Gateway Church Live | “Let the River Run” by Charlotte Gambill | January 7

Welcome to Gateway Churches Podcast.

Wherever you're tuning in from, we hope you're encouraged by today's message.

As I ended 2024, and I was getting ready, I guess, for 2025, I felt God begin to speak to me and kind of ask me, you know, Charlotte, what are you anticipating?

What is your approach for 2025?

I think sometimes we ask God that, but I found it unusual that God was asking me that.

Like, like, what is your approach?

What is your mindset about 2025?

Charlotte, is your mindset about 2025 one that is seen through the perspective of faith?

Or is your mindset about 2025 one that's gonna play it safe?

Now that was a challenge to me, because I like things in order and I like things to be tidy, and I guess some of that could look like I like things to be safe.

I'm not a big risk taker, so I'm like, God, I really want you to move, but then I want to tell you how to move.

God, I really want you to do something amazing in my life and through my life, but if you could fit it in on this schedule at this time of the year in this way, that would work great for both of us.

And I felt God remind me of my approach to the gym.

I go and work out every single day.

I am consistent with my workout.

I go, I get on the treadmill, and I go on there to work out.

But there is a button that I always press when I get on the treadmill.

Guarantee, without fail.

And if I do fail to press it, I quickly realize my error and press the emergency stop so I can restart with the same button that I always press.

And I felt the Holy Spirit say, Shalom, what is the button that you always press on the treadmill as soon as you get on it?

And I realized as soon as I get on, I press manual.

In other words, don't you tell me how to run, I will tell you how I am going to run.

Don't you think you're cleverer or smarter than me because you have a program that's gonna work me out.

I'm going to choose how I will work out today, depending on how I feel today.

I will take my manual over your manufacturer's pre-programmed programs.

And I felt the Holy Spirit say, Charlotte, this year I need you to stop pushing manual.

I need you to allow the supernatural to override the manual.

I need you to stop trying to do it in your strength, and I need you to trust me in my might and power.

I need you to stop pushing the button that is in the machine.

It's an option, but it's not what the machine was designed for.

Someone built this machine and realized I need to build into it some programs that work out the body in all the ways that this machine can work out a body.

When you get on and press manual, depending on how you feel, will depend how you work out.

I don't really feel like running today, but that's okay because I push manual and I am in charge.

I don't feel like going up a hill today because I push manual, and so it's okay.

The incline is not gonna sneak up on me because I overrode the system.

And I want to say to some of you tonight that God needs you to stop pushing manual and stop allowing your life to be done according to your feelings or circumstances or situations because so many of us are here at the conference praying for God to do something new.

But I have to let you know God wants to do something new, but God will not do new inside old.

God said, I will not put new wines, new wine in old wineskins.

I will not do something new inside something old.

And God began to take me to a scripture in Amos 9, verse 13.

Amos 9:13

You know it's God when you're in Amos, and so I was in Amos 9, verse 13, and it says this: it says, The days are coming, declares the Lord, when the reaper will be overtaken by the plowman, and the planter by the one treading grapes, and new wine will drip from the mountains and flow from all the hills, and I will bring my people Israel back from exile, and they will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them, and they will plant vineyards and drink their wine, and they will make gardens and eat their fruit.

Amos 9:13

I will plant Israel in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land I have given them, says the Lord your God.

That is a good verse, that is a good word.

But here's the part I got stuck on.

I'm like, God, yes, I want to rebuild the ruined cities.

God, yes, I want new wine to be dripping from the mountains.

God, yes, I want to see the vineyards, and I want to see all of this fruitfulness, and I want to see the church come back and be restored and planted.

And I felt God say, Yeah, but you've got to also embrace the first part.

Because the first part is where we all struggle, because we want new wine, but we don't want a new way of working.

And what I feel like God was challenging me with, and maybe this is a challenge for many of you tonight, is you cannot have a new pace unless you have a new process.

You cannot have a new pace unless you have a new process.

And this scripture is saying when the reaper is overtaken by the plowman and the planter by the one treading grapes.

Well, I don't know if you realize this, but that's not the right order.

Okay, it makes no sense to have someone that is plowing while someone's trying to reap.

