Stop Playing Church • Feb 18, 2026
Feb 01st 1994
In this profound Bible teaching recorded in Debrecen, Hungary, Gene Edwards explores one of Scripture’s most striking themes: the river of life flowing from Genesis to Revelation and its fulfillment in Christ living within the believer.
Beginning in Genesis 2, Edwards traces the mysterious river flowing from Eden and connects it to the river of living water described in Revelation. He challenges listeners to reconsider its meaning—not as geography, doctrine, or symbolism alone, but as a present spiritual reality experienced in Christ Himself. According to Edwards, this river now flows from within the believer, as Jesus promised: “a river of life flowing out of your inmost being.”
The message unfolds into a deeper meditation on spiritual life and dryness. Edwards urges believers to “drink” daily from Christ, especially in seasons when joy fades and faith feels strained. He reminds listeners that Christian growth often occurs not in emotional highs but through difficult seasons, suffering, and pressure—times when the believer must learn to draw deeply from the indwelling life of Christ.
From there, the teaching expands into a sweeping biblical panorama. Edwards examines the symbolic meaning of gold, bdellium (later pearl), and precious stones in Genesis, showing how each points toward divine life, transformation, and spiritual formation. Gold represents the divine life of Christ, indestructible and enduring. The pearl illustrates transformation through suffering. Precious stones reflect believers shaped under pressure into “living stones” built together in God’s eternal purpose.
The message culminates in a powerful vision of the church as the bride of Christ. Edwards presents the church not as an institution or meeting, but as a living, growing “building” formed by God Himself—a people being shaped together into oneness with Christ.
This teaching is especially meaningful for believers seeking deeper spiritual life, clarity about God’s eternal purpose, and fresh insight into Scripture’s unified message from Genesis to Revelation.
Now, it’s very difficult for us to understand that the rib that was pulled out of Adam’s side never ceased to be Adam. We always think it ceased to be Adam and became Eve; it did not ever cease to be Adam. That girl is Adam. Well, Gene, that doesn’t make any sense. Stay with me, we have very delicate scientific machines today, very exotic in nature, that could take that rib of Adam and examine it and tell you its DNA composition. You know what DNA is? It’s what your whole genetic code is, and then when that girl was finished being formed, not created, when she was formed out of Adam, and checked her DNA, and it would have been identical to Adam except that it was female.
They are not two; they are One. Well, they may have been separated for a few minutes, but then they came back together and became one again. Adam got his rib back. And the two made love, and they had union, and they mated, and they became one flesh. And Adam was one flesh before he had this girl taken out of him, and he was one flesh again when they knew union. And they are one.
Now, what’s my point? My point is that there was a spirit taken out of Jesus Christ, but it did not change in nature or in DNA. It was his divine spirit; it was his divine life. It was divinity. It was him formed into a girl, and she’s coming back to Him, folks. They are going to be One, one of these days. Right now, they’re engaged.
Boy, is he having a hard time with this girl. But when the old creation is over, the memories of the engagement will vanish, and she will be his bride, which means that she’ll be married to him, but they will not have known oneness, and then she’ll be his wife, and the DNA will be all back together again. They are of the same nature and composition.
Isn’t that hard to believe? Do you know what I’m talking about? I’m talking about the New Jerusalem, but I’m talking about the church. She’s a glorious church without spot or wrinkle. Peggy, she’s a glorious church without spot or wrinkle. Well, she looks pretty pitiful to me, she looks knock-kneed, snaggletooth, cross-eyed, got funny looking hair and she’s got buck teeth and she’s real skinny and she’s hard to get along with, but not in the eyes of God, for he has seen the end, and he has been at the end and he knows she’s glorious. Now, that’s because she is the perfect DNA of God, of Christ.
Now, I just want to really stop here and tell you something beautiful. What’s a spot and what’s a wrinkle? Now, she is a glorious church. Glory belongs only to God, but here is an ekklesia that is glorious.
Alright, Peggy, what’s the spot? Well, discoloration of the skin, I guess. Okay, fine, what’s the wrinkle? Well, the thing you have on your eyes, yeah, but is the baby born with wrinkles? Yeah, a baby is born with wrinkles, but they go away. Alright, does a one-year-old child got any wrinkles? No. Even at 12 and 13, you don’t see wrinkles on a child. What’s the wrinkle sign of? Because you’re old. You’re getting old. And a spot comes from blemishes, from imperfections sometimes, from wounds, scars, but whatever, imperfections.
This gal ain’t got no imperfections. And she’s not old. She’s young. She’s a glorious church. She’s not old. And she’s got no flaws to her. She’s the bride of Christ. And that’s how God sees her, and that is what he was really, really, really after when he started creating. I’m going to tell you something. She was the most beautiful girl who ever lived.
I don’t care how beautiful a woman is; she never quite got up to Eve. I read somewhere that the most beautiful women in the world, when you talk to them about their beauty, they will immediately tell you something about them that they consider to be a blemish. I mean, women who are exotically beautiful, they’ll always say, Well, my hands are too big, or my nose is too long, or my cheekbones are too big, ” or my forehead is too high. They will immediately tell you something that they consider wrong with them. And then that women do this. All women do this.
I’ve had this happen to me. I remember someone saying to me, Yeah, but my hands are so large, and I never saw the large hands, never would have, not in a thousand years, but then I saw large hands. Blemishes. I’m going to tell you why Eve was the most beautiful woman who ever lived or ever will live on this earthen ball, because I’m going to tell you where God was looking when he fashioned her out of that ball. He was looking at a woman who will come someday. I want you to know, sweetheart (Gene’s wife Helen), that I’m in love with that woman. Maybe as much as I am with you.
Not Eve. God looked at Himself when He made Adam. But He looked at that woman who would be His bride someday, and He made Eve, an the image of that gal. The one who has no spot, no blemish, and never does get old. And who is glorious in the eyes of God. She is as perfect as he is, more perfect than Adam could have ever dreamed. Because she has the DNA and nature of God. And he looked at her. He looked into the future. He foresaw. He stood at the end. He watched her come forth out of the heavens and the earth. And He built Eve out of that bone of Adam and said, This is what my wife favors.
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