12. I Drink of Jesus

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If any man thirst, let him come to Me and drink.

We hope to open, just a bit, the depths that are in this one line. Yet we must limit ourselves to the proscribed pages of The Jesus Secret II. We have here two individuals, you and Jesus. You are described as a person who THIRSTS. From John 17 we know that the counter of thirst inside of Jesus is DESIRE. Both of these qualities, thirst and desire, are powerful and even aggressive. Yet the two actions are yours to do. Your first action is “to come to” Jesus in person, and your second action is “to drink.”

The Cause of Thirst. Yet we cannot begin with thirst, for the cause of all thirst is DESIRE, the passionate desire of Jesus for you.

Here is an incredible thought that appeared at the end of the last lesson. ~ The Spirit flowing out matches the drinking of Him, and the drinking of Him matches the human thirst, and the human thirst matches the Desire of Jesus. ~ Let’s reverse that. The Desire of Jesus causes us to thirst for Him to know Him, and the level of our thirst results in how much of Him we drink. Then, the extent of our drinking causes the same extent of the Spirit flowing out.

Spirit and Life. On this page and the next, we must create the boxes first, simply because the topic is too vast. I have had a statement of faith out from John 6:63 floating around and have been moving it forward since I had no room left on any previous page. This time I realized that it does fit best at the top of this page. Here it is; this is in larger print on the page.

The Spirit gives me life, outward appearance means nothing; the words that Jesus speaks into me are the only words I hear. His Words are Spirit, one spirit with me, and they are my only life.

Limiting the Page. This line placed here then follows the box titled “The Moment of Silence.” And of truth, the offensiveness of Jesus in John 6 was meant to produce the same result in us as the silence of John 7. That result is to turn our eyes and our ears, at least for one brief moment, away from all the clamor and the busy doings of our own tiny selves and to see and to hear Jesus alone.

Then the remaining boxes for the page are first a very small enflowing of Word followed by “Desire,” after which we place an “Ask and Believe,” for we must connect with that Desire, followed by “Thirst,” and then, “I Drink.”

The Planting of Desire. Father, I DESIRE that those whom You have given Me might be with Me, that they might behold My glory (John 17:24).

In the realms of Spirit, what you “see” is the completion of a process. You cannot see what you are not already. If we see His glory, then we are already sharing it, and the sharing of His glory is sharing that quality that turns difficult things into goodness for others.

I know now that God planted the seed of thirst in me when I was fifteen-years old, and that seed of thirst was “Give thanks,” a seed that the darkness could not eliminate.

A Fierce Desire. It is difficult, really, to speak of the intensity of the DESIRE of Jesus to have you with Him in His glory. They say there are more than 200 billion galaxies each containing more than 200 billion stars, and the fire of all of them is but a pale and tiny light when arrayed against the Desire of the One who wants you with Him.

The terrible thing about Jesus, however, is that He will never force His Desire upon you. You can walk right by it and see it not at all. It’s easy to identify someone who is caught in Jesus’ fierce Desire, however, for such a one can never escape the bony finger of God contending ever with them.

The Enflowing of Word. With great desire, Jesus wants me to be with Him to share His glory. He plants His desire inside of me, and I thirst. I thirst; I come to Jesus; I drink of Him. I drink of Jesus; I drink of His Word; I drink of His Spirit. I drink of Life itself, and I am filled to overflowing. Jesus is more than I can contain.

It’s a funny thing. When I speak Christ made personal as me, my emphasis is always turned upon the Lord Jesus and His actions inside of and towards me. Then I look at those who will not speak Christ because they think it a proclamation of “self,” yet I see that their emphasis is upon themselves alone and how they must “get it right.”

Desire. Desire (partly from Webster’s 1926):

Jesus wants me to be with Him with a greater passion and desire than all the fiery stars of the universe. Jesus longs earnestly for me, that I would come to Him. Jesus entreats me with all humility that I would drink of Him. Jesus feels deeply my absence when I forget Him; He cannot be happy except He partake of my company. Jesus craves my presence with Him in His glory. Jesus longs with all longing to share that glory with me. The immensity of Jesus’ desire for me moves my heart. I come to Him; I drink of Him.

Ask and Believe. Acknowledging Jesus’ desire places us flat on our face before Him, for we MUST want what He wants.

“Lord Jesus, You say that You want me to be with you, that You long to share all that You are with me. I did not know it, Oh Jesus, because I did not believe. Lord Jesus, I ask that You plant in me such a thirst to match Your great desire for my presence with You. Lord Jesus, I ask that you seal that thirst in me, so that, no matter how much I cry and fuss, You never hear it, but only my deep intention to be with You and to drink of You, whatever the cost. Let it be to me as I ask, Lord Jesus; it is so. I drink of You alone.”

Everyone Thirsts. We must talk about thirst. God created humans to drink, spirit, soul, and physic. In fact, we must drink at all three levels daily. He designed us this way so that we might always be drawing Him into our conscious awareness.

You are very thirsty, every day; that’s not the problem. All humans are thirsty and all humans drink. The question is – Of what do you drink? Drinking is all tied up with identity. You drink daily of that which you identify yourself to be. This is not outward things, but the core of your being.

