3.2 Rivers of Spirit
© 2017 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
The Third Most Important Verse
John 7:37-39. On the last day, that great day of the feast, 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…
We understand Jesus’ words first out from God filling us full. Not only are we designed to contain all of God, but we are also designed to release God Himself, through His Spirit, as a river of life flowing out of our hearts setting all creation free, blessing, healing, and bringing life and joy to all. But here’s the deal. God is love. That means He never violates our person, but always treats us with utmost respect.
Subdue All. God flowing out of us ALWAYS is subject to us: God and us together. We are always the gates through whom the King of Glory rides. Subdue all things (Genesis 1:28). This is the task of man given to him by God. But man attempting to accomplish this task apart from God brings only curse and ruin. At the same time, God cannot do this task by Himself because God cannot sin. Sin is treating another with disrespect, pushing people around, violating the dignity and right of their person as God’s image. God never thinks of doing such a thing.
There is one way only by which “subdue all things” can happen – out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. God and man together – God and man together make all things good.
The Day of Tabernacles. Jesus spoke these words on the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles, the Great Day of the Feast. The last day of that Feast in Israel’s religious year typifies the final moment of this age after God has filled His fully formed body, His temple, with all of His glory, when our bodies cannot stay as they are and are transformed, swallowed up by Life. It is the final fulfillment of Jesus’ incredible proclamation in all outward appearance.
Just before Jesus spoke, one priest had entered the outer court of the temple bearing a cup of water from the pool of Siloam. Another priest had come out of the temple bearing a cup of wine. The two together stood above the altar of sacrifice, the cups held high in the air, waiting to be poured out together. [This picture comes from The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah by Alfred Edersheim.]
Jesus Shouted. As the two priests approached the altar, all the people filling the courtyard waved palm branches, beating them upon the ground, and shouting at the top of their lungs, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.” But as the priests raised the cups, the shouting turned to “Higher, higher, higher.” All Israel demanded to see the wine and the water poured out together. Then, without any human cue, everyone went quiet. The wine and the water must be poured out in total silence. For a moment not a sound was heard from anywhere.
Into that pregnant silence, as the poured-out wine swirled together with the poured-out water, Jesus shouted at the very top of His lungs. “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.”
Do We Believe? Jesus’ words penetrated and stunned all. They knew what He meant; they knew it was “blasphemy.”
The river of life from the throne of God flows out of our bellies, out of our hearts, out of our innermost beings. God Himself limiting Himself to that sending forth that comes entirely out of you and me. God Himself going out from us to touch, to heal, to set free, to bring life and joy to all. Do we believe this? How thirsty are you?
God’s Throne. And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations (Revelation 22:1-2).
The throne of God, the Mercy Seat, our very hearts, the River of God released. That river of God Himself flowing entirely out of us is the only thing that will subdue all creation, bringing all things into the love and joy of God. God and us together make all things good.
Greater Works. Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it (John 12:12-14).
The question remains and must be answered. We alone will give the answer. How thirsty are we? God fills us. He wants us to comprehend, to know, to seize hold of, to experience, the depth and height and length to which God reaches in us. For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which is lost (Luke 19:10).
As Jesus’ Body. Christ is come in us to preach the gospel to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, to bring liberty to the captive, that is to bring deliverance to those afflicted by demons, to those who are addicted, to bring sight to those who are blind, both spiritual and physical blindness. To bring liberty to the oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord (Luke 4:18).
We are Jesus’ body, as God continues Jesus’ ministry through us. We meet people’s needs. If someone needs healing, we heal; if someone needs salvation, we lead them to Jesus; if someone needs protection, we cover them with grace; if someone needs provision, we give. How do I meet needs without power? The power of the river of life from God flows out of me at all times and in every direction.
Has Been Poured Out. My calling, my purpose, why God put me on this earth, is to be the revelation and release of God. I believe in Jesus; I expect rivers of living water to flow out of me at all times. This is my inheritance. The river of life from the throne of God flows out of me into every hurting place in this world bringing the life and salvation of God.
But is this reality NOW, or is it waiting for some future day when we have accomplished something or other that gets God to do what God seems so “reluctant” to do? Almost all Christianity believes only “someday.”
Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out, shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us (Romans 5:5).
God Is Telling Us the Truth. Believe it! Your heart is right now filled with all the Love of God out-poured and overflowing. Do you “feel” that it is? Do you “see” that it is? Not much! The decision we MUST make, a decision that all make, is whether God is telling the truth or whether He lies. I have begun to suspect that God speaks the truth even against all outward appearance. You see, I have read the argument, held by most, that the source of the rivers of life flowing out cannot be the human. But Jesus said, “He that believes on Me.” In the end, if we believe that Jesus lives in our hearts, we also believe that God is always flowing out from us as life.
God Is a Person. How, then, do these two concepts, that you and I as weak humans first contain all of God and second reveal God to all, rule over how we understand all the rest of the Bible?
God is a Person, and very Personal. And this Personal God fills every particle of our humanity with ALL that He is. That means that any verse in the Bible that presents any aspect of God’s being and nature is showing us one more aspect of that which fills us full. You and I are not God. That’s the glory of being human. Yet we are, by definition, filled full with all that God is. This is the mystery Paul suggests that we seize hold of in our understanding, that a Personal God fills our human persons with Himself.
Very Different Definitions. Then, when Jesus said that, if we believe in Him, God Himself flows out from us by His Spirit as rivers of life setting all things free and giving life to all, He meant all the time, in every moment and circumstance. That means that any verse in the Bible speaking about God moving out, God doing, God effecting, is speaking about you and me, for it is out from us that God is always working. God is no longer far away from us. Everything God is, He is in us and everything God does, He does through us. It’s not just our definition of what it means to be human that is being altered, but also our understanding of what is God.
And how is such a reality, such a God, to be a practical part of our everyday life?
Our Part. Our part is simple – Jesus said: you believe in God, believe also in Me. Well, hey, if I am going to believe anything, I intend to believe that Jesus Himself in Person lives inside my heart. And so I also simply and quietly believe, with all confidence of faith, that wherever I am, whatever I am doing, the Spirit of God is always flowing out from me bringing all into the knowledge of God. I expect God. When I bless, when I give a cup of cold water, I expect that God Himself is moving out from me. And even when I “make a mistake,” still, I expect that God and I together, by our shared faith, are turning that mistake into goodness for others.
Proving God True. But then, in complete conjunction with God flowing out of us as rivers of living water, this capacity God designed us to be, to release God Himself in Person into His creation that He might be known and touched and handled by all, this quality of God out-flowing moves in complete conjunction with another great task.
That is the task given to the Son, the Champion of God, the One who lives in all ways in our hearts, to PROVE God TRUE against all accusation and deceit. The serpent challenged the word God speaks right from the start, “Did God indeed say?”
Jesus proves God true through us.