Rivers of Love - Streams in the Desert

By Ron McGatlin

The one most important thing – the most valuable substance in all of creation is God’s pure love.

The most regrettable waste in this world is nations once enlightened with at least an earnest of the love of God, turning to the darkness of godlessness and existing without the most valuable crown of life. All awareness of who we really are and who God really is was lost when we turned away from God’s love provision.

God’s pure holy love is the ruling substance of life on earth that can order every aspect and system of natural and spiritual life on earth. It is the crowning glory of man, and yet it is now foreign to most of humanity. Over a period of time gradual degeneration and perversion has polluted and destroyed the pure love connection with God for most people in the world including many Christians. And the very sad thing is that they do not even know it. Most Christians and many secularists sincerely believe that the pseudo love facsimile they have is the full real thing.  

A pseudo substitute for the real love of God has been manufactured in the minds and hearts of the people of the world, with help from the powers of darkness.

Spots of Love Poured Out Amidst the Darkness

After having turned away from the pure relationship with God that Jesus brought in the first century, there have been spots throughout history where some here and some there have again been connected into the pure love of God. However, for the most part the mixture of demonic and worldly ungodliness in both religious and secular beliefs has left mankind barren of the real love of God ruling in this world.

All of the systems of man governing and functioning in this world are either totally controlled by or mixed with the godless principles of “Babylon.”

In the past few centuries and especially in the twentieth century God has been greatly moving upon man to restore a foundation for the return of the love of God ruling in all aspects of life and governance on Planet Earth. There has indeed been progress in this awesome endeavor to persuade the hearts of men to willingly turn back to allow the pure holy love of God to rule and reign in our lives and subsequently in the world.

However, the battle between the darkness of Babylonian lifestyle and the light of God in New Jerusalem lifestyle has reached extremely intense proportions worldwide. The entire world seems now to be raging against Christ Jesus. His pure holy love is now being established in a mostly hidden people on earth.

Great Deception

Impure deceptions and false extreme religions have been ignited across the world, and the poison of darkness threatens to engulf the entire world. The enemy is spreading intense false love for the ways of darkness and hatred for the true light of the pure holy love of God.

False love promises there is no need for purity, no need for holiness; the fleshly life in this fallen world is a good thing, and seeking to lay down your life at the altar of God is needless and foolish. False love produces a false security without the process of change. Evil has become as good, and good has become as evil to the deceived masses of religious and secular people under the spell of the father of lies and mother of harlots.

A Personal Word

Please allow me to share from my over 80 years of experience of viewing these things taking place. In the early years of my spiritual journey, I knew that I wanted to love but did not really love people. After many years of seeking to serve God with much spiritual growth, encounters, and experiences with God, I sincerely believed that I had the reality of the pure holy love of God. I would have had serious debate with anyone who said differently.

With all certainty I can tell you that one can never know that he or she is not truly experiencing the pure holy love of God until it sovereignly invades their life.

Many experiences and revelations and encounters may be required to prepare us to become the true love of God. God is faithful and may take us through unimaginable experiences of devastation and loss and then times of blessing and spiritual encounters leading to great victories. He may allow us to experience more pain and suffering than we believe we can stand to bring us to a place beyond earthly knowledge in the reality of becoming His pure holy love, becoming dead to the things of sin and self, and completely engulfed in His presence forever. This is when we know that what we had before was not the pure holy love of God.

Some of you reading this are truly there and have become the love of God on earth. Many reading this only think that you have been through a lot and have the pure holy love, when in reality you are yet in process and are soon to be truly known of Him and become His love on earth.

The words in Matthew 7:23 “depart from me I never knew you” are not always His final statement. In my own experience years ago, He once sent me away or pulled back from me for a season. It was the greatest darkness of suffering that I ever experienced. I had already seen the loss of everything that I valued in this life. All that I had was Him and His presence. When He pulled away from me, there was more pain than I could stand; the heavens closed and became as brass even the earth seemed hard and dead. My cries of desperation to God for help were unheeded. Had the time not ended soon, I would not have lived. After He returned I knew for certain that there was NO life without Him and that nothing was of value without Him. I thought I knew His love. But what I really knew was His value to my life. I was yet to become the pure holy love of God.

