We are continuing with engaging God how we engage God on this journey together say I believe is an adventure because we don’t know what’s coming next all the time but we are going to discover and engage in spiritual realms around us and in us and the heavenly realms and we followed two pathways of relationship and responsibility to enable us to actually do that and were module three which is first love and we’ve done two sessions for six sessions the two parts of that house of God we are house of God dwelling place for God and that amount in a gateway and also we looked at first love and what it is to engage first love as a person and experience and today we are going to look at the river of life and I really enjoyed this session.
I can remember going back to 20 years to where your in sort of revival situations and other revival situations where as it was always described as a river and that Rivers was always fun so we are going to look at the river of life today and we are going to look at living water and then we are going to look at engaging the river next week and then engaging Holy Spirit the week after that.
So I want to just start with a quote from Bill Johnson repentance is a sustained change of perspective about the nature of reality and we looked last week about the need to change our mind about the things we think feel and engage with to engage a new reality which is a reality of the spirit and the reality of the fact that the heavenly realms are open up to us and we have a new way of engaging with God.
one Corinthians 216 says for who has known the mind of the Lord, now if it stopped there it would just be a question then it says that he will instruct him but we have the mind of Christ so we’re not just looking for instruction from some religious system.
we actually have the mind of Christ operating within us so we can engage and experience the presence of God and who he really is. so our minds have been renewed or are being renewed from the old to have the mind of Christ which is the new. A whole different way of engaging the whole realms of the spirit and who God is. So we are going to look at living water and this is often equated with the river of life.
now Jeremiah 2:13 says this for my people have committed two evils they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters so God describes himself as a fountain of living waters that is a very active description. There is nothing stagnant about that it is flowing it is living it’s alive it is a fountain and that’s who he describes himself as.
But people have ignored that source of life and it goes on to say to hue for themselves cisterns broken cisterns that can hold no water. See other than the source of life which flows from heaven there is no life that sustains us. The question is what is the source of our life where is it coming from and therefore how alive are we?
Isaiah 12:2 says behold God is my salvation I will trust and not be afraid for the Lord God is my strength and song and he has become my salvation therefore you will joyously draw water from the springs of life, again a really lovely expression of who God is and how we can engage him joyously drawing water from the springs of salvation that is what God wants us to do to draw joyously and to experience that as an overflow of abundance that comes from our relationship with him.
Amos 524 let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream and we know the foundation of the kingdom of God the throne of God is righteousness and justice and that’s found in the flow of the very life of God himself and it flows down as an ever flowing stream it never stops.
the question is are we going to drink from it? See both relationship and responsibility flow from that living water. now first love is about an up close and personal relationship and an encounter with God himself .we have seen that as we engage God within our own spirit through that first love gate it has to be up close and personal. when I first began to look at these this module it was are going to be one session but as I opened my first love gate every day the presence of God father son and spirit actually they embraced me and wouldn’t let me go because there was deeper depths of revelation about how to experience the presence of God each of the expressions of God presents himself father son and spirit in a deeper way so I stayed there and the Holy Spirit Jesus the father intimately embraced me so that I would know them more personally and more deeply, and I thought I knew them before. But this opened up a whole different realm. so I can know their frequencies and fragrances and personalities who they actually are because they are real people. now we think of people as obviously the people that sit around here and not people like that but I have real active living personalities. Proverbs 1810 the name of the Lord is a strong tower the righteous run into it and is safe Psalm 2024 eight our health is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth so there’s something about the name that gives us access to the person so when Jesus told his disciples to go out into all the world in Matthew 28:19 go therefore and make disciples the description of how people would become disciples of all the nations was through baptizing them in the name of the father son and Holy Spirit so being baptized into that name is being baptized into the revelation of the person and we can be baptized into the father the son and the spirit now we may have been baptized in water and we may have been baptized in the spirit that will be baptized into father son and spirit and there is a different dimension to those experiences that God wants us to have and the promise was that he was going to be with us to the end of the age so this experience of being baptized into the name of God actually is available to us right now so baptism in the name father son and Holy Spirit the name carries the true record of who God is God’s character nature personality that we can experience Yoda hey Barb hey with we engage that the four faces of God and their expression in the name of God we can actually be baptized into that experience and therefore we can engage in being in his name Yoda hey Chin Barb hey so we are actually in his name and in the experience of who he really is and that has to be much more than just reading about him in a book or having some sort of experience in our past it has to be a daily living reality of encounter so baptisms when were baptized into the Holy Spirit there things that were baptized into righteousness peace and joy when were baptizing into Jesus were baptized into the way the truth and the life when were baptized into the father we are baptized into judgment justice and holiness now as we engage being baptized into Jesus and the father when we were looking to those but we are concentrating today on the Holy Spirit next couple weeks and what is to be baptized into righteousness peace and joy when were baptized were baptized into him and then we are clothed or skinned with the armor of his presence now if we’re baptized and skinned with nine skins nine levels of armor then we should be pretty secure and pretty safe.
