24.3 Rivers of Spirit
© 2017 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
On the last day, that great day of the Feast of Tabernacles, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive… (John 7:37-39a).
Not by inward fortitude nor by outward ability, but by My Spirit, says the Lord of hosts (Zechariah 4:6). – But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us (2 Corinthians 4:7).
The Spirit flowing out from us, from Father and us together through our shared faith, IS the actual power by which creation is set free.
Establishing Covenant. God, who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee (2 Corinthians 1:22). – By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit (1 John 4:13). – He who is joined to the Lord is one Spirit with Him (1 Corinthians 6:17).
I am bringing in all these critical verses because this point of the Covenant MUST be fully established underneath all of our thinking and talking, living and doing. But let’s first place these Rivers of Spirit, this Cleansing Water, into our model of the Tabernacle. This Cleansing Water is our final place in the Covenant preceding and therefore causing the transformation of our bodies.
Fire before Water. I find it to be wondrous that, just as in our original entrance through the gate, the Sacrifice came first and the Water came second, so it is the same again in Moses’ placement of these things as he assembled the Tabernacle.
Consuming Fire always precedes Cleansing Water. The Water restores what the Fire consumes. This is God’s order and it is continuous.
False fire is fire that burns separately from Word now become Christ as us in our mouths. False water is word that creates a persona of “Christ” separately from the Consuming Fire of the cross. I AM crucified with Christ, (followed always by) nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ.
Rivers of Spirit. Yet in our model, we are still inside the outer court. God has many who do belong utterly to Him in this limited place, and the only thing that will set them free is Rivers of Spirit flowing out from Father and us together, drawing them swiftly into the Holy Place. But more on this line of thinking in the next session.
Having placed this Cleansing Water into God’s order, let’s investigate further these Rivers of Spirit flowing out from Uus. Yet our present investigation regards Covenant rather than Kingdom, undergirding Word rather than outward ordering. How does the Covenant shape and define this outflow of Spirit from our bellies?
Fire and Water. First, this River proceeds from the Holiest as well as from the Holy Place, both. The source of the flow of Spirit is always the Holiest, that is, each one of us as individual members of Christ. Yet that flow cannot proceed out into creation except by passing through the Holy Place, which is all of us together as the one Body of Christ.
Yet we are speaking, here, of both Fire and Water. For the path of the Water is the same path as the Fire, the path we have studied as believers together as Bread, Light, and Incense. And yes, the Water is the Spirit and the Fire is the Lord Jesus, and the two cannot ever be separated.
Earth and Air. I don’t want to get too esoteric here, but we could follow this pattern just a bit further – fire and water, earth and air. Earth and air are the channels, the passage-through of God becoming known. And earth is the Lord Jesus – the Word become flesh, while air is the Holy Spirit, the breath of life: earth and heaven. And we are the earth, flesh of His flesh, as well as the heavens, one Spirit with Him.
The problem is, this whole line of thinking sets us in front of many directions of thinking, all of them interesting. Our task here, however, is to know the Covenant.
Without Measure. First, the Holy Spirit is clearly “given to us” as the “first part” of our inheritance. That means that the Holy Spirit is our possession, Our Holy Spirit.
Now, many have taken a statement by John the Baptist as indicating that Jesus, when He walked the earth, was given the Spirit “without measure,” meaning, in contrast, that God gives us only a “small portion” of the Spirit. This is an extraordinary definition of “the Spirit,” that He can be chopped up and doled out in chunks, rather than Christ Jesus, a Life-giving Spirit all here now and personal in each one.
For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God does not give the Spirit by measure (John 3:34).
A Covenant Word. Notice that it does not say “God does not give – to Jesus only – the Spirit by measure.” It’s simply a statement of the reality of God’s Being – All in all.
However, this kind of limited thinking then also assumes that you and I are entities of our own selves, attempting to establish ourselves in the sight of God. Such attempt would be laughable if it were not so evil.
Christ Jesus alone is our life; we are His physical body. God anoints Jesus – God anoints us – same thing.
But look further at that verse; I do believe this is a Covenant word. For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God does not give the Spirit by measure.
The Spirit Given to Us. Those SENT (apostled) out from Father speak a pure Word of Christ their only life. Upon them is the fullness of the Spirit, Rivers of Life flowing out, because when God gives His Spirit, He gives the whole shebang!
Consider this Spirit given to us, then, this Spirit always overflowing from our own hearts. We are speaking of a Spirit that is larger than the universe, that contains in its workings all things. This Spirit is the effecting of God upon all elements in creation. The Son is the Fire that works within; the Spirit is the power (signified by water) that works upon. Jesus spoke the word; the Spirit did the work.
Science of Frequencies. Consider a Spirit larger than the universe, working constantly upon everything created. God has given this Spirit in His entirety to you as your own personal possession. Indeed you are one Spirit with this Spirit, so much so that He is your human Sspirit.
