heart that IT'S THE NEXT LEVEL OF LOVE FOR THE NEXT LEVEL. Wow! On the other side of that river was His next level for me, for my life, my family, my community, my nation... but He could only take me there to the degree I received His love for me in the depth of my heart and trusted Him to take me there!

How do you actually receive and experience His love? Meditate on His love scriptures, only believe, and spend time in His Presence where you actually FEEL His love. If you want to know more about how to practically do that, book a free roadmap strategy session, and I'll be happy to share further on it with you.

If you would like to receive the same scriptures and confessions I've meditated on to enable me to receive His love for me, please e-mail me at connect@unlockedcoaching.net.au and I will send them to you.

The Old Ceiling Becomes the New Floor

The most exciting part of the river crossing is that it is the place of the new! It's amazing that you can get to a river that you think you cannot cross... and yet within a few weeks, what was once the ceiling you could not seem to break through, becomes the floor you now stand on... you could say your new normal. You might have crossed at ankle deep and then struggled to face the river at knee deep, but you never go back beyond that ankle deep level. Each river crossing is a level of growth, which brings stability, blessing and increase to your life.

It might feel as though it's safer where you are and that you'd be better off not even trying to cross that river because you're going to have to walk through potentially painful circumstances to get to the other side. Yet most of the time those circumstances are there anyway, so you might as well be crossing over. Usually, we also find the answer to ending those painful circumstances forever in the growth you experience as you cross over to the other side.

When we make growing in our experience of His love our not negotiable normal, we find ourselves constantly on a new bank, and more and more amazed at what we are now able to cross. You'll notice that what used to set you crying and knock you around for three weeks will become something you don't even flinch at any more.

And do you know what will happen then? You will be free!

When you become free, it sets others free! Few people are willing to believe they can cross what looks to them to be uncrossable. But those who do, become transformers of families, communities and nations. They pass through the gates of fear and restraint, creating living testimony and a path for others to follow. Do you want God to work through you to bring transformation to the nations? Be one who goes with Him to the other side.

Let the River Crossing Do its Work

Contrary to what we feel, the squeeze when we step forward is good for us. Sometimes we don't have any idea what is going on on the inside of us or what we actually believe in our hearts until the squeezing reveals it. If what comes out is our old man, we simply come out of agreement with someone who is already dead (Gal 2:20) and come into agreement with the Living God on the inside of us. God doesn't cause the challenges we're going through and I believe it breaks His heart to see us travel some of these journeys. But He gets all of the mileage out of them that He can!

So let the journey do it's complete work. Don't try to get out of things quickly. Don't look for a detour or try to run around the river or find another way. Instead, ask Holy Spirit the answer to these questions, and you will start to see your river-crossing strategy forming:

The way forward is through, so let's believe the love God has for us, experience His love, trust Him to take us across, and be the ones who will show others how to get to the other side. The freedom you will find when you are standing on the other bank, will surpass everything else!

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If you would like to know how to cross the river that you think you cannot cross, I’d love to offer you a free 30 minute Roadmap Session, as my gift to you.

Be blessed as you experience the victory and freedom of receiving His love and letting Him carry you across to the other side...

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