9.2 Revealing God
© 2015 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
Rivers of living water flowing out of our bellies. – But first, the source of those rivers.
Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into age-abiding life (John 4:13b-14).
Jesus uses a metaphor, a symbol, as a means of conveying meaning to us. In fact, all words are only symbols of what they represent. Thus we are free to speak, not of the metaphor, but literally, of what Jesus actually means. Jesus always means the Father.
Fountain of Water
The fountain of water springing up is the entrance of the Father into us through Christ Jesus. We understand, however, that God is omnipresent; that is, God fills all things with all of Himself always. But God is always invisible. No one in heaven or earth knows He is there.
Thus, when we say “the entrance of the Father,” we are speaking of “entrance into our knowledge.” God is always there, but now we know that He is. Christ lives in your hearts by faith is the beginning of knowing the Father.
Subdue
We must then bring in the second foundation for comprehending rivers flowing out of our bellies. The action verb of the universe, the operational word governing God’s intention for man’s action, is, in the Hebrew, “subdue,” and in the New Testament, “overcome.”
Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Subdue” (Genesis 1:28a). The word “it” is not in the Hebrew, subdue refers to all creation, and is not limited to the earth. At the center of man’s perplexity and confusion lies the question, “How?” How do we subdue? Adam had no such ability or knowledge.
Not by Might
The serpent’s proposal is to command and to control. That is, tell people what you insist that they do and then inflict unbearable pain on them until they comply. Jesus’ proposal is to lay down His life for His enemies, making them His new best friends.
Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit (Zechariah 4:6).
Let’s reduce this for understanding. God intended Adam to “subdue” all creation by the river of Spirit flowing out of his belly. The source of that river would be Adam’s eating of the tree of life – laying down his own life for the sake of all.
The Task
The task of the Son is to restore all things back to the Father. Jesus does that by the Spirit flowing out from Love, out from His heart, flowing out to heal and bless and give life to all. Jesus lives in our hearts for that very purpose.
But it is only the sending forth of the Spirit by which all things of God are accomplished. That Spirit flows out of our belly, our heart, our womb. In other words, the Spirit flows out of our confidence. The river of life is always flowing out of us because we believe in Jesus. We know that it is only when we believe that it is. We believe by faith and not by outward appearance.
The River
John saw this same River of Living Water proceeding from the throne of God. Ezekiel saw it flowing out of God's temple. Jesus says that it comes out of our innermost beings, our hearts, our bellies. The throne, the temple, and our hearts are the same thing. I will not include portions of Ezekiel's temple here, you can read it yourself in Ezekiel 47. As you read, however, understand that this vision of Ezekiel concerning what is called “Ezekiel's Temple” is not referring to any stone building but to the House of God. God does not live in buildings made of stone, but in His Body, the Church. Ezekiel's vision corresponds directly with John's.
Our Very Life
. . . a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. . . on either side of the river, was the tree of life. . . yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it. . . They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads (Revelation 22:1-4).
Jesus said that the River flows from our hearts. John saw the River flowing from the throne of God. – Same thing. – The River flows from the Mercy Seat, the beating Heart of Jesus, beating now in us, pumping His Blood, our very life, into every particle of our being.
The River Flows
The RIVER is the only thing that transforms anything. The RIVER is the only thing that subdues. Outward appearance changes only as the RIVER flows out from the innermost being of a man or woman filled with God as they presently are.
The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost (Luke 19:10).
The ministry of Christ through us is a river of Spirit always flowing out whether we see it or not, because we believe in Jesus.We walk by faith and not by sight. That river of Spirit always flowing out IS bringing life and healing and joy to all, each in their season.
What Do You Want?
Let’s trace the progression of Jesus’ words.
1. If anyone thirsts. – 2. Let him come to Me –3. And drink – 4. He who believes in me.
Thirst is the strongest form of desire. Thirst is the pre-requisite for knowing God. What do you want? In fact Jesus, here, correlates thirst and river; the depth of the thirst corresponds to the outflow of Spirit. But it is only drinking of Jesus that turns thirst into rivers.
Drink of Me
Let him come to Me and drink. – Put on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Abide in Me and I in you. – Learn of Me.
These are four ways of saying the same thing. Always it is Jesus inside of us, all of Him filling every particle that we are, and we inside of Him, every part of us, including our sin and our shame and our flesh, found only inside of Jesus. When Jesus said, “He who believes in Me,” this is what He meant. “He who believes that he exists only in Me and that I am all that he is.”