It makes no sense to have someone treading grapes while someone's trying to plant grapes.

These people should not be working at the same time.

But when God kicks in his pace, you've got to get used to his process.

And many of us want to do it our way, which is why God can't get things done his way, not because he doesn't want to, but we so love our old wineskin and we so love our process and we so love our manual button that will say, God send us new wine, but I'll tell you when to send it, how to send it, what it should look like, what it should taste like, and when it needs to arrive.

And if our process is more of a God to us, then we will never have the pace that God wants to send in us and through us.

I am building a house right now.

Well, I'm not personally, that would be worrying if I was personally building a house.

Someone that knows what they're doing as building a house right now.

But I know that the building has a process.

There is a foundation, and then there is the people that come and put the H back in, and then there's people that come and do the framing, and then there's people that come and do the plastering and the painting and the decorating.

But this scripture is saying, hey, I'm gonna rebuild the city, and you're gonna have the plumber on the same time as the interior decorator, and you're gonna have the foundation person digging at the same time as the person installing the new drapery.

That makes no sense to my finite mind.

But when God says, I am doing something new and I'm setting a new pace, you've got to say, okay, I will not be married anymore to my old process.

God wants to do a fast thing on the earth right now.

God wants to send revival right now, but many of us would like to be personally revived because that's manual, that's containable, that's controllable, but a revival, that's a whole heap of mess.

We pray for revival.

I'm like, are you sure?

Because revival means you don't have your parking spot anymore, you can't get your kids and kids church anymore, you can't get your latte at the time when you always roll up for your latte.

Everybody doesn't look like you, sound like you, act like you.

It's a whole hot mess in here.

Nobody knows who's in membership class, no one knows who's gone through.

Have you been baptized?

I have no idea.

There's so many people coming in.

We've got them coming in, we've got them going out.

Revival is a process that we don't even have systems for.

Do you understand?

We're praying a prayer and yet we're saying to God, fit in this pipeline, fit in this system.

And God's like, I'm done with your systems, which I know is making your mind decompose.

I know you're freaking out, but stop pressing manual when I want to do something supernatural.

Galatians 5 tells us we've got to keep in step with the spirit, not the plan.

Keep in step with the spirit.

If the spirit is moving, if his hand is on something, if he's over here blessing something, if he's over here touching something, we're supposed to move and keep in step with the spirit, but so often we want the spirit to keep in step with us.

We got it all out of order, and I feel like God wants to give you, wants to give me something new.

I I I sense in my spirit this year for my own life, for our family's life as we just move nation, Charlotte.

This is a new beginning, this is something new I'm doing.

Don't you dare try and put it in an old wineskin.

Don't you bring your English into an environment where it's not gonna help you, it's gonna hurt you.

Don't bring that baggage of how you used to do things into a season where actually there's a whole I'm decorating a brand new house.

How how sad would it be if in building this house I was like, well, let's just build it exactly like our old house?

Because that's where I feel comfortable, and that's what's familiar, and that's where I that's where I feel like everything's where it should be.

How sad would it be that I don't allow creativity and I don't allow a fresh page, a first to become something brand new because I'm scared of the unfamiliar, and so I'd rather build again what I had before.

I ain't building a house like my last house.

I'm building a house that will feed the future of our family.

I'm building my husband thinks I'm crazy right now.

My husband's like, what's this room for?

He's like, I'm like, grandchildren?

He's like, our kids aren't even dating.

I was like, I don't care.

I'm building it and they will come.

I'm like, I'm building, I'm building rooms.

He's like, what's that room for?

We don't have any grand, but they will come.

So we're gonna build for when they come and we're gonna make cute beds in there.

And he's like, but our son's only 18.

I was like, I know, but I am prepared.

But how sad would it be if I rebuild our house like our house was in England when our kids were younger and there were no grandchildren coming anytime soon, I would be building too small for the pace and the process of the future God wants to give me.

Some of you are thinking too small, acting too small.

You're living it like like let's just build our old house in our marriage.

No.

If you if you're if you're gonna build your marriage in 2025, build it with fresh love, first love, excitement, passion, dreams, get your passion back, people.

Come on.

And I remember when I went skiing with my friend.

