The warm Costa Rican wind brushes across my face. Most of the day has consisted of hiking through the rainforest and zip-lining across canyons. We’ve been walking next to a small spring-fed stream for the past 5 minutes when our tour guide leads us to a floodgate about half the height of a man. It’s an odd sight to behold. On one side, there’s a beautiful naturally flowing spring that comes down from the top of the mountain to meet us, on the other, a rugged-patched-together half tube’s poor attempt to help the stream find it’s way down the mountain. The floodgate shakes violently under the weight of the current, and I’m nervous.

“This is a spring-fed all natural water slide.” The guide says, “So, what you’re going to do is sit right here in front of the floodgate, and when you’re ready, I’ll open the gate and the stream will push you down to the bottom of the mountain. If you’re scared, I’ll only open it a little so that all of the water doesn’t come out. You won’t go quite as fast. But if you’re a little extreme, I’ll open it all the way. It might be more than you can handle, but it’s much more exciting!”

I’m nervous. It’s a lot of water, and I can’t see the end of the slide. He could be launching me off the edge of a cliff for all I know. But I have a weakness for exciting things.

So, of course, I tell him to give me all he’s got and he asks me if I’m sure. I say just open the gate.

The water literally floods my entire body. I can’t breathe. I don’t know which direction is up, and my body is getting slammed against the wall of the tube at every turn. At one moment, my head comes out of the water with no help of my own, I take a breath as I glimpse the trees rushing by, and my body weightlessly comes off of the tube as the ground dips just enough for me to plunge back into the water. A few more seconds of limbs flailing and body bumping and I find myself in a pool at the bottom of the mountain. All I can think to do is yell up to where I think the guide might be. “I want to do it again!!!”

It was probably one of the most exhilarating things I’ve ever experienced, and I had the bruises to prove it. This is the memory from our honeymoon in Costa Rica that has been replaying in my head for the last week. God has been saying this same thing to me for the last three months: You get as much as you ask for. How much do we want of Jesus? How much do we want of His presence? Do we want to experience Him in His fullness or do we, like the Israelites, prefer to experience Him at a distance and see His glory from behind a veil?

I believe God is saying the same thing to us: “If you’re scared, I’ll only give you a little bit, but if you want me and you’re willing to go all out, I will give you everything I have to offer! If you want it all, I will plunge you deeper and deeper still.” How much do we want? Are we willing to risk getting slammed and bashed along the way just so we can experience everything He has to offer us?

We can’t always see where the current goes or how it turns, but I promise you it will be the best thing you’ve ever experienced in your life. The Bible says that there actually is a floodgate in heaven, waiting to be poured out onto the earth. It describes a river coming out of the throne room, a river of living water. Do you want it? Are you scared of what might happen? Are you scared of what you won’t be able to control? Because if you are, God will still give you a little because He wants you to experience what it is to know His glory even if for a moment.

For those of you who want to dive all in, to abandon all thoughts of self-preservation, God wants to give you everything He has. He will withhold nothing from you. The floodgates of heaven are shaking violently under the weight of the current. They want to be opened wide, released to flow in the earth. How much do you want of Him?

Psalm 24:7 “Lift up your heads, you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in.”

 

Chris Hunt