The River of God

This is Burnsall, one of the Young family's favourite places. The river is central to the village, it brings fishermen and tourist. Not only is it a great place to sit by, it is clean and accessible so you can get in it, even if it is a bit cold!

I love the word picture in Ezekiel 47:1-12 which speaks of a river that is central to life and which we are invited to get in.

The following is part one of my sermon from this morning, which my husband has encouraged me to blog.

The water that Ezekiel sees flowing from the throne of God represents the Holy Spirit being poured out into the world and transforming it. The river flows out of the temple from the south side or the right side of the altar. In the Bible the right hand side was seen as the anointed side, the side of power and strength. The right hand of God is where Jesus is right now. And it is from Jesus that the River of the Holy Spirit flows.

Mark 1:7-8 “After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

Jesus said, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” (John 7:37-38)

In the original language there is a word picture created here by the author. The water began as a trickle, like water being poured from the neck of a small flask or bottle. As it runs from under the Temple threshold the trickle became a stream, then the stream became a creek, then the creek became a river then the river became a torrent, a mighty flow of water to deep and strong to wade across.
History shows us that this is the way the Holy Spirit was received by the world. In the Old Testament the Spirit came in a limited way and touch a few people, like prophets, priests and kings to fulfil a task, we see an increase in the activity of the Holy Spirit in the lives of people around the birth of Jesus and then with the day of Pentecost, the Spirit is poured out to all who would receive him.
This fulfilled the promise that God gave to Joel that “I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh” (Joel 2:28-29)
We live in a time when the river is in flood. The river is flowing, the river is here.
Ezekiel first saw the waters. He could not and did not go into the water alone. He says “The man brought me back to the entrance of the temple and I saw water coming out from under the threshold of the temple.”

Who was the man in Ezekiel’s vision?
Ezekiel 40:2-3 "In visions of God he took me to the land of Israel and set me on a high mountain on who south side were some buildings that looked like a city. He took me there and I saw a man whose appearance was like bronze; he was standing on the gateway with a linen cord and a measuring rod in his hand.”

This man then led Ezekiel through a series of visions of which the river is one. Who does he sound like to you? The apostle John had a similar vision on the island of Patmos, “And among the lampstands was someone like a son of man dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet, with a golden sash round his chest. His head and hair were white like wool as white as snow and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace and his voice like the sound of rushing waters.” (Revelation 1:12-16)

It sounds like a very good picture of Jesus to me. It was the man who took Ezekiel to the river, who offered it to him as a promise and a hope.
I for one find it hard to think back to before the time when the promise of Holy Spirit was presented to me. I only know that aged 14 I knew something was missing in my Christian experience and it was around that time that people at my corps started to talk about being baptised in the Holy Spirit and someone put a copy of Brengle’s Heart talks on holiness in my hands.”

I got in the river and started to wade out into the middle, until the day came when I actually surrendered to his current and found myself swimming with new power.
But look, if you will not trust the word of this Pentecostal, charismatic, happy clappy, blessing of holiness believing Salvation Army officer will you trust Jesus? Will you let Jesus take you to find the living water, just as the "man" took Ezekiel to the river?

Never mind it’s not something that you grew up with, or were never taught. Although I don’t know how if we know anything of Salvation Army history how we missed it. We are not being led to some new style of worship or denominational emphasis. We can’t have Christianity without the Holy Spirit. We certainly can’t have revival without him and you will never be free, never be full and never be fruitful until you get yourself wet!

It’s no good saying as a Salvationist that the outward ceremony of baptism is not a necessity because Jesus came to bring the inward reality of baptism in the Spirit if we don’t claim it ourselves. We’ve gone out on a limb over baptism for nothing if that is the case. Our stance on sacraments only stands if we lived a baptised in the Spirit life and our life really is Christ’s broken bread and outpoured wine!


God bless

Carol