We started out in this month of July in a direction that the Holy Spirit has been leading us, and it's called the Deeper Dimension. The Holy Spirit declares to us that this month of July is the month of deeper dimension, dimensions in plural, meaning that He has instructed and said He is taking us in a journey, where His deep is calling to our deep. He is calling us deeper into experiential relationship with Him. Not just having a relationship with the Holy Spirit like we used to but us coming into an experiential relationship with the Holy Spirit where we can experience the life that is in the Spirit. And the Holy Spirit took us on a fantastic journey last week as we looked at Deeper Dimensions: An Introduction. (Kindly click on the link to download the message).
Download Podcast: THE MEASURING LINE
He introduced us to the fact that the love of the Father has been shared abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. That He has given to us as a gift and that the pouring out of the Holy Spirit is a demonstration and an expression of God's love to us. That without the love of the Father we can't experience the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, without the love of the Father we can't experience the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit made us to understand that the body without the Spirit is dead. That is why it is important that each and every one of us as a body of Christ come into the fullness of the Spirit so that we are alive unto God. And I pray as the Holy Spirit takes us on another dimension this morning, we will reach deeper and step deeper in the name of Jesus.
This morning we are looking at “Deeper Dimension: The Measuring Line.” So, we are looking at the measuring line today. We are still going to start with a Scripture we read last week but we didn't go deep into it. So, we are still going back to that Scripture in Ezekiel 47. That is where we will take our reading from and we trust the Holy Spirit to lead us and take us to other Scripture that will explain and interpret this Scripture for us in Jesus name. Ezekiel 47 we will read from verse 1-5. The Bible says:
Then he brought me back to the door of the temple; and there was water, flowing from under the threshold of the temple toward the east, for the front of the temple faced east; the water was flowing from under the right side of the temple, south of the altar. 2 He brought me out by way of the north gate, and led me around on the outside to the outer gateway that faces east; and there was water, running out on the right side. 3 And when the man went out to the east with the line in his hand, he measured one thousand cubits, and he brought me through the waters; the water came up to my ankles. 4 Again he measured one thousand and brought me through the waters; the water came up to my knees. Again, he measured one thousand and brought me through; the water came up to my waist. 5 Again he measured one thousand, and it was a river that I could not cross; for the water was too deep, water in which one must swim, a river that could not be crossed.
May the Lord bless the reading of His word this morning in the name of Jesus. There are important things we are drawing from in this Ezekiel 47:1-5. One of the things we saw is that there was a repetition of water. Water was a major matter in this conversation. He started in the (b) part of verse two, that there was water running out on the right side. You will see that the location of that water was specifically stated in this verse. The water was not just coming from any direction. The water was not just flowing anyhow. There was specific location with which the water was running out from.
It said; “there was a water running out on the right side.” And the Bible makes us to understand that Jesus after He had died, He ascended into heaven and the Bible talks about the location He is sitting with God. The Bible says; “Jesus is sitting at the right side.” And the Bible makes us to understand in this Ezekiel 47:2 that: “there was water running out from the right side.” Scriptures interpreting Scriptures. So, without any shadow of doubt we understand that the water that was running out is not just any kind of water, it is not Oshogbo kind of water, it is not river Niger or river Nile. This is a water that is specific. A water that is divine, a water that is programmed.
A water that had been in existence. What he saw was not a manufactured water but a running out. And the Bible makes us to that Jesus is the word. John 1:1, the Bible says; “In the beginning was the word, the word was with God and the word was God.” So, if the water running out is at the right side, does it not say to us that the water that we are talking about is not just a water, it is a symbol of the real thing, which is the word of God? The running out of the water talks about the fact that this water is the word of God, because Jesus is the word and Jesus is the one that is seated at the right side. There was water running out at the right side. So, we understand now this morning what that water means. The water talks about the word.
But that’s not where we are going. In verse 3 it says; “And when the man went out to the east with the line in his hand, he measured one thousand cubits, and he brought me through the waters; the water came up to my ankles.” In that verse 3, there are two important things we must note, it said: ““And when the man went out to the east.” East is a specific location. The Bible says that; “God planted a garden, eastward in Eden.” Not northwards. Because when we see certain things in the Scripture, there is something called the law of first mention. The first mention of a word gives meaning and origin to that word. So, when the Bible says God planted a garden, eastward in Eden, the garden of Eden that Adam was a specific location. And it was in the East.