Thirsting for Glory. I am astonished now to realize that the time of darkness in my teenage years following the planting of the seed of “Give thanks” inside of me was so important for that seed. Even after the Lord restored me to Himself at age nineteen, I continued in great anguish of soul. Then, in the summer and fall of 1978, when I was twenty-one, in the July and October Bowens Mill conventions, God opened the heavens to me through the anointing upon Sam Fife, and I perceived a glory that seized the determination of my soul.

That glory was real, and my desire to live in it has never abated.

What Do You Want? This is why the question, “What do you want,” is so very important. If you asked that question of me, off the cuff, but insisting on my deepest level of wanting, I have only one answer. I WANT to be with Jesus in the revelation of His glory.

And the cost? Oh – I will fight and kick; I will argue and fuss; I will finagle and fantasize. But in the end, all that becomes so empty and meaningless. And I will let it go. I will let it go. If it is not Jesus with me, I do not drink.

Those who drink elsewhere do not really want Him.

Other Wants. Do not love the world {the present order of spiritual and physical darkness together}, nor the things in the world. If anyone should love the world, the love of the Father is not inside of him. Because all that is in the world, the desire [the passionate longing] of the flesh, and the desire [the passionate longing] of the eyes, and the boastful ostentation of biological life, is not out from the Father, but is out from the world, and the [present] cosmos is departing {outward things are not meaningful}, but the doing of the desire of God abides into the age (1 John 2:15-17 – rough JSV).

We are really talking about identity.

Driven by Want. Our human identity is driven by what we want. We could translate John’s words this way. Those who want the Father do not want the satisfactions of this world; those who want the satisfactions of this world do not want the Father.

You see, the world gives to drink. And the drinking of what the world gives satiates thirst to some extent. Yet all drinking is addictive (except water), and whatever quenches thirst one day, more is needed the next. I no longer thirst as I once did ONLY because I am always drinking of a God who shares my life with me.

Identity: Truth or Lies. This is very interesting, finding suddenly the critical importance of human identity. You see, the last time identity arose in my thinking was when I was writing Through Eyes of Fire, that is, from John.

I watched a mystery show the other day (The Mystery Queens) in which a profound statement was made. “When you speak the truth, the truth becomes part of your past, but when you lie, the lie becomes part of your future.” Lying creates an ever greater need to lie. Pretending increases the thirst for that which hides. And deep inside are worms that cannot be brought into view.

Many Other Drinks. A brother awhile back expressed interest in “drinking” more of what I teach. But while I was in his home sharing, I saw that he was already drinking of other identities, identities that were lies. I don’t want to define my brother, but I think that when he saw that drinking of Christ as I share Him would require him to stop drinking of his identities in this world, he made a firm decision that I had nothing of value for him. The brother loved his life in this world, even though it was partly built on fakery, and even though the fakery cannot endure.

Who am I, and what do I want?

Meaningless Satisfaction. A certain man gave a great supper and invited many, and sent his servant at supper time to say to those who were invited, ‘Come, for all things are now ready.’ But they all with one accord began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of ground, and I must go and see it. I ask you to have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to test them. I ask you to have me excused.’ Still another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come’ (Luke 14:16-20).

They are satisfied with meaningless outward things that are passing away, yet this satisfaction covers an underlying dishonesty about themselves.

Father or Worms. I asked someone what they wanted at the core of their being. The reply was a list of the petty things of life in the present age. The desire of the Father was strangely absent. It is NOT a question of “did you do well or did you do poorly.” It’s always a question of “what do you want?”

When I saw that I was incapable of pleasing God, that knowing of my own failure did not decrease my desire to be with Jesus, but rather compelled me to run into Him. In the end, it’s a choice between the Father and worms. Those who want the Father step into the light and the worms all go away. Those who want the worms, cover themselves with Christian words and deeds.

No Other Drink. Thirst becomes the greatest restraint of all, for it is either/or. God allows no mixed drinks when it comes to thirst. To drink of Jesus is to drink of no other identity. To drink of Jesus is to be utterly satisfied with being a weak and foolish human. The one who says, “Of myself I can do nothing,” is the one who desires the Father’s desire.

I have experienced many things in this world. Not one thing I have ever tasted comes even close to the utter satisfaction, the resounding joy, of knowing a Father who shares every moment and particle of my life with me.

Thirst. I am designed by God to NEED Word flowing as Spirit through every part of my conscious awareness. I am designed by God to NEED the personal presence of the Lord Jesus and inside of Him, the Father. My thirst is normal, and reminds me always to drink of the Lord Jesus. Since I drink of no other identity, no other words or sensations that I might call “me,” the Lord Jesus as Personal Spirit Word ever flowing through me satisfies my human soul utterly and completely. I WANT to be with Jesus in the revelation of His glory. I am.

Blood and Water. What is it, then, that we drink? In John 6, Jesus said that we drink His Blood, but in John 7, the reference is to drinking Water. When I tried to say that Blood is one thing and that Water is another, however, it didn’t work. Then, when the term “identity” came into our view, I saw how these two things, water and blood/wine, always swirling together, do speak of two aspects of my identity.