I Believe in Jesus
The Bible arguers are “correct” when they argue that Jesus alone is the source of the river of life. What they fail to grasp is that I am in Jesus and Jesus is in me. Jesus and I are one; Jesus lives as me. I believe in Jesus.
Not “I believe,” but “I believe in Jesus.” Faith is specific to the Word God speaks and the Word God speaks is always Personal, Personal as Jesus, and He, Personal as me. Jesus is real; we walk by faith and not by sight. Thus we KNOW without any question that the rivers of life ARE flowing out of us right now.
Most Personal
But again – the Father, making Himself known, always appears as other persons. Just as Jesus, Father made visible as another Person, is Personal in us, so the Holy Spirit, Father acting upon His creation, is also very, very Personal.
The rivers are not a thing or a force field or a power. The rivers are the most personal person of all, the One who hides, who never speaks of Himself, but only of Jesus, the One who works all in all, quietly, unseen and unknown. The most personal person of the Spirit.
Let the Spirit be what He is; allow Him to do what He does.
The Spirit
And the Spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters (Genesis 1:2b). – And the Lord God . . . breathed into his nostrils the breath of life . . . (Genesis 2:7).
. . . the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him (Matthew 3:16b). – The Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered (Romans 8:26b).
Rivers of living water flowing out of our bellies.
The most Personal personalness of God. Our job is to trust that the Spirit is working all things.
The Normal
Christians want to make the outflow of Spirit to be something extraordinary and abnormal, something above and beyond. They carry an image of mighty face and great command and awesome force. That is not the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is the most normal, the most ordinary, the most intimate, the most here and now, the most tender, the most touching, the most lifting up that there is. Yes, the demonstration of the Spirit transforms people, sometimes dramatically, but always personally, always from within first, always through faith.
Spirit and Word
The Spirit is not “the Sent One,” Jesus is; the Spirit is the Sending.
Writing the lesson, “Like God Outwardly,” changed my knowledge of God and of ourselves. Disability is part of God. The Father has no body and thus cannot make Himself known to His creation. In the sending forth of Himself to make Himself known, the Father lives as two Persons always together.
The diagram on the right gives us a picture of how Spirit and Word are always together. Yes, it is used as an “occultic” symbol; I use it only for us to picture Jesus Sent.
The Glory of Disability
Jesus said, “I can of Myself do nothing.”
People say, “Well, in Christ you can do anything,” leaving us to blame for our inability. Jesus’ disability is matched perfectly by the Spirit’s ability. But the Spirit is not the One who makes God visible; only Jesus does that. The Spirit’s disability is matched perfectly by Jesus’ ability.
This is how God lives and how He exists out from Himself. We need one another. God needs us, and we need Him. We have what God needs, a body, and God has what we need, Himself.
The Sending
Rivers of living water are the going forth of the Sent One, Word and Spirit always together. You and I are the Word, Jesus as us, the face of the Sent One. But the Spirit is the energia and the going forth, the Sending of the Sent One. You and I speak, Christ in our mouth, the Spirit accomplishes all the speaking of Christ. The Rivers of living water do not “leave” the Word to do whatever; rather, the rivers of Spirit are entwined always with Word and Word always with those Rivers. Come to Me and drink.
Rivers
Jesus said, “Rivers.”
I grew up in Oregon and thus have laughed, many times, at what people elsewhere call a “river,” sometimes what we would have called a ditch. The Snake is a mighty river, bigger than what most people call a river. The Deschutes is a river; the Okanagan is a river; the Santiam is a river, larger than many, but only one part of the mighty river called the Willamette, the Pend Oreille, the Kootenay, these are rivers.
Not one of these and many other mighty rivers reach the ocean. No. It is the Father of Rivers, the great Columbia, carrying inside itself RIVERS, that flows its life into the sea.
Love Poured Out
The love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us (Romans 5:5b). Has been – already fully real and complete now.
Let’s just bring it down to simple, personal reality. You and I were created by God, and won by His heart of love to Himself, so that God Himself might flow through our hearts as the Holy Spirit, and, out through us, bring life and healing and joy to all of His creation.
Through us, the knowledge of Father. Through us, Rivers of living water.
Gentle, gentle Holy Spirit, subduing all things by love.