Facebook Note on Saturday, 02 April 2011 at 16:24
The Transforming River
The book of Genesis, chapter two, talks about a river flowing in three directions and becoming four
heads. The name of the first is Pison, which means "freely
flowing". The second is Gihon, which means "bursting
forth". The third is Hiddekel, which means "rapid". The
fourth is Euphrates, which means "that which makes fruitful".
In that land of flowing rivers there are also precious stones. Precious stones
are transformed stones. In the book of Revelation, we again see a flowing river
and precious stones. Stones are made precious by the flowing of the river. This
picture shows us that God’s will in Genesis is to produce precious stones for His
building, which is seen completed in Revelation. Between Genesis and Revelation
there is a long process to produce the City of God.
The key to spiritual understanding of the Bible is to discover that it is a Book describing and
unfolding to you your own inner being. When you first receive God, you begin to
experience from the depths of your being something that is moving and flowing.
This moving and flowing is the Spirit of God, represented by the flowing river
in the Word. Deep within your being there is something "freely
flowing", something "bursting forth", something that is
"rapid", and something that will "make you fruitful". Jesus
said it this way:
"He that believes in Me, out of his innermost
being shall flow rivers of living water!" (John 7:38).
We need to be challenged in our walk with God -- not for condemnation, but to gain proper light and
understanding. We need to experience what we say we believe.
Where is the
flowing of the living water that we say is within us? I used to go to God
and ask Him, "Where is the abundant life and the living water that You
said we were to have?" I knew it was there, because I did experience it
from time to time. I knew the problem had to be with me, not with God. There
were times when I would be greatly filled with the Spirit of God, but it would
not last. God does this so that we will continue to seek Him for His fullness.
I wanted to stay in that river, but I didn’t know how. The more time we give to
God to seek Him, the more we come into His flowing. Whenever you begin to sense
even a little of His flowing within you, there is a transforming that takes
place. The more the river flows over the stone of the natural man, the more you
are transformed into a precious stone. A great many Christians have tried to
die to the flesh and to be obedient to the Spirit, but it is impossible for the
natural, carnal self-life to be like God. If you will learn instead to turn to
the Spirit of God within, and begin to experience the presence of God within
you, the river of His Spirit will begin to flow, and the river will transform
you. It is impossible to enter into the presence of God and not have something
of His essence flow into your soul.
The New Jerusalem, the City of God, is made of gold, silver and precious stones. Gold represents God’s
divine nature, silver represents redemption. Precious stones are made precious
only by transformation.
Religion has taught us that the New Jerusalem is a golden city, and that it is up in a place called
heaven. It has golden streets, gates of pearl, and a river flowing out of the
throne with a Tree of Life on both sides and in the middle. Someday this city
is supposed to fall out of the sky, and we will all go into it and live happily
ever after. I wish it were that simple.
We must begin to pray for God’s people to have a spiritual understanding of His word. The entire book
of Revelation is revealing to us our own inner life. You must realize that
you can begin to experience this City of God now.
You do not have to wait until
you die to enter the New Jerusalem. Today! -- right now -- you can experience
the flowing of the Spirit of God within you. This flowing will transform you
into a precious stone, to be built up with the saints in your locality, until together
you become a local expression of the City of God. This is God’s plan for His
Church. We are to be a visible expression of the invisible God
Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up
spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 2:5).
"But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the
same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord" (2 Cor. 3:18).
"But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up
Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that
dwelleth in you. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live
after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye
through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live" (Rom. 8:11-13).
I will never forget the time when the Spirit of God began to speak the above verses to me. That is when
I began to change. I knew them and believed them and hoped for them. When the
Spirit began to speak them to me, I began to seek God for the flowing of the
river to transform me. The entrance of the Word brings light. In our natural
state we are in darkness, in fact we are the darkness. "the people that sat in darkness saw great light" (Mat. 4:16). If you are in darkness, how can you see? You don’t bind the darkness, you just turn on
the light.
The book of Revelation says that the New Jerusalem has streets of gold. Gold typifies divinity,
streets represent the walk. Those who are experiencing the New Jerusalem are
walking in the divine nature and character of God. In the New Jerusalem there
is a river flowing from the throne. Where is the throne of God today? It is
within you. Paul told the Ephesians that
"He hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus."
here is a realm, a consciousness in God, where we can experience these
things. Many talk today about the believer's authority, but that authority
comes only from the throne. If the Spirit of God does not have authority in
your life, then you cannot exercise God’s authority. If you are under the
Spirit’s authority, then you will have authority.
The Crossing of the Jordan
In the Old Testament, when Israel was about to cross the Jordan, it was told them in Joshua 3:3,
"And they commanded the people, saying, When ye see the ark of the covenant of the
LORD your God, and the priests the Levites bearing it, then ye shall remove
from your place, and go after it."
