59. Rivers Flow out from Us

Now, on the last day, the great day of the Feast of Tabernacles, Jesus stood [in the moment of complete silence] and shouted loudly, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. The one who believes into me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Rivers of living water will overflow out from his heart [the entire organ section, lungs, heart, belly, womb]” (Isaiah 44:3). Now, He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those having believed into Him were about to receive (John 7:37-39).

This ruling verse describes God, humans, the relationship between the two, how God accomplishes His purpose through us, and the power by which that purpose happens.

The Same by Vision. Then John saw this same thing again in a visionary description, except that the vision always serves the apostolic word as a supporting verse. – Then the angel showed me a river of water of life, shining as crystal, flowing out from the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the middle of its street and of the river, on this side and on that side, was the tree of life, producing twelve fruits, each yielding its fruit according to month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the ethnic families.

Revelation 22 is another way of seeing John 7 in power in the heavens. Yet here are two further ways of seeing the same thing, from Isaiah and Paul.

Being Normal Humans. For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. – The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together (Isaiah 11:9 & 40:5). – With the aroma of His knowledge being made visible through us in every place (2 Corinthians 2:14).

We are looking at the normal and practical purpose of being human, intended by God. Filled with all of God – revealing God to all.

The lines from Isaiah and Paul are also ruling verses of the Bible. We want to know how John’s vision expands our understanding of this critical element of God through us.

The Source to Creation. As the Tabernacle, God among us, we are the glory of the Father. As the New Jerusalem, the Body of the Lord Jesus, we are the glory of the Son. And as the source of the Rivers of the knowledge of God flowing into all creation, we are the glory of the Devoted Spirit.

We are not God, neither do we Love. Rather, we are filled with God who alone Loves through us. We are not Jesus; we are His visible form to all heaven-earth, for we share form with Him. And we are not the Rivers flowing out; rather, those Rivers, the action of the Spirit, flow out from our hearts to all.

Everywhere We Go. Life is knowing God, and healing is receiving being Loved. Yet all created things, whether earthly or heavenly or both, NEED a tangible expression of Life and Love. Life, then, comes through the bright kindness of our faces, and Love comes through the gentle touch of our hands, – according to Paul, everywhere we go.

On our Jesus Secret page, I want three boxes, first “The Source of the River,” then “The River and Us,” and finally, “The Effects of the River.” These will be followed by a larger statement of faith that will include everything found in Chapter 22.

Our Human Hearts. Here is why the ruling verses of the Bible, coming out from Apostolic Word, rule our thinking of everything. Every mention of what would be the source of the River of Life into the knowing and experience of creation seems to present something different. But because Jesus’ words in John 7 rule, we know that all are speaking of the same thing – our human hearts of flesh, that is, where Jesus dwells and is written.

I want to go through each of several references to the source of the passage of God out from invisibility into being seen and known, which is what our passage is describing.

John’s Gospel. Jesus said, “Out from his kolia.” The Greek word refers to the entire cavity containing lungs, heart, stomach, guts, and womb. It can symbolize “the inner man,” but it is most often translated “womb.”

Thus every translation is legitimate, but I have settled on “heart” for the JSV because Christ lives in our hearts, because Christ Jesus is written by Spirit ink upon our human hearts of flesh. As we saw in A Highway for God, our hearts are the entrance of God out from invisibility into being known by all. Our human hearts of flesh are His wide-open doorway.

Ezekiel’s Vision. In Chapter 47, Ezekiel saw the source of the River as being from the “south side” of the altar, flowing out from under the southern temple wall and towards the east. This altar would be the Altar of Incense and the “south side” is that which faces Jerusalem.

As we proceed out from the Holiest, this Altar has now become 1 John 3:16, our commitment to set forth our souls for our brethren (Jerusalem) just as Jesus does for us. This is the jasper stone (Blood-Life) with the sardius stone (dull earth) Jesus’ Heart and our hearts shared together. Giving every moment of our lives to the Father for the sake of others is God’s open Door into creation.

Isaiah’s Words. Isaiah saw God coming through a highway prepared for Him. Every aspect of building a road through mountains, then, is used by Isaiah to describe the preparation of our hearts for God coming through. This preparation is not for us to “go into God,” as we once imagined. We are in God; God already shares all with us. The preparation is for God coming through.