but if we don’t know what it is to be baptized into the name and into the person then we won’t understand the reality of that experience so Romans 13:12 put on the armor of light 2 Corinthians 6:7 the armor of righteousness Ephesians 611 put on the full armor of God so we can actually experience the depth of relationship and the reality of that relationship as armor or being surrounded or being in him.
so let’s look at the river of life Revelation 22 then he showed me a river of water of life clear as crystal coming from the throne of God and from the lamb so that’s describing where this river flows from. This river flows from the very place where God rules of his throne and the place of salvation represented by the lamb in the middle of its street on either side of the river was the tree of life so very source of life is where this river flows from. bearing 12 kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month so this is a ongoing never ending source of life fruitful every month not just seasons but every month with fresh new fruit and is and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations so engaging this river is going to bring healing and wholeness and life to the world that we live in, guess where that river needs to flow from to engage the world us that’s why it is important that we understand how?
Genesis 2:10 the river flowed out of Eden to water the garden and from there it divided and became four rivers. Eden is God’s garden and that Garden is in the realm of heaven the garden that was given to Adam and Eve to tend and cultivated and to expand from was on the earth and the heaven and the earth were in overlap at that point in time before sin, for their sin. So this river flowed out of Eden which is God’s garden flowed into their garden and then flow out of that garden as rivers. both gardens were connected to the realms of the spirit realms of heaven by that river of life which was flowing and so it is for us today that river now flows out of heaven flows into our spirit through that first love gate then that river becomes rivers and streams within’s us that river can flow in the garden of our heart, because our heart is now expresses the garden which we need to tend and cultivate. Jesus talked about the parable of the sower and the soil of the heart four different types of soil. so there is a garden that we have to look after and it is our heart and that river flow can flow as rivers of living water flowing through us to the world around us bringing life where ever it goes, we will look at that in the future.
John 410 Jesus answered this is to the lady who was at the well in Samaria that was Jacob’s well if you knew the gift of God and who it is who says to you give me a drink you would’ve asked him and he would’ve given you living water so Jesus is the source of that living water and he can give us that living water today but we have to receive it as the gift of God drinking living water is not a one-off event salvation is an ongoing life style with the source of life itself. John 14: 13-14
John 4:30- 40 Jesus answered and said to her everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again because that comes from the source that can actually hold no life within it. the source that they have dug cisterns that can hold no life but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst so this becomes an eternal source of life we never have to look for other sources of life again when we draw and drink from the living water that he gives us the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life. so when we initially drink that water it actually becomes a source within us that is described as a well. now we think of a well as something which we dig in the ground and put a bucket in it him and pull it up, but this is describing it as it is springing up its flowing is not a stagnant well of water. this is a source of water that is springing up to eternal life. this gives us the quality of heaven in our lives now on earth if we can drink it and if we can engage it, that source every day within our spirit.
