FIFTH RIVER: DRAMA
The fifth river is the last and final river by which the “Spirit of prophecy” flowed in the Old Testament. The other two rivers flowed in the new. The fifth river is the river of drama or acting out the prophecy. This implication means Spirit of prophecy can flow through acts as well as through words.
The Prophet Ezekiel lived in Babylon during and after the time of Jerusalem’s destruction. He was in captivity while Jeremiah was in Jerusalem. In the account below, you’ll see Ezekiel, a man of God. One day, God tells him to go and build this siege. He went in the middle of this Babylonian captivity, and he started building a city. He was acting out the prophetic word. Imagine how God commanded him to lie on one side for 309 days.
Siege of Jerusalem Symbolized
“Now, son of man, take a block of clay, put it in
front of you and draw the city of Jerusalem on it.
Then lay siege to it: Erect siege works against it,
build a ramp up to it, set up camps against it and
put battering rams around it. Then take an iron
pan, place it as an iron wall between you and the
city and turn your face toward it. It will be under
siege, and you shall besiege it. This will be a sign
to the people of Israel.
“Then lie on your left side and put the sin of the
people of Israel upon yourself. You are to bear
their sin for the number of days you lie on your
side. I have assigned you the same number of days
as the years of their sin. So for 390 days you will
bear the sin of the people of Israel.
“After you have finished this, lie down again, this
time on your right side, and bear the sin of the
people of Judah. I have assigned you 40 days, a
day for each year. Turn your face toward the siege
of Jerusalem and with bared arm prophesy against
her. I will tie you up with ropes so that you cannot
turn from one side to the other until you have
finished the days of your siege.
“Take wheat and barley, beans and lentils, millet
and spelt; put them in a storage jar and use them
to make bread for yourself. You are to eat it during
the 390 days you lie on your side. (Ezekiel 4:1-9)
In Isaiah 20:2, we see something similarly strange. The Lord spoke to Isaiah, to go and remove the sackcloth from his body and take off his sandals. He walked around naked and barefoot, which comes to show don’t make up any word of knowledge from the Lord. Even in Acts 11:27, we see prophets come from Antioch to Jerusalem. Agabus stood up and was led by the Spirit to say that there was going to be a great famine throughout all the world, which also happened in the days of Claudius Caesar. If you read carefully the word “show,” the Holy Spirit meant to “act it out.” While there sure was spoken prophecy, there was a demonstration drama kind of prophecy that took place. The prophet dramatized something that would happen to Paul.
After we had been there a number of days, a
prophet named Agabus came down from Judea.
Coming over to us, he took Paul’s belt, tied his
own hands and feet with it and said, “The Holy
Spirit says, ‘In this way the Jewish leaders in
Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and will
hand him over to the Gentiles.’” (Acts 21:10-11)
Moving in the prophetic and giving the word of God is an act of faith. When a prophet speaks forth the word, even though he doesn’t understand it, he knows it’s from God. If you ever move into the prophetic anointing, you realize that sometimes God shows you the person first and then give you the prophetic word. Sometimes, God gives a prophetic word then He shows you the person to give the prophecy to. There can be times when God moves you in the river of prophecy, God give you an action to do first, and then give you the understanding of the action. Thus, drama has been of the ways in which a prophet flows into.
Experience the Power of Prophecy as a gift to open your mind to receive the Mind of Christ.
Ask God to reveal to you a prophetic word through action. You must be willing to act out what God is telling you to do. Write down what God revealed to you.