As I commune with the saints in these final days of the "Church Age," I find an ever increasing longing and encouragement to go deeper into Jesus' being, until all signs of me are lost in that Great Love of the Ages. I keep contemplating the following verse.
Deep calls unto deep at the noise of Your waterfalls; All Your waves and billows have gone over me. The LORD will command His loving kindness in the daytime, and in the night His song shall be with me--a prayer to the God of my life." (Psalms 42:7,8, NKJV).
The following verses are from Ezekiel 47:1-12.
Then he brought me back to the door of the temple; and there was water, flowing from under the threshold of the temple toward the east, for the front of the temple faced east; the water was flowing from under the right side of the temple, south of the altar. (Ezekiel 47:1, NKJV)
These spiritual torrents flow under the threshold, not over it. The pure refreshing waters of God are of a humble sort, seeking the lowest places, even in ministry to others. The temple of God, the Church, faces east because that is the direction from which He has promised to appear. His Bride is always looking for Him in expectation. The waters flow from the right side of the temple. His sheep are on the right side. The right hand is the position of power and blessing. We in unity with His mighty Spirit are the made part of this flow of life to a thirsty world.
Jesus said, "Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.(John 4:14, NKJV).
And it shall be that every living thing that moves, whether the rivers go, will live. There will be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters go there; for they will be healed, and everything will live wherever the river goes. (Ezekiel 47:9)
"Every living thing... will live." Gone are the days of the walking dead. Even the living will receive new life in this flow of His great grace. The multitude of fish that will be healed, speaks of the revival and harvest of souls that is brought on by the witness of this refreshing life flow in His people. "And the Life was the Light of men!" Life first then light. Where there is no life, there is no light. The following verse form Isaiah speaks so well of the times we are in and His great work among the seven golden lampstands (see Revelation 1), the Church.
Arise, shine; For your light has come! And the glory of the LORD is risen upon you. 2 For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, And deep darkness the people; But the Lord will arise over you and His glory will be seen upon you. The Gentiles shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. Lift up your eyes all around, and see: They all gather together, they come to you; Your sons shall come from afar, And your daughters shall be nursed at your side. Then you shall see and become radiant, and your heart shall swell with joy. (Isaiah 60:1-5, NKJV).
And when the man went out to the east with the line in his hand, he measure one thousand cubits, and he brought me through the waters; the water came up to my ankles. Again he measure one thousand and brought me through the waters; the water came up to my knees. Again he measured one thousand and brought me through; the water came up to my waist. (Ezekiel 47:4b)
Each new deep calls out for a greater deep within us. The deep in you calls out to welcome and stir up the deep in me, as the deep in me calls to the deep in you and others.
Again he measured one thousand, and it was a river that I could not cross; for the water was too deep, water on which one must swim, a river that could not be crossed. (Ezekiel 47:5)
Jesus wants us to be brave and step out into His rushing torrent of the deeper revelation of His love to the point that we can no longer control our destiny, being swept off our feet by His great loving, "waters to swim in." The Lord is not happy to let us settle for the religious substitutes of knee deep devotion and shallow doctrines that will let us thirst again. Of Jesus the religious ones asked:
Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?"
Jesus answered and said to her, "Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again..." (John 4:12,13, NKJV).
The waters of the last outpouring of the Spirit which have become stale and brackish can not quench the thirst which He places in us for the present pouring out of His Spirit. We must always seek more of Him, always going deeper searching the depths of His great heart. Fear not, you will not find the bottom and run out of experiencing Him in a greater love relationship day by day, for here is "A river that could not be crossed."
Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! (Romans 11:33, NKJV).
To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. (Ephesians 3:8, NKJV).
He said to me, "Son of Man, have you seen this?" Then he brought me and returned me to the bank of the river. (Ezekiel 47:5)
But He won't let us go on swimming and bathing in the river just for our own edification. He calls us back with our new found source of "Refreshing" so that we, too, can lead others out into the depths of His life giving flow.
When I returned, there, along the bank of the river, were very many trees on one side and the other. (Ezekiel 47:7)
Along the bank of the river, on this side and that, will grow all kinds of trees used for food; their leaves will not wither, and their fruit will not fail. They will bear fruit every month, because their water flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for good, and their leaves for medicine. (Ezekiel 47:12)
When we come back from this swim in the depths of His flowing love, we find on the banks of the river, the tree of life. We are made part of this precious life giving flow by bearing fruit as we abide in Jesus, the True Vine, and His love, sap, flows through us. Our leaves, that is our hands are used by Him as an extension of His hand to reach out and heal. Yes, God still heals through our touching others as we walk in His love. I find He gives me more and more opportunities to reach out and touch others in His healing power as I walk in His love.
In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations." (Revelation 22:2, NKJV).
Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city. (Revelation 22:14, NKJV).
Jesus said, "This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you." (John 15:12, NKJV). This is the total of "doing His commandments." In loving one another with His great agape love we gain access to the tree of life, giving life and healing through His great compassion, and are thus made ready of live in His Great City forever with Him. We forsake the tree of the knowledge of good and evil wherein is division, and judgment and a joining of ourselves to the Accuser of the brethren.
Then he said to me: "This water flows toward the eastern region, goes down into the valley, and enters the sea. When it reaches the sea, its waters are healed." (Ezekiel 47:8)
His waters flow ever downward to greater humility and brokenness. "Love seeks not her own way." It also "flows toward the eastern region," that mystical eastern way of seeing the spiritual as the ONLY thing of importance because it (He) is everything. That longing to be in a mystical love bond with your God, not just study about Him as they do in western cultures.
As churches and denominations embrace the ever present flow of His waters of life, they, can be healed no matter how dead and crusted with salt and cold they have become. But they have to leave all their traditions behind and seek only Him. In fact the colder they are the better, for hear in absolute poverty of spirit He commands a blessing. "I would that you were cold or hot..." (Revelation 3:15).
It shall be that fishermen will stand by it from En Gedi to En Eglaim; they will be places for spearing their nets. Their fish will be of the same kinds of the fish of the great sea, exceedingly many. (Ezekiel 47:10)
Now comes revival! When the Church is full of living water for those who thirst. The fishermen, evangelists and church planters, stand by the flow, they don't try to divert it into their own idea of where it should go. Oh, that more of God's workers had the wisdom to be still and stand by the Holy Spirit, waiting and praying to see the hand of the Lord move. Always acting in unity with Him in the harvest instead of trying to make it happen by shear, unbroken, soulish power.
But its swamps and marshes will not be healed; they will be given over to salt. (Ezekiel 47:11)
The back washes and bogs of the river will never know His life. Those who are the closest to the flow, but refuse to enter in will only know death there. Dead traditionalism will not be given life. Didn't He say, "Behold, I make all things new?" "The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are made new every morning."
There is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God, The holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High. (Psalms 46:4, NKJV).
We who follow the Lamb where ever He goes are those little streams that bless the Church and flow together into His mighty river. Denominational obstacles and controls will not be able to hold back this tide. Flow on, little streams, into that mighty River that ever calls you to go deeper.
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