Debrecen Messages #11 – The River of Life Within: Christ as Living Water (Genesis to Revelation)

Geographically, it was in Eden. Someday, it’s going to be geographically in the New Jerusalem. Where is it geographically right now? In Christ?

That’s a good answer. You know, we’re getting a pat answer here, in Christ. That’s wrong. That is absolutely a wrong answer. I’m going to ask my little Albanian sister, where is that river located geographically right now?

I think it’s from the throne of God. That’s wrong, too. Alright, Pilu, here I come. Where is that river? This is important, that very river right now, that river of living water. Pilu, I’m giving you hints. No, you’re getting close, though, and you’re getting so close that I’ll bet you that Jonathan can give the right answer, where Jonathan is that river located.

In fact, that’s a yes, but I want to get it a little more perfected than that. Where, Jonathan? This is a spiritual river. That’s right. That’s true, and you’ve got to understand Jesus said, I will be a river of life flowing out of your bellies. He is that river in you, Daniel. And this is our message. Christ is in us as living water to drink. Right now, Daniel, that’s why I ask you, when you wake up in the morning, just take a moment to love him.

You’ve been singing this song, and then in the evening, when my thoughts are free, I remember that you Lord still dwell in me, and I cannot hold back that river in me, my cup runneth over with thee. Daniel, find that river, Daniel touch that river, Daniel drink from that river, that river has moved and is in you. Christ Jesus, I told you so early on, remember, that everything that you see in Genesis 1 and 2 existed before creation. There was water, and there was a river, and that’s the only real water, and that’s the only real river, and that river has become incarnate. And that river is Christ. I am the water of life. That’s the same river and the same water. The water that existed before creation. Daniel, it’s in you. And I’m telling you, Daniel, this is not Bible study. I’m telling you as an old man, look at my hair, look at my wrinkles, look at this face. Daniel, there’s a river in me. If that river were not in me, as we say in the vernacular in English, I’d be a gone gosling. I’d be a sunk duck. I would be a shipwreck if that river did not bubble up in me again and again and again, if I could not drink of that river, if I could not drink him as my water and my river of life, I would have dried up a long time ago; he is in me as water.

Kalia, you’ve got to go home and drink water. Kalia, it’s not a small thing when I ask you to wake up in the morning and turn to your Lord. He’s your drink. Your spirit drinks water. I want to say that again. Jonathan, your spirit drinks water. Jonathan, sometimes you get dry as a believer. There’s water flowing out of your inmost parts, out of your belly, out of the deepest parts of you, and you’re a Christian worker, and you can’t go dry, it’s not allowed, too many needy people. You have to learn to drink in dry seasons, Jonathan.

Jonathan, do you remember when Paul spoke to Timothy, and he said be instant, be quick, be alive, in season and out of season? Let me tell you something – in season is rare  – out of season is where things usually are. God’s people will be touched many times, but then there will be a dry spell. God’s spirit blows, but then His spirit stops blowing. We had a revival in America in 1968, 1972, and that was the only time the Christians ever had any joy, and then the season was over, and it’s been a dry time for everybody who doesn’t know there’s a river of life in their belly.

The season’s over. It’s out of season to be joyful, but you have to drink water out of season. There can be no dry spell. Jonathan, Daniel, Abel and Pilu, and my little sister, I don’t really want to go to Albania, I can’t drink your water, but God being my grace, I will come and I will drink water Albania knows nothing about. There may be a few days in there, I’ll get discouraged, but sister, I want you to know I’ve got a river in me, and it flows out of the garden. It flows out of Christ. And it becomes four rivers that water a whole land.

And in Jerusalem, the new Jerusalem, it waters the entire city, it’s some river. It flows all over the place, and the tree and the water are one; they flow together. Now the tree is what you eat, and the river is what you drink. The tree’s not out there anymore, Abel, the tree’s inside you too. I cannot tell you more than I have just told you

Find that tree. And find that river. And when I ask you to do these things in the morning, it’s not a temporary thing I’m asking you to do. I’m asking it to become the discipline of your life. You wake up, you know I know it’s hard to do this, because if you’re like me, I can’t be sure exactly when wake up is, sometimes I get conscious and I don’t want to be conscious and I go to sleep again. Sometimes I’m conscious and don’t know I’m conscious. Sometimes I’m conscious and I don’t want to be conscious, and I want to go back to sleep again, and I have all these decisions to make.

But the first conscious moments of our lives should be spent greeting our Lord and drinking Him as water. Daniel, you really can’t afford anything else. Your spirit needs water. If you don’t feed it water, you’re going to go dry. You don’t give it food, it’s going to go dry. And it’s food that’s Christ. And its drink is Christ. And the river’s in you. And the water’s in you. It’s not outside.

The girl said, Lord, the well is deep. How am I ever going to get any water out of a well that deep? And the Lord said, Draw from me. And I have to admit, sometimes that well is deep. You can’t find a rope long enough to get it. But he told her he was water that would cause her to never thirst. And he would well up in her as a living stream. He wasn’t kidding.