Focusing on our need for water, Jesus tells His disciples that if we believe in Him, “rivers of living water” will flow out from within us, from our hearts (see John 7:38).
Rivers, a Source of Life
Entire civilizations have been built along waterways because of the access to flowing water for drinking, bathing and transporting both goods and people far and wide.
As it is in the natural, so it is in the spiritual.
Rivers Converging in One Flow
In the opening of my book The Seer, I wrote about the Nile River, the longest river in the world, and how it is formed when two other rivers flow together into it: the White Nile and the Blue Nile. I saw it as analogous for the way the stream of the prophet and the stream of the seer combine to make a mighty prophetic river.
In terms of the flow of the river of living water, I propose that a third stream is also converging with the others—the stream of the feeler.
When you add the life-giving stream of the feeler realm to the prophetic and visionary realms, you get a very mighty river indeed!
Greater convergence means greater power and impact.
Three other expressions of rivers of God are also combined to form the flow of our ministry in the power of the Holy Spirit:
— Ministering in faith.
— Ministering by the gifts of the Spirit.
— Ministering by the realm of glory.
Each of these expressions can be held up to the light and considered in terms of how it relates to the feeler realm.
- Ministering in faith. Faith is always important, and everything else depends upon it.
That’s what the writer of Hebrews tells us: “You can never please God without faith, without depending on him. Anyone who wants to come to God must believe that there is a God and that he rewards those who sincerely look for him” (Heb. 11:6, TLB).
We must live by faith every day. “Then Jesus said, ‘Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?'” (John 11:40, NIV).
When you are already filtering everything through your faith, you can see more clearly.
Obviously, we must minister by faith. In fact, we must follow the lead of our faith, even when our senses have not indicated any particular course of action.
Feelers need to recognize this reality when confronted with situations where they can’t feel out what to do.
Is somebody sick? Just pray for that person, even if you don’t feel any heat in your hands or you forgot to bring anointing oil.
“And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up” (James 5:15).
Your faith is more consistent than your feelings are—even your Holy Spirit-anointed feelings.
- Ministering by the gifts of the Spirit. By faith, we minister with both the supernatural and the natural gifts that God has supplied, allowing us to flow wherever the Spirit “blows” us.
Every believer has God-imparted gifts with which to minister:
There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work. Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good… All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines (1 Cor. 12:4-11, NIV).
The gifts of the Holy Spirit work in tandem with our surrendered, healed and empowered five natural senses, and we are transformed into supernatural change agents!
- Ministering by the realms of glory. Open heavens, the manifest presence of God, or what many of us refer to as the “glory realm,” are a part of revival culture in both the Old and the New Testament and a part of both our Jewish and church history.
My friend Joshua Mills, a pure-hearted lover of Jesus, has written a book called Power Portals that discusses these very things. One of Joshua’s mentors, the late Ruth Ward Heflin, author of Harvest Glory, was a forerunner of ministering in the glory realm.
Long before these believers, there was an evangelist named Maria Woodworth-Etter, born in 1844, who ministered in the glory. If you want to stretch your faith and learn about ministering in the power of God, then consider reading her work Signs and Wonders.
Please don’t rule this out for your life.
Just keep zealously seeking His presence, and the day may come when the sheer presence of the living God in your life is enough to work miracles.
For more of this article, visit godencounters.com. {eoa}
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