As God's river flows from Heaven down to Earth, it becomes muddy, because it is contaminated by Girgashite earthliness. Carnal man contaminates God's pure river with human methodologies and paradigms, and turns what was meant to be a direct relationship with Almighty God into a religious, hierarchical structure bent on following human traditions rather than on following the will of a God Whom the natural mind cannot see:

"⁵Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands? ⁶He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. ⁷Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. ⁸For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do. ⁹And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition. ¹⁰For Moses said, Honour thy father and thy mother; and, Whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the death: ¹¹But ye say, If a man shall say to his father or mother, It is Corban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; he shall be free. ¹²And ye suffer him no more to do ought for his father or his mother; ¹³Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye. ¹⁴And when he had called all the people unto him, he said unto them, Hearken unto me every one of you, and understand: ¹⁵There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man. ¹⁶If any man have ears to hear, let him hear." (Mark 7:5-16)

The fact that the river came to a flat area points to the influence of Canaanite spirits in the Church. The word "Canaanite" means "lowlands" and refers to spirits of low, earthly passions, where carnal emotions dominate over a judging mind. The Church has allowed "human mercy" and sentimentalism to overthrow God's righteous judgments:

"²²Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts. ²³Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols. ²⁴But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream." (Amos 5:22-24)

God has designed the pastoral ministry to be a provider of spiritual "resting places" to bless and comfort those who seek after God's kingdom and righteousness. The "flat area" in the vision, however, has been turned from a resting place for the seekers of righteousness into a place where people go to satisfy their earthly passions and desires, where people seek after ephemeral blessings and forget altogether about their calling to pursue an eternal inheritance.

As we have shared before, teachers who stray from the Spirit become Girgashites, while pastors who stray from the Spirit become Canaanites. Therefore, we can say that, just as the 3 "male" ministries (apostle, prophet, and evangelist) are represented in the vision, the 2 "female" ministries (pastor and teacher) are also represented, but in a negative sense.

The fact that sisters Twila and Mona had to be warned by Jesus Himself not to drink from the river is a prophetic figure of how it is impossible to discern the spiritual contamination of the Church with our natural minds. Sisters Twila and Mona could see that the water was flowing from up above, so there was no natural reason to suspect that the water was contaminated. Only those who seek to have a direct relationship with the Lord Jesus will be able to understand that, even though much of what flows in the Church has "eternal" origins, it has been subliminally contaminated by man.

The fact that Jesus was kneeling by the river means that Jesus was in prophetic prayer. Notice that sister Twila saw the Lord as Jesus, the man, meaning that this prophetic prayer must be carried out by today's physical manifestations of Jesus on Earth: you and me. As believers, you and I have Jesus on the inside of us, and, as we walk in Him, He will begin to be manifested in and through us.

The fact that the waters turned crystal clear means that the river will be cleansed through prophetic prayer. The waters will not clean themselves. God is waiting for spiritual volunteers like you and me to engage in prophetic prayer so that the Church will be restored. Prophetic prayer does not only refer to moments of literal prayer. It means an entire life of intimate communion with the Holy Spirit. You and I, my friends, are "walking prayers". As you maintain an attitude of prophetic intimacy with God, your very physical presence becomes a prayer unto God that restores and transforms everything around you. This is why Jesus' physical presence in a kneeling position by the river purified the waters.

As the waters are purified (and they will be), the Church will move from being a seeker of earthly blessings to a seeker of God's righteousness and His prophetic purpose. This is why the Lord said to sister Mona, "no more muddy blessings".