“God coming through” is another word for “The River of Life” and “Rivers of Living Water.” And thus this passage of God coming through is not for us, but for others. This is our glory forever, the glory of the Devoted Spirit.

Paul’s Gospel. We will reference two things in Paul’s gospel. First, the source of the aroma of the knowledge of God going forth into every place is our being led, by the Spirit, in the celebration of the Victory already complete. This is our utter confidence of faith in what is not yet seen.

The second is Paul’s description of the Ekenosis in Philippians 2, that Jesus called God out from invisibility and into being seen and known through faith and through His weak humanity. Thus the source includes the speaking of our faith. This is not calling humans into God, but rather, calling God into the knowledge of all flesh.

John’s Vision. Flowing out from the throne of God and of the Lamb. We must pass through all the other definitions of our hearts before we arrive at John’s final description. Our hearts are the throne of God and of the Lamb. – And I saw thrones, and THEY sat upon them, and judgment was given to THEM.

Our hearts of flesh, filled with Jesus, given as we also – for the sake of our brethren, prepared for God coming through, standing upon the firm confidence of faith, ARE the authority of God inside all creation, heaven and earth. We possess the authority to cause God to be known, Rivers of Living Water, flowing out from us.

The Source of the River. Jesus said that rivers of Spirit flow out from our hearts, out from our innermost beings, the River of Life. Our hearts are the alter of incense going forth, even as we love others as Jesus loves us. Our hearts are the highway prepared for God, His entrance into being Himself, seen and known, inside all creation. God comes through us, even as we walk in the utter confidence of the Victory already complete. We call God into our world through the faith found in our weak humanity. Our hearts of flesh, filled with Jesus, given as His own love for the sake of our brethren, prepared for God coming through, standing upon the firm confidence of faith, ARE the authority of God inside all heaven and earth. We possess the authority to cause God to be known, rivers of living water, flowing out from us.

Waters in which to Swim. Next, we want to consider the relationship between the River flowing through and ourselves. – As Ezekiel said, these are Waters in which to swim. In John 15-16, Jesus said that the primary purpose of the Spirit in our lives is to cause us to know Jesus Sent into us. Thus John 6:63, “It is the Spirit that gives life” and “the Spirit causes you to know Jesus Sent into you” are two ways of saying the same thing.

I imagine that my confidence in the immanent working of the Spirit is the least part of my apprehension of God, yet I must also accept that my whole life is a story of the Spirit causing me to know Jesus Sent into me.

The Effect of God. We used to view Ezekiel’s description of entering into ever deeper levels of the Spirit as an “achievement” over time. Now we understand that the only thing that pleases God is our absolute faith that what He speaks is already the only thing True. We live and walk inside of the overflowing bath of the Spirit of God. Our acknowledgment of what is True then allows us to know the meaning of the Spirit.

The Spirit is the Effect of God. When God touches any part of His creation with a gentle knowing or a dramatic effect, that touch or effect is the Spirit.

Flowing Through. Yet we are not here speaking of the Spirit in many of its qualities, but rather in that one aspect called RIVERS. The River is the vast depth, width, and strength of the Spirit FLOWING THROUGH!

What is the meaning to us of the Spirit flowing through our beings, spirit, soul, and physic, with the mighty intent to go on beyond us in order to create great effect in the knowing of all created things everywhere we go? That great effect in the knowing of all created things is God made visible, God unleashed, the Father just being Himself. What does it mean for us as it flows through us?
 
Not of Us. Thus we see the absolute supreme importance of our human weakness – that the excellency of the POWER might be of God and NOT of us. More than once the people wanted to call Paul, “God,” and when he convinced them that he was not God, they wanted to kill him.

There is nothing more important to our human counterpart of Rivers flowing through than the exercise (chastisement) of God in teaching us to be silent about ourselves as if we were something separate from Him, to be content in how He made us, weak, incapable, and often foolish, and to receive our brethren who are the same as us.

God Manifest in the Flesh. The result in us, in the fabric of our humanity, as such great power flows through us effecting all creation around us in so many incredible ways, as we match that power with our human weakness and inability, with neither self-abasement nor self-exaltation, is, I am convinced – KINDNESS.