So, the Bible says; “And the man went out to the East with the measuring line in His hand.” Because we want to understand what this measuring line means. We want to see how this measuring line is so key and important to the Holy Spirit calling us into the deeper dimensions. He said; "the man went out to the East." The East is a specific location, the East talks about the place of calling. There is something called the law of first mention. The Bible says the garden of Eden was planted at the east. So that east signifies a location. The first place where men got their assignment, the first place where men actually entered into a functional related with God.
God puts the man He made into the garden, that He had created east ward in Eden. So east is a specific place. The experience you are talking about, deeper dimensions, is for those that have been found in the East. Do you want to go there? I want us to go to that Genesis so that it doesn't look as if I am just paraphrasing it. Genesis 2:8. “The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed.” The Man that God formed, could only be put in the garden God had made. And the garden is east ward in Eden. East is a location for formed men. East is a location in the spirit where God puts men that He has formed. Any man does not get into the east. East is the location where God puts the man, the woman that He has formed.
Before you can start coming into deeper dimensions, the first question we want to ask this morning is; Are you in the east? Have you been formed by God? Did God form you? Yesterday in the evening Bible school we were talking about the heart of the matter, how God is so keen about the heart, because your heart is like a clay in the hands of God. Until God forms you, He cannot display you. If God cannot display you, He cannot fill you. So, your heart is the clay, that God as a Potter, molds and forms. And when God can form your heart, when God has formed you, He puts you in the east.
So, let's go back to Ezekiel 47. It says in Verse 3. “And when the man went out to the east” Every time the Holy Spirit is going out, it's going to the East, is it not clear that the Holy Spirit is always looking for men and women that God has put in the east. What happened in Acts 2 in the upper room? Upper room was like east. Where Jesus said tarry here in Jerusalem, you are already formed but you need to be filled. He said "tarry here in Jerusalem until you are endued with power. And when the Holy Spirit was going to go out, where did it go to? The upper room. That was the east. That was where prepared and formed men where. So, every time the Holy Spirit is being poured out from the Father, He goes out to the East. The question is; Have you been formed? Are we in the east? He said; “when the man went out to the East with the measuring line in His hand.”
The first issue is about whether you are in the east because when the Spirit is going out. He is not going to the north. He is not going to the south. He is going to the east, the location where formed men are, where vessels that have been yielded to God for moulding and forming, where they are. That’s where He goes to.
So, when the man went out to the east. The man here is the Holy Spirit, when the Holy Spirit goes out, when He is poured out, He goes to the east but He goes with something, with the measuring line in his hand. He goes out with a measuring line in his hand. Why does the Holy Spirit go out with a measuring line? Why does He not just go out and just fill people and just leave them filled? Why does he go with a measuring line? It’s so important for us to know this, because many believers are falling victim, because they now speak in tongues, because they now experience some ankle-deep experience, they feel they have arrived. No! I want us to go to a scripture in 1 Peter 2, the reason why the Holy Spirit goes out with a measuring line. 1 Peter 2:4-5, why does the Holy Spirit go out with a measuring line? “Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, 5 you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”
“Coming to Him” who? Jesus “as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up” did he say you are already built? “You are being.” When you see the word being, it’s a process, it talks about present continuous tense, something that is ongoing, “you are being built up, a spiritual house.” You are being built up. Is it all about the foundation, Sir? When you want to build a house, when you build the foundation, will you say you’ve built a house? That’s why the Holy Spirit goes with a measuring line. He measures our build up. And we are going to see it in that Ezekiel 47. “You are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”
The reason the Holy Spirit goes out with a measuring line is because we are being built up as a spiritual house. Do you know some people start a building and do foundation and then feel they have achieved a lot? The thing is the foundation marks the land, you can’t see that a foundation is built in a land and you know that the land is not occupied. The land is occupied. But is the land liveable? No! But the foundation marks the territory. You can mark out a territory by building a fence. You can mark out a territory by doing corner piece. You can mark out a territory by doing a foundation. When anybody gets there, the person will know somebody owns this land.
