Dear Brothers and Sisters in Jesus,
God is alive! That statement has no power until we realize that He is alive in us and we are alive in Him. He has desires and plans. He has seasons and timings. His heart bears these things in us as we become attuned to His Life within and wherein we stand. In all of this, He is the Lamb who continuously gives Himself for others, even unto His enemies. United in oneness with Him, we bear His Life and His dying, that others may know the nature of the God we serve and love.
As a people we are entering into a new season together, and the Lord is and will be moving in new ways. As we tap into His heart and not just His plans… we will find ourselves filled with His love in ways that constrain us to be poured out for others. 2 Corinthians 5:14-15, “For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: [15] And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.” There will be a willingness to give ourselves together to manifest the One we love so dearly. “Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: thou hast the dew of thy youth” (Psalm 110:3).
It is by this heart and spirit that our soon-coming “Gathering” will flow. Now is the time not just to “sit and listen” but to step forward together into the new season of manifesting and sharing His Life. For those attending the Gathering, I will be sending an email in the next few days with the detailed schedule for the Gathering, which also clarifies exactly how we will put our hands and feet forward. Whether you are able to come to the Gathering, or not… please pray for the things in the Lord’s heart for this new season and our involvement together through His Life. What a time we are in to shine forth His beauty and lift up His Crucified Ways. Sometimes the best cure for our personal ills is to simply give His Life to others. May we all continue to turn our hearts to the One we love and things that are important to Him. “Then the Levites, Jeshua, and Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabniah, Sherebiah, Hodijah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah, said, Stand up and bless the Lord your God forever and ever: and blessed be thy glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise” (Nehemiah 9:5).
With much love,
Randy
“He who believes in Me...out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.” (John 7:38)
The subject of these two references in the gospel of John pertains to belief and the results that it causes in those who truly believe. What the Lord is expressing by these words is not just that if you believe in Him you will receive the Holy Spirit. Basically what He is saying is that, “What you believe will gush out of you.” His point is not over doctrinal issues concerning the Holy Spirit, but over the effect of reality upon us. Belief becomes Life, and Life will pour itself out. It is Christ’s nature. As stated many times throughout this booklet, most of the time we are more interested in what the Scriptures have to say concerning benefits to us instead of what is pouring through us to others.
But even with those who do pour out there can be misconceptions. Jesus’ emphasis is not on us becoming some sort of a beautiful fountain that people can gather around and admire. The point is not on how we appear to others but on being a channel of His flow. The point is more about others having their thirst met through us. That is Jesus’ nature and that also is what God considers to be beautiful. “He who believes in me...out of his inner most being shall flow rivers of living water.” Our belief in Jesus pleases Him, but the results of that belief please Him, too. He knows that many others will be refreshed.
Our Lack and Inability – His Provision if You Believe
The key to flowing with this endless supply of abundance found in Jesus is faith. Our faith does not just believe things about Jesus, but attaches to Him in a very real way. Our identification becomes with Him as source. Many have come to this in some manner but still miss the greater point. Again, when they think of Jesus as source, it is Him as THEIR SOURCE who pours out UPON THEM. This is not what Jesus meant. Your need will be met as you make your focus the needs of others and of the Lord.
Those who consider what has been said might find a flaw in this way of thinking. You may consider yourself unable to pour out on others because of your own personal lack. If you look at yourself, you are going to conclude that you do not have anything to pour out. But it is precisely at this point that you need to exercise the faith Jesus spoke of in John 7. If you believe, you will gush. It is at this point of emptiness and desperation that you cry out to God with all sincerity to be His vessel through which He pours out. Do not be content to remain in a self-centered state, considering your own personal condition. Jesus can pour UPON YOU and that refreshing will last only a short time. From it you might be able to bless several people. But He can POUR THROUGH YOU and that refreshing and flow goes as long as He chooses. It comes out from an endless resource found in Him and not in yourself. But if all you consider is how you have nothing to pour out, then you will never pour out. The key is to consider Him in faith as your resource and not your own personal condition.
If you believe on Jesus, then He gushes. And you can believe that because He loves you and is in you. For Him there is no question of whether or not He will be a fountain of Life to others, for He wants to do that more than anything else. He joined to you for that same purpose.
