13. Rivers Flow out from Me
Audio Only:The one who believes into me, as the Scripture has said, Rivers of living water will overflow out from his belly [his womb, his innermost being]. Now He spoke concerning the Spirit…
We are now considering the outflow of God through us. I look back at The Jesus Secret I and Home As It Really Is to see what I first wrote about these Rivers flowing out, some fifteen years ago, and I see that what I wrote is good and true and in line with what I write now. But now everything is on a completely higher level. The same things, yes, but now so connected to God with us.
Three Parts. As I consider what the Lord is showing us now about this ruling verse, I realize that I could write an entire book on the topic. Then I remember that I did, The River of Life, except what God is giving us now is so piercingly more.
There are three parts to this ruling verse. First, there is the contraction part, bringing us down to drinking of Christ alone. At the center of this first part are two lines – “Of myself, I can do nothing,” and – “Those who want the Father’s desire.” Then there is the central pinch point, which in galactic terms is the bright shining star, and that is drinking of Jesus.
Focusing the Rivers. Finally there is the explosion part, which is the topic of this lesson – Rivers flowing out. But the key to our understanding of Rivers flowing out is this line – “wanting the Father’s desire.”
Rivers of living water are always flowing out from us because we believe in Jesus. But to focus those Rivers to their greatest effect, we must know what God wants those Rivers to do. This is something I’ve never fully thought through before, but I realize now that we are on the edge of the mighty fulfillment of all that God speaks.
God’s First Purpose. God wants the Rivers flowing out from us to accomplish three things, at least in the present Day of Salvation.
The first purpose of God is always towards the individual person, to bless that one, to heal them, to encourage them, to lift them up, to show them how much the Father shares their distress, how much the Lord Jesus always carries them. Of truth, God is after people’s attention, to place their eyes upon the Lord Jesus inside of them. And He will always choose goodness and favor as His first attempt to show people His Salvation. God will use more drastic means if needed, but kindness always comes first. This is the ministry of Christ.
God’s Second Purpose. God’s second purpose for Rivers flowing out is what has been happening to us. God wants us to KNOW, with the knowing that alone is life, the full meaning of Jesus Sent into us. God wants us to KNOW that we are always coming out from Him and that we are designed by nature, all through the fabric of our beings, spirit, soul, and physic, that we exist by a Living and Personal Spirit Word, the Lord Jesus, always flowing all through all that we are and causing us in every way to be His expression.
At this point the waters are up to our waist and we are ready to swim.
For the Sake of Others. Yet, although we are the firstfruits of those Rivers of the drinking of Jesus, yet God has not chosen us for ourselves. We are a done deal; we are already seized into God. What God wants is the knowing of Jesus Sent flowing out from us into the lives of millions of believers in Jesus. God wants His entire Church to know the WONDER of our always-existence that He is even now causing us to know. Because our focus is the Father’s DESIRE, everything God does with us is always for the sake of others.
Our reward is to live forever inside the Father’s Heart, and here we share the same passion of Jesus for His Church.
God’s Third Purpose. Then, God’s third purpose for the Rivers flowing out from us is the building of His House, His dwelling place, His Body, that God might have the form He needs to be known inside His creation. And all of this is nothing other than what the Devoted Spirit does as sent forth from us and the Father together.
For that reason, we place first the wondrous liberty of POWER. – That the excellency of the POWER might be of God and not of us. – Not by inward fortitude nor by outward might, but by My Spirit, says the Lord. We don’t “do” anything, except share confidence with God.
The Jesus Secret Page. I have now changed again, just a bit, the layout of the boxes on The Jesus Secret II page. We begin with a small enflowing of faith covering only verses 38 & 39. This is followed by a box titled “Revealing God to All.” Writing thus far has opened to me an additional meaning of the word “Rivers” to what I had known before; nonetheless, we must place the primary meaning of this ruling verse as it matches Ephesians 3:19. Next is a larger box titled, “Christ Ministers through Me,” in which I hope to include God’s three purposes for the Spirit flowing out, followed by an “Ask and Believe.” The final box is “Out from Me,” the meaning of “their bellies.”
I Believe in Jesus. I believe in Jesus; rivers of living water overflow out from my belly, my heart, my innermost being. Jesus gives me His Spirit that I might share His glory. I share Spirit with Jesus; I share glory with Jesus. Rivers of Spirit flow out from me bringing life and healing to all.
Over thirty years ago, I first put this word in front of me as something I wanted to see and to know fulfilled in my life. The majority of our fellow Christians are convinced that this word cannot be fulfilled in any Christian now living. Even those who embrace the flow of the Spirit are mostly content with the ankle-deep water Ezekiel saw.
Revealing God to All. We begin with the larger definitions of this ruling verse.