John 737 Jesus stood and cried out saying if anyone is thirsty let him come to me and drink so again here is the source. he who believes in me as the Scripture said from his innermost being. so from a very in depths of our being our spirit will flow rivers of living water but this he spoke of the spirit so he was describing the interaction with the Holy Spirit as a flow of living water as a flow of rivers of water and this is how we can begin to engage with the Holy Spirit as life as active life, as God’s gift to us of eternal life. the river of the spirit is in us as a well as a fountain and a spring that river within us is also a person its the source of life itself and we can engage with the person of the Holy Spirit as we drink living water engage with the river of life as we engage the Holy Spirit as a person not as a cosmic force or cosmic consciousness. the holy spirit is not simply a influence or impersonal force that emanates from God we can actually know him feel him sense his character the very essence of who he is in relationship. you know when I first got baptized in the spirit I didn’t really realizing it either he just gave me gifts and empowered me and it was just I could feel power but I wasn’t connected to him as a person but now that has changed through engaging on the inside and in my spirit is actually the reality of his presence there. we need to get to know him we need to ask him to reveal himself to us now I have not engaged the Holy Spirit as a personal physical body that’s not how he engages with me but that does not make him any less personal or real you may well engage him like that for me it has been learning to discern and connect with him and get his personality and it is for me full of life and energy there are many symbols that represent the Holy Spirit’s presence you will find lots of them also in the Bible here is a few of them water, river, living water, the dove peace comforter, wind or breath of life, wine joy oil anointing healing fire purifying righteousness light revelation teacher cloud , to cloud guidance direction help many descriptions of the person so he engages us in many different ways and so when you encounter him as you engage, he may appear in any one of those things to you and you may feel any one of those different aspects of who he is depending on the season we are in. and what he is doing in your life but the reality is he’s a person so some of my personal experiences and when I just let him embrace me and just allowed him to flow around me were expressions and words that flowed into me that described what it was like to engage him, you know he is my supply and my source of life my fresh mercy new every morning my daily supply of God’s grace his divine ability to help me fulfill his will and purpose and my destiny my living water my source my well my fountain my Spring my stream my river my insight my revelation my direction my guidance my abundant life my heavenly flow my heavenly connection my filling my overflowing my creativity my zero point energy my joy my extravagance my exuberance my effulgence, if you know what that one means my avoidance my abundance my vitality my joie de vivre the joy of life my eternal life source. see when I engaged him there is an excitement of creative possibilities and potentials because the Holy Spirit to me is a character that takes me to places I’ve never been before he causes me to fly , i don’t know if any of you’ve been flying in dreams or in realms of the spirit the Holy Spirit just takes me by the hand, you know a little bit like the snowman, if you remember that story taking a little boy and flying, you know I thing the song is about flying in the air that is what the Holy Spirit is when I engage with him in certain circumstances just an excitement creative possibilities and potentials the energy of life passion and zeal and enthusiasm the fullest expression of hope the creative image of God expresses inspiration motivation, the pioneering spirit of adventure and discovery that’s describing how i engage in the Holy Spirit , now he may well be different with you, I don’t know but he wants to reveal himself in those ways you know he is an expression of the supernatural abilities and the character in the gifts and the fruit that he gives us the revealer of the true awe and wonder of life itself, you know when the Holy Spirit took me in places in the realms of heaven he took me out into the galaxy and the stars and showed me things he showed me the enormous enormity of God’s creation and that’s just a dot within who God is himself but he reveals himself in that way, unveiler of the mysteries of God you know there are more mysteries left to be discovered than we have even thought of or imagined or could think of or imagine
so much more he is the breath of life pnuma in the Greek will Roulac in the Hebrew. the wind of heaven our spiritual oxygen without oxygen we die without the spirit we die when our spirit does not have the Holy Spirit there’s nothing flowing Romans 47 the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking but righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Spirit so we can drink and be immersed in the living water as the river of life and engage the oil, the fire the light the frequency breath but what can we expect to experience what is it that we will experience personally when we engage with the Holy Spirit well when we engage with our spirit as righteousness what can we expect to experience being cleansed been washed being purified being clothed in white robes all the stain of our guilt shame condemnation sin removed washed away made righteous that is what righteousness is blamelessness innocence guiltless sinless, quality of being morally right or justifiable impossible no impossible on our own yes impossible with God absolutely not why because we can live in the sphere of God’s gracious covenantal relationship which is a description of righteousness the sphere of God’s gracious covenantal relationship with us Romans 519 for as though one that through one man’s disobedience many were made sinners even so through the obedience of one, talking about jesus many will be made righteous, were made righteous we don’t earn it we don’t deserve it we can’t do anything for it he makes us righteous therefore he makes us as if we never sin before two Corinthians 521 he