We’ve all seen stagnant water and recognized the smell of death within. But could such a scene point to a vital spiritual truth?
“When you walk by that body of water that doesn’t have any life, that isn’t flowing, there’s a stench that goes with it—there’s a smell, because water has to keep moving,” says pastor and author Ruth Hendrickson on the Real Truth With Ruth podcast on the Charisma Podcast Network. “I want to say this to us as believers, as followers of Jesus Christ: We have to keep moving.
“Scripture tells us that we were created to go from glory to glory. Psalm 23 says we journey through the ‘valley of the shadow of death.’ It doesn’t say that we sit there,” Hendrickson adds. “And so we have to understand that life, a walk with the Lord and walking with Jesus Christ always involves movement, and that movement also needs to be going forward.”
Hendrickson points out that spiritual stagnancy can lead to more than ineffectiveness for the kingdom, though. “We’re also going to get ourselves into trouble,” she says. “So just … tell yourself to keep moving, because that’s part of walking with the Lord.”
Hendrickson finds the biblical foundation for this principle in 1 Kings 19:19-21, the call of Elisha. “Elijah, the prophet, comes to Elisha out in the field,” Hendrickson says, explaining that Elisha was plowing with 12 teams of oxen and asked to tell his parents goodbye before he went with Elijah. But, she adds, “Because the number 12 in Scripture usually refers to leadership or government, God was calling Elisha into a new season. But to enter that new season, he had to leave something behind.”
To learn more about Elijah’s story and how we should respond when God calls us to something new, click here.
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