Not Belief in a Far Away God
Now it is important that we clarify what kind of belief it is that leads to gushing. You must believe on Him who is a well IN YOU. Too many are looking to a well that is seated up in heaven. They may very well look to Jesus, but they look to Him to do something to them or empower them from heaven. The concept that they hold in their mind is more akin to Him pouring out from heaven as on the Day of Pentecost. But Jesus’ reference in John 7 is to those who will have already received the person of the Holy Spirit. From those who have the Holy Spirit within, Jesus expects the flow also to come from within. Jesus is no longer a Living Well from heaven but a Living Well within you.
If you are believing on the far away Jesus, then there is a good chance that nothing is going to happen. You may constantly wonder why nothing seems to be gushing out of you. However, if you are believing in the Jesus that is inside of you, then all you have to do is believe in the endless supply and let it be released. He joined to us so that He could be able to do this through us.
The answer is not to sit there until He hits you with a great overflow. The answer is to get up and put yourself in a position where you expect His flow out of you. You make Him happy when you get up and put yourself in that situation, for He will show up if you truly believe in the Well that is within.
My Doctrine Is Not My Own
Jesus said that if you believe then YOU WILL GUSH. Forget what you believe about your own abilities and doctrines, and believe what He says about you. Just before Jesus promised that out of our bellies would flow rivers of living water, he said, “My doctrine is not mine” (John 7:16). Jesus didn’t come down here with a set of doctrines He intended to “work”. He didn’t have His own doctrines; He only believed what the Father told Him was true. When we come to the right place spiritually we too will no longer have a doctrine. We will no longer have a set of beliefs individually, for we will function by His doctrines and His beliefs. What Jesus declares as truth is what we will believe. We won’t have developed doctrines of pouring out, but we will believe His doctrine concerning this subject. What is His doctrine concerning the flow of living water? He says that we are joined as one with Himself for the purpose of allowing Him to flow to more people. We are married to Him so that we can pour out more. He is now in a bigger body having a greater reach.
Personal Insufficiency Does Not Cut Off the Supply
When you are simply trying to believe that certain doctrines are true, you will always be stopped in your tracks by your own weak condition. Belief in doctrines will not change your condition, only belief in Jesus. Every time that you think that you are a failure you should say, “I may be a failure, but I have the Living Water within me. I have the one who wants to pour out of me. I am not worthy to pray or to minister, but look out brothers and sisters, for the dam is breaking and the flow is coming!”
It is Jesus’ desire that we embrace Him in this way. Once you do so, you will never want to go back to yourself as the source and as the minister. You will pay no attention to how you feel at the moment, for you will believe in a well that is within you. Your thoughts on the subject will be meaningless, for you will only believe what He has declared to be the truth. His doctrine is “I am in you a well.” To follow Jesus means that you forget your doctrine and give up your religious views in order to have His beliefs. He is in you a well and that is what He believes - therefore, so should you.
Most of our doctrines and beliefs are in our heads. However, have we forgotten that we are His Body and Jesus is the Head? Our beliefs should be in our Head. We should let Him be the Head of His Body. We should let what He thinks be what we think. If we are joined to the Head of the house then the flow will reach to every part of the Body. But if we remain separated, then we will be waiting for something to fall from heaven on us. Living Water does not fall from heaven; it flows from the Head, filling every part. The problem is that many Christians do not function as if they are joined but as if they are misaligned or not lined up. It all comes out of Him. “He that believeth in me, out of him shall flow…” If we truly believe on Him as the scriptures have said, then out of us will be a flow.
When we are properly aligned with Jesus in our understanding, we will not be asking Him to fill us, for He is already in us a fountain of waters. We need to quit looking at ourselves and look at Him. Jesus’ doctrine is, “I am the Vine, you are the branches.” We are not going to become a branch, for we already are. He does not see you as needy and empty and dry. He sees you as His branches that are prepared to deliver His fullness. We are not empty and we are not dry, we are full.