made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God in him. so when we are baptized into him we become his righteousness which means and it is good news for anyone who has committed any sin, and of those here, and some of us have committed lots of sin it is good news to know that can be not counted to you and you don’t have to give an account for it because Jesus took it and Jesus can wipe the slate clean and make you as if you are pure and spotless and it never ever sinned and that’s how he views us our righteousness is based on what Jesus did on the cross the righteousness that was Christ is counted or accounted to us so when you account for sin there’s nothing on our debit side just on our credit side everything is positive in him we are seen as righteous in the eyes of God so we are washed and cleansed and made new and restored cleansed inside and out as we drink and are immersed in that living water as were baptized in to him he dwells in us as the very source of eternal everlasting life John 1427 peace I leave with you so how did he leave peace because he left the Holy Spirit with them my peace I give to you not as the world gives do I give to you do not let your heart be troubled nor let it be fearful so the Holy Spirit as our peace enables our hearts not to be worried or anxious or fearful but he gives us peace that remains rests with us and brings us into a sense of wholeness what is his peace it is to be found in a personal relationship with the Holy Spirit what is it wholeness of life and body health right relationship a harmony between two parties or people often established by a covenant the new covenant of peace we live in. we are now in harmony with God prosperity success or fulfillment victory over one’s enemies or absence of war all descriptions of peace become through being baptized into the Holy Spirit and engaging with peace see our relationship with God is one of harmony and wholeness because we been made righteous it is the goodness of life that is not touched by what happens on the outside this is within us so we can have peace when everything else is in turmoil we can live in the eye of the storm because we contain peace on the inside peace is not the absence of war but the presence of the Holy Spirit what about joy John 1511 these things I’ve spoken to you so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full I love the sense of joy that you get in the presence of the Holy Spirit sometimes that comes out through laughter and we have that joy you know when we use to dance in the river and play in the river of life it was a joyful expression and laughter was often the result of that what is this joy in reality one of the descriptions is extreme overwhelming sense of well-being and happiness joy is the deepest total contentment based on relationship and true experience of identity and purpose not circumstances and situations joy is a state of mind and an orientation of our heart it is a settled state of contentment confidence and hope in who in the Holy Spirit who is in us joy is the settled assurance that God is in control of all the details of my life the quiet confidence that ultimately everything is going to be alright and the determined choice to praise God in every situation because when we know on the inside that we have the solution to every problem then we can praise God in every situation and that releases joy because the joy of the Lord is our strength.
Now there is a strong connection between water and light and the spirit and when you are engaged in some of the realms of heaven it is almost like you don’t know what you’re engaging in but it’s like water and light and spirit some of the places I’ve been in recently I can’t describe when I asked god to describe my spirit he gave me a very strange thing he said this my spirit is liquid light inter spatial matrix an interface. Now io have not quite fathomed that out yet but I’m working on it to understand what that means but it’s really talking about how we can connect with different realms of existence and reality in my spiritual dimension because who I am the spirit but the river of life is a Crystal River and Crystal contains facets which can have encoded revelation. We have Crystal radio sets their crystals within many of the things that we use to carry information you see there is information encoded within the river as a Crystal River that has light and spirit within it the river of life of living water is a revelation or manifestation of the spirit that we can actually experience so were born into darkness to see the light to reflect the light to walk in the light to become light bearers to be sons radiating glory there is a process of engaging in the reality of who God is so that we can be like him you may still be in darkness but today light is available mixing metaphors you may be thirsty but living water is available today Matthew 516 says let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your father who is in heaven. our good works don’t save us but our good works express the life of God that comes within salvation through us this is a very practical out working that must flow from us we don’t want to keep what God has done on the inside and keep it to ourselves it has to flow Colossians 3:3 for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God that is the picture of what happened when we get baptized into water we died to the past and we embrace resurrection life and our life is not in God were baptized into him when Christ who is our life is revealed then you also will be revealed with him in glory now in our way of thinking about this verse you would think that means well I have to die go to heaven and then in heaven then I’m in glory but we know heavens opened now so we know God wants to reveal himself as he reveals us in that glory as a reflection or radiation of him his presence in light it is time for the sons of God to be revealed the whole of the created order is waiting for us to be rivers of living water to be radiating light our spirit is given life by God spirit the very breath of life himself our spirit receives God’s light and becomes light that light of truth opens our eyes to reality by drinking living water I receive a well and a fountain then my spirit our spirit can become a house for God his presence we can become that mountain become that gateway.
