Living Waters

 

Let's visit an old friend, put our feet up by the warm fire of God's word, and enjoy a refreshing cup of living waters.

John 7:38,39
He that believeth on me [Jesus Christ], as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

(But this spake he of the Spirit [spirit], which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost [holy spirit] was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)

Jesus Christ was referring to the gift of holy spirit which he was going to make available and which would be with them on the Day of Pentecost.

Acts 2:4
And they were all filled [plethō] with the Holy Ghost [holy spirit], and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

This speaking in tongues, this plethō, this manifestation of the gift of holy spirit, is what Jesus Christ prophesied of when he referred to rivers of living water flowing out of people.

Those men didn't literally have water flowing out of them when they spoke in tongues, so living waters therefore is a figure of speech referring to spiritual energy. Living waters is something spiritual. As we speak in tongues, spiritual power from the fountain overflows out of us into the physical realm. That's the flowing of living waters, and God is the fountain, the source of our spiritual energy.

The devil doesn't like the fountain of living waters overflowing out of people into the world, so he does everything he can to cut off the flow. He has two ways of doing this.

Jeremiah 2:13
For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.

A cistern is something man makes to hold water. If our spiritual supply is God, a fountain, there is no need for a cistern. There is no need for men to construct systems into which to place their religions. There is absolutely no requirement for men to build churches, ministries, and organisations to put their religions into, yet that is what men do.

Judges 17:1,5
And there was a man of mount Ephraim, whose name was Micah.

And the man Micah had an house of gods, and made an ephod, and teraphim, and consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest.

Micah was religious. He would have known his bible. He probably went to church every week and prayed every day. It's likely he spoke the word to anyone who would listen. I'll bet he sang his heart out to God all the time. He would have been wonderfully sincere and religious, a man who smiled everywhere he went and helped people as much as he could. In fact, he had such an important work going that he constructed a broken cistern to put his religion into. He moved his gods into their comfy new home, paid one of his sons to be his priest, and when a Levite later came along, he hired him as well.

Judges 17:7-12
And there was a young man out of Bethlehemjudah of the family of Judah, who was a Levite, and he sojourned there.

And the man departed out of the city from Bethlehemjudah to sojourn where he could find a place: and he came to mount Ephraim to the house of Micah, as he journeyed.

And Micah said unto him, Whence comest thou? And he said unto him, I am a Levite of Bethlehemjudah, and I go to sojourn where I may find a place.

And Micah said unto him, Dwell with me, and be unto me a father and a priest, and I will give thee ten shekels of silver by the year, and a suit of apparel, and thy victuals. So the Levite went in.

And the Levite was content to dwell with the man; and the young man was unto him as one of his sons.

And Micah consecrated the Levite; and the young man became his priest, and was in the house of Micah.

There is quite a religion going here, hey. Consecrating a priest was a major religious ceremony. I'll bet folks from all around the area flocked to his church services. A short time later, the tribe of Dan came along, checked over Micah's religion, liked what they saw, and decided to have it for themselves. A ready made church, no need to go shopping for one.

Judges 18:2-4
And the children of Dan sent of their family five men from their coasts, men of valour, from Zorah, and from Eshtaol, to spy out the land, and to search it; and they said unto them, Go, search the land: who when they came to mount Ephraim, to the house of Micah, they lodged there.

When they were by the house of Micah, they knew the voice of the young man the Levite: and they turned in thither, and said unto him, Who brought thee hither? and what makest thou in this place? and what hast thou here?

And he said unto them, Thus and thus dealeth Micah with me, and hath hired me, and I am his priest.

Judges 18:17-19
And the five men that went to spy out the land went up, and came in thither, and took the graven image, and the ephod, and the teraphim, and the molten image: and the priest stood in the entering of the gate with the six hundred men that were appointed with weapons of war.

And these went into Micah's house, and fetched the carved image, the ephod, and the teraphim, and the molten image. Then said the priest unto them, What do ye?

And they said unto him, Hold thy peace, lay thine hand upon thy mouth, and go with us, and be to us a father and a priest: is it better for thee to be a priest unto the house of one man, or that thou be a priest unto a tribe and a family in Israel?

Judges 18:30,31
And the children of Dan set up the graven image: and Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh, he and his sons were priests to the tribe of Dan until the day of the captivity of the land.

And they set them up Micah's graven image, which he made, all the time that the house of God was in Shiloh.

The house of God was in Shiloh through the reign of King David, a period of around 400 years. So the tribe of Dan established itself around Micah's idolatrous religion. It was this evil that was responsible for Dan being omitted from the tribes of Israel mentioned in the book of Revelation.

Revelation 7:4-8
And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel.

Of the tribe of Juda were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Reuben were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Gad were sealed twelve thousand.

Of the tribe of Aser were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Nepthalim were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Manasses were sealed twelve thousand.

Of the tribe of Simeon were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Levi were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Issachar were sealed twelve thousand.

Of the tribe of Zabulon were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Joseph were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Benjamin were sealed twelve thousand.