I'll never go skiing with my friend again.

It was not a good experience.

I am not made to ski, is what I discovered.

Uh uh, but we went skiing, and and I remember when we went skiing, she she gave me one of these.

And so I'm like, what is this?

She's like, This, you're gonna need this.

This is your ski boot.

You wanna put your ski boot on?

I don't know if you've ever put a ski boot on, but that's a whole other process.

After getting the ski boot on, I struggle, I get my feet in them, and then I'm like walking.

I can barely move my legs, walking.

And she's like, What are you doing?

I was like, I'm wearing my boots.

She's like, they're not made for here, but we're in the mountains.

No, we're not on the mountain yet.

The the boot, I know it's new to you, but you're trying to do what you usually do in a new boot.

This boot is not made for this terrain.

This over here is what you're used to wearing.

This is made for this terrain, and you're so used to putting this on every day and going about your life, you're like, Well, I'm just gonna, God's given me something new, but I'm just gonna put it on like I put this on, and I'm gonna try and go around my life.

Now that's why some of you are saying right now, with the new that God's trying to give you, it's too heavy.

It's too hard.

Duh, it's not too heavy, and it's not too hard.

You're using a new boot in old terrain.

The boot is not made for the flat, the boot is made for the mountain.

You gotta take this thing up higher, and as you take this thing up higher, I'm gonna have you put it on on different terrain, and on different terrain, this boot's gonna come into its own.

But when you have old processes with new wine, you start to walk in something that feels too heavy for me.

This is too heavy for me, this is too hard for me.

How will I get through this year?

I just feel this is heavy.

God's like, no, it's only heavy in the low place, it's not heavy in the higher place.

So I took the boot up the mountain, and I put it on that piece of plastic.

Takes more faith to do that than it does a lot of other stuff in life.

And I stood there with my friend who's an expert skier, and my posture was fear.

The whole, my whole posture was fear.

She could sense it, uh, she could see it.

I'm like, I'm terrified right now.

This does not feel normal to me.

And there's some things that God's gonna do in this next season, and there's some things that God's gonna do in this house.

It's not gonna feel normal to you.

It's different, sounds different, looks different, feels different, but that's okay.

We're taking the boot up the mountain.

It's different footwear because this is different terrain.

And the boot, when it gets up the mountain, is gonna require you to trust it, to trust what God wants to do.

My posture was not trusting the boot.

My posture was I'm in control, I'm totally in control, and I will not let this boot take me anywhere I don't want to go.

And my friend said to me, Charlotte, I need you to put your shin to the boot.

I was like, What do you mean?

She said, I need you to put your shin to the boot.

Well, when you put your shin to the boot, your whole body begins to put weight on the boot.

And she said, Unless you put your shin to the boot, you're gonna fight this boot.

But if you put your shin to the boot, this boot has been built and designed to do what it's about to do.

Trust the equipment I've given you.

You're gonna hurt yourself by staying like this.

Trust the equipment I've given you.

And I feel like the Holy Spirit is saying to some of you tonight, I know it feels different.

I know it's not the sneaker you're used to.

I know for some of you it feels heavy, the weight right now that you're carrying in your family, or the weight that you're carrying in your job, or the weight that you feel you've just stepped into in 2025 that you weren't expecting.

I know it feels different, but the boot wasn't made for the sidewalk.

It was made for the snow and it was made for the mountain.

I need you to come up higher.

And then I need you to have a posture that says, I'm not gonna lean on my own understanding.

Like Proverbs 3 teaches us, but I'm gonna trust in you, Lord.

With what?

Oh my shin to boo is I am, if this goes wrong, I can't get myself out of it.

I'm so leaned in right now, and I feel like some of you done this.

You done this about God?

You done this about your future?

You've done this about your finances, you've done this about your relationships.

And the Holy Spirit's like the more I put my shit to the boo, the more the boo lost its weight.

The more I put my shit into the boo, the more the gravity was shifting.

And momentum started to happen.

And I was going way faster than I was comfortable with.

Because I had no manual button to override what was happening as I trusted the boot.

I feel like some of you, your life used to be like that.

Used to be up for it and used to be all in.