Blood and Water both reference the Devoted Spirit, but they position slightly different qualities carried by that Spirit, yet they are always easily interchangeable.

What Is Water? While I was reviewing what I had already written, I saw the statement, “all drinking is addictive” and realized that water alone is not addictive. Water is not addictive because water alone is what the body actually needs. Every other drink is water with something else added to it, and for the most part, that something else creates its own addiction in the body because it does not meet the body’s needs, but only pretends to meet them.

Water, then, is that flow of Jesus through me, the One for whom I was made, that meets every possible need and thus causes me to be utterly content with my present humanity, to be content with God sharing all things with me.

The Importance of Water. Here’s the thing. My mundane life has become exciting to me. What has changed? Nothing – except that I no longer WANT what is not God sharing with me right now. I do not require God to “make me different” before I will enjoy His presence with me.

This is what Jesus meant when He said “He who drinks of the water that I shall give Him will never thirst.” It means that I am absolutely satisfied with my present humanity because Jesus is flowing through every particle of me as water and as all my sufficiency.

God cannot reveal Himself through me with you otherwise.

Drinking Is Worship. Blood comes first into me, for Blood silences the worms in all their slithering demands to be fed, and enables me to let them go. Blood gives me the right to drink of Jesus as Water. Drinking Jesus as Water is drinking Spirit Word into myself written all through my heart. It is my identity of Christ as me – as I am, of Father sharing all things with the present me. Drinking Jesus as Blood gets rid of all fake desires; drinking Jesus as water SATISFIES every part of my humanity.

Drinking is worship; worship is drinking. Yet worship is a commitment to the Father’s Desire, which is a Body prepared for Him, and inside a life of commitment to walk together there are untold rivers of drinking.

How Much to Drink? There was water, flowing from under the threshold of the temple toward the east… and he brought me through the waters; the water came up to my ankles… To my knees… To my waist… A river that I could not cross, water in which one must swim (Ezekiel 47).

The picture is clear. What is it that satisfies you? At what point do you say, “This much and no more”? And from whence does the water come? It comes from the gathering together that is the House of God. Water to the ankles is of God and the sweet overflowing of the Spirit in a taste of truth and goodness. Water to swim in is for those who live only to drink the Father’s Desire.

I Drink of Jesus. I drink of the Lord Jesus Christ as Personal Spirit Word always flowing through me and always filling every particle of my human identity. I am utterly satisfied with my present humanity, for I am satiated with Christ Jesus living as me.

I drink of Jesus as Blood and every false voice and sensation vanishes from my soul. I drink of Jesus as wine and I am filled with overflowing joy. I drink of Jesus as the One in whom dwells the Father, and I know Father with me, sharing every moment of my life with me, and I am so overwhelmingly thrilled. I aggressively gulp every Word Jesus speaks into myself as my own identity, for I am made entirely and only by and for that Word.

I drink of all I ever wanted. I drink of Jesus.

The Desire of Father. People are marked by what they drink, for we drink only what we perceive to be our identity, those things we believe will satisfy the thirst.

I drink of the Father sharing my life with me, yet, even though my thirst is always quenched, my problem has become even greater. For, you see, the Father now shares His Desire with me, and the Father is not satisfied. God is satisfied ONLY when He has a Body, many walking together as one in commitment and in liberty, a Body through which the Father can be Himself, seen and known, inside of creation. This Desire of Father consumes me.

Reading for Next Time. The next lesson is “Rivers Flowing Out.” Read Chapter 7 again if you wish. The one who believes into me, out of his belly will flow rivers of living water.

I want to focus in this next lesson on what are “rivers of living water.” For that reason, I must also include a bit on what they are not. Most seem to think that the power of God released means all kinds of miracles taking place, all kinds of external problems fixed in great shows of “power.” – I do NOT! God WANTS a Body, and that is the first purpose of Rivers.

Let’s Pray Together. Our prayer today is synergeoing with God, turning all things towards the knowledge of God. This time, let’s pray for all our brethren across the earth, that the Spirit of God would awaken THIRST for the Father’s Desire alone.

“Father, we set our hearts together upon Your Desire to be seen and known inside Your creation, and for that one thing that allows You to be Yourself towards each one, a Body prepared for You, fitted together by fellowship. Father, we look upon Your Church all across the earth, millions of believers in Jesus, and we see Your Body, Your dwelling place forever, yet our brethren do not see that their commitment to walk together is Your only satisfaction.

“Father, we agree together with You that our Devoted Spirit would cause such a great thirst for REAL to open in the consciousness of all our brethren.

“We synergeo with You, Father, in the expectation that all other drinking would become bitter to all who belong to You and that they would turn to drink of Jesus as Personal Spirit Word, the definition of their own human story. We synergeo with You, Father, in the expectation that the Spirit would arise in the hearts of millions of our fellow believers to desire to walk together in committed fellowship as Your Body, as many local Communities of Christ.

“Father, we turn the hearts of millions of our brethren towards loving one another with pure hearts fervently. Let it be even as You and we speak together; it is so.”