When you see the ark begin to move, that’s when you cross the Jordan. When you experience within your consciousness the Spirit of God beginning to rise, and when you begin to
experience the tables of stone (the ten commandments) to be the regulating
life-law within you, then you begin to cross the Jordan. The Ten Commandments
were never meant to be a set of rules and regulations that you try to keep in
an outward way with your fallen humanity.
When you experience the resurrection power and
Spirit of God coming alive within you, you will naturally express what was
written on those tables of stone. It is effortless. No more trying to be that
good Christian, but from your innermost being flows the Spirit of God to
fulfill all the righteous requirements of the Law. Don’t try so hard to be
holy. All you need is one glimpse of the Ark, just a little taste of Jesus
Christ in you, and all of a sudden you begin to live the life that you thought
you had to die to receive. We used to think that death solved our problems, but
not so. The hope of the Gospel is not merely to get saved and then someday to
die and go to heaven. The hope of the gospel is "Jesus Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Col. 1:27).
Don’t Be Devil Conscious
Another part of the darkness in these days is to be devil-conscious. One of the biggest-selling
categories in Christian books today is writings on the Cults. Christians today
are reading hundreds of books on Satanism and witchcraft. They read biographies
of the experiences of people who have been in Satanism, with all the gory
details about what Satan can do to you. The reading of all these books is
causing such a consciousness of Satan and demonic activity that it is actually
helping that activity. (Incidentally, one of the lowest-selling categories in
Christian books is prayer.) Christians are spending millions of dollars to
learn about witchcraft and demons, and how to deal with them. They think they need
to learn about these things so they won’t be trapped by Satan, but that in
itself can be an entrapment.
When Christians are so consumed with learning about demons and Satanic activity, it makes a statement that Christians are living in fear. They think they have to learn about Satan
to fight him. Do you really think that learning about all the details of what
Satan can do to you will help empower you to fight the hosts of darkness?
It will not!
However, if you learn to live in the presence of God, where you
can say, "It is no longer I that live but Christ that lives within me" (Gal. 2:20), Satan has no power over you. If Satan comes to me and the Spirit of God rises up within me, what can he do to me? I can study all
about demons and how to deal with them. I can study deliverance, but is it
really going to help me fight the darkness? There is only one area of true
deliverance that will have lasting effect. It is this:
"Let God arise and His enemies be scattered!" psalm 68:1
If God never arises within your being, your enemies will never be scattered, no
matter how much you study and learn.
The Word says that we have been delivered from the power of darkness and transferred into the Kingdom
of God.
You can spend your whole life fighting the devil (as I did for many
years), sometimes winning and sometimes losing, but never realizing that in
actuality he has no power over you.
If we have truly been taken out
of the power of darkness and placed into the Kingdom of God as the Word says,
then we need to experience it. The Word of God is not a theory, but a fact. If
you have been taken out of the power of darkness and transferred into the
Kingdom of God, then Satan has no power over you. You may say, "But look
at the multitude of Christians who pray every day, yet the enemy is destroying
their finances, and they are eaten up with sickness and disease. How can you
say the devil has no power over them?" It is because of the darkness.
Again I must repeat:
"This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord,
that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their
mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God
through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their
heart" (Eph. 4:17-18).
Most Christians believe more in the power of the devil than in the power of God. By confessing and believing in the power of evil to prevail over you, you give it the power to do
so. Whatever you believe in will work for you. You believe in your heart that
the devil has power over you, you then confess it with your mouth, and it
becomes yours by experience. It can be very difficult to believe God when your
experience is totally different. However, if you will look away from your wrong
experiences and begin to believe God, your experience will then line up with
the Word. You can spend your whole life fighting the devil (as I did for many
years), sometimes winning and sometimes losing, but never realizing that in
actuality he has no power over you.
To be continued.
of the power of darkness and placed into the Kingdom of God as the Word says,
then we need to experience it. The Word of God is not a theory, but a fact. If
you have been taken out of the power of darkness and transferred into the
Kingdom of God, then Satan has no power over you. You may say, "But look
at the multitude of Christians who pray every day, yet the enemy is destroying
their finances, and they are eaten up with sickness and disease. How can you
say the devil has no power over them?" It is because of the darkness.
Again I must repeat:
"This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord,
that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their
mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God
through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their
heart" (Eph. 4:17-18).
Most Christians believe more in the power of the devil than in the power of God. By confessing and believing in the power of evil to prevail over you, you give it the power to do
so. Whatever you believe in will work for you. You believe in your heart that
the devil has power over you, you then confess it with your mouth, and it
becomes yours by experience. It can be very difficult to believe God when your
experience is totally different. However, if you will look away from your wrong
experiences and begin to believe God, your experience will then line up with
the Word. You can spend your whole life fighting the devil (as I did for many
years), sometimes winning and sometimes losing, but never realizing that in
actuality he has no power over you.
To be continued.
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