Used to be like my friend on the screen a moment ago.

I mean, basically, she does everything in the church, is what I heard.

Makes the food, serves the people, runs the volunteers, she's on the mission.

Like, she's everywhere.

That used to be you once.

So God took me through scripture.

Sometimes we need help.

How do I get that back?

How do I lean in again?

How do I embrace the mountain of 2025?

How do I get the right footwear?

Ezekiel 47 is a prophetic word.

And honestly, I think it's a word for the church.

I think it's a word for our time.

And it's a picture that Ezekiel begins to speak about.

He says, This man brought me to the entrance of the temple, the house of God.

And I saw water coming out from under the threshold of the temple.

Toward the east, for the temple faced east.

But the water was coming down from under the south side of the temple and south of the altar.

And then he brought me out through the north gate.

And then he led me around the outside to the outer gate facing east, and the water was trickling from the south side.

There's a lot of gates, and there's some souths in here.

Sounds like gateway and it sounds like this picture is of the house of God.

It's a trickle.

Something's happening.

It's coming out of the house of God.

This revival, this thing that's starting, it's not coming out of the politics, it's not coming out of social society, it's not coming out of the healthcare industry, it's not coming out of life coaches.

It's coming out of the house.

And this river, this water that begins to flow, it's the beginning of this revival water that's about to break through.

When this revival water that's gonna break through, it's a new pace.

It's gonna go from a trickle and it's gonna become a flood.

But it requires a new process.

So Ezekiel says, as he's watching the water flow, he says, the man that's leading him in this vision says he went eastward with him and he had a measure in line in his hand.

I have all kinds of props tonight.

This water's flowing from the house of God.

Destined to come and revive.

And yet, this man is shown that there's a guy with a measuring line in his hand, and he's measuring off a thousand cubits.

He says, and then he led me through the water, and that was ankle deep.

And then he measured off another thousand cubits and led me through the water, and that was knee deep.

And he measured off another thousand, led me through that water, and that was up to the waist.

Because the water had risen and was so deep, deep enough to swim in.

A river that no one could cross.

And he asked me, Son of Man, do you see this?

Reminds me of the verse in Isaiah, where the same question is posed.

See, I'm doing a new thing.

Do you see this?

Tonight, God needs to open some of your eyes spiritually.

He's asking you the same.

Do you see?

Do you see I'm trying to send a river?

But so many of you are bringing your stick to something that I'm asking you to swim in.

God, I want revival, but I'm only wanting to get in up to my ankles.

God, I want the church to reach this community, but I'm only in up to my knee.

God, I want to make a difference in your kingdom, but I can only be into my waist.

Because all of those measurements mean your feet still touch the ground.

Which means you're still in control.

Well, I'll give you another month.

If you've not done what I want you to do, I'm out of here.

Measuring the house of God.

Measuring people by a stick of approval.

Measuring what's happening by your stick of I'm not happy if this doesn't happen, and I'm only in unless this happens.

When did we make the gospel about hydration?

When it's supposed to be about saturation.

I'm up to my knees, yeah, but keep going.

Well Lord, surely this is enough.

I'm up to my waist.

No, it's not enough until the stick is dropped and you start to swim.

You want a new pace.

It looks like getting rid of the stick and embracing the swim.

Well, well, Lord, it's over my head.

I know it is.

Maybe you felt like you're a little bit in over your head in this last season.

Welcome to the club.

I feel that pretty much every day.

God, who me?

What now?

You want to use my life?

I'm in the over my head.

This is too much, God.

It's too much responsibility.

God's like, put your stick down.

I didn't ask you to measure the responsibility.

I asked you to swim in the river.

I can swim in the river, God.

But if I get my stick out, I'm overwhelmed.

If I get my stick out, I feel daunted.

But if I realize, you know, asking me to measure this thing, you're asking me to swim in this thing, then God, you know, I can do that.

I can get in and I can swim.

And some of you, it's time to get back to swimming and get the stick and burn it tonight.

I'm done with having a measuring stick, God.

I'm sorry that I've tried to measure what I should never try to measure.

So in this passage, Ezekiel sees that you want this flood, you're gonna have to put your stick down.

You're gonna have to learn to swim.

