Chad Pregracke has a passion for cleaning America's rivers. For the past 15 years, Pregracke has been pulling out tires, refrigerators, washing machines and more out of the Mississippi River and other rivers across the country.
As a native of East Moline, Illinois, Pregracke grew up near the Mississippi River, which supplies drinking water to millions of people. In an interview with news station CNN in 2013, Pregracke said he consistently saw trash in the Mississippi River while working as a commercial shell diver when he was a teenager.
Unable to shake the desire for cleaning the river, Pregacke obtained a grant from Alcoa in 1997. He began that summer to clean the Mississippi River, and has been pulling out trash ever since, but now he does it with help from other volunteers who share the same passion.
Pregacke wants to see the waterways clean and flow unhindered across the country so that millions can have the drinking water they need to survive.
Just like Pregacke has this natural passion, God has a spiritual passion to rid people of the debris and trash that clog them up and hinders them from experiencing the flow of God's Spirit.
God, and only God, can cleanse us from the inside out by His Spirit so that we can experience a revival – a new beginning – in our lives. When we experience spiritual revival in our lives, God's "river" flows through us and purges out of us all that is not of Him – envy, selfishness, hatred, jealousy and other soulish sins.
What is God's River of Revival?
Revelation 22:1 (MSG): Then the Angel showed me Water-of-Life River, crystal bright. It flowed from the Throne of God and the Lamb, right down the middle of the street.
Revelation 22:1 describes the Water-of-Life River, also called "the River of Life," as "clear as crystal" which means its waters are not muddied; they do not mix with the earth along the river basin. Because God's River is pure and refreshing; it cleanses us and causes us to experience revival.
A river must have a source that is higher than itself. Usually, a river originates in the mountaintops and flows downstream to reach the valleys. God's River of Revival, when flowing freely, joins our relationship with Him (the mountain) to the place of our need (the valley). The higher the mountain, the greater the flow. The deeper the valley, the greater the flow, the stronger the power of the current.
God's River of Revival Has Power
When harnessed, a river can become a source of power. Likewise, when we come under the discipline of the Holy Spirit, we receive God's power. God's power is liberating, it frees us of restrictions that people want to place on us.
Rivers flow even though they are restrained by dikes and dams. These restraints can interfere with the prescribed pattern of the river, but the river continues to flow because it cannot be framed or canned or frozen completely solid (lakes freeze, but rivers flow because they are constantly moving).
Geologically, a river's depth directly correlates to the curvity of its channel. Our spiritual depth relates to how close we wrap our lives around God. The deeper we are in God, the more likely extraordinary manifestations, such as healings and miracles, will occur. To the degree that we enter into the flow, we will experience His power.
God's River of Revival Flows to Others
John 7:37-38 (AMP): Now on the final and most important day of the Feast, Jesus stood, and He cried in a loud voice, If any man is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink! He who believes in Me [who cleaves to and trusts in and relies on Me] as the Scripture has said, From his innermost being shall flow [continuously] springs and rivers of living water.
While many would be content to stand on the riverbank, basking in the presence of God, God's River is not an end in itself. God wants His River to flow from us and into other people that we meet.
A river isn't stagnant; it must continue to move and have an outlet. A river serves as a tributary to connect one body of water to another. It empties into another body of water such as an ocean, lake or another river.
In the same sense, revival is not an end in itself, but a means to a far greater end. God's River of Revival flows through us and extends to the dry lands downstream and reaches those who are lost. Those who then accept Christ into their lives will then have God's power flowing through them so that they can go to others like themselves to tell them about the Gospel so that God's River of Revival will continue to flow.
God's River of Revival Has A Direction
John 4:13-14 (AMP): Jesus answered her, All who drink of this water will be thirsty again. But whoever takes a drink of the water that I will give him shall never, no never, be thirsty any more. But the water that I will give him shall become a spring of water welling up (flowing, bubbling) [continually] within him unto (into, for) eternal life.
Rivers don't flow indiscriminately; they have direction. The waters never move from the east bank to the west; or upstream and down coincidentally. It is not disorderly, but flows in a well-defined channel within the boundaries of its banks and, with rare exception, follows the laws of gravity. This speaks unity in the Body of Christ.
When members of the Body of Christ follow the direction of the Holy Spirit, God's power will flow inside and outside of the Church so that He will be glorified by all who witness this River of Revival.
A river deviates from its pattern only when it is out of control, as in a flood. Similarly, many people wrongly perceive revival as a haphazard experience, inviting every manner of activity. True revival that is established by God will not be an out-of-control event but because God does everything in a proper and orderly way (1 Corinthians 14:40).
God's River of Life Brings Life
Ezekiel 47: 7-9 (NAS): "…[O]n "the bank of the river there were very many trees on the one side and on the other … [The] waters … flow into the sea, and the waters of the sea become fresh. And … every living creature which swarms in every place where the river goes, will live. And there will be very many fish, for these waters go there, and the others become fresh; so everything will live where the river goes."
The "river of life sustains the life within itself (i.e., fish) and distributes the waters of life everywhere fit goes (to plants and animals along its shores.
God is unstopping waterways so that His rivers of life-giving water will flow unceasingly. As the Divine River of Life flows to us, we should expect a supernatural move of God in our lives like we have never witnessed before.
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