“flash floods on the earth’s surface” (Hab. 3:9, NET)
This subtheme of the teaching is still concerned with “the Spirit of the Lord,” a part of the full life-giving Spirit, Christ, that we receive when we are born-again. In the previous teaching, where we discussed the woman at the well in Samaria, we focused on the fact that the Holy Spirit is a consistent source WITHIN the born-again believer.
I consider this revelation as perhaps one of the greatest revelations of the entire covenant. Yet it seems as if most of Christendom do not actually fully realise the implications of this truth. The Holy Spirit becomes a fountain WITHIN you as born-again believer, and consistently flows from you! Selah.
Most believers seek the source of the Holy Spirit OUTSIDE of themselves! They are looking for a Spirit-filled preacher, prophet, spiritual healer, that has that so-called special “anointing”. They travel from prayer session to prayer session, camp to camp, healing service to healing service, to be “filled with spiritual fuel”. They run after people, every new flavour of the month. Strictly speaking their flesh renders them poor – “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the Lord.” (Jer. 17:5). Matt. 24:23 is meant in a different context, but clearly illustrates this principle: “Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There!’ do not believe it.” As Luke 21:8 notes, “Therefore do not go after them.” The mystery is, and remains, “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27, ACV).
We often run from one new lake to the next, looking for a place to satisfy our spiritual thirst, but we forget that we have a life-giving fountain inside of ourselves! We remain focused on the thirst (or needs), and do not focus on becoming a producer of living water. This does not mean that we shouldn’t be coming together as a creative expression of God’s living Body, in fact, we really need to! As Heb. 10:25 notes, “not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some”. But – those who lack the consciousness of “Christ within us” will gather with leaking buckets with which they try to gather whatever the preacher/prophet/anointed offers. Jer. 2:13 explicitly states that “My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn themselves cisterns—broken cisterns that can hold no water.” Those with the consciousness of “Christ within us” will gather with the attitude of dispensing the life-giving Spirit from within themselves to others, and the meeting will be an expression of the living Body.
We often gather with the sorry attitude of the old secular song: “There’s a hole in the bucket, dear Liza, dear Liza, there’s a whole in the bucket, dear Liza a hole!” Rather remember the following: “There is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God.” Therefore Hab. 3:9 prophesies: “You divided the earth with rivers.” Along with Carly Simon I call to the Bride – “Let the river run, let all the dreamers wake the nation!”
- Selah: Read the lyrics of Simon’s song noted in the last paragraph, and try to understand its
prophetic cognisance.
- Read: 4-6
- Memorise: 4:2
