44. Rivers Flowing Out

© Daniel Yordy – 2019

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the ethnic peoples. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads (Revelation 22:1-4).

We have established that this river flows out from our hearts, first, as Jesus said, and then out from our life together as the revelation of Father, that is, the fulness of Jesus who fills all in all.

By man death, by man also the resurrection from the dead. That Man is the Lord from heaven who fills our hearts with all that He is and whose physical body and expression we are. Jesus is never alone, and Father with Him.

I do not pretend to know what are the dynamics and the immediate results in every direction of that river that causes all that is visible to become that appearance which God intends. I have several different thoughts, however, that fit into the title, “Rivers Flowing Out,” and that help tie together  in conclusion a number of threads woven through this series.

The first is a dream I had the other night. In that dream, I, with several others, was standing before what could best be described as channels out from God. We were eagerly expecting resurrection to come out from these channels. We could hear the sounds of life as an effervescent bubbling coming towards us. When the life came out of the channels, it came across us in a gentle flow of bubbles, a happy rain or mist washing across us.

We became young again, yet our full selves. It was so simple and joyous. My wife was as a nineteen or twenty year old girl; she was so beautiful. We went around, then, sharing the resurrection with everyone, that they could receive it just as we had received it. Of truth, it was similar to receiving the baptism of the Spirit, though with the obvious outward affects on our bodies; it was a receiving by faith and in joyous expectation.

When I shared this dream with my wife, she put into words what I was thinking, that we ask God and expect Him to move, though it seems so impossible. Then when God does all that we ask and far more beyond, on the one hand, it’s like a dream, but on the other hand, its so simple and obvious. There never really could have been any other possibility.

The resurrection is the same.

I don’t take this dream to be “prophetic” or separate from what God says in His word on the subject. Rather, it serves to increase our faith, that, in reality, the resurrection is not a big deal, but rather an obvious outcome of the Christian life, a simple and joyous receiving from God through Christ. – And, that once resurrection is released, it becomes simple for whomsoever will to come and freely drink.

As a result, I find myself expecting the resurrection, as if it could come as simply as receiving the Baptism of the Spirit or forgiveness of sins. God does not “zap”; rather, it is we who receive Christ in all joy. Christ is resurrection.

This leaves me wondering – Could we receive resurrection in this way before the many at the turning of the ages? I have no idea, but if we are to believe in faith, as we have prayed, then this must be how we are to think. I can assure you that receiving resurrection now would solve all of my problems and it would do so as God’s glory and desire.

But let’s leave that thought as what it is – a wonder.

Second, I want to talk about an experience God gave to me and another brother just recently, an experience that reaches out to include you by our expectation of faith.

Bill, from Kansas, came down to Houston twice this summer to help us get some work done on the exterior of our house, work that needed to be done for us to be accepted by the house insurance company as well as if we were to sell this house in anticipation of a next step in God.

Working together is a significant part of our fellowship together; it is also the place where our human differences are most likely to rub each other in aggravating ways.

When I am inside my “construction zone,” I take charge. Inside that zone, I became mildly aggravated with Bill (which seems silly, now, looking at it from a distance, because he did so much for us). In the night, however, I remembered what I have taught, that we together call ALL of our interactions together as Christ Jesus, as God among us.

As I shared that with him the next morning, Bill and I together looked at our shared experience of normal human friction, and we together called it “Father among us.” As we did so, I realized that it is a GOOD thing that love is not of us, but of God. For me to “drum up” so-called “love” would be preposterous. Instead, I know that the love of my Father is poured out in Bill’s heart towards me. And I know that the love of my Father is poured out in my heart towards Bill. More than that, we could know that together, without needing any silly human emotion.

Now, combine that with the experience I had with Dennis of Australia sharing his video with me, of him speaking “I receive you, Daniel,” into me with brokenness and tears.

These were very similar experiences, but the experience with Bill had the advantage of drawing immediate face-to-face conflict into “God as all our connections together.”

