Get Your Feet Wet

"As soon as their feet touch the water, the flow of water will be cut off upstream and the river will stand up like a wall."

Joshua 3:13

There is a version of faith that stays on the riverbank forever — analyzing, calculating, waiting for conditions to improve. And then there is the faith that gets its feet wet. In Get Your Feet Wet, Pastor Mike O'Connell walks through Joshua 3 and 4 to show us what it looks like to finally stop wandering and step into the life God has been promising all along.

Where Are You on the Map?

Before Pastor Mike dives into the text, he paints a picture of the full spiritual journey — from Egypt to the wilderness to the promised land, and for some, all the way to Babylon. Egypt represents bondage, the life before Christ. The wilderness is where too many believers get stuck — Jesus is Savior, but not yet Lord. The promised land is the abundant life, the full purpose he paid for. And Babylon is what happens when disobedience and distraction pull us away from what we once possessed. The question is honest and personal: where are you today?

W — Walk Close

The first move before anyone crosses the Jordan is consecration. Joshua tells the people to purify themselves before they take a single step. Pastor Mike is clear: you do not consecrate yourself to earn God's blessing. You consecrate yourself to ready your heart to receive it. Preparation for the promise begins with consecration in private. The secret place is the secret sauce. And you cannot follow a king you have drifted away from. Proximity to God produces readiness for the promise.

E — Enter Anyway

Here is where the message gets personal. When the Israelites crossed the Red Sea, Moses lifted his staff and God parted the water. But this time, God changes the script. He waits for the feet to touch the water first. The thing that once disqualified them — fear and unbelief — is now the exact test they must pass to get in. The Jordan was not at a trickle. It was flood season. The river was a mile wide. And God said step. When you do what only you can do, God does what only He can do — including things happening 20 miles upstream that you cannot even see yet. Comfort will always whisper to go back. But as Pastor Mike says, if you are not careful, comfort becomes your cage. You can have comfort or growth. You cannot have both.

T — Tell the Story

After the crossing, God does not let the Israelites simply keep walking. He stops them and tells them to go back into the riverbed, pick up 12 stones, and build a memorial. Not because God needed a monument — but because the next generation would need a reason to believe. What stays only in our minds is easily forgotten. What is written down can be passed down. Your testimony is not just evidence of God's faithfulness to you. It becomes hope for someone else's crossing.

The water will not part until your feet get wet. What step are you waiting to take?