"Out of our inward being will flow rivers of living water," the Lord promised. But this was not spoken at the feast of Pentecost but on the eighth day of Tabernacles. The twelfth chapter of Isaiah was being chanted at that time:

With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. (Isaiah 12:3—NIV)

Our inheritance is not only to be filled with the fullness of God, of eternal life, but then to be able to impart that Life to others as the Lord leads us. In fact, one of the main roles of the Christian Church will be to bring release to the saved nations of the earth.

If we are to move past Pentecost to the spiritual fulfillment of the feast of Tabernacles, a necessary step if we are to serve as an eternal source of the water of eternal life, we must permit the Lord to deal with our self-will. The Charismatic move is in danger today of becoming part of the False Prophet. The False Prophet is he who attempts to use the power of Christ while still living according to his own will.

We have a choice to make today. We can attempt to take the things of Christ to a "lost and dying world," as is said so often today, or we can return to Jesus Christ and wait patiently for Him. We can press into the power of His resurrection and into the patient enduring of tribulation that is part of His sufferings.

Those who run with their gifts may have immediate success and appear to do great things. But eventually they will dry up if they are not being refreshed with the ocean of God's Spirit.

But those who wait on the Lord will continually renew their strength. They are becoming part of the Lord, part of His Glory. They are not working for Him. Rather they are moving as part of His Life. Thus the River of God in them is always full of water—water that will be needed in the future because death will be everywhere. Only in Mount Zion will there be deliverance, in the remnant whom the Lord is calling to Himself in the days in which we are living.

The goal is before us. It is the fullness of life lived in the Spirit of God—spirit, soul, and body. In order to arrive at the resurrection to life and glory we must, as Paul, set aside every other compelling interest and give ourselves to the pursuit of Jesus Christ.

No tongue could ever describe the incomprehensible authority, power, and joy that have been set before us as our inheritance. Let us not be as the foolish Esau who, being so intent on his immediate desires, sold that which proved to be, as a result of his shortsightedness, forever unattainable.

Let us follow Paul as he marched forward to the attainment of the crown of righteousness and eternal life.

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing. (II Timothy 4:7,8—NIV) (from The Pursuit of Life)