Elevate april 24

this week elevates we continued our look at this vision of revival that many people desire and hope for.
You are in the book of Ezekiel chapter 47. In this chapter we work through a dream in which the writer is brought from the throne room of the temple along side a stream that flows from under the throne, out into the desert and ultimately to the dead sea.

After walking1,00 cubic s he is allowed to enter into the stream which is about ankle-deep. He goes another1,000 cubic s and the stream is now up to his knees. Another1,000 and it's up to his waist, another1,000 and he is swimming in a river that is too wide to cross.
And we have the option of applying this in several ways but for our study were going to apply it to levels of maturity and how that affects revival. We see through the process of1,000 cubic's dad killing deeper into the river of God's Spirit is a process. And that God walks us through the process completely before we get to go deeper.
Many people get tripped up in ankle-deep experiences of God's Spirit become overwhelmed because of a lack of character and ultimately never go deeper. These areas that trip them up are often things like pride, presuppositions, extremes, and selfish pleasures. They get a taste of what God's Spirit can do and begin to splash around in such a way that they avoid completing the walk to the deeper levels with God. Often times the pressure that causes people to be tripped up its success. They successfully work within the spirit of God's moving and then become distracted by their own lack of character.

As we observe them vision we see that the river flows through the desert to the Dead Sea. These two places are not known for life. The desert is not a place you want to be if you're in need of water or food. In the Dead Sea has long been known as a place that nothing lives, and nothing grows.
What we see in the vision is that the river of God brings life to the desert and turns the Dead Sea into fresh water teeming with fish. As the man in the vision comes back out of the river he is surprised to see the banks of the river are now lined with fruit trees. These trees are bearing fruit year-round, and the leaves of the tree bring healing.
The surprise comes because much like us we often think that the desert (which is the world we live in) is so filled with death that nothing outside of a massive revival could bring life again. I think one of the main applications of this passage is the stream that God wants to flow through is can bring life to whatever part of the desert we are flowing through.
The life giving flow of God's Spirit is designed to refresh those we come in contact with with life-giving nutrients of God's fruit of his character, and healing touch of his kingdom.

This is a revival that we should be seeking. We should not hold out for some massive move of God before we decide to get involved in the flow of God's Spirit. It is individuals can make a difference. Hundreds of streams of God's Spirit lined with fruit trees bearing God's character and healing that change our immediate communities. It's the life-giving stream of God's Spirit that flows into someone's life that can bear no fruit and turns their salt water into fresh water teaming with fish.
God took one man on his journey because God wants each individual person to do the same thing. He wants us each to journey deeper into the flow of his spirit. He wants each of us to bring life to our communities. He wants each of us to make a difference and not be overwhelmed by the vastness of the desert that we flow through.

As a word of caution there are several types of "faults revivals" that can distract us from our individual walk.
"Rapid revival", where we seek to make every aspect of God's presence happen right now. In other words we skipped the process.
"Premature revival" as gods presence starts to make a difference, we relax in our work and ultimately the presence of God lifts.
"New cart revival"man-made methods/creativity to produce revival.
"Kitchen revival" we get so busy working for God we don't stop to go into the living room and listen to God.
"Sensational revival" we don't think revivals happening unless something sensational, emotional or big is going on.
"Stale revival" the reworking and rehashing of the way it was done before.

God's presence/revival should bring life to the desert not just get attention for the individual, or fire up emotionally the people around you.
What are you bringing to your desert?