Far more than the physical part of our bodies being swallowed up by LIFE is that we will be KIND, that is, the full expression of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is a humility in kindness, for it is not perceived as being “great.” Nonetheless all who are around us cannot escape the nagging certainty that they are LOVED. Kindness is the marriage between Rivers and weakness, that is, Spirit through flesh, God manifest in the flesh.

The Union of Power and Weakness. It is this union, then, between absolute POWER flowing through and utter WEAKNESS in contentment that becomes the greatest knowing of Jesus Sent into us, and with Jesus, knowing the Father.

So many reach for power in themselves as “God with me.” So many are contemptuous of glorying in weakness. I was even taught once that if I made a mistake, it meant that I was not hearing from God, but walking in “disobedience.” Yet when we take our searing inabilities and all our ongoing debilitating mistakes and failures and place them with ourselves into Father sharing all with us, we become the pure HARMONY that sings with RIVERS flowing through.

The River and Us. The Devoted Spirit flows through us carrying the Effect of God, His gentle touch, His dramatic salvation, into the experience of all. Even as we see the Rivers flow through and beyond our weak humanity, so we also dwell utterly inside that same Spirit. We glory in our weakness; we rejoice that God has brought us to silence about any self separate from the Lord Jesus. We embrace the chastisement of God that we might be content in how God made us, that the excellency of the power flowing through might be God. The union of our human weakness with the power of the Spirit flowing through is kindness, the kindness of Jesus revealed through us. We are the pure harmony that sings with Rivers flowing through.

Life and Healing. Now we want to consider the effects and impact of this RIVER as it flows through us upon everything and everyone with whom we come in contact. Those effects can be placed into one of two categories, Life and Healing, as seen by John and Ezekiel, both.

As we said, Life is knowing the Father made visible and Healing is receiving the knowing of being loved. And so both qualities are personal, Personal to the Father and personal to the created thing or person. When I look at my own life, I see that these two qualities happen together, a bit at a time, ever increasing.

A Fascinating Puzzle. Let’s catch a view of Ezekiel’s description, from Chapter 47. – This water flows …down into the valley… When it reaches the sea, its waters are healed. And it shall be that every living thing that moves, wherever the rivers go, will live. …for they will be healed, and everything will live wherever the river goes. Then this – Their fruit will be for food [life], and their leaves for medicine [healing].

Both John and Ezekiel saw that there is a different fruit for each month of the year, twelve in all. This is a fascinating puzzle, which I have never considered before.

Death and Pain. Then John said that the leaves are for the healing of the ethnic families. This is another fascinating puzzle I have never considered.

Death, in its every aspect and encounter, is ripping apart, and ripping apart is the knowing of PAIN. AND – this pain is known by God as much as the humans who have inflicted death by their rejection of being weak.

Life must come first, but healing must immediately follow. I know pain. I know healing. And I know that the pain experienced by others is not different from the pain I have known. I also know that their path of healing must share the same basic qualities of my path of healing.

As a Poultice. For thirty years, from 1970 to 2000, I knew continual unresolved pain. Then for twenty years, from 2000 to 2020, I knew a continual, but only partial healing. Real healing began for me only when I began to write my life story, that is, when I gave an account of every part of my life inside the presence of God.

In giving that account, I did two things, both necessary for healing. First, I placed Jesus upon myself in that moment of failure and pain, sharing all with me, and second, I received to myself with joy each individual who, in my perception at the time, had caused the pain. The leaves of healing are as a poultice drawing out the causes of the pain.

True for All. Death comes from not seeing Jesus as part of us in every moment of our lives. Pain comes by accusing God and others of doing things we don’t like. These two definitions are true for all. Life comes first by placing Jesus upon ourselves and healing comes immediately after by receiving all others with joy as Jesus to us.

What we are saying, then, is that this mighty EFFECT comes upon all as the RIVER flows through us. God never “zaps.” All must first receive Jesus in every moment (giving thanks) and then receive others (speaking the same word that Jesus speaks).

God’s Intention. The river of death flows from the tree of clamoring self, by human and even Christian choice, bringing death and pain to all whom it touches. Yet God’s intention from the beginning was that the River of Life would flow from the Tree of Life, Jesus Sent into us, by our human choice and through our human weakness, bringing life and healing to all whom it touches.