Both of these were firsts for me, that is, the direct “ONE ANOTHER” expression of putting Christ Jesus upon all that we are together. I have a sneaking suspicion that they are also firsts in the human experience, that is, inside our expectation of Tabernacles.

After Bill and I together placed, in our knowing, Father as ALL our connections together, regardless, something shifted inside of me. All “suspicion” against the “other” vanished from my consciousness, and I rested in complete peace. At the same time, we could see together how this practical experience is the Altar of Incense as God intends in His going out through us into creation. That is, the aroma of Christ into every place.

Do I dare to call my experience together with Bill and Dennis the First Day of Tabernacles in our lives? Since God is pleased when we are bold towards Him, I will do exactly that.

Here is the source of the river of life as Ezekiel saw it.

The man brought me back to the entrance to the temple, and I saw water coming out from under the threshold of the temple toward the east (for the temple faced east). The water was coming down from under the south side of the temple, south of the altar. He then brought me out through the north gate and led me around the outside to the outer gate facing east, and the water was trickling from the south side (Ezekiel 47:2-4).

The “south side” of the temple is the side facing Jerusalem, representing the Church of Jesus Christ. The “altar” does not specify which one; we take it to mean both, that is, the Atonement of Christ as the one completed sin offering, then, “And we also” as the peace offering, the aroma of Christ as incense going forth.

What Bill and I did together was the beginning of that full expression of faith in the midst of togetherness that is God among us.

As far as I am concerned we experienced what Ezekiel saw. This relationship together is the source of the river of life. And it was AFTER this experience Bill and I shared together, of putting our human abrasiveness into Father among us, that the dream came to me of receiving the resurrection of life as a simple, joyous, and obvious gift from the Spirit of God.

If we travail for the resurrection, we are believing God. And if we are believing God for the resurrection, then our expectation is an imminent joy. Of  course – for God is.

Regardless of any difficulty, call all your interactions together as God among us. And call it to be so in the full confidence and joy that God is.

Next, I want to bring in two opposing concepts, for I finally have an inkling as to how these two contradictions might actually fit together.

First is Malachi’s description of the river of life that is always flowing out of us, and especially out of our interactions together as God’s tithe, the firstfruits of God brought into the gathering together.

“Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it. I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe,” says the Lord Almighty. “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the Lord Almighty (Malachi 3:10-12).

We began this series with the question of how on earth is it that millions of believers in Jesus could survive after being cut off completely from the support systems of this world. Our intention was to explore God’s solution of all provision coming out from our bellies for the sake of His Church, that is, this river of life.

Here is the same thing Malachi spoke, but in Paul’s words.

We bless and speak well of the God and Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, the One having blessed and spoken well of us with every spiritual speaking of goodness and blessing in the heavenly realms inside of Christ. – By all the details of His abundant and wealthy grace which He [Father God] actively abounds into us inside of all wisdom and practical gut-level heart thinking. – Into the full release of the complete and abundant possession or ownership, into being the praise, the full outward expression of His glory, His great and intrinsic value (from Ephesians 1).

Here is the same thing Malachi and Paul spoke, but in John’s words.

That they should nourish her there (Revelation 12:6). (As we might say, one picture from John shows us a hundred words from a sometimes over-expressive Paul.)

The provision of ALL that is needed comes out from the “floodgates of heaven” opened wide, passing through us to meet specific needs.

But let’s contrast this truth, that all provision comes out from the full marriage of heaven with earth, with one of the most incongruous statements in the Bible.

And I will give to My two witnesses and they will prophesy… – These are possessing the authority to the heavens, that no rain should fall in the days of their prophecy (Revelation 11:3 & 5).

To prophesy is to call forth Christ into the human experience, to show each one that they are already fully reconciled to God. To cause “no rain to fall” is to amplify the disconnect between heaven and earth. How can this second witness of Christ be doing both at the same time?

I now see how this could be so.

