There is something about the ocean that reminds me of the Divine Nature. Not because we all came from water. I believe that we are land creatures who were formed from the dust of the earth and not the product of amino acids that congealed in an ancient primordial sea. But even as a land creature, I am always silenced when I stand on the shore and gaze across the vastness of the ocean.
It is the great expanse of water that speaks to me of eternity and the Divine Nature of our Father in heaven. When I stand in that narrow strip of land where the waves lap the sand, receding and then washing up again, I feel as though I’ve reached a border. The sand marking the confines of the dust of the earth with the waves moving like the hem of the sea’s garment. When I am on this line of demarcation between solid and liquid I am reminded of that place in the spirit where heaven and earth collide inside of me.
But this is as far as the land can go, and no further. If I want to experience God’s eternal nature then I have to do more than just stare at the horizon. I can wonder all day long how it feels to be wet or I can simply walk out into the water and experience it firsthand.
Out of the roughly seven billion people that are alive on the earth right now, researchers believe that only one in ten live close to sea level. [1] If you allow me to take this analogy a step further, imagine if only ten percent of the human race was willing to live on the border between temporal life and eternity.
Think of all the people that you know. How many are spiritually inclined? How many of them are significantly focused on spiritual things?
Lot was a man who lived on a border as well. Scripture says that Lot pitched his tents near Sodom. [2] He chose to live in the no-man’s land somewhere between the city and his Uncle Abraham just like many Christians today can be found somewhere along the continuum between wickedness and righteousness. But the truth is, there is no neutral territory between the carnal and the divine, there is only the tent of Abraham or the city Sodom, God is a God of borders, and the next time we hear of Lot we find him sitting in the gate of the city. [3]
When Father revealed to Abraham His intentions for Sodom, Abraham was moved to intercede for the city. And true to His mercy, God promised Abraham that He would relent from bringing judgment on the city for the sake of just ten righteous people. Father wasn’t asking for ten percent of the city’s population, just ten people who feared Him. [4]
Now of the ten percent of earth’s population who live near the coast, how many of them ever go down to the sea? And out of the people who visit the shoreline, how many of them step out into the waves?
But let me take this line of thinking a step further and ask the question that is really on my mind. Of all the people who live near the coast, how many of them ever get into a boat and put out to sea?
We used to be a great seafaring people, we humans, and we have the ancient maps to prove it. The curious and daring among us would launch out into the vast expanse of the ocean just to see what was on the other side. Some followed the seabirds, some followed the currents and some the prevailing winds. Many of them were ridiculed for risking their lives to venture out into what amounted to human ignorance at that time. “You’ll fall off the edge of the world” they were told. And yet the ones who felt compelled to seek risked everything to find out what lay over the horizon.
I don’t suppose that anyone is keeping track of how many people are still adventurous enough to make a career out of sailing the high seas. But if we were to take a census, I doubt that we would find a significant percentage of the human population have chosen to become sailors. We’re much more likely to find a small number of seafarers, and be tempted to consider them irrelevant when compared to our population of seven billion.
In my opinion, there are too few sailors in the church today, and too few are driven to launch out into the deep things of God. Too many Christians are content to hear from the experiences of those who have risked everything to seek the Lord and returned with testimonies of the riches that they have found in Christ. We are far too content to live vicariously through the lives of spiritual pioneers.
Because of this, many in the church have lost their hunger for gold. We have forgotten that the bride price has been paid in the currency of heaven, and place too great a value on the currencies of earth. What will it take for more Christians to leave the temporal and pursue the riches of His kingdom?
But Father was looking for just ten righteous people in Sodom and He has always reserved a remnant for Himself. [5] If you are one of them, and you long for the deep things of God, then by all means, leave the familiar and launch out into the depths of the divine vastness of Father’s heart.
If we never attempt to cross the expanse of our ignorance to discover His Divine Nature, then we forfeit the treasures that He has hidden within Himself for us to find. “Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things which you do not know.” [6]
Launch the vessel of your heart into the eternal depths of your Father. Hoist the pages of the Scriptures over yourself like mighty, ancient sails and let the wind of the Spirit fill them. Father is beckoning the adventurous heart, and to them He says…
‘Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is…’[7]
Trust the Holy Spirit to guide you to that place in Him and don’t worry that you will go off the deep end. Let Him take you to that secret place in Christ where His voice discloses the depths of His love for you and His eternal purposes for the earth.
And when your coffers are full from the treasuries of heaven, come back and share your riches with His bride. Because the wealth of heaven will remind her that He is preparing a place for her and she will begin to make herself ready for the day He comes to claim her. Her value system will begin to shift from earth to heaven and she will again make the distinction between the sacred and the profane. The nations will look and see the difference between those who serve the Living God and those who do not and their desire for the King of Glory will increase.
All because you were willing to cross the border of the land and sea and launch out into the Divine Nature.
[1] Deborah Balk, Institute For Demographic Research, City University of New York, study published in the journal Environment and Urbanization, March 2007
[2] Genesis 13:12
[3] Genesis 19:1
[4] Genesis 18:42
[5] 1 Kings 19:18
[6] Jeremiah 33:3
[7] Jeremiah 6:16