It was in the mid to late 1990s when sovereignly the pure love of God invaded my being and poured His love into and through me to the point that I became more than a carrier of His love but became His love. There was no longer a coming and going of His presence. I have heard from others with similar experiences. Your experience and encounters may have been and probably will be different. We are all different people and require somewhat different experiences in our journey to becoming His love and abiding always in His presence.

The Greatest News of All

The greatest news is that we have now entered a season when the Holy Ghost is sovereignly invading His prepared people with the fullness of His all-consuming love, transforming us into a new creation of His love and life. Literally nothing is the same as it was yesterday. Love is there in us for everyone including our enemies and those who spitefully use us. We are strongly drawn to others in whom Christ is abiding. However, it may seem strange that some others are repelled by what God has done and is doing in us. God’s love is connecting and disconnecting us according to His plan and purpose.

This is the living moving fluid spiritual life that God is preparing in us. It is a fountain flowing as a river of love that may disappear from view of the world as it flows underground to emerge into view in another place and time with the fresh clear water of the Spirit bringing pure holy life unto a dry parched world of the ashes of the burned-out, ungodly Babylonian ruled world systems.

A Parable of Rivers

In the natural, rivers in mountainous and desert regions may flow above ground in plain sight, or they may flow underground unseen. Underground streams may join together with others below the surface. They may emerge later downstream as a larger stream. Some underground streams flow through caverns as a visible stream if one is in the cavern. Others flow through the soil strata of sand or gravel.

A river flowing down from mountains through desert areas may go underground when the environment becomes too extreme such as a season of desperate drought. It may again rise above the surface as rainfall returns to the area and conditions are again favorable above the surface.

While it is below ground the river may be further purified. It may also form the equivalent of lakes underground. People on the surface in need of fresh cool water may drill down into these aquifers and pump up water to the surface.

There are also underground streams that are made by man. In growing metropolitan areas streams are sometimes contained in conduits and covered over for structures to be built over the streams. They are completely hidden underground while man builds his thing upon the surface.

You may be sensing some parallels of natural rivers and the spiritual river of God’s pure love. The river of love is now flowing into hearts and lives beneath the surface of the darkness of human activities. The darkness of religion and secular beliefs ruling in the world is creating a major drought of God’s rule in the world. The holy river of God’s pure love reality is moving underground and becoming even more pure and joining with other streams. While above ground the beginnings of fiery cleansing judgments of God are shaking, are burning away the evil world of severe darkness.

You will possibly glean more as you meditate on this parable of rivers and the spiritual reality that is now taking place in this season of history.

We are entering a season when the pure holy love of God in His people will not be prevalent in the affairs of evil world order. There is a separation taking place as God’s people are spiritually and naturally coming out of Babylon.

Subsurface alternate ways of supporting spiritual and natural life are being shown to some of God’s people to prepare alternate somewhat underground systems of life for people of God during this duration of strong adversity in the visible world.

All we need is in the secret place of the pure holy love of God.

Flowing through love there is power and wisdom to accomplish all God has for us to do. There is righteousness, peace, and joy even during this coming season of severe cleansing judgment. Read again Psalm 91.

Psalm 91: begins with: He that dwells in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust…

If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit – Gal 5:25.

Live in the Spirit, Walk in the Spirit,

Ron McGatlin

http://archive.openheaven.com/ -
mailto:basileia@earthlink.net -

In the past few centuries and especially in the twentieth century God has been greatly moving upon man to restore a foundation for the return of the love of God ruling in all aspects of life and governance on Planet Earth. There has indeed been progress in this awesome endeavor to persuade the hearts of men to willingly turn back to allow the pure holy love of God to rule and reign in our lives and subsequently in the world.

However, the battle between the darkness of Babylonian lifestyle and the light of God in New Jerusalem lifestyle has reached extremely intense proportions worldwide. The entire world seems now to be raging against Christ Jesus. His pure holy love is now being established in a mostly hidden people on earth.

"Rivers of Love: Birthed by Fire"

The River of Holy Love: Fire that burns!