Genesis 2:7 then the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living being and you know what he did first he breathed out and then what he did he breathed in and then he breathed out and he breathed in that’s what we have to do on a daily basis breathe out and breathe back in from the source the breath of life that is within us we breathe out that life into the world breathe back from the source and breathe out that is the very rhythm of life John 2022 and when he had said this this is Jesus talking to his disciples after he was resurrected and came back to them surprisingly before the day of Pentecost when he said this he breathed on them and said to them receive the Holy Spirit so what God did on the day that he created Adam Jesus did so that we can receive the breath of life again the very spirit of God again and we breathe him in. Job 33:4 the spirit of God has made me the breath of the Almighty gives me life this is our source this is the rhythm of life when you actually listen to someone breathing it is like they are actually saying Yoda hey Barb hey there is a video where I many years ago of the numa series and it was called breath and it described this whole process of breathing in and out the life of God the river of life living water life of the Holy Spirit his breath we can breathe this water receive life-giving spiritual oxygen see it is not a literal river it is not H2O that we are breathing in and drinking in we are breathing in and drinking in life, abundant ever flowing life one Corinthians 617 when we are joined to the Lord when we yoked, when we are intimate with him when we open our first love gate and engage him, we become one spirit flowing in his life this very source has to flow through us John 430 again whoever drinks will never be thirsty but there’s no flow without drinking we have to prime the pump you have to drink first it won’t flow unless you drink so whether you’ve ever met God before you have an opportunity to drink that living water whether you have met him every day of your life you still have to drink and flow in the living water . that’s where our source comes from our problem is when we draw from another source when we draw from the world around us when we draw from other relationships when we are drawing from the other things that the other tree offers the other pathway offers the knowledge of good and evil and that’s a path that leads to death not life God wants us to follow the path of that river of life the tree of life which brings us life the more you drink the greater the flow until it gets deeper and deeper in us. we can draw from the well release it to flow from our innermost being because that river is in us and we can be that river flowing so my first thirst for the things of this dimensional reality will cease when I taste and see that he’s good the more I drink of real water the more what the world offers tastes like stagnant rubbish it really does you don’t need it when you have the source of crystal-clear the river of life flowing so we can access that within us you see that living water engages me with the eternal dimensions of the reality of God and reveals me as a new creation living and connected to that eternal heavenly reality I’m connected to the spiritual and heavenly realm through this river the question is do we know this gift of God are we connected to the flow of that living water do we drink from the eternal wellspring of that eternal life do we experience a constant flow of the source of life the Holy Spirit flowing there’s a question only you can answer but i now the truth is if we drink and keep drinking then this will become our way of life.
