Connect to your Source
…for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water ~ Jeremiah 2:13 ESV
The above scripture faults us for disconnecting ourselves from our source and going for other things that cannot help us. When we forsake God, our source, and opt to live life the best way we know how it becomes disastrous for us. It invites death into our lives because it means that our fellowship with God is broken and our relationship with Him is non-existent.
One of the most obvious reasons why so many of us are struggling day and night without results and trying things but failing over and over again is because of forsaking our source. Many are crying out to God, but nothing is changing simply because our personal relationship with Him is not there. For you to realize who you are, what you carry within you, and your true potential, a personal relationship with God is not an option for you, it’s a priority. For man, God is not an alternative, He is a requirement.
For us to understand better what this means, let’s go back to the story of creation. God did not create man the same way as plants, vegetation, fish, birds, or the stars. God spoke to the soil when creating plants and vegetation (Genesis 1:11-12) which means that their source is the soil. A plant decomposes back into the soil when it dies because that’s where it came from. He spoke to the earth when He wanted to make the animals (Genesis 1:24-25). The source of animals, therefore, is the earth. The source of fish and other sea creatures is water. But what about the man? When God wanted to create man, He spoke to Himself. This means that God is the source of man. Since He is Spirit, man is also spirit because he came out of God. This is important because it will help us to clearly understand why our relationship with God is important. For you to remain fruitful and productive, you must be connected to God. Why is this connection important?
A plant must remain attached to the soil for it to live and remain fruitful. Anytime you want to kill a plant, just detach it from the soil and it will die. The same goes for the fish. For fish, water is not an option, it is a requirement. If you remove fish from the water, it will die. You don’t need to do anything else. This also applies to man. Man must remain attached to God to live. This means that just like the fish need water, you need God. Man was not created to be independent, but to be dependent on God. He declared independence from his source in the beginning when he sinned, but this brought him nothing but struggles in his life. Disconnecting yourself from God is inviting ‘death’ into your life (Genesis 2:17). This is why Jesus says in John 15:5;
I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing ~ John 15:5 ESV
We must abide in Jesus (the vine) and live like the branches. The vine produces the sap that makes the grape and so the branch only receives the sap and bears the grape. This is a life of total surrender. For us to live to fulfill God’s plans and purposes for our lives, realizing and maximizing our full potential, means that we must allow ourselves to be the branch and nothing else but the branch. We must connect ourselves to God and be ready to place ourselves wholly at the disposal of Jesus, the living vine. It should go without saying that no matter who you are, how much you have accomplished, or how much you haven’t, you will never realize your full potential without a personal relationship with your Maker.
In Munroe’s words:
“The key to knowing your true potential is to know your source. You will never understand, realize or maximize your true and full potential without a relationship with your source. A man without a relationship with God (his source) has limited his potential. He can never attain what he is capable of.”