This is a great word Brother Ron that you have written about. God desires that purest of love to be our life, for it is the expression of His life in us. The pure love of God is beginning to come forth from a people who are allowing Him to stand in their hearts with eyes of fire and feet like burning brass. The Holy Ghost Invasion has come to do that work right now in all those who are willing.

Juxtaposed to that is a real deception today that has come to the Body of Christ . That deception says, “we are already done” Jesus needs to do no more.” As I wrote in my last article there is a “truth” in that, but not the Spirit of Truth. For all that God does must be “revealed to us and in us.”

Truth without experience worked in us, is just truth.   The Bible tells us that, “the Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us” as John chapter 1 declares. And all Spiritual truth that comes from God must do the same in our hearts. It must become “flesh” (our life experience) within us. It does not just become “flesh” in us by just believing alone. Faith without works is dead.

There is a process of “revealed truth” of God’s word that must become flesh and blood in us. It must be partaken of by more than just simple believing. It must be “worked in us” by God’s Holy Spirit. If it were just a matter of believing, we would all be full grown saints by now. Yet, God does not throw out His natural laws because of our impatience.

No baby born into the world arrives as a full grown man or woman. They have to grow and develop? Why? God’s intention is to teach us about Himself and our relationship. So the things of the natural speak of the things of spiritual. Therefore we need to grow up in Him. We are not already complete in Him in reality until we grow.

If you were to show me an acorn and put it in my hand and tell me I have an acorn tree in my hand, I would say you were nuts (no pun intended). You could tell me that everything that tree is to become is in that acorn so it is a tree, I would not believe you. You would be right that the potential for that nut to be an acorn tree, but you would be wrong and tell me I ALREADY HAVE a tree in my hand. I have a potential of an "acorn tree" in my hand, but it is still in reality an acorn seed. 

No matter how you try to convince me, there is NO TREE IN MY HAND! All the believing in the world won't change that nut to a tree. The only thing that will make that nut a tree is to plant it in the ground where it belongs. So it can be changed from a nut to a tree. That acorn has to go into the ground and die, and it has to change it’s nature to become one with the elements of the earth to GROW INTO A TREE. The seed must GROW INTO A TREE.

So it is with the Kingdom of God. The seed is God’s word. That word has to go into good ground to grow 30, 60 and 100 fold. So why are we know entertaining the lies of the enemy in that we can skip the “process of growth.” The process of the seed dying, changing and growing into a small plant, then into a full grown tree. God is not changing his ways because we are in a hurry. That tree will be full grown when God says so.

In the spiritual realm, our growth is not dependent upon ‘natural years” but a hungering heart for God alone and a willingness to surrender to God’s ways or processes in our lives to grow into maturity.

A man I know well, God a word from a prophet that said, “he had grown beyond the years of natural believer because of the condition of his heart to obey the Lord 100%. Obedience and yielding to God’s process is what causes us to grow. This man grew not because of spiritual years, but because he surrendered to the “process of God’s refining and began to learn God’s ways.

Today, God is bringing to the surface of our hearts the "dross" that tries to defiles this Holy love that comes forth from us. To often, I am afraid, bitter and sweet water comes out of us because we are “not finished” allowing the Lord’s sanctifying work in us.

If we are truly giving the Lord the totality of our lives. He immediately goes to work as an invader to expose every unholy thought, desire and sin in our life. He brings those things to light or the surface so we can truly repent, turn to God and cling to him, rely on him to remove those things we could never do in our own power.

When these things come to the surface, we must acknowledge that this dross is really there and we must deal with it right there in the Beauty of His Holiness where He will burn it out. Only in this place on Intense Holy Love, can God remove what He has "brought to the surface" as dross by the Holiest Fire of Love we have ever known.

Today’s present message sweeping the Body of Christ, is that you need not do this. You are already complete. Our problem is that we just don’t believe it. If we were just to believe it, we would be doing the works Jesus said we would do.

Yet, that line of thought is not new, but an old one that many seasoned ones of the Lord have fallen trap to. God will finish us. He is the beginning and the end. The Alpha and Omega. He told us, “He who BEGAN A GOOD WORK IN YOU, WILL BE FAITHFUL TO COMPLETE IT! Phil 1:6 Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:

Until the day of Christ, That is what Malachi chapters 3 and 4 and Revelation Chapters 1-3 are all about. All of these chapters of scriptures tell us of a  ‘day of fire” that will come! 1st Corinthians 3 Paul warns of us how we build God’s house because of this day of fire.

