Learning How to Breathe Under Water

By Angela R. Thomas

If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, "From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water."

Angela Thomas's personal journey has taught her one thing, that breathing underwater isn't for the faint of heart! It is in these times that God is revealing the mysteries of the kingdom. We as believers are instructed to "surrender," "submit," and "submerge" so that we can be filled with the living water of God.

God's divine spirit takes us to a depth in Him that causes us to experience his peace supernaturally. From the sweet whisper of his voice, we as believers say yes. Yet through the raging waters of adversity, we sometimes forget how to be still and know... that harmony is still in our reach.

Surrendering to truth can be pulverizing. It can cause you to have conversations with your private realities, yet you will learn to jump off that cliff of faith into your destiny as your external surroundings give way to your inner peace.

Because we are overcomers by the blood of the Lamb and the Word of our testimonies, Tumeeka Brown's life lessons caused radical encounters that changed her life, all because of her submission. Each trial produced deeper evidence of God's faithfulness. Go on the journey with her as you find healing in yours.

Encounter the joy of the Lord as you wake up every day in the knowledge of His presence. You will learn how to live in the wet places, where blessings flow and favor pours. Come, enter His secret place, submerged in the wealth of His glory. Learning to live from a place of tranquility in the middle of travesty isn't easy. I mean how can we be light bearers when we are drowning?

We learn how to breathe underwater.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Apr 19, 2022
• ISBN: 9781638448105

Book preview

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Learning How to Breathe Under Water

Angela R. Thomas

ISBN 978-1-63844-809-9 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-63844-810-5 (digital)

Copyright © 2021 by Angela R. Thomas and Tumeeka Brown

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

I Have Been Here Before

There’s purpose in your pain

The Wider Place

To Christine M. Hallback, the woman who looked the most like Jesus in my life. Thank you, Mom.

To Surrender is to give up something. To Submit is to give in to someone. To Submerge is to allow the fullness of His presence to take over your life.

Part I

To Surrender or Not to Surrender

Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

—James 4:10

Chapter 1

That Is the Question

1

Jump!

Faith can sometimes feel like you are standing on a steep cliff, desperate to leap into the inviting waters beneath you. The depth of the waters determines your jump. Even so, the ability to surrender isn’t easy. We have all been on this cliff at some point when everything around you is saying, Come back. And with a whisper, there’s something greater, something deeper, calling on the other side of that leap. As the church, we are called to blindly turn our lives over to the one who knows the beginning from the end. Reigning on His heavenly throne, God has the vantage point of knowing all and seeing all. Yet we still somehow doubt the unknown waters of God.

Jesus answered, "If you drink from Jacob’s well you’ll be thirsty again and again, but if anyone drinks the living water I give them, they will never thirst again and will be forever satisfied! For when you drink the water I give you it becomes a gushing fountain of the Holy Spirit, springing up and flooding you with endless life. (John 4:13–14)

This initial gift of faith God gives us is how we experience the glory of God in greater measures. We enter in this heavenly kingdom by believing that Christ walked the very earth He created, allowing Himself to be a sacrifice for humanity in the name of love. Now that we have made that first leap of faith, we are called to live by it. Unconditionally, God comes to live in us through His Spirit. He fills us with His life. It is His presence that floods us, pouring into us the more we empty ourselves to Him. It is funny when you realize that all our might and power has no effect on the Holy Spirit. God wants us to concede so that He can take over and get the glory. He’s after your heart, not just your circumstance. He’s always teaching us to let go. I like how Adrian Wait puts it; it does not matter what we are striving to achieve or needing to accomplish. He says, Faith…is what upholds the unseen hope. It is what we cling to to make our first leap into the kingdom, and we draw upon its stability. Subsequently, we tend to hold our breath, waiting on the outcomes of our troubles and pains to move past us. I want to bring you into the waters where peace guides your decision as God’s will becomes your floatation device. In this place of rest, faith is your oxygen. Our hope is not just to reign with God in heaven one day but to experience what His plan for our life is now. The world and even Christians sometimes confuse faith with positive thinking. There’s nothing wrong with having the right perspective for an outcome. However, faith includes someone, and He is the source of the outcome. He is the light that illuminates our steps without revealing the direction. This is how we move from the shores of humanity into the deep waters of God, by trusting in the one who created the ocean itself. You have a safety net. The faith we are called to walk in is radical in notion yet synonymous with surrender. God is attracted to a willingness to leave all doubt, fear, and caution with Him, trusting that His love for us is enough. Cautiously, we seek other options because the idea of not knowing how God is going to move overwhelms us. It’s just not comfortable to relinquish the dysfunction of familiar in order to experience the true peace God purposed with His plan. The beauty in how faith sleeps in the back of the boat while a brewing storm rages in the front is what tapped me on the shoulder to write this book. Listen, you know and I know that jumping into any ocean of unknowns is just plain scary. Here’s the resolve: entering into the varying depths of faith is the seasoning that endures the pain of life while revealing that misery can be optional. We are not exempt to the storms of this life, but as soon as we acknowledge Him in it, the less we are affected by the damage it brings. In trusting the heart of our Father for His children, by taking this leap, you are not entering uncharted territory. He is moving you into a place where you can take a deep breath in any storm that has turned your life upside down, only to exhale, resting in the revelation of His presence. I need to step out! your heart says. "I’m going! I have to make a move… I have to trust God. I can’t go back to the way things were. I can do this!" Whys and why-nots racing in your mind, thoughts of what could be rises in you like electricity! As fear offers its favorite injunction. I know if I took a poll right now and asked what that suggestion begins with…every person would agree that it begins with but. I know God is good. I have seen him do extraordinary things in my life. I know we cannot please him without faith, but… What do we do with the but? The depth of our circumstances can sometimes cause us to forget that we have been adopted into a kingdom where His peace passes our understanding (Philippians 4:7). In this kingdom, peace is the result when you leave it for God to handle. As He waits, on guard, for the mystery of what might take place, or what could go wrong to creep up, He is at the gate of our heart and mind, always ready to intercept every lie the enemy will use to invoke fear. His righteousness rules as a sceptor (Hebrews 1:8–9). And His love causes everything to work together for our good (Romans 8:38–39). And I mean everything. So as missed opportunities and empty beginnings echo and what ifs cause you to look back over your life, God is wanting you to know that His nature is to make all things new. He is a Redeemer. You see, He doesn’t want to take away every "but" that has held you back or every but that still limits you from jumping into the deeper waters of faith. He wants us to add Himself to it. Times may seem tough, "but God…" You may even be weary, "but God…" It’s time to get up from our boats of security and step out into the waters of the unknown. We have been given creative ideas, witty inventions, innovative concepts, and soon as the first obstacle create boat-rocking waves, we retreat into the safe haven of routine. God is issuing a decree. Put His name on the but that finds its way to your circumstance. It may look impossible, "but God" will see it through. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert (Isaiah 43:19).