The practice of homeopathy is derided for two reasons, the lessor is that the clear science behind it is neither understood nor studied. (The greater reason is the monopoly control of violent medicine.) The science of frequency is a real science, yet it is applied only in the arena of radio waves. But the frequencies emitted by every physical element are not studied, especially as those frequencies relate to the operation of the human body.
Water Adapts Frequency. Are these frequencies the actual realm of spirit? Or are they simply in tune with the realms of the heavens? We do not know for sure.
It is now established scientifically that trees emit a frequency out from themselves, and that through this frequency a “mother tree” will aid other nearby trees with its strength during times of difficulty. We are not speaking of “hocus pocus,” but of the natural operation of the things God created.
Of all elements, the frequencies of water are the most adaptable. Water will take on the frequency of any element with which it comes in contact.
Frequencies of Healing. That means that, if you bathe a sick person with water, and then take that water through a complete filtration system so that no impurity from the sick person remains in it, it makes no difference. The water will still vibrate at the frequency of the sickness, and if you drink it, it will impart that frequency to you. If your immune system is strong, you will likely throw it off, but if weak, then it is possible to succumb to that sickness just by the frequency of the water.
Healing also works in the same way. Thus it is the frequencies of the essential oils of healing herbs that are more important than the chemical makeup of those oils.
A Metaphor of the Real. Let’s put two lines side by side.
If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. – For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God does not give the Spirit by measure.
Rivers of living water flowing out is clearly a metaphor. We must understand how the metaphor fits. The Spirit is all everywhere. All things live and move and have their being inside the Spirit of God. Yet many beings are of a false frequency, contrary to that Spirit in which they exist.
Ocean Waves. Now, the study of waves in the ocean describes the same operation and concept as electrical frequencies. The water itself does not travel from a disturbance all the way to the distant shore. It is the wave that moves through the water, beginning with the water at a landslide or from a storm, and then moving through the water in-between before reaching the water that was already at the affected shore.
Rivers of living Water flowing out are the same thing inside the Spirit of God. The blind person already exists only inside the Spirit. But when Jesus speaks words into that Spirit, the wave of the frequency of those words moves upon the blind eyes and those eyes come into harmony with the wholeness of the Spirit.
Frequency of Spirit. Our Father has placed the Words that are Christ Jesus into our mouths, to speak those Words first as ourselves and second out into all creation. As we speak Christ, those words flow out from us as frequency through the essence of the Holy Spirit belonging to us and begin to vibrate upon the one to whom we are speaking.
Now, it is always entirely the right of the individual person to hear and receive or to block and refuse those words coming through the frequency, the wave of Spirit. Yet, though we fully acknowledge that right, we also know that RIVERS of Spirit are very persuasive. Jesus always said, “According to your faith,” but seeing Him provided the faith.
A Mountain Cast into the Sea. Let’s get a strong picture of this River of Power flowing out from us, from Christ in our hearts, coming through our mouths. Have faith in God. For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea’ … (Mark 11:22-23).
The Canary island of Las Palmas, with two (or more) volcanoes on it, is very fragile. Those volcanoes erupt regularly. The entire mountainside facing the Atlantic is loose; the next big shaking will likely send the whole mountain into the sea. The volume of rock likely to drop into the sea, would, by the estimates of some oceanographers, result in a wave 1000-feet-high as it hits the entire arc from northern Brazil to Newfoundland. A mountain cast into the sea does not create a “splash.” The effect of that wave on the coastline would be beyond calculation.
To Cleanse. Yet Jesus said, “Have faith in God.” And He said, Whoever SAYS… and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he SAYS will be done, he will have whatever he says. Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.
The metaphor Jesus used was speaking of the effect of Word flowing through Spirit upon the recipient of that flow. The Spirit is the Power by which the Word spoken by us becomes the Word affecting the one receiving that Word. A wave of water 1000 feet high hitting a coastline would “CLEANSE” that coastline of all resistance.
Through Faith. Now, God gives us big examples so that we might understand the bigness of the simplicity of Our Holy Spirit going out from our hearts, carrying the effects of our words upon individuals as well as upon all.
And all of it happens THROUGH our faith. And since our faith IS the faith of the Son of God, we need not concern ourselves over the bigness or littleness of “our” faith. Jesus is more than enough.
Do you see how this incredible verse just grows and grows in our understanding – homologia, speaking the same Word. The Word is near you, even in your heart and in your mouth, this Word of faith which we SPEAK.
Oour River Flows. If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. Drinking of Christ is ourselves coming into harmony with the One Spirit of God, singing the same song, vibrating at the same frequency, rejoicing in the same joy, speaking the same Words as personal to ourselves.
And then we turn and speak, out from the Mercy Seat of God – our own hearts where this same Holy Spirit dwells.
And as the source of that frequency of Spirit flowing out, we, together with Father, direct with purpose and togetherness that outflow of WAVE Power as a River of Life, bringing the same frequencies of wholeness, of healing, of Salvation, everywhere Oour River flows.