Rivers to Swim In: Why the Coming Move of God Will Be Uncontainable
Good news: We can't continue going the way we are.
If we are truly seeking the fullness of everything the Holy Spirit wants to pour out, stagnancy is not an option. There is only more. Deeper. Higher. Wider.
For roughly three years, I have been teaching a message simply called "The River is Rising." It came out of Ezekiel 47 and John 7, and the burden of it was this: we are currently witnessing a measurable, undeniable increase of revival and awakening activity. Not a trickle. Not a rumor. A rising.
I have watched the Lord confirm that word again and again. On college campuses. In prayer rooms. In nations. In places no one expected.
But recently, while ministering in Springfield, Massachusetts, the Lord shifted something in me. What began as a word I believe was first aimed at Habitation Church in New York City, I now believe is a word for the wider body of Christ.
We are no longer in the part of Ezekiel 47 where the water is rising to the ankles, the knees, or the waist.
We are stepping into the verse where the river becomes uncontainable.
"It Was a River That I Could Not Pass Through"
Read it slowly:
"Then he brought me back to the entrance of the temple, and behold, water was issuing from below the threshold of the temple toward the east… As the man went forward eastward with a measuring line in his hand, he measured a thousand cubits, and then led me through the water, and it was ankle-deep. Again he measured a thousand, and led me through the water, and it was knee-deep. Again he measured a thousand, and led me through the water, and it was waist-deep. Again he measured a thousand, and it was a river that I could not pass through, for the water had risen. It was deep enough to swim in, a river that could not be passed through." (Ezekiel 47:1, 3–5, ESV)
Ankle-deep is manageable. Knee-deep is still controllable. Waist-deep starts to pull on you, but you can still keep your footing.
Then comes the next measurement, and everything changes. The text does not say the river is bigger. It says it is uncrossable. It is unmanageable. It is deep enough to swim in.
This is the verse for the hour we are in.
"The text does not say the river is bigger. It says it is uncrossable, unmanageable, deep enough to swim in. This is the verse for the hour we are in."
The Shift From Watching the River to Being Carried By It
The Lord is moving us into water where our own strategies, our own platforms, our own carefully curated ministry models will not hold us up.
You cannot stand in a river that is over your head. You can only swim in it. You can only be carried by it. You surrender to the River.
This is going to feel deeply uncomfortable for a Western church that has been trained to manage outcomes, manage crowds, and manage the move of the Spirit. The river that is coming is not interested in being managed. (It never was.) It is interested in being entered.
So, what does this look like? It's not "out there." It's possible and it's measurable. We see examples of this mighty River throughout the New Testament.
Scripture Sets the Standard for What Is Possible
When I read the book of Acts, I do not read it as ancient history. I read it as the standard that is accessible and available to all believers.
Five thousand saved after one healing at the Gate Beautiful (Acts 4:4).
The place shaken, and everyone refilled with the Holy Spirit when they prayed for boldness (Acts 4:31).
Peter's shadow falling on the sick, and people from surrounding cities bringing every form of affliction (Acts 5:15–16).
A whole city in Samaria filled with great joy (Acts 8:8).
Aeneas healed, and an entire region turning to the Lord (Acts 9:35).
Tabitha raised, and many believing (Acts 9:42).
The Holy Spirit falling on Gentiles mid-sentence (Acts 10:44).
Handkerchiefs from Paul's body carrying healing power into Ephesus (Acts 19:11–12).
Sorcery books burned in the public square.
The word of the Lord growing mightily and prevailing (Acts 19:20).
An entire island healed in the wake of one man's obedience (Acts 28:9).
This is the Bible's normal. I believe these are examples of possibilities that should fuel our prayer and intercession.
I love what John Bevere recounts in his latest book, The King is Coming. He tells of a moment in prayer when the Spirit of God spoke to him and said that what He would do before Jesus' return would make the book of Acts look like child's play, and that it would be seven times greater.
I believe him. I believe the Holy Spirit. I believe the Scripture.
There is more.
Two Postures, Held in Tension
In a season like this, we have to learn to hold two things at once.
We wildly celebrate what God is presently doing. The campuses. The conversions. The prayer movements. The Gen Z cry. The unexpected revivals breaking out in places revival did not used to break out. We do not minimize it. We do not despise the day of small things.
And we desperately cry out for everything we see in the book of Acts, and greater. We refuse to settle. We refuse to baptize a thimble of glory and call it a flood. We refuse to let our experience set the ceiling on our expectation.
I'll say it again: only Scripture sets the standard for what we can legally believe for and pray into.
Both postures are necessary. Celebration without hunger becomes complacency. Hunger without celebration becomes cynicism. The river requires both.
"Celebration without hunger becomes complacency. Hunger without celebration becomes cynicism. The river requires both."
A Word to the Awakeners
There is a category of believer the Lord is specifically commissioning in this hour, and I want to speak to you directly.
The sons of Issachar interpreted times and seasons and told Israel what to do (1 Chronicles 12:32). Revivalists still carry that mantle. They announce what time it is on God's prophetic clock and exhort the church.
But there is a parallel grace the Lord is releasing right now: Awakeners. Awakeners are the ones who carry the river out of the revival meeting and the church service, and bring God into every sphere of influence.
I celebrate all of those who are called to full-time clergy ministry. Absolutely. That is the category a ministry like Sparks Ministries falls under. But most believers are not called to preach from a church pulpit with a microphone. They are called to be salt and light in a world that is thirsty for the River.
You were not born to manage a trickle. You were born to bring the flood of God's presence, Kingdom solutions, and righteousness into your sphere of influence as a voice and vessel of awakening.
The River Is No Longer Rising. It Is Overflowing.
If you are reading this and something is stirring inside you, that stirring is not an accident. The same Spirit who spoke this word in Springfield is the Spirit who lives in you. He is inviting you out of the shallow water and into the deep.
You do not have to figure out how to swim before you step in. You just have to step in.
The river is no longer rising. It is overflowing. May the Body of Christ have the courage to step in over our heads, and may the waters rise over every city, every campus, and every sphere of influence where the people of God are contending.
If this word resonated with you, would you share it? Send it to the intercessor you know is already feeling the shift. Send it to the marketplace believer who needs to hear they are an Awakener. Send it to the pastor laboring for revival in a hard place. Words like this travel as far as the body of Christ is willing to carry them.
The water just got deeper. Step in.