The Effects of the River. God’s intention from the beginning was that the River of Life would flow from the Tree of Life, Jesus Sent into us, by our human choice and through our human weakness, bringing life and healing to all whom it touches. The Spirit gives life, that is, the knowledge of the Father through knowing Jesus Sent. The Spirit through us teaches all to place Jesus upon themselves in every moment of their lives. Then the Spirit through us brings the giving of thanks to all, into every hurt they have known, bringing an end to all curse with the speaking of Christ in every mouth. The leaves of our healing are as a poultice, drawing out the causes of the pain. There is no more curse; there is no more death. God as Life is all inside of all.

The Rest of the Chapter. There are other wondrous things in Revelation 22 that I have not brought into this lesson. Yet what I have included is the most important and must be the center of everything else flowing out. Thus I will include further points from Chapter 22 in a bit larger box of our statements of faith, which I have titled, “Our Final Declaration.” Yet this final declaration is the final thing on the last page of The Jesus Secret II (except for a short conclusion).

To call God through is to speak Christ. And thus we know that RIVERS of LIFE are flowing through us right now.

Our Final Declaration. We see the river of the water of Life flowing out from out hearts, the throne of God and of the Lamb, into all creation. Our hearts are that throne, the seat of Jesus, and all authority is given to us. We are the tree of Life, for we partake only of Christ Jesus. The kindness of our faces and the gentle touch of our hands bring healing to all ethnic families. We bless and there is no more curse. The Father and the Lamb dwell inside of us; we worship Him. We are His face; we make His presence known. The Name of the Father is upon our foreheads. God is our light, and the unfolding of the ages flows out from our desire.

We know that which must become. We keep guard over every Word God speaks, we are blessed. We release the words of prophecy; we unveil the truth regarding all. We are the coming of the Lord Jesus swiftly, for we are His form in all heaven-earth. With Jesus, we go before, with Jesus, we follow after. We are the source of Life to all; we bring completion to the Father. We give to eat of the tree of Life; we welcome many into the city of God. We are the root and offspring of David; we are the shining morning star. With the Spirit and as the Bride, we say, "Come." We give to drink of the water of Life freely to all. Let it be so; it is so.

Life Only. I have such a sense, in completing this wondrous finale of The Jesus Secret II, that the entire Bible has become one book, one seamless story of a Gospel more glorious than anything anyone has imagined. I now know that knowing the Bible as one, the testimony of the Lord Jesus, has been the agony of my soul and the desperate cry of my travail since I was nineteen years old.

I also know now that reality as it exists around all of us is something very, very different from the twisted perception, called “reality,” taking place in the minds of humans. There is Life only; there is only God. When we know that, death must be no more.

Reading for Next Time. The next session is the final lesson of our study of John’s vision, titled, “An Apocalypse of Life.” There will be no reading for this session except that we will attempt to sum up what we have learned and to argue once again that the Apocalypse is the most wonderful thing ever to happen on this earth, the completion of the goodness and Salvation of God.

The picture of Odysseus shooting his arrow straight through the lined-up hoops of the axe handles is how I see what God has done for us in this study. Everything in John’s vision fits in a straight line, and God’s determined Purpose shoots right through it all.



Let’s Pray Together. “God, our Father, Your Word is so beautiful and wonderful to us, for You have made all of it to sing together as the Lord Jesus inside of our hearts and our knowing. Father, we know that we live only inside of You and that You share every part of our lives with us. We know that Your Salvation has swallowed up all things and that Life is the only reality that exists. Father, You have caused us to live and have brought us safely into Your Heart.

“Yet now, Father, we look upon our brethren, all who belong to Jesus now upon the earth, and we know the pain caused by a way of thinking that is not real.


“Father, cause us to be kind, as Jesus is kind, that the tender touch of Your gentle Spirit might flow through us into their knowledge of You. Father, just as You gave Yourself utterly to us through Jesus, so through that same Jesus, we give ourselves utterly to You for the sake of all who call upon Your name. Father, let us be Your wide-open door, a passage prepared just for You, that You might now be free to be Yourself inside Your Church upon this earth.

“Father, we stand fast upon the certainty that Your Word is True, that what You speak is the only reality that exists. We are the proof of Jesus faithful and True. Father, just as we are Yours, so now You are LIFE through us for all.”