So, we are being built up. So, when you come into Christ, the Holy Spirit comes with a measuring line. I want us to follow closely. It said, “He comes with a line in his hand, He measured. He measured 1000 cubits and He brought me through the waters.” What did we call the water? The word of God! He measured 1000 cubits with the line in his hand called the measuring line. And he brought me through the waters and the water came to my ankle. Foundation!
Some of us have become born again, you have come into God. The Holy Spirit measured 1000 cubits for you. All you do, you don’t fornicate again, you don’t commit adultery again, all those major things that people will look and say no! This land is already occupied. You don’t do those things. So, he measured the line for you and it has come to your ankle, ankle-deep experience. What is the Holy Spirit doing? He is building you up. You are being built up so don’t think you are already built up. Because you have ankle deep experience does not mean you are built up, you are being built up.
So, what is that measuring line? The measuring line is the line in the hand of the Holy Spirit that you use to align us with the word of God. For example, if I have this book and this microphone and they are like this, are they properly aligned? At some level they are. That’s what happens at ankle-deep experience. At some level, you are aligned with the word of God. But you are not fully aligned. You are not yet fully aligned. But from your ankle to your feet, you are aligned. Is it enough? No! It is not enough.
And that’s why He said, again! And we must always come into this again. For us to be built up, there must be again. That’s why relationship with the Holy Spirit is a fellowship. It’s not a visitation. With the Holy Spirit, it is a fellowship because there must be again and again and again. You don’t visit the Holy Spirit; you fellowship with him. You are always there. You commune with him. Again! Because it is when you commune with him, it’s about the fellowshipping. Not Fellowship. Fellowshipping!
“Again, he measured 1000 and brought me through the waters. He brought me through the word. “And the water came up to my knees.” So, every time the line of the Holy Spirit is used, there is an alignment between my life and the word. Every time He measures with his measuring line, He brings me into alignment with the word of God. That’s the person of the Holy Spirit. That’s his task in our lives. He is building us up into a spiritual house. We are being built. He said he brought me up to my knees and he said that’s a level, that’s a dimension, knee-deep experience.
At this point, the Holy Spirit is telling you that you should not lie, the Holy Spirit is making you to understand that there is pride in your heart. He is making you see the things, the little foxes that spoil the vine, knee-deep experience! But are you built up? No! You are being built. And that’s why there is a need for again. That’s why the Holy Spirit is the one that calls us into deeper dimensions. We think we have arrived. We think we are okay. We think we have gotten it right now. We have aligned enough and He tells you, it’s not enough, where you are is the knee. You need to come up. Come up thither. Come up.
And he said, again! Because you can’t come up without a measuring line. Every time the Holy Spirit takes us through an experience of alignment. When you are praying in the Holy Ghost, when the Holy Spirit is sitting on your life and He is saying this thing, you must get it. What he is doing for you is that he is aligning you Ma, He is aligning you Sir. He is aligning you with the word. He is allowing you to come into agreement with the word. Your life and the word are now being yoked together. So, every time he is calling you deeper, what is he doing, he is aligning you. You have not aligned enough. Then he realized there are some rough edges and he starts smoothening you up so that you can align.
He said, “and the water came up to my waist.” Another translation says, “my loins.” After He measured 1000 cubits, it came to my waist. At a point where water gets to your waist, are you not soaked? But are you completely soaked? No! So, we have the Holy Spirit at a measure. We are aligned to the word at a measure. Not yet the fullness. At this point, we have taken the house from the foundation. We have gotten to the lintel level. But can the house be lived in? No! Because the elements will still have its way, because it is opened.
At the loin level, at the waist level, when anybody gets to the land, they know a building is here. It’s no longer marking territory; a building is here but the building is not ready. That’s how many of us are, the Holy Spirit has filled up but we are not yet ready for the assignment that God has for us. God cannot yet dwell in us completely. God cannot yet manoeuvre and make our lives into what he wants it.
God cannot start hanging curtains, He can’t put doors yet. No windows yet. We are still exposed. At the waist level, you are still exposed. Anybody can come in. People passing by can quickly branch and have their way. Why? You are opened. You are soaked but still opened. You are soaked at a measure but you are still exposed and that’s why there is always again.
