{"id":55,"date":"2013-04-11T16:32:17","date_gmt":"2013-04-11T20:32:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unleashed.michaeldeer.com\/?p=55"},"modified":"2013-04-11T16:33:20","modified_gmt":"2013-04-11T20:33:20","slug":"excerpt-from-the-book-let-it-flow-from-unleashed-by-michael-deer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unleashed.michaeldeer.com\/?p=55","title":{"rendered":"Excerpt From The Book: Let It Flow, From UNLEASHED By Michael Deer"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Let it flow!<\/h1>\n

From the awe inspiring creation narrative in Genesis to the breath taking culmination of all things in Revelations water flows between the pages of scripture.\u00a0 It courses through the Word of God leaving for us symbols of God\u2019s creation, blessing, and salvation.\u00a0 Being referenced in the scriptures over 700 times is enough to show us how significant water really is to God, and for that matter, how necessary it is to us. \u00a0Water is an element that is essential to us both as a symbol and a physical resource.<\/p>\n

Humans cannot live without it.\u00a0 About 70% of our adult bodies are made up of water.\u00a0 The average person can go a whole month without eating food but they would die after just one week without drinking any water.\u00a0 We can see how important water is to the human condition. Whether the Bible is speaking about it in a figurative or literal sense, either way, we are in desperate need of it.<\/p>\n

The bottom line is that when Jesus said, \u201cI thirst\u201d<\/i> we sympathized, knowing exactly what it felt like.\u00a0 Our mouth crying for mercy as the tongue protests its displeasure with the evaporating saliva, each time it opens our tongues tear away from our palette and our ears hearing the same painful sound that the sticker adhesive makes as it\u2019s peeled from a cotton shirt. \u00a0\u00a0All the while our minds\u2019 only comfort is dreams of refreshing floods of water.<\/p>\n

In fact, the Bible writers often chose this relationship we have with water to poetically define our relationship to God.\u00a0 In Psalms 42:1, David writes, \u201cAs the Hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.\u201d \u00a0We don\u2019t know what it means to lap water up like a deer but we do know how we feel when we are extremely thirsty. \u00a0\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

Water has stood for centuries as the element which literally held human life in the balance.\u00a0 In the desert, where the climate was particularly unforgiving, a good water supply was among the priorities for the traveler while he journeyed.\u00a0 Major cities of the Old World were strategically designed around access to water.\u00a0 The Nile River is a body of water that had a major impact on civilization.\u00a0 Ancient Egypt was essentially built around the Nile.\u00a0 This river, flowing some 4,600 miles in length, provided so many life sustaining benefits for those who settled along its banks (Gen. 13:10).\u00a0 Most Egyptians lived near the Nile because it provided water, food, transportation and excellent soil for growing food.<\/p>\n

Historians claim that Egypt would not have survived if it were not for the Nile River.\u00a0 Also, Israel\u2019s deliverer, Moses might not have lived if it weren\u2019t for this river which became, for him the very hands of God\u2019s divine providence.\u00a0 Throughout the agrarian societies that sprung up around the world, each found clever ways of taking a natural source of water and distributing it in their lands.\u00a0 This is called irrigation.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, another form of irrigation also preserved Man\u2019s fainting souls.\u00a0 It was the well.\u00a0 It had become a central feature of nomadic settlements.\u00a0 It was also a representation of God\u2019s providence, for it refreshed the weary traveler along their arid journey.<\/p>\n

In Genesis 21:28-30 we see how vital a well\u2019s water supply was.\u00a0 Abraham made a public declaration of the ownership of the well.\u00a0 Abimelech\u2019s men strove with Abraham\u2019s son Isaac and incited a tense territorial conflict with him (Gen. 26:15-22).\u00a0 They feared his growth and prosperity.\u00a0 They sought to slow the growth of his estate by disturbing his water supply.\u00a0 They knew that a people who had access to water would also have access to life.<\/p>\n

In this is a great tragedy.\u00a0 The Enemy also knows that we need God\u2019s divine flow.\u00a0 We need to be refreshed from Heaven.\u00a0 We so need the new mercies and daily bread to augment our otherwise meager existence.\u00a0 We live our lives forgetting that there is an intense attack on our very welfare.\u00a0 An angelic battle is being fought daily unbeknownst to us, on our behalf.\u00a0 Satan knows that we need water.\u00a0 We need to be planted like that tree by the stream.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Let it flow! From the awe inspiring creation narrative in Genesis to the breath taking culmination of all things in Revelations water flows between the pages of scripture.\u00a0 It courses through the Word of God leaving for us<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,3],"tags":[11,23,101,22,100,20,21],"class_list":["post-55","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articulation","category-process","tag-divine-flow","tag-isaac","tag-michael-deer","tag-river","tag-unleashed","tag-water","tag-well"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unleashed.michaeldeer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unleashed.michaeldeer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unleashed.michaeldeer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unleashed.michaeldeer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unleashed.michaeldeer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=55"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unleashed.michaeldeer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57,"href":"https:\/\/unleashed.michaeldeer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55\/revisions\/57"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unleashed.michaeldeer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=55"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unleashed.michaeldeer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=55"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unleashed.michaeldeer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=55"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}