Verse 1: "However, brethren, I could not talk to you as to spiritual [men], but as to nonspiritual [men of the flesh, in whom the carnal nature predominates], as to mere infants [in the new life] in Christ [[a]unable to talk yet!]" (Beloved of the Lord, does that sound like we are finished and all we need do is believe?)

2 I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not yet strong enough [to be ready for it]; but even yet you are not strong enough [to be ready for it],

3 For you are still [unspiritual, having the nature] of the flesh [under the control of ordinary impulses]. For as long as [there are] envying and jealousy and wrangling and factions among you, are you not unspiritual and of the flesh, behaving yourselves after a human standard and like mere (unchanged) men?4 For when one says, I belong to Paul, and another, I belong to Apollos, are you not [proving yourselves] ordinary (unchanged) men?

(This is why we need the “Refining fire and fuller’s soap” so the Lord can BRING HIS FINISHING WORK IN US NOW IN THE THIRD DAY!)

Verse 5:" What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Ministering servants [not heads of parties] through whom you believed, even as the Lord appointed to each his task:6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God [all the while] was making it grow and [He] gave the increase.

7 So neither he who plants is anything nor he who waters, but [only] God Who makes it grow and become greater.8 He who plants and he who waters are equal (one in aim, of the same importance and esteem), yet each shall receive his own reward (wages), according to his own labor.

9 For we are fellow workmen (joint promoters, laborers together) with and for God; you are God’s garden and vineyard and field under cultivation, [you are] God’s building.10 According to the grace (the special endowment for my task) of God bestowed on me, like a skillful architect and master builder I laid [the] foundation, and now another [man] is building upon it. But let each [man] be careful how he builds upon it,

11 For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is [already] laid, which is Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One).12 But if anyone builds upon the Foundation, whether it be with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw,

13 The work of each [one] will become [plainly, openly] known (shown for what it is); for the day [of Christ] will disclose and declare it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test and critically appraise the character and worth of the work each person has done.

14 If the work which any person has built on this Foundation [any product of his efforts whatever] survives [this test], he will get his reward.15 But if any person’s work is burned up [under the test], he will suffer the loss [of it all, losing his reward], though he himself will be saved, but only as [one who has passed] through fire.


Beloveds, The DAY OF CHRIST (THE THIRD DAY WE ARE NOW IN) will disclose and declare it because it will be REVEALED BY FIRE! That is what Malachi chapters 3 and 4 teaches us and Revelation 1-3.

It is Jesus’s intention to FINISH US and to "purify us like Gold and Silver on the 3rd day.” Luke 13: 31-35,  At that very hour some Pharisees came up and said to Him, Go away from here, for Herod is determined to kill You. 32 And He said to them, Go and tell that fox [sly and crafty, skulking and cowardly],

Behold, I drive out demons and perform healings today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish (complete) My course. 33 Nevertheless, I must continue on My way today and tomorrow and the day after that—for it will never do for a prophet to be destroyed away from Jerusalem!

Let us be careful to examine these words of Jesus. He says, "ON THE THIRD DAY I FINISH MY COURSE, NEVER THE LESS I MUST CONTINUE ON MY WAY TODAY, AND TOMORROW (2 PROPHETIC DAYS OF 1000 YEARS)  AND ON THE DAY AFTER THAT!

Malachi chapter 3 teaches us of this very work and it starts with these words:

1 Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts.

2 But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap: 

This Jesus is in our midst in the “hidden places’ In the water that is beneath the surface. The pure holy love of God that he must fill us completely with and transform us into.

Malachi teaches us the "process" of purifying our hearts in the "secret and hidden places" to bring the dross to the surface to be removed. This is one of the "last works" the Lord does before His coming for His bride. This is how the “pure holy love” will come forth from our lives by the “day of fire” we are now in.

The enemy is doing all he can to blind the “saints” eyes to this day. He is bringing now even a strong delusion so saints will “skip this process” and declare they are done. I wrote about that in my last article.

