Drop of Water, Filling, Filled, Overflowing
- Brianna Mitcham
- Jul 26, 2019
- 5 min read
"He must increase, but I must decrease." -John 3:30
"In that day their burden will be lifted from your shoulders, their yoke from your neck; the yoke will be broken because you have grown so fat." -Isaiah 10:27
I guarantee that if you grew up in America, around Christmastime, your parents would pull out the VHS tape of Dr. Seuss's "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" every year as part of a tradition. There are a lot of memorable moments from the film, but the one that the Lord always brings me back to is a specific scene. The Grinch, who had formally been a miserable, depressed, angry, bitter, reclusive, self-focused individual, decides that he is going to love, that he is going to put others first and then acts out of that decision. He actively follows through with it and alters the course of his life forever. His heart, which was three sizes too small, in that moment is grown to not only the "normal" size, but grows to an overflow of the chart, the love in that heart couldn't be contained. His whole countenance then changes, you see all of his past self melt off of him, he is literally glowing and it is like warm honey has been poured over him, a seemingly impossible transformation.
In John 3, John the Baptist beholds Jesus and says without skipping a beat, that He must decrease so that Jesus can increase. In Isaiah 10, when it says that the yoke (chains, bondage, slavery!) will be broken because you have grown fat, it is speaking of growth in the anointing, growth in the Spirit. It is the same thing with us.
"Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation-but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live." -Romans 8:12-13
There are Christians going around who are like that picture on the top. They have Jesus, but they haven't been growing as a person of the Spirit, they have chosen to not decrease so He can increase. Their hearts and their capacity to love with the Savior's love and their ability to do certain things are extremely limited because of it and the fruit of their lives is therefore rotten in many ways. Whatever you feed will grow. If you feed your Spirit Man, that heart will grow, but if you feed your fleshly man, your Spirit Man withers. Be persistent in your pursuit of the Lord!
"If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away." -1 Corinthians 13:1-8
"And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." -1 Corinthians 13:13
"Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth." -1 Corinthians 13:6)
Jesus said, "I am the Way, the TRUTH and the Life..." and John 8:32 says that the truth will set you free. In 1 John 4:8, it says that God is love, and therefore, God's love, the greatest of these, which IS the truth, will set you free!
"For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, SO THAT CHRIST MAY DWELL IN YOUR HEARTS THROUGH FAITH. And I pray that you, BEING ROOTED AND ESTABLISHED IN LOVE, may have power, together with all the LORD's holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge-that you may be FILLED TO THE MEASURE OF ALL OF THE FULLNESS OF GOD. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us. -Ephesians 3:14-20
In Ezekiel 47, a man is led to a river flowing from the temple. At first the water is ankle deep, then knee deep, then waist deep, and then overflowing, well over the head! It is like that with the overflowing growth of your Spirit Man, like the Grinch's heart as well. Now, I am obviously not calling you the Grinch, but it is the same with all of us. We must decrease, so He can increase in us and permeate every area of our lives.
How deep you go in that water from the temple is how deep you go with the Holy Spirit. How much you seek after the Lord, How much you allow Jesus to change you, How far are you willing to go with Him? It is a beautiful thing when the waters of the Holy Spirit begin to flow into you. The vessel, which may have been bone dry, begins to fill, the water washing away any impurities, to where, just like that heart growing to an uncontainable magnitude, the waters then pour out of the overflowing vessel, splashing and touching other dry places that needed the water's touch. We were not meant to be dry. We were meant to be rivers full of that water and love. We were meant to be filled with the measure of all of the fullness of God. We were meant to be rooted, established and full of His Love and His Spirit! Yield, seek and be willing, let Him grow, and a river will flow.
Brianna Mitcham
Editor At Thread of Hope, Inc.
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