Joseph Herrin (01-16-09)

Revelation 22:1-2
And he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the middle of its street.

Many of you in reading the words “a river of water… in the middle of the street” will be reminded of a news story that happened recently in a suburb of Washington DC called Bethesda. A huge water main broke spilling millions of gallons of water down a street named “River Road.” Cars were flooded and people had to be saved from the torrent by rescue workers in helicopters.

What was a road became a river. A man who lived nearby said he looked out and it appeared as if the Potomac had changed its course and was now flowing down the middle of the road.

The community this occurred in is called Bethesda, and this name is itself derived from the pages of Scripture.

John 5:2-4
Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew Bethesda , having five porticoes. In these lay a multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, and withered, [waiting for the moving of the waters; for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool, and stirred up the water; whoever then first, after the stirring up of the water, stepped in was made well from whatever disease with which he was afflicted.]

This pool lay beside the sheep gate. Sheep are symbolic of people in the Scriptures. Christ is called the Good Shepherd, and even today His ministers are called shepherds.

We see in this passage of Scripture that there is an association between moving waters and healing. The community this water break occurred in shares its name with Bethesda Naval Hospital. This hospital is famous, having often been in the news as Presidents and other high ranking government officials have received treatment there. It is interesting that this is a Naval hospital, and that the Navy is the branch of the military that operates on the waters. The name Bethesda in Hebrew means “House of Mercy.”

The same relationship between moving waters and healing is observed in the passage of Scripture from Revelation cited at the beginning of this post. John goes on to describe this river road in heaven in the following way:

Revelation 22:2
And on either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

The river was a source of life for the trees, and the trees bore leaves that were for the healing of the nations. The Son of God is pictured in the river, and the trees are those righteous sons who dwell in His presence. They stand as ministers of reconciliation, to lead all men to the Father through the sacrifice of Christ. They are ministers of healing from the scourge of sin.

Not only has Yahweh provided a testimony of a sudden and tremendous outpouring coming forth through this earthly testimony, He is also providing a testimony of the same in the heavens. The Spirit has been testifying that simultaneously with the inauguration of Barack Obama on January 20th, there will also be an anointing placed upon those servants of Christ who are appointed to lead His people through a wilderness experience in coming days.

January 20th is a significant date astrologically. It is the day the Sun enters into the realm of the constellation Aquarius. For those not familiar with God’s testimony placed in the heavens, which the Bible refers to as the Mazzaroth (the Hebrew word for Zodiac), I will share once more some of the Scripture’s testimony of this matter. I shared these things in an article posted at the first of December concerning the conjunction that occurred in the constellation Sagittarius.

In order to interpret a heavenly sign, each element must be understood according to its divine meaning. From ancient times the stars and planets have been named, and the heavens divided into an orderly arrangement following the path of the sun in the heavens (the ecliptic). This 360 degree ecliptic is divided into twelve segments corresponding to the signs of the Zodiac, which in the ancient Hebrew was called the Mazzaroth. The Scriptures also refer to the constellations as “the circle of the earth,” this being descriptive of the Sun’s circular path as it travels through the various constellations in the heavens.

Each of the 12 major constellations occupies a 30 degree segment of this circle. Contained in each segment of 30 degrees are found one major, and three minor constellations. The minor constellations are referred to as decans, a term denoting ten degrees, for each one is associated with a specific ten degree arc of the heavenly circuit of the Sun.

Although many Christians have come to view the Zodiac and the constellations with fear and superstition, believing them to be an invention of Satan, it is God who originally set them in their assigned places as a witness and testimony of His work in the creation. It was God who gave names to the stars, and gave meaning to their groupings. Many of them are mentioned prominently in the pages of Scripture.

Job 38:31-33
Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion? Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? Or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons? Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? Canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth?
KJV

The Pleiades are a major star grouping in the constellation known today as Taurus. Orion is the most brilliant of the constellations, being a decan in the constellation grouping of Taurus. Mazzaroth is a reference to the entire body of heavenly constellations. Arcturus is the name of a major star in the constellation known today as Bootes. E. W. Bullinger in his book The Witness of the Stars (available to be read freely online) suggests that this constellation was probably known by the name Arcturus in ancient times. Arcturus is found in the segment of the heavens known by the major constellation Virgo.

As the author of the book of Job attributes the above words to God as He is speaking to Job, it is evident that the stars were arranged into constellations according to the will of God, and the knowledge of their testimony was passed on to man by God. There are many other passages of Scripture that speak of the heavens and their significance.

Job 9:7-9
He commands the sun, and it does not rise; He seals off the stars; He alone spreads out the heavens, and treads on the waves of the sea; He made the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades, and the chambers of the south…

Isaiah 40:22-26
It is He who sits above the circle of the earth (the Mazzaroth)…, lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these things, Who brings out their host by number; He calls them all by name, by the greatness of His might and the strength of His power; not one is missing.

Isaiah testifies that it is Yahweh that has given all the stars names. We can conclude that He has done so that He might make known to man His divine plan as it unfolds. In the first chapter of the Bible we are told that God has put the stars in the heavens “for signs and for seasons.” They are intended to make known times and events, and this is witnessed by the sign in the heavens that the Magi discerned to be a testimony that the King of the Jews had been born when the Son of God was born of a virgin.