Ezekiel 47 one will look at this whole passage much more in another session but he brought me back to the door of the house think of the door first love gate in our spirit and behold water was flowing from under the threshold see that it trickles most of us have lived on a trickle because we never knew how to open the door it trickles under the gateway from the kingdom within us but until we open it will just be a trickle when we open that door it becomes a fountain and a river that’s what we need to drink from that’s what we need to be baptized in step into it let it flow it becomes deeper ankle-deep knee-deep waist-deep out of our depth and flowing with life you know it flows from our spirit into the garden of our heart and we can engage it there as the quiet waters of Psalm 23 within our garden is the source of life that enables us to cultivate and tend our garden and plant and see our garden flourish resurrection life and power as we are baptized into that river you know this river is swirling with grace and faith now it is difficult to describe that if you not been in it looking at it at a subatomic level which I have and that’s what it looked like a swirl of life and energy grace and faith when you mix that with the word of hope and expectation of the promises of God it produces anointing a charge of power in our hands through our words vibrating with power and heat electricity light oil fragrance all those things flow from us and most of us have experienced some of it when we lay hands on someone, our hand gets hot vibrates with energy or oil flows from it you know when we had revival meetings here a few years ago you know I had fragrant perfumes coming out of my hand you know I was quite perturbed about that initially. but I got used to it being a sense of the presence of the Holy Spirit being released as fragrance fragrant oil light that’s what God wants to flow through us when we engage that river all flowing around us to the world. You know lets draw from that very source of life the very throne of God that river that releases heavens reality around us the peace the shalom the wholeness the rest where we can be baptized immersed filled to overflowing. I am just going to read two Scriptures and then lets get into engaging this personally Psalm 1:2 and this is the Scripture that equates and relates to Revelation 22 but his delight is in the Law of the Lord and the law he meditates day and night don’t think of regulations but think of words of life he will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water which yields its fruit in season and it’s leaf does not wither and in whatever he does he prospers. is that what we want for our lives to be seen as one who prospers who has life flowing Psalm 46 four there is a river whose streams make glad the city of God the holy dwelling places of the most high. Who is that describing? point at yourself, that is describing me that is describing you God is in the midst of her she will not be moved God will help her when morning dawns so every day when we open that first love gate morning by morning there is a river whose streams make us glad bring us joy and peace and love we can engage in that river so today, we are going to open ourselves up to God we are going to choose to embrace first love choose to give ourselves to him to renew the very nature of our reality choose to engage in intimacy and relationship choose to drink living water flowing from Jesus now so I encourage you just to begin to think about Jesus right now in front of you. engage Jesus who is offering you living water to drink that living water is flowing from him. now I want you to just close your eyes and just still yourself and just think of Jesus just kneeling before you with living water flowing from him from his hands from his innermost being just right in front of you just fix your eyes on him fix your heart on him fix your attention on him as you picture him there maybe you never drunk that living water ever before but he is offering you living water so that you will never have to thirst again. Maybe you drunk this water for years and years and years and yet it never never ever stops flowing and it never ever stops giving you deeper and deeper revelation of who he is so just cup your hands and drink just take that flow from him and just drink that living water as you drink it just feel that water filling you that life that energy flowing into your spirit becoming a fountain within you just let it energize you as you drink it just let it cleanse you and wash you from the inside out as you drink it just feel his forgiveness is washing away all your sin guilt shame condemnation just feel it all being cleansed and washed away just feel that new life just filling you right now with joy and with peace with love you are a new creation the old is washed away and the new has come just feel his life feel it flowing feel it surrounding you feel it in you that water in you is now a fountain is now a source it is flowing out of heaven flowing into the kingdom within you just think of it trickling under the door within your spirit with Jesus just knocking the door the Holy Spirit just waiting for you to let him flow into you, to picture that door, picture reaching out for the handle and just open the door and just see that fountain flowing, that water flowing from the door flowing into your spirit flowing ankle deep you can lie In it and splash in it you can drink from it as you do just feel the life and the energy the frequency vibrating around you and in you energizing you strengthing you, just feel the very center of your whole being restore renewed repaired life, the energy of life his life just draw from the well of salvation wholeness deliverance safety, security peace, just drink his prescence just let his peace rest on you just feel the weight of his peace, just removing all fear, all worry all anxiety bringing security and safety just enveloping you now just drink of that stream that brings gladness to you to your spirit brings gladness to your heart just let his joy fill you, just let it bubble up, let it flow overflowing abundant well being the joy the joy of the lord becomeing your strength, your shield just feel the spirit, his personality his life, his righteousness his peace and joy just be baptized deeper and deeper into him deeper into who he is just breath in the very oxegen of heaven just breath it in deeper and deeper and as you breath it in that river flowing through you , taste it each part of you , your mind your emotions you will your conscience your imagination to your eyes to your ears to your nose to your mouth to your hands to your whole body flowing with life his life his presence as we carry on this time together,don’t be a stagnat pool be a flowing river let that life flow from you let that resurrection power emanate from you, release the very glory of God to fill the atmosphere of this room touch those around you with life you know one can put 1000 flight, but two 10,000 and three a 100,000 exponential flow when we come together just let that flow today and just continue to experience that let that be to each of you a daily experience opening the first love gate and encountering the very presence of god. amen