Because I believe in Jesus, rivers of Spirit are always flowing out from me as the revelation of God inside His creation, healing and bringing life and joy to all. I am created to contain all the fullness of God; I am created to reveal God to all. These rivers of Spirit flowing out from me are His knowing in every place I go. God wins His Heart’s desire, to be seen and known by every created thing through me as His dwelling place. As I believe in Jesus, so I know that others are always being blessed out from me regardless of any outward appearance. I know that the Spirit is showing others the Father when they see me.
Rivers Filled with Rivers. In my college years at Blueberry I shared in the sharing service some thoughts concerning these “Rivers.” I described the rivers of my childhood.
The Snake River is a mighty river, bigger than most and containing in itself many rivers. The Kootenay is a river, and the Okanagan, the John Day, the upper Columbia. Yet the Willamette, flowing up through the large valley where I lived was mightier than any of the others and also contained in itself many large rivers, including the Santiam that drained our neck of the woods. All of these were many rivers filled with many rivers.
The Mighty Oregon. Yet the “river” that the Indians called “the Oregon,” but that Yankees called “the Columbia,” after it receives into itself the Willamette just below Portland, is much more than a “river.” It is a mighty flood, far greater than the Mississippi. The Columbia (the Oregon) is truly RIVERS.
I used this illustration to somehow convey what God might mean by RIVERS of Spirit flowing out from us. What I shared was well-received by the Blueberry family. Sister Charity told me personally how much it meant to her. Yet this is only one of two meanings of the word “rivers” which Jesus used to speak of the outflow of the Spirit.
Out From Many Sources. I had no idea of it then, but the implication of what I shared concerning “rivers” is that every one of us is a specific source of a mighty stream that combines with the mighty streams flowing out of others in our local church to become a great flow of RIVERS.
The show Kung Fu Panda 3 contains a scene that so caught my heart in its meaning, as each member of the Panda family, from young to old, sent forth their “spirit” to help Po defeat the enemy. It was just a visual picture, but it spoke to me of the power flowing out from Christ Community, many rivers together.
Many Rivers Out. But as I began this lesson, I saw that there is another meaning, equally important. And that is that the Spirit flows at many levels and with many purposes.
Yes, there are rivers of Spirit meant to bless people and to bring them into the favor of God. But there are also rivers of Spirit flowing right together with blessing, that are preparing God’s chosen ones for His purposes. One person is swimming in God, while the person in the row next to them is braving knee-deep waters. And every Word in the Bible goes forth inside of Spirit at different levels of meaning and purpose.
An Ocean of Rivers. And so we have two kinds of river-flow. There is the many springs, individual people, sending forth streams of Spirit that accumulate together, through their faith, to become one mighty river. And there is one Spirit flowing out that branches out into many rivers of word and enablement flowing at many levels and for many purposes.
We never limit God nor imagine that He has to be doing with others the same thing He is doing with us.
Many together as one. One flowing out as many. Yet the Spirit is as an ocean inside of which everything dwells, and these rivers are flowing everywhere all the time.
Rivers of Spirit. I live and walk in an Ocean of Spirit, the Devoted Spirit of God, inside of whom are flowing many mighty Rivers of purpose and meaning. The Rivers flowing out from me join together with the Rivers flowing out from my close brethren to become a Flood of the knowledge and impact of God among us.
Yet this same Spirit, always carrying Word to be written upon the heart, is also flowing at many levels and for many purposes according to the needs of each one to whom we send Him. With my brethren, I know the Spirit as many together as one and as one flowing out as many. Through us together, God is known by all.
He Has Anointed Me. Jesus, in quoting Isaiah, best expressed His ministry then – and now through us. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord” (Luke 4:18-19).
Read this as yourself, as the Lord Jesus now part of who and what you are. This is your ministry. This is the first part of rivers flowing out from you, first to bless others in meeting their needs, and second, to turn them to the Lord.
God’s Seasons. When speaking of Rivers of Spirit flowing through the Church, however, we must understand the meaning of “seasons.” God has appointed seasons for every person at every level of a walk with Him into the knowledge of God.
We saw that in the study of the Tabernacle, that it is right to spend even a length of time in each next step in God, without worrying about what might be the next step after. Each season of God must come to its completion before we go on from there to know the Lord. And these seasons and their purposes vary significantly from one person to the next.
Let Us Go On. The problem is when individuals or churches refuse to go on into the next river of the knowledge of God and its more costly purposes when a season has become complete. Instead, they “set up camp” and become “doctrinal” about what God did new and fresh forty years ago, trying their best to keep the same thing going.
But the purpose of the first levels of the Spirit are always to bring forth in each one a knowing of Jesus Sent into them, and the purpose of knowing Jesus Sent into us is that we might be built together as a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. Never do our eyes leave this absolute goal. We go on to know the Lord.
Christ Ministers through Me. I cannot speak Christ better than Isaiah, and so the best thing here is simply Isaiah’s words, now spoken as me. It is a bold thing to place this same mantle that was upon Jesus, now upon yourself. Yet this is the very confidence that alone pleases God. These things are real out from you.
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. This is the first flow of rivers, Christ through me.
