By now, you may be wondering "Why spend four pages discussing my 'river' experience and the reason for leaving and the drive to go forward?" I had to do this to get to the point that I want to discuss now about going beyond the river. It was recently in my studies of the Scriptures that I was looking for Matthew chapter five to find a scripture for a friend. As I was turning the pages of my Bible, I hit Matthew chapter three and I decided to read the part about the baptism of Jesus by John The Baptist. As I read that portion of Scripture, a deep revelation hit me concerning life outside the "river" After you read the verses below, I will discuss in further detail the revelation I saw in the scriptures.

Matthew 3:13-17:

Then Jesus went from Galilee to the Jordan River to be baptized by John. But John didn't want to baptize him. "I am the one who needs to be baptized by you," he said, "so why are you coming to me?" But Jesus said, "It must be done, because we must do everything that is right." So then John baptized him. After his baptism, as Jesus came up out of the water, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and settling on him. And a voice from heaven said, "This is my beloved Son, and I am fully pleased with him."

I noticed that Jesus here went into the river to be baptized by John the Baptist. Baptism is an external sign of internal repentance and the washing of our sins. We see here that Jesus was showing to us that the true measure of repentance and cleansing was no longer going to be based on what was easily seen on the outside. Instead, Jesus showed us that it was the internal affairs of the heart that needed addressing and needing repentance. Also, the baptism in water that showed the beginnings of internal cleansing and repentance of the heart prepared us to receive the internal baptism of fire via the Holy Spirit. This action shows us the clear point of the turning away from the totems, taboos, transgressions, temptations, and tattoos of our life and heading towards a lifestyle of temple living. However, just getting into the river and experiencing the baptism was not enough for Jesus and it is not enough for us.

After Jesus was baptized, we see that Jesus took a critical step to the fulfillment of his purpose on Earth. We see Jesus begin to leave the baptism waters of the Jordan river. The Bible states that "as came up out of the water, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and settling on him." Here is the key to this scripture, Jesus came out of the water. The key to personal success of the healings, freedoms, repentances, etc that came through the river experience will come when we then choose to come out of "the river". We see that as Jesus left the river, it was then that the heavens were opened and the Spirit of God descended on him. In river churches today, the theme of getting into the river to experience the opening of heaven and the Spirit of God coming down on you is emphasized. However, Jesus shows us the opposite. To be more like Jesus, we need to start getting out of the river and allowing the heavens to open and the Spirit of God come upon us. No longer can we be the "weekend warriors" that go to work barely surviving the work week. We can no longer skimp through the week just to make it to the weekend renewal meetings. Our attitudes must change from barely surviving the business week to get to renewal service to taking the experiences, healings, deliverances, baptisms, etc from the river and do exceedingly and abundantly throughout the entire week. When we be like Jesus and get out of the river and let the Spirit of God come down upon us, then you will see more and more of God telling us that "We are His children and His spotless bride, in whom I am well pleased".

Have you ever been in the water for a very long time? I have and I noticed that usually my skin begins to crinkle and become dry and rigid. Spiritually, staying in the river has made many of God's children crinkled up in their thinking and rigid in their demeanor. We have became like the frog described in George Barna's book The Frog and The Kettle to the point where we like the water so much that we can not feel the water getting hotter with the needs of people around us where we end up like the frog, dead and cooked. And in the long run, the frog is no longer remembered and became irrelevant to the life cycle of the Earth. If we choose to stay in "the river", we will kill our own selves into cultural irrelevancy while a culture is curious in what Christians claim is true happiness in their lives.

But Jesus chose to leave the river. Therefore, we must now leave the river. Here is why?

Click Here for part six of this article.