At the loin or waist deep experience, there is still a yearning for more. You can’t still reach out to people because you are not full. The Holy Spirit is still dealing with issues, He is still calling your attention to things at the loins level. You are still in charge. You can still move your hand the way you like. It is only your leg that is in Him. Your hands are still available for other things. Your leg only is what He has, to your waist because in all these experiences, from the ankle, all God has is your feet.
That’s why you see some people, to go and to share tracts, to say Jesus loves you is not hard but to say Jesus is Lord and King over their lives is another point of call. What God has is their feet, ankle experience. All God has is their feet. And for people at the knee level, all God has is their leg. All that is available to God is their leg. But at the waist level, God has them. From the waist up, they are in but from the waist down, they are available for other things. That’s why the Holy Spirit is calling us deeper. He is calling us deeper.
And He is in verse 5, again He measured. Because anytime He is calling us deeper, there is a measuring line. There is a measuring line that defines our alignment. There is a measuring line. And that’s why they said to Jesus, see your disciples are eating and drinking, see them! John’s disciples were not eating and drinking like this, they were fasting. How come your own disciples are eating and drinking? He said the bridegroom is still with them. He said when the Holy Spirit has not measured for them. When the Holy Spirit measures for them, they will follow, they will be brought through the waters. Right now, I am with them. So, they feel aligned. I am with them.
And that’s why when you just give your life to Christ, it is like that moment where the disciples are with Jesus, you feel so much aligned. You pray instantly there is answer. You just think about something, and it happens. The bridegroom is with you. Not that Jesus will forsake you, No! But he will now leave you in the hand of the Holy Spirit so that you can be built up. He will leave you in the hands of the Holy Spirit with a measuring line so that you can be built up because you can’t remain a babe forever. Jesus cannot continue to carry you and change your diapers, no! You must grow. You must be able to house God. You must grow. And that’s why He is calling us deeper.
And in verse 5, it says, “again He measured 1000 and it was a river I could not cross.” I was not in control anymore. For the water was too deep. It was too deep. The only thing that can be done. The water in which one “must”, not could, one must swim to survive, to enjoy, to benefit, to move, you must swim. A river that could not be crossed and that’s the yearning of God, that we become a spiritual house built up that we can house Him in all of His glory because when you are housing God, you can’t be in control. You cannot be controlling things, you must swim. You must follow the tide of the Spirit. It must be as God is leading. You can’t control.
And that’s what the Holy Spirit is calling us to, to the overflow experience, to the swim deep experience, where we are no longer in control, when it’s all about God. When we are consumed and immersed in the Spirit. When the water of the word, we are embedded and baptized into Christ because Christ is the word. We are baptized into Christ; we are no longer in control. That is the experience He is calling us to. That’s where God wants us to be but the thing is, are we allowing the Holy Spirit to measure? Are we allowing Him to measure? Because for every 1000 cubits comes sacrifice and consecrations.
The disciples of Jesus were eating and drinking until the measuring line of the Holy Spirit came. The same disciples that they go anywhere and talk, nobody questions them. They see miracles, it has become common place. Jesus goes here, He heals this person. He goes here, He heals this person. There is crusade everywhere. And now you have left that place, you are now in the hands of the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit is building you up. And now before you can even see miracle in your life, you have to fast. Jesus has not left you, no! But He has committed you into the hands of the Holy Spirit with his measuring line so that you can grow, so that you can house the glory of God, so that you can house the fullness of God, so that you can steward God’s resources.
Apostle Paul said why, you that ought to be teachers, you are still having somebody teach you these elementary principles. It’s an aberration because that elementary principle talks about the foundation. You, that you are supposed to be a house for God, you are now reduced to foundation. Who destroyed you? What destroyed you? It’s a time for us to reach deep into the place of the overflow where God is glorified, where we allow the Holy Spirit.
It’s a process, but there is an invitation. God has made this invitation available for all of us. But it’s now our response that will determine our experience. Our response will determine our experience. Men and women that respond to the first measuring line are the ones that qualify for the next. If you do not go through the measuring line that takes you to the ankle, you can’t qualify for the knee-deep. If you don’t go through the knee-deep experience, you can’t qualify for the waist-deep. If you don’t go through the waist-deep experience, you can’t qualify for the overflow. It’s a process. That’s why when the Apostles were persecuted and challenged, they went back again, and the Holy Spirit measured another 1000 cubits and they were filled again.
Amen!