Listen to the third day work of “pure holy love.” Malachi 3: 2-4,

2 But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap: 3 And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness. 4 Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord, as in the days of old, and as in former years.

"The spirit of burning” is here. This burning is going to purify our hearts so the the river of God Holy love will come forth in us and from us. Isaiah prophesied this: Isaiah 4:3-5,

3 And he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy, everyone who is recorded for life in Jerusalem and for [a]eternal life,

4 After the Lord has washed away the [moral] filth of the daughters of Zion [pride, vanity, haughtiness] and has purged the bloodstains of Jerusalem from the midst of it by the spirit and blast of judgment and by the spirit and blast of burning and sifting.

Notice that the Lord will do this by the spirit of judgment (to those that rebel) and the Spirit and BLAST OF BURNING AND SIFTING in those that surrender? HOW CAN WE SKIP THE PROCESS? Look at what He desires to do in us:

5 And the Lord will create over the whole site, over every dwelling place of Mount Zion and over her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for over all the glory shall be a canopy (a defense of divine love and protection).

Wow! This process will bring forth a pure holy love that now can lead God’s people like a cloud by day and a fire by night or a wheel within a wheel as Ezekiel saw. This is God’s Glory filling His house. He is bringing it forth by this HOLY GHOST INVASION! He is bringing forth the “hidden river of holy love,” that only HIs refining fire of the 3rd day can bring forth. Jesus said, “I will continue on my course today and tomorrow, and the day after that.”

Beloved, we are “finished” potentially, and that is why this “Great Deception doctrine” will be so popular, for it is “truth” but not EXPERIENCED TRUTH! For it will DENY THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT ON THE THIRD DAY!

In Malachi 3, The Lord sends "his messenger, THE HOLY GHOST, REVEALING THE GLORY OF JESUS IN US AND WE CHANGE AND KEEP CHANGING FROM GLORY TO GLORY! it is here we receive the true power of the Holy Ghost Invasion! John the Beloved sees this day on the Sabbath day where He is caught up in the Spirit on the Lord’s day.

Revelation 1: 10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet,11 Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea.

12 And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks;13 And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle.14 His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire;15 And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters.

16 And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.17 And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last:18 I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.19 Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter;

Let us look at “pure Holy Love” face to face and see what it looks like. In Revelation 1 John sees Jesus, yet he could not recognize him. He had to turn around from where his present understanding of Jesus was to see Him as He is revealed in His Glory. If John were complete or finished, why did he fall down like a dead man. He should just be “face to face” with Jesus and be able to stand there. John had to “turn to see” and that is what God must do in us now, if we want that pure holy love pouring through us. We must come into the 3rd day, day of fire of the Holy Ghost Invasion.

John describes Jesus  as having hair as white as snow (fullness of wisdom and time ), His eyes as eyes of fire (seeing everything that is unholy and unloving in us to burn out, pure beauty of holiness,) His feet like burning brass, as if they burned in a furnace" (This is the refining message and finishing work the Lord must bring as found in Malachi 3, and  it is called the "day that burns like an oven" in Malachi 4:1-2:

4:1-2.  For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.2 But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.

If we will correctly understand the spiritual time we are in and discern what day we are in prophetically, we wont’ miss it. But if we don’t understand the spiritual time we are in, we are now open the enemy to bring us to believe we are “already done.”

As I wrote in my last article, the Lord will allow it and will allow many to fall away because of multiplied lawlessness still in the heart that will run away and skip the process of the refining fire. The enemy will even try to get those who have even started the process to jump out prematurely and abort the work of God in them and cause them to believe they are done already.

Again, God will allow that as well, to separate the wheat from the chaff, the sheep from the goats and the fat sheep from the lean sheep. It is time for the Angels to gather the “true wheat” in the barn and to separate from the chaff” that will be burned up.

This is the only way the “river of pure love” can be realized in our life. God needs the river to “wash the fat offering” (the best part of the offerings of the lamb) to go into the “3rd day” fire to be burned. Why?”  So he can sit in His rightful place:

Malachi 3”3 And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.

Selah!

Amen Lyn, Thanks for posting.

Great word Henry, thanks.

Ron