When is He going to become a well in you that is springing up? We are already filled with living waters. Now is the day of salvation. Now is the time to break with carnality concerning our condition. Now is the time to receive the Eternal Word and walk in it. It is ours and it is free. “And whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely” (Revelation 22:17). It is a free gift. Freely you have received, freely give. Jesus said that the gift that He gives shall be a well that is in you. He is that living water and He will pour out.
Be What He Wants You to Be
We were not just chosen to be one with Jesus because we are special. What He saw that was special about us is that He saw that we would let Him live His life in us. He married us because we would let Him continue to pour out as He has always done. Be the vessel that you are, be the well of Living Water. He will pour out of you if you are a living well, but if you are a dried-up Christian, He cannot use you. We must learn to relate to Him as His well, as His vessel, and as His branch. We need to change our doctrine, which will result in a change of relationship with Jesus Christ.
Not Me Giving but the Dying of the Lord Jesus
As we approach the close of this booklet we must grasp one main fact: that Jesus is the living water and the One who lives to be poured out and we are the channel or well. The Lord said in John, “shall be in him a well of water springing up.” He is what is poured out. It is not wrong to say that we want to be poured out, but it is more accurate to say that we have within us the life of Jesus and He wants to pour out. It is His nature!
Jesus said, “I did not come to be ministered unto but to minister and to give my life.” That is His way under all circumstances. For example, when Jesus hung on the Cross the people said to Him, “Physician, heal thyself.” But He was not there to heal Himself, but others. To do that would require that He stay poured out on that Cross. His purpose was to pour out His life, not to save it.
This same nature is to work in everyone who is His. In 2 Corinthians 4, Paul showed that this had happened to him. First, he declares in verse 7 that he was only an earthen vessel but Jesus was the treasure within. Then, in verse 10, he shows that Jesus had become so affixed as the Life of his vessel that even the pouring out or dying that took place within him was not his own but was the Lord. “Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.”
Notice that neither the dying that was taking place within him nor the Life that was being lived in him was his own. All was by the nature of Christ. The act of living a “poured out life” is not Christianity but literally the “dying of the Lord Jesus.” It was not Paul dying. Christ was Paul’s life. What people were seeing take place in Paul was simply Jesus being Himself in His own body. For Paul, this was not due to hard work, effort, and loss – it was Christ!
This is why God wants union. Galatians 2:20 says, “The life I now live in the flesh” is lived by faith in the One Who loves to the point of self-giving. I do not give my life; it is the “dying of the Lord Jesus.” In other words, it says that we bear about in our bodies the dying of the Lord Jesus. We do not even bear about our own dying. The Holy Spirit wants to speak to you of Jesus’ dying and of His resurrection life within you. In that sense, we are not a butterfly that is coming forth out of a cocoon of death. We are the cocoon or the place of His dying out of which He comes forth in resurrection as a butterfly.
In the final pictures we get from scriptures pertaining to Christ and His bride we see a flow of the river of Life. That flow is proceeding from the Lamb who is on the throne. That Lamb is our Husband. But if you look closely, you will see that the flow is coming out of something else. It is coming out of the New Jerusalem. The Lamb is enthroned in the New Jerusalem. What is the New Jerusalem?
"And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband" (Revelation 21:2).
"And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God having the glory of God" (Revelation 21:9-11a).
The New Jerusalem represents, not a city with buildings where we will one day live, but us as the bride of Christ. Sitting on the throne of her heart is the Lamb. She is made of transparent gold so that all who look at her see Him. Out of the Lamb of God on the throne flows the river of life. But that throne is in her and so also out of her flows this river. It comes out of the Lamb on the throne and flows out of the bride of Christ bringing healing to the nations. This flow is not to the New Jerusalem or to the Church but to the nations. She is not the recipient but the channel. She is functioning as one spirit, having His mind and living as His body.
There are many songs about “getting in the river” but we are not to get in it but release it to others. The true church is not lacking and starving. We are not trying to get the benefits of the river for we are one with its source -- the Lamb on the throne. We need to quit being a church institution and start being His bride. He is enthroned inside of the New Jerusalem, His bride for one purpose: so that He could be the way that He wants to be, which is poured out. Let Jesus be at home in you.