Jesus Sent into Them. The second mighty river flowing out from me connects with anyone healed in some way by the first river that they also might know Jesus Sent into them, and the full meaning of a Personal, living, Spirit Word, that is, the Lord Jesus, written all through them and causing them to be every moment out from and in the flow of His good speaking.
Being “Fitted Together.” God’s desire rules my heart, committing me to His need for a House in which to dwell, a Body in which He can walk inside of His creation. This mightiest of rivers, fitting me together with my fellow believers in Jesus, fitting many together in committed local churches, to know one another, also flows with great effect out from my heart.
If we had space on the Jesus Secret page, I would add an “Ask and Believe.”
“Oh Father, Your Word is so overwhelming. How can we know such wonders? Father, we ask You to fulfill all that You speak in our lives, and having asked, we believe with all our hearts and confidence that You do as You say.”
My Belly. Finally, we come to that hard-to-define Greek word that John used to translate whatever dialect Jesus was speaking, the word koilia. Koilia does mean “belly,” but it also means all the organs between the throat and the pelvic bone. Thus, translating it as “heart” or as “womb” is also correct. Yet it also then carries a figurative meaning and thus can be translated as “inner self” or “innermost being.”
And in this particular context of “rivers of Spirit flowing out,” every one of those possible meanings is correct and fits Jesus’ meaning. The important thing is, “out from me.”
All Authority. God has reserved all power to His Spirit, but He has given all authority into our hands, that is, the substance of Jesus now become us. It is God’s intention that the Rivers of Spirit flowing out from me be shaped and directed according to my own person, to the story I tell myself about myself, to my own human interests and desires. “I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh” (Joel).
Yet the Rivers cannot accomplish their full purposes except they flow out from us together as we walk in a commitment relationship as the House of God.
My Own Rivers. The box “Out from Me,” along with the prayer at the end of this session, will be the last things I write, probably just a few hours before we gather again. I ask God and believe with all confidence that I will know that flow of Living Water through me as I write them, just as it has been all along.
This is one of the RIVERS flowing out from my belly, but not the only one, for there is also a river of blessing flowing out into my present work in garden and orchard, and so on. The immediate source is always the Father out from whom I continuously come, but God has appointed my heart and yours as His throne, and from our hearts all RIVERS flow.
Out From Me. Rivers of living water flow out from me everywhere I go because I believe in Jesus. God has given me all authority to send forth the Spirit to turn all things towards goodness. I know that the Source of these Rivers of Spirit is the Father arising inside of me, out from Jesus inside my heart, but to all whom I pass by, I seem to them as the generator of goodness and blessing, of healing and life. As I give thanks and speak good grace for the sake of all things, so the Rivers of living water flowing out from my belly are able to woo, to convict, and to win all things into the knowledge of God, that is, into life. Of myself, I can do nothing, but these Rivers of Life flowing out from me set all creation free.
Visualizing Rivers. We are constrained by space and thus cannot develop every river of thought in knowing God through us that has suggested itself in this short study. Yet what we do have is an absolute framework to know and to be confident in moving, both individually and together, in connecting with and sending forth with purpose all these MIGHTY RIVERS that are God’s Spirit in whom all things dwell.
We can even visualize, just a bit, these mighty flows of purpose going out to accomplish all that Father and we intend together. This is real; it is now, and mighty things are about to flow forth upon the earth.
Reading for Next Time. The next lesson is titled, “Two Fathers,” and will be drawn out from John Chapters 8 and 9. Those two chapters will be in the almost-final JSV version on the website for you to read before the next session. We are treating these two chapters as an “in-between,” in-between the mighty conclusion of Rivers and the wondrous beginning of “He Calls Me by Name.”
All the people of our world today are driven by the same fear that drove the people to whom Jesus ministered, and because of that fear, we will call it “the fear of the Pharisees.” God has given us to understand our world.
Let’s Pray Together. Our prayer this time will be metamorphy, our singing in harmony together with Jesus, that we might be His same pattern of expression. Indeed, “Christ lives in my heart through faith” must be the only source of any River out.
“Lord Jesus, we are overwhelmed by the responsibility You have placed inside of us, a responsibility that lies upon Your shoulders, but that You also share with us. Lord Jesus, we know that it is our task to send forth life instead of death into our world, that the job for which God created us is to turn all things towards goodness and towards the knowledge of God.
“And Lord Jesus, we are so grateful that we are incapable in ourselves of doing anything, for that means that the doing is always being accomplished by our most capable Spirit flowing forth. Yet we do not desire power, Lord Jesus, but only Your knowing flowing through us, that we might be the expression of Your glory and Your purposes.
“Therefore we ask, Lord Jesus, that it be Your Word that shapes all our insides, that every thought of our minds and every bent of our decisions would be out from Your good-speaking and Your wisdom. Lord Jesus, we ask that You would make us so in tune with You that Your words would be natural to us, the only way we think. Because You do what You say, Lord Jesus, we know that the Rivers flowing out are truly from the Father’s Heart.”