The Diving Board – parable

This is a part of a list of modern day parables…

• Jesus goes to an orphanage
• Crossing the Jordan – parable
• Jesus’ fridge – parable
• Pick up stix – parable
• The Diving Board – parable

About 3 years ago (2011?) God said to me “the longer you stay on the ladder the higher you dive from“. He was making a reference to a vision He showed me about faith. The vision looked something like this.

I have found that all revelation begins as a scripture which God quickens to me. It stands out. It seems meaningful to me as an answer to the problem I am facing at the moment. You can view a set of scriptures that I often use when interceding for war or trouble in a region of the world.

Having received God’s answer to my current problem, I then choose to believe that scripture… and remember that Jesus described scripture as a seed in His parable of the sower. I then declare it daily until it finally takes root and begins to grow and manifest in my life. Then some time after… while Im still declaring it… I experience a revelation of it and it becomes “locked in”.

When I say locked in… it’s as if I keep putting on a t-shirt but then one day God reveals that truth to me and then it is locked in… the t-shirt never comes off ever again and I can stop declaring it.

Sometimes the opposite happens… I have a problem and God whispers a psalm to me and the scriptures in that psalm seem to really fit my needs well. I accept His words, but I don’t look after the seed… and the enemy somehow steals it… and it doesn’t come to pass.

for we also are having good news proclaimed, even as they, but the word heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard – Hebrews 4:2

Then some time later I’m still stuck with the same problem and God whispers the same psalm (or a different scripture with the same basic message) to me again… but this time I protect the seed daily… and it grows and takes root and manifests in my life.

I have written about how we hold onto revelations (when they are in the scripture-believe phase) in this post: THE PARABLE OF THE SOWER. In this post I try to not focus on the challenge of holding onto a seed until it takes root and grows… you can read more about that in the  THE PARABLE OF THE SOWER post.

In this post I’m explaining how to jump from a higher faith and have a greater impact for the Kingdom of God. I zoom out and look at the bigger landscape of what happens when you have a series of seeds… the seeds are scripture… and then a series of revelations over a few decades… holding onto each one until it “locks in” and becomes a part of you.

So… for the zoomed out picture… in one graphic… this is the message of the Diving Board Parable…

The examples of what is at each level are made up. Don’t take them literally please. Your journey with the Holy Spirit is yours… it will be different to mine because our calling is different. Please always remember… you are not to become a clone of your pastor… you become a son of God… you model yourself after Jesus Christ.

For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God – Rom 8:14

Don’t be led by me. Be led by the Holy Spirit. Just use me for encouragement and as a reference point.

Things that can stop you from going up the ladder

Post-modern thought can stop you from getting even one rung up the ladder.  You simply cannot get onto the ladder if your thoughts are aligned with the values of this world instead of conformed with God’s values revealed in scripture…

There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death. – prov 14:12

Post-modern thought is what got Eve and Adam kicked out of the garden which was in Eden. Eve decided that the tree was beautiful, good for food and desirable for gaining wisdom so she took it and ate. She decided she knew better than God and did according to her own opinion. You can read more about her reasoning when making her choices in this post: A key choice: wisdom or faith.

In post-modern thought we abandon scripture and we decide that our opinions are more accurate than God’s words. For example

• We may decide that evolution is correct and Genesis is incorrect.
• We may decide that homosexuality is not a sin even though the bible is unambiguous about it being a sin.
• We may decide that there is more than one God or more than one way to get to God when in both cases scripture is clear that Jesus Christ is the only way to be reconciled to our Father in Heaven.

Stay on the ladder… never get off… ever…

Gather seeds (scripture) and declare them daily until they come to pass. Stay on the ladder.

and see how high you can jump from… make a big impact… a big splash