Hopefully, these words will help to assuage the fears and prejudices of those Christians who have been taught to view the constellations as an evil product of the great deceiver. Satan has done a profound work of deceiving the nations and leading men to call that which is evil good, and that which is good evil. This is not to deny that many people today utilize the testimony of the heavens in an impure and evil manner. Yet the same could be said even about the way men use the words of Scripture, or the way in which they invoke the name of God.

What is the significance of Aquarius, whose course the Sun enters into on the very day that the Presidents of the United States have all been inaugurated since 1937? Aquarius is called “the water pourer.”

The constellation is depicted as a man with a large urn who pours out a never-ending stream of water into the heavens. Swimming in the water, and also drinking it up, is pictured a large fish.

Various Scriptures describe a similar image.

Numbers 24:7
“Water shall flow from his buckets, and his seed shall be by many waters…”

It is Yahweh who is the Water Pourer. He is the One who pours forth His Spirit upon mankind. In many places the Scriptures use the imagery of water being poured out as a symbol of the outpouring of the Spirit of God.

Isaiah 44:3-4
For I will pour out water on the thirsty land and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out My Spirit on your offspring, and My blessing on your descendants; And they will spring up among the grass like poplars by streams of water.

The passage above from Isaiah is a parallel to that of Revelation 12. It speaks of a river with trees along its borders. It is evident from the words of Isaiah that the trees are symbolic of God’s people upon whom His blessing rests.

We can identify some of the ways in which God uses various images as we look at the parallels in this passage from Isaiah. Water is used in a parallel expression to the words “My Spirit” and “My Blessing.” Similarly, the imagery of a thirsty land forms a parallel to the words “your offspring” and “your descendants.”

Mankind for much of his existence was dry and barren. He did not have the indwelling Spirit of God. Yet God has determined to pour forth His Spirit upon a dry and thirsty land. In places where there was no water, He has appointed water to flow.

Isaiah 41:18
I will open rivers on the bare heights, and springs in the midst of the valleys; I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land fountains of water.

Revelation 12 says the leaves of the trees alongside the river of life are for the healing of the nations. This is God’s desire. Even His judgments are meted out with the end purpose of turning the people to righteousness. In these last days both judgment and healing will occur side by side. That the water main broke in Bethesda, the house of mercy, is indicative of that which God intends to be understood by these signs which are occurring at this season.

God must bring healing to the nations, and this healing will involve both chastisement and mercy.

Hosea 6:1-2

“Come, let us return to Yahweh. For He has torn us, but He will heal us; He has wounded us, but He will bandage us. He will revive us after two days; He will raise us up on the third day that we may live before Him.”

It has been two days since Christ (2,000 years). It is time for Yahweh to revive His people. He will pour forth His Spirit in a manner not seen since man has been upon the earth. This water will be poured out upon those who have been prepared to receive it. These will become sources of life in a land of death. They will be instruments of God’s mercy to bring healing to the nations.

It is no coincidence that John describes the River of Life as flowing out of the throne of God. It is also to the throne that the manchild will be caught up. These will become instruments of God’s healing, as trees planted beside the River of Life. Christ will be revealed IN these sons of God, and the work that Christ began 2,000 years ago will be brought to completion.

Even as it took an outpouring of His Spirit to lay the foundation of the church, so too will it require another outpouring to complete its building.

Zechariah 4:7
Before Zerubbabel you will become a plain; and he will bring forth the top stone with shouts of “Grace, grace to it!”‘

Zerubbabel was assigned the task of rebuilding the temple which had been destroyed by the Babylonians. Do we not face a similar situation today? The temple of God, which is His church, has been brought to great ruin by the influence of Babylon. It must be restored. Those who have come out of Babylon will be the instruments of her rebuilding.

The name Zerubbabel means “Born in Babylon.” So too were many of those servants of God today born in Babylon, but they have heard the call to “come out of her My people.” These will receive grace that they might accomplish all the Father’s desire, for He seeks a habitation that is pure.

There is being given in this hour a profusion of signs that the time is at hand for a great work of the Spirit to be accomplished. There will be a mighty outpouring upon a remnant, and these will labor to bring forth that which will satisfy the heart of the Father.

Even as Satan has chosen this date to pour inaugurate those vessels he has chosen to work to bring forth his desires of establishing a one world government that worships him, so too will Christ be anointing and sending forth those vessels He has appointed to accomplish His Father’s will. To counteract the outpouring of God’s Spirit, Satan will send forth a counterfeit flood of deception.

Revelation 12:15-17
And the serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, so that he might cause her to be swept away with the flood. And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and drank up the river which the dragon poured out of his mouth.

What is the earth pictured here? It is the nations of the world. These are a dry and thirst land, and they will soak up whatever water is poured forth upon them, whether it be the pure water of the Spirit of God, or the impure waters of the serpent. Outpourings are at hand. They are being signified through many means.

May you be blessed with peace and understanding in these days.

Heart4God Website: http://www.heart4god.ws
Parables Blog: http://www.parablesblog.blogspot.com

Mailing Address:
Joseph Herrin
P.O. Box 804
Montezuma, GA 31063