Life Giving Water

I have been quiet for a while as I felt I was called into a time of stillness and a time of reflection between Passover/Easter and today, Pentecost Sunday. Man, the things the Lord has shown me ... there aren't even words for it. That brings me to here and now. Last night as I spent some time in prayer I was prompted to go to Ezekiel 47. I'm like, ok... sure ... are there even 47 chapters in the book of Ezekiel? ...most of the prophetic books of the Old Testament tend to be short on chapters. I am always learning, always growing. I can now affirm that the book of Ezekiel doesn't just have 47 chapters, it has 48! I can hear the Father chuckle. 

I read the whole chapter. Ok, God, what's with this? What are you trying to show me? It's clearly prophetic in nature and I'm exhausted from a long day. I took a shower and went to bed, still praying deep within my spirit about what this meant. 3:30 in the morning I woke up and I was reminded of the passage in Joel that Jesus quotes about the coming day of the Lord. Joel 2:28-32 is familiar to me and so I pulled out my phone and haphazardly wrote myself a note so that I didn't forget this revelation.

Today is Pentecost Sunday, when Christians remember and reflect upon the descent of the Holy Spirit with tongues of fire into the upper room where the disciples were gathered at Jerusalem. From there people from every region heard the things of God in their own language, even as some onlookers said they were just drunk. I want some of that wine!! I want to be filled with the presence of the Holy Spirit in ways that I have never experienced before. God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow, and the works of the Holy Spirit are just as fresh and real now as they were then in then early days of the church and in the time of Christ. This is life. This is hope. This is life more abundantly. This is on earth as it is in heaven. 

Getting back to Ezekiel. Verses 1-12 we are told of his vision of a river flowing from the temple, from the holiest of places. I'll paraphrase, he sees the water flowing out from the south side of the temple to the east. He even goes out of the temple to the north gate and still sees the water flow. As he is led further out the river that flows from the temple gets deeper and deeper. Ankles, knees, waist, and then so deep in the river that he has to swim. It's a river that simply cannot be crossed. As he returns to shore he sees trees on the river banks, and this, this, is what is so profound to me. 

"Swarms of living creatures will live wherever the river flows. There will be large numbers of fish, because this water flows there and makes the salt water fresh; so where the river flows everything will live. Fishermen will stand along the shore; from En Gedi to En Eglaim there will be places for spreading nets. The fish will be of many kinds - like the fish of the Great Sea. But the swamps and marshes will not become fresh; they will be left for salt. Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river. Their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail. Every month they will bear, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing." 

~ Ezekiel 47:9-12 (NIV) ~

In those wee hours of the morning God said that His Spirit in these days, as in right now and the time to come, will flow like these waters from the temple. They will be like a flooding, and they will bring life, sustenance, and healing. Because the water is fresh and new, it will make desolate places, places of life.  Jesus talks about this living water when He meets the woman at the well in John 4:13-14:

"Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." (NIV)

...and then in 21-26

"Jesus declared, 'Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.' The woman said, 'I know that Messiah' (called Christ) 'is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us." Then Jesus declared, 'I who speak to you am he.'" (NIV)

This word, these words, are for us now. They are for this Pentecost. The promise of the Holy Spirit's presence after Jesus ascends into heaven. These words are for such a time as this. I am excited to see work that God is doing, and will do, in the hearts of His people. I am excited to see the flow of His Spirit and His work, His transformative work be made known in the midst of our current situation, that the eyes of our hearts may be opened to what we were blind to. God desires all things be reconciled to Him, to grow in deeper, more intimate relationship with Him. 

God is on the move. Hallelujah!

Deeply stirred,

Ruth