The mistakes you made…they have now produced maturity. The falls you had taught you how to watch your step, calling you out to not worry about what is behind you because God is constantly moving you forward. Your past is used to strengthen your faith. And as you grow, God’s desire is to take our faith to deeper levels in Him. What does that mean? When it looks unbelievable to someone else and ridiculous to another, we move the heart of the Father. If you think about it, just about every believer in the days of the Bible operated in what I like to call crazy faith. Surrendering to the fact that they may look strange, they may come off as desperate, they may even seem peculiar, and that is right where we should be in this journey of faith. Check out the woman in Matthew 9:20–22. Coming against the odds of a male-dominated crowd, as they were pushing and shoving to see Jesus, yet she stretched through it all, only to reach the hem of His garment. It is then, when Jesus felt the radical move of her putting all her trust into one touch. Not settling on what she saw, she was operating in what she knew. She knew peace was about to pass her by and she had to reach for it. The kingdom of God is at hand, Jesus so eloquently stated in Mark 1:15. She was grabbing hold of righteousness, she was grabbing a hold of peace, she was reaching for the joy that was right in front of her. And no matter how she looked, she was not letting Him go.

Jairus was the ruler of the local synagogue. Though many other Jewish religious leaders were trying to discredit Jesus and call him a blasphemer, somehow Jairus had come to believe in him. In fact, he had faith that Jesus could heal his deathly ill daughter. He said to Jesus, Come and lay Your hands on her, so that she may be healed and live (Mark 5).

Jairus was a lot like us. He had a need, and he approached the only one who could make the difference. Jesus responded immediately by agreeing to go with him to his house. And Jesus went with him… (Mark 5:23–25). What happened next could have derailed his faith…"there came some from the ruler’s house, who said [to Jairus], Your daughter has died. Why bother and distress the Teacher any further?" Jesus then stepped in to bring comfort. He said, Don’t be afraid, trust me. Trust me! Jairus had stepped out on uncommon faith in a crisis and Jesus responded by reminding Jairus to not listen to the but. Put your faith in who I Am.

The Name Above All Names

Here’s the thing. The unknowns that are attached to faith are normal. We will never fully know here on earth how God goes about bringing victory into our circumstance. The Bible teaches us that "His ways are not our ways…" (Isaiah 55:8). However, having uncertainty that He can do it displeases God. Your identity in Christ encompasses all the abundance of being a beloved child of God. No matter what other blessings God may or may not choose to send into your life, you can always be confident that God Himself will stand with you, loving you, and working everything in your life out for the good simply because He called you and you answered. Now He wants to use everything in your life for His glory. Listen, the funny thing about experience is it always comes after you need it. Well, we can’t use our faith until something comes against it. We ought to be worshipping in our trials, for it will be used to increase our faith. Before you turn your nose up at that statement, consider this: when we worship, we are turning all of our attention to God. It is declaring that God is worthy. In other words, it is showing that He has the qualities, the credibility, and the ability to hold all power in Himself. It is shifting the weight of any burden into the capable hands of a sovereign God who even though way may suffer, promises to restore, strengthen us, and place us on a firm foundation.

Let us continue to hold firmly to the hope that we confess without wavering, for the one who made the promise is faithful (Hebrews 10:23). God enjoys entering the picture when all human effort has been