When John Wesley began his ministry, he galloped around the countryside on horseback, teaching to crowds in open fields and huge barns. His ministry was powerful and it set people free, so why did he then feel compelled to start constructing chapels all over the place to put his religion into? Same reason as Micah. As a consequence, another dry horseshit broken cistern was hewn out, that which we now know as the Methodist church.

You can't take a fountain and put it into a cistern. You can't take God and put him into a religion. Yet that is what men spend their lives trying to do. Hey, I'm not condemning anyone, I tried to do it for most of my life as well. I've just learned a better way.

In the old testament, God did indeed live in temples made with hands. This can be seen at the dedication of Solomon's temple, when God moved out of the tabernacle and moved into his new temple.

1 Kings 8:10-13
And it came to pass, when the priests were come out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of the LORD,

So that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud: for the glory of the LORD had filled the house of the LORD.

Then spake Solomon, The LORD said that he would dwell in the thick darkness.

I have surely built thee an house to dwell in, a settled place for thee to abide in for ever.

Solomon thought his temple would stand forever. Yeah right, as we know Israel turned their backs on God, and during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Jerusalem was attacked by his military forces. When the walls were breached, the city and the temple were destroyed, and many of the people were dragged off to exile. Many years later, following a decree from Cyrus the Great, a few of those Judean exiles returned to Jerusalem and began to construct a second temple on the site of where Solomon's temple once stood. This is recorded in Ezra.

Ezra 3:8-13
Now in the second year of their coming unto the house of God at Jerusalem, in the second month, began Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and the remnant of their brethren the priests and the Levites, and all they that were come out of the captivity unto Jerusalem; and appointed the Levites, from twenty years old and upward, to set forward the work of the house of the LORD.

Then stood Jeshua with his sons and his brethren, Kadmiel and his sons, the sons of Judah, together, to set forward the workmen in the house of God: the sons of Henadad, with their sons and their brethren the Levites.

And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the LORD, they set the priests in their apparel with trumpets, and the Levites the sons of Asaph with cymbals, to praise the LORD, after the ordinance of David king of Israel.

And they sang together by course in praising and giving thanks unto the LORD; because he is good, for his mercy endureth for ever toward Israel. And all the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised the LORD, because the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid.

But many of the priests and Levites and chief of the fathers, who were ancient men, that had seen the first house, when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice; and many shouted aloud for joy:

So that the people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people: for the people shouted with a loud shout, and the noise was heard afar off.

Some of the oldest men there had seen Solomon's temple. They had seen it destroyed. They had lived through that time. They were now watching the foundations of a new temple being laid, and they were overcome with emotion. Well, I know exactly what they felt, because I'm experiencing the same thing. I've seen the body of Christ flourish. I was there when the word lived in believers in over 120 countries worldwide. I was part of a ministry of worldwide home churches, and knew of many cities around the world with over 100 active home churches in them. Kinshasa in Africa had 180 active home churches in the city at one time. There were over 120 active home churches in the United Kingdom. People were living the word, the blind were getting their sight back, people were throwing away their crutches, and I even heard of one person being totally cured of AIDs. The late 1970s and the early 1980s was a powerful time to be alive.

I was also there when Dr Wierwille died. I can remember receiving the letter sent to the entire ministry from the headquarters of the Way International announcing his death in May 1985. I then saw his ministry splinter as men fought for the presidency and broke away to form their own ministries, taking much people and their tithe money with them. I lived through it, I saw it, I experienced it, I was there. I was a part of one or two of those splinter groups, but eventually went back to the original ministry. I couldn't believe what I saw. It took the devil just 10 years to totally destroy Dr Wierwille's ministry worldwide and turn the whole thing into bickering factions of broken cisterns. Just 10 years. I tell you, that fucker is good, he's really good at what he does.

Although I lived through that time and saw the destruction, I'm now seeing the foundations of the body of Christ being laid again, and I can tell you, it's powerfully emotional. The future is in home churches that are self governing, self propagating and self supporting.

Yes, God did live in temples made with hands during the old testament, but he moved home on the day of Pentecost and he now lives within each of us. As we energise the gift of holy spirit by speaking in tongues, his living waters flow out of us into the senses realm. How can you take the flowing of spiritual power and put it into something that man builds? Religion is absurd.

1 Corinthians 3:16
Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

1 Corinthians 6:19
What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost [holy spirit] which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

Anything man builds to contain his religion is a broken cistern, and that's evil. Building a religion, a ministry, or any other religious organisation complete with layers of leadership in an attempt to control the body of Christ is men putting their trust in the work of their own hands, and that's evil.

Jeremiah 2:13
For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.

Living waters is something that flows out of us from the Christ in us, it's not something you stick in a fucking church. People are the church, not any organisation or ministry built by men. Living waters flow out of us into the senses realm from the Christ in us. You can't contain that in a religion, you can't put that into a building or organisation. What we need are home churches, home families where people can learn to walk by the spirit with God's living waters flowing from them.