And then he goes on to say that this river, this incredible river, he says, when I arrived in Ezekiel 47, verse 7, he says, when I arrived, I saw a great number of trees on each side.

Ezekiel 47:7

And he said to me, This water flows towards the eastern region and goes down into Arabah, where it enters the dead sea.

Anybody feel like they have dead things in their life?

And when he empties into even the dead sea, the salty water there becomes fresh.

And swarms of living creatures will live where the river flows.

There will be large numbers of fish because this water flows there and makes the salt water fresh.

So where the river flows, everything will live.

And fishermen will stand along the shore from Engedi to Engelum, and there will be places for spreading nets.

The fish will be of many kinds, like the fish of the Mediterranean Sea.

Watch this.

Verse 11 there's a but.

But the swamps and the marshes, they ain't coming fresh.

In other words, this river that he sent from the house of God.

God's like, I'm gonna take it even into the Dead Sea and bring what's dead back to life.

But I am not gonna waste my river on the swamp or the marsh.

You know, there's less salt in the swamp and the marsh than there is in the Dead Sea.

So it wasn't like the swamp and the marsh was too difficult for the river to infect, but the swamp would not give way to the river.

The swamp said, No, I am gonna be a swamp, I am gonna be a marsh.

And so God says, you know what?

If you won't enter the pace, if you won't change the process, then I'm bypassing you.

I'm not wasting my water on any more swamps, and nor should you.

And some of you, 2024, it was filled with swamp life, swamp conversations, going nowhere, eroding your confidence, eroding your faith, swamp relationships.

Every time you showed up, they dragged you down.

Try putting this on your feet while you're swimming in a swamp.

You're going down real fast.

Some of you wonder why your mood's been up, your mood's been down, swamp, river, swamp, river, swamp.

It's exhausting.

And in 2025, what if you said, I'm not anymore giving my energy, my time, my thought life, my emotions, I'm not anymore gonna divert this river via the swamp.

God can bring every dead thing back to life, but he says, I'm not messing with the swamp because the swamp don't want to change.

The swamp doesn't want to give up its saltiness.

The swamp doesn't want to let this river infect it.

The swamp is saying, I'm a swamp and I don't want any part of your river.

In 2025, if you want a new pace, you're gonna have to have a new process, even with the things in your life that there might even be people you love.

But love them from a distance instead of spending all the water and all the river and all the energy trying to turn a swamp into something that lives when they have no intention of giving that grace to you.

Do you know how many dead things are in this community?

And you're wasting all your time in a swamp conversation?

Do you know how many dead hopes and dead dreams are just outside of these doors?

And you have the river of life on the inside of you and you're giving it to a swamp?

Do you know how many dead marriages and people dead in addictions and people dead in their fears are out there at work where you go every day, and you're taking this river of life to the coffee shop to have yet another swamp conversation with swamp life?

No, no more.

New pace, new process.

No more giving the water to friction when you could give it to flow.

And if you've been the friction, I'm so glad I came tonight.

Because I love you, but it's a new pace, and you need a new process.

Well, I just like you know, to say what no one else says.

Well, we don't need you to say it.

New pace.

New process.

I want this river to flow.

If you want it to flow, stop acting like a swamp.

Whatever the river touched came back to life.

Whatever the river touched, it flourished.

And in this season, church, we got to get the river flowing.

And if that means you gotta get out of the way so the river can flow, get out of the way.

That means you need to put your stick down so the river can flow, put your stick down.

That means you need to jump in and go head over, uh water over your head, then get all in and get fully saturated.

That means you need to put your shin to the boot to get down the mountain, then put your shin to the boot.

But I'm telling you, 2025 is a year where God wants to give you a new pace, but he will require a new process.

At the end of this incredible prophetic picture, where life is teeming wherever the river is touching, where men are coming shoulder to shoulder to catch the multitudes of fish that are filling the nets.

It says that on both sides, in verse ta in verse 12, it says that the fruit was on trees of all kinds, and they grew on both banks of the river, and their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail, and every month they will bear fruit, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them, their fruit will serve the food, and their leaves will be for healing.

And I fell God say, Charlotte, if you'll lean into my pace, it's not either or, it's both.