Consider these verses from Exodus Chapters 8 and 9. – And in that day I will set apart the land of Goshen, in which My people dwell, that no swarms of flies shall be there, in order that you may know that I am the Lord in the midst of the land. Only in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, there was no hail.

A central element of a world of life is a world in which heaven and earth are fully and permanently fused back together again in the knowing of all. You and me together acknowledging our full union with Christ is the first part of that marriage.

As the beast in this world cuts believers in Jesus away from any provision coming to them from the stores, two things begin to happen at the same time. On the one hand, the true connections of heaven through us open towards the gathering together into Christ, typified by “the land of Goshen.” On the other hand, the limited connections of heaven that have kept life alive on a darkened earth will begin to dry up, typified by “no rain to fall.”

In other words, John was not seeing a literal “no physical rain falling,” but rather, the slow removal or “drying up” of the necessary connections of heaven to earth by which life on earth can exist.

In other words, as the beast refuses provision to God’s people and insists that it be the only provision for all, so everyone will watch the beast becoming less and less able to provide, that is “no rain to fall,” even while the provisions of a restored union of heaven with earth flow out upon these “cast-off” Christians – in the sight of all, that is, “the land of Goshen.”

We sang that song in the move fellowships, “And I will open the windows of heaven and I will pour YOU out a blessing, I will pour YOU out a blessing, all you servants of the Lord.” We sang these words with the understanding that we were the poured out blessing for all, that is, YOU as the blessing and provision of God.

Now, this contrast that God intends to show visibly to all humans enables us to understand Revelation 16 and the pouring out of the vials upon the kingdom of the beast. Let me explain.

You see, scientism and the religious doctrines of evolution and Marxism have convinced humans that there is nothing other than the physical, that there is no “after-life” or any spiritual or heavenly qualities in the human experience. And Christians who are refusing the Baptism of the Spirit are putting themselves into the same boat, that’s why they are not measured by Christ in the present season. No faith whatsoever is involved in the mental idea of “heaven.”

Yet we see that human government is repudiated on this earth before the resurrection of our bodies and that all humans are ready to receive the governance of the sons of God at the beginning of the Age of Tabernacles.

Something changes people’s minds and that something is this growing contrast between life and provision outpoured from the heavens upon these cursed and cast-off Christians versus the provision of life, that already and always comes out from the heavens to give life to a broken earth and the rebellious humans upon it, drying up in visible and tangible ways.

The vials of Revelation 16 ARE the visible expressions of the second witness of Christ cutting off the normal connections of the heavens from the darkened kingdom of the beast.

And the first departed and poured out his bowl into the earth; and a nasty and painful sore came upon the men and women having the stamp of the beast and those worshiping its image.

Wow, okay. As I read through Revelation 16 again now in the JSV, I see that this understanding is indeed what those vials are all about, the closing out of the normal life of the heavens maintaining life on earth towards those who side with human political government. Yet we KNOW from God’s mystery hidden all through His word that upon the Church of Christ, cut off from the provision of the world system, will come all the outpoured provision of the heavens upon the earth in the restoration of full marriage union.

This is exciting, to say the least, and such a relief to me that Revelation 16 now fits fully into Christ revealed through us.

Everyone will KNOW, by the sight of their eyes, that earth without heaven is dead. And everyone will be ready to run into the glorious liberty of the sons of God now made visible in great contrasting distinction the very moment that God says to them, “Come, for all things are now made ready.”

I will not go further into the vials here, but all the way through, this metaphor is sustained by the wording of that Chapter. But that also means that, although there are definite impacts of these things upon the human experience, John was not talking about China’s army, or any of that other nonsense people love to impose these words upon. Notice that “the waters of the Euphrates are dried up,” that is, the same thing as “no rain shall fall,” that is, the normal connections of heaven giving life to earth being cut off from refusing humans.

But – that is not the topic of this letter. Rather, I have a couple more things I want to include to wrap up this concept of Rivers Flowing Out.

