A life at sea is a life that moves, and so is life with God, dwelling under his shadow as the Children of Israel did in the wilderness. They lived in tents. Mansions don’t move.
Soul Sailors are not attached to solid ground as they live upon the water. Tents are barely attached, and easily detached. But mansions? Huge foundations set in the earth and not moving anywhere! God moved here once and I built my mansion on this spot, but then God moved and I did not. Now my mansion has become my prison.
Lessons in the wilderness, did we not learn? Our Bible warns us over and over again to not be attached to the things of this world, but we build huge churches that act as high maintenance women in their need for more money. We pack a lot of people into a small area called the church property and we glory at how big we look, but truth be told, we are shrinking, because we all have to go to the church building located on one piece of ground! How much better to saturate a whole community, a whole town, a whole state and country, by flooding outward in many many houses? And at very little cost! Is God calling us back to the original template? Have we strayed to far in these last days?
I heard a famous preacher by the name Lester Sumrall explain it this way. He said very few people live from blessing to blessing. Most people stay in the blessing they already have, rather than connect over to the next move of God. He used the example of the Methodist who are still operating in the movement of John Wesley to this day.
Sumrall explained it is very difficult to get out of a groove. My take on that is when we get too attached, it certainly is! But if we pursue Spirit, if we stay as tents and sailboats at sea, then we can move with the shadow of God even as God showed us in the wilderness. But those who want their Promised Land now, like the prodigal son asking for his inheritance now, will find their mansion turning to a pig pin once the Presence of God moves, and then what can you do? Buy a bigger mansion? A more expensive yacht?
I believe a new wine skin has come. A fresh Wind is blowing from heaven. Those able and willing to move are catching it like an eagle soaring to higher places. In his message Sumrall spoke of Andrew who was a Baptist. We find Andrew with John the Baptist beginning in St. John 1:35, where it says:
“The following day John was again standing with two of his disciples. As Jesus walked by John looked at him and declared, ‘Look! There is the Lamb of God!’ When John’s two disciples heard this, they followed Jesus.”
Notice it says these two men, one of which was Andrew, were disciples of John the Baptist. Now realize John the Baptist had a powerful ministry of his own going on, but he also declared that he (John) must decrease, so that he (Jesus) will increase! Evidently these two disciples were not “stuck” in a decreasing ministry! They had the wisdom to pull up tent stakes, or change the set of their sails, and leave being a Baptist to follow Jesus! What a beautiful story! What remarkable wisdom! Real freedom!
Jesus saw them following him and asked what they wanted? They asked Jesus where he was staying. Jesus said, “Come and see.” They spent the rest of that day and night with Jesus! Andrew got so excited over their discovery that the next day he rushed to his brother Peter and declared they had found the Messiah! Then he took Peter to meet him! Wow! Awesome! But what of us in our day and in our hour of visitation? Do we cling to our old groove, the old wine skin?
Are we willing to risk our current blessing for a greater? Is our mansion so great compared to Jesus himself? Or do we have too much to lose, and will never leave our materialistic groove? As the wise old saying goes, the good has always been the enemy of the best.
I wanted to share this message of Sumrall because I have already given you some pretty strong evidence of our need to leave this modernistic groove and get back to what Jesus started. A groove that simply follows Jesus. Simple Church. Church Everywhere.
As I share more evidence, the case only gets stronger from here. Our analogy of a sailboat and being a Soul Sailor living in the magic, it is meant to inspire and instruct. I wanted to pause and remind you what is at stake. The beauty of those white sails at sea, or the sad countenance of the rich young ruler slowly walking back to his mansion, unable, or unwilling to go to sea with our Lord.
We are in a window of time God is allowing for the prodigals to wise up and get back under his shadow. Psalms 91 really says it all as far as I’m concerned. I pray it often. If we want those promises effective for us, then Jesus must be our habitation, and Jesus moves. He still says, “Follow me.”
The Bible says the disciples left all to follow Jesus. Maybe they didn’t have a mansion to worry about. Blessed are the poor in spirit? Remember that one? The rich young ruler had a mansion, and he left Jesus’s invitation to follow, very sad.
The true magic is still in the sails. A life powered by heaven’s breeze. Yachts and Cruise ships are mansions on the sea, but they have no sails. They run under man-made power and when it comes to following Jesus, that simply won’t do. God’s will is spiritually discerned, like the soaring wings of the eagle. No amount of horse power will ever compare to those wings of the eagle. They that wait upon the Lord. If the Wind don’t move, then neither do I.
Next episode we plunge back into more evidence. I downloaded some 5,000 pages of early church writings when the Spirit of God challenged me to learn of those missing 200 years. What I found was an old map our modern preachers don’t use. I’ve been sailing by that map ever since. It lines up perfectly with every word our Bible teaches, unlike the modern maps of today. I hope you want to be a true Soul Sailor. I hope you want to hear more.
Path Without End 