When do we get the either-or mentality with God?

He's either gonna heal me, or he might, you know, bless me, but he ain't gonna do both.

He's either gonna patch me up, or he's gonna kind of, you know, extend some provision to me, but I don't think he can do both.

No, on both sides of the river, the trees were filled with fruit.

Everything was blossoming and everything was growing, and the tree, oh that the leaves didn't wither, and the tree, the fruit didn't fail, and the tree, it didn't just have fruit one month, it had fruit every single month.

I truly believe a wholehearted belief because I believe in this more than I believe in opinion that God wants so many of you in 2025 to have a new pace, but He's asking from you a new process.

Some of you are gonna have to bury your stick of negativity, some of you have to put down your measuring stick of criticism, some of you are gonna have to stop your posture of fear and put your shit into the boot.

But I know that my God does not lie, and when God says it's from the house that a river's gonna flow, then I wanna say, God, I pray that I don't stop the river.

I pray I don't block the river, I pray I don't taint the river, I pray I don't pollute the river.

God, would you make me someone?

Would you help me, God, be someone that swims in that river and someone that takes that river to others?

So, all across the house, I want us to stand to our feet in every location.

This is my first preach of the year, and this is the first time, and this is the first time I've preached this word, and I think there's something about the timing and something about this evening that God's all in the detail of.

Because you need a first two.

I feel like some of you need to spiritually stop complaining about how heavy the boot is, and realize I'd be making the boot do what the sneaker does.

The boot's not made to do what the sneaker's done.

The terrain's changed, which means the footwear's changed.

Some of you have got fearful.

You need to lean in.

Put your shin to the boot.

So I want to pray.

Because what happens next, that's between you and God.

For some of you, it's a first moment again.

I I'm I'm back in the water, God.

I I'm I'm fully in.

I used to be like that girl on screen, and I want to get that back.

God, I'm I I I I want to be fully back into the things of you.

I I want to be fully in the river, God.

Some of you, you gotta get past your ankles.

Well, it's not working for me.

That's because you only got your ankles in.

I'm not feeling it.

That's because you've only got your knees in.

So I'm gonna create a moment.

And I'm gonna ask the team.

I asked them, would they sing this song?

It's all about new wine.

But this song also says, God, I know you want to give us new wine, but I'm giving you permission to make me the vessel you want me to be.

Because he's not gonna put new wine in old wineskins.

And I'm praying tonight that some of you will see it.

Just like Ezekiel when he said, Do you see it?

I I pray you'll see where you've had a stick instead of swimming, I pray you'll see where you've been fearful instead of shintabu.

I I pray you'll see where you've made some changes in your life and it's become more like a swamp than it is a river.

And I pray you'll be brave enough this year to say, God, I am saying yes to the new pace, which I know means I'm saying yes to killing off some old process.

So just close your eyes right where you're at.

The Holy Spirit is in the room.

God, we know you're here.

God forgive us where we've grown cold.

We used to be the one jumping in, and now we are dipping our ankle in.

God, I don't want to be a swamp.

There are too many people dying all around me for a lack of hope, a lack of light.

God, I want the river in me to flow to every single one of them.

God, I'm scared, I'm a little fearful, it feels a little heavy.

I feel the Holy Spirit saying, it's only because you've got the wrong terrain.

What I gave you is not heavy, you just you're on the wrong terrain.

You need a new process, you need to come up higher.

Just right where you are, we're just gonna take a moment, and I'm gonna release every campus right now that are watching online to just take a moment where they are, and in this moment here, we're gonna just let the band play, and we're gonna just sing this song.

And you know what?

If you need to come down to the altar, if you need to do that, like you're doing it for the first time tonight.

You see to get out your seat and say, I just need to do something that I've not done for a while.

I I just I need this moment to register, God.

I'm putting the stick down, I'm I'm letting the river go over my head.

God, I don't want to do the swamp life anymore.

God, I'm putting my shin to boot.

Then as the bander singing this song, I I invite you to come.

Just right where you are, just begin to move.

Let's just sing this together.

God, we want your new wine.

We want your new wine.

Thank you, God.

Thanks for joining us today.

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