In Chapter 35 “God Among Us,” I talked about the disciplined development of our spiritual abilities and qualities. I would really love to spend more time unfolding such a concept, especially inside of the principles of human education, of which I am well-versed.

The problem is that I have observed full well the practice of “gift, gift, I’ve got the gift” as it is abused by pretending and manipulating humans, and I can’t stand any part of such a thing. And of course, you see the same thing in the education of mind or body. Those who are truly intelligent know how much they do not know. Those who are not quite so smart imagine that they know everything. Agur was far smarter than Solomon. And those who are truly strong are found helping the weak. Those who are pushing the weak around are demonstrating the fakeness of their ”strength.”

Abusing mental and physical abilities is bad enough; abusing spiritual abilities is even worse.

As we pass through the humility of Christ, of knowing that we do not and cannot ever please God of ourselves, that is, as we are turned around upon the Mercy Seat, now going forth with our Father seeing all others as better, we are able to consider what it might mean to be trained in the disciplines of our spiritual qualities.

I am convinced that this “educational program” will be a big part of the gathering together that is Tabernacles, before the resurrection of our bodies. (And I am saying that, knowing that I might be seeing such resurrection as slightly more imminent.)

“That they should nourish her there” includes the training in spiritual qualities. This is like that Chinese proverb that says, “Give someone a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach someone how to fish and you feed him for life.” We don’t just give God’s people what they need; we teach them to live inside the same heavens and to be themselves, God’s blessing outpoured.

And in that framework of understanding, I sure could get excited about developing educational programs for the human spirit. But, alas, that fun task is not for here.

Except, you know what, that’s what I have been teaching you all along, that by asking and believing, by engaging directly with God by every Word that He speaks fulfilled in you, by speaking Christ, by giving thanks for the sake of all things, you have been practicing the qualities of Spirit in a disciplined manner and you are becoming gifted in the good things of Christ inside of you!

Pretty cool, eh?

Finally, in this letter, I want to consider some of the initial effects we might expect to see as the full rivers of living water flow out from our fully resurrected selves made visible, as those rivers change the appearance of everything they touch out from death and into life.

Yet the excitement of receiving the resurrection as I shared at the beginning of this letter makes me eager to do just that now. I am excited with anticipation. It is so obvious and easy, so right there. Nothing could be more the normal Christian life than receiving from the Spirit LIFE for our bodies.

And the ministry of LIFE flowing out from our incorruptible and immortal normal human bodies will be the same – normal, simple, and obvious, a gentle word, an act of kindness.

God is always the little things; big “heavenly” things serve only to distract.

But you see, this contrast that God intends to develop through us, between the “land of Goshen” and the “land of the beast,” is where the rivers flowing out begin to change human life and experience on this earth. Thus the rivers flowing out at the beginning of the Age of Tabernacles are just more of the same, reaching out to include more and more of human life on this earth.
I am convinced that the history of human life on this earth continues the same after the resurrection as it is now, that is, step by step, season by season, life by life.

My ministry to God’s people is to show each one how their life as they are right now is already Christ living as them. My continual reward is the joy arising in the eyes of each one of you as you now know yourself inside of Jesus and Jesus inside of you.

Rivers flowing out are simply further extensions of the same thing in every direction.

Good grace and thanks be to God, who always leads us in the triumphal procession inside of Christ, with the aroma of His knowledge being made visible through us in every place. For of Christ we are a fragrance to God (2 Corinthians 2:14-15).

The aroma of His knowledge being made visible through us in every place.

It is so simple. It is so good. It is so filled with all hilarious laughter and all good fellowship.

This is why I know that the experience I shared with Bill IS the beginnings of Tabernacles, of rivers flowing out, of all victory over death, of life laid down and love poured out, of God among us.

He who believes into Me, out of his belly will flow rivers of living water.

Put the Lord Jesus Christ upon yourself and upon all your connections together with one another.