The River: Revealing the Heart of God and His Desire to Bless You

By Mark Stuberg

God’s desire is to pour Himself out unto us. The sheer magnitude of the outpouring of His blessing is absolutely enormous—much larger than you can imagine. But many of these blessings are being held back. But why and how? In this book, you will read of three prophetic encounters where I meet Jesus in the most amazing river. You will see what may be preventing the flow of God’s presence in your life, your family, and your church. You will be challenged to rip down the wall of the dam that is holding back the flow of God’s amazing river. Get ready to jump into His river—the water is out of this world!

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Oct 18, 2018
• ISBN: 9781973642213

Mark Stuberg

Mark Stuberg is a Christian author who was raised in Leeds, North Dakota. He married his high school sweetheart Tracy (Hvidsten) whom he met while they were in the sixth grade. They have two children: Eric, married to Jessica—and Alisha, married to Brandon. Six grandchildren: Skylee, Roman, Harlow, Cash, Kingston, and Lachlan. Mark has a Bachelor’s Degree in Biblical Studies from North Central University, Minneapolis MN., and is a Licensed Minister with the Assemblies of God. He has a true heart and passion for seeing the loving presence of God transform lives through signs, wonders, and miracles. Mark and Tracy both have a particular passion for marriage and family ministries as well as intercessory prayer. They currently reside in the Minneapolis, Minnesota area. For more information see https://seeyouintheriver.com

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Copyright © 2018 Mark Stuberg.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Please note that the name satan and related names are not capitalized. The author chooses not to acknowledge him, even to the point of violating grammatical rules.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

Unless otherwise noted, scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture marked MSG taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

Scripture marked AMP taken from the Amplified® Bible, Copyright © 2015 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

WestBow Press

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Bloomington, IN 47403

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

ISBN: 978-1-9736-4220-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-4219-0 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-4221-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018912073

WestBow Press rev. date: 10/17/2018

Contents

Dedication

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Chapter 1     The Vision And Dream

Chapter 2     Jesus

Chapter 3     Rivers

Chapter 4     The River Bed

Chapter 5     The Church & The City

Chapter 6     The Lake Of Blessing

Chapter 7     The Boulders

Chapter 8     Hungering For His Presence

End Notes

Dedication

I dedicate this book to Tracy, my wife of 36 years. Not only are you an amazing wife, but you are my lover, and my very best friend. We have been on a spiritual journey together throughout our marriage. We have lived an amazingly blessed and adventurous life. It goes without saying, that there have been many influences in my life but the greatest of these is you, Trac. Your love for God, me, our family, and others, is inspirational. You are truly the best gift God could ever give me. Thank you for being my biggest blessing. I so love you!

—Mark

Acknowledgements

A special thank you to following individuals who helped in the editing process: My wife Tracy, Josh Hvidsten, Rob Stuberg, and James Miller. I would also like to acknowledge my mom Dorothy Stuberg, who resourced her retired school teaching skills and her passionate love for Jesus, into several editing suggestions. I was fortunate enough to finish drafting the manuscript and place it into mom’s hands while she was in the hospital being treated for a lung disease. She had longed for the day that she would finally be able to read it. Despite her physical condition, she read The River in two days and we talked at great length about it. She passed away just a couple of weeks later, followed by my dad (Ken) who died just five days after her. The very last time I saw my mom she placed another little note in my hand with some of her final editing corrections.

Introduction

God has an extraordinary love for you, and His desire is to pour-out blessings upon your life. The magnitude of the outpouring of God’s blessing is massive—much larger than you can imagine. But for many, the river of God’s blessing is being held back. Why are these blessings not being poured out, and what can be done to open the flood gates? In this book, you will see both practically and prophetically what is preventing the flow of His presence in your life, your family, and your church. You will be challenged to rip down the walls of the dam that are holding back the flow of God’s amazing river. Get ready to jump into His river—the water is out of this world.

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Chapter 1

THE VISION AND DREAM

As a child, I grew up going to church. In my little town of Leeds, North Dakota, pretty-much everyone went to church at that time. My parents had baptized me when I was a baby, and later I went to Sunday school and confirmation classes. Somewhere along the line, I guess I just assumed I was a Christian. After-all I completed what was expected—just like others had, and they all seemed good with that. Inwardly, however, I still felt empty. I didn’t understand life, nor could I see how my life had any real purpose. There was a battle going on inside of me, but I couldn’t even express it. I had also started to develop an anger and animosity toward my father who although I didn’t realize it at the time, had been struggling with his own purpose in life. He was self-admittedly a drunk during the years when I needed guidance and someone to look up to. I suppressed my anger and confusion with sports, alcohol, and drugs. I married my high school sweetheart, we had a little baby boy, and I had a decent job, but still something very deep inside me was missing.

Then at the age of twenty-one, on a cold wintery night in Cando, North Dakota, I found myself at a Woman’s Aglow Bible study meeting—of all places. Somehow my mother-in-law had coerced me into attending that night where there was a special speaker. Thankfully the speaker was a man, so at least I wasn’t the only guy in the meeting—I felt pretty uncomfortable attending as it was. Barring all the details, it was on that very night that my wife, Tracy, and I were gloriously saved. I truly experienced the presence of God come into my life. Jesus Christ replaced that empty void with His love. I was forever radically changed! I was absolutely not the same person coming out of that meeting.

The spiritual atmosphere that night was something I had never experienced before. It was very different, but in a good way—because I knew that what I was feeling was absolutely real, and somehow, I knew God’s presence was there. To be honest, I walked into that place being very skeptical. So, was it a little weird at first? Yes, for sure! In fact, I had a bunch of Pentecostal women gathered around me in a circle. They all had their hands on me, and at that time of my life, I had never even seen anything like this—not even on TV. Keep in mind I had grown up with a very liturgical church background.

But what I experienced that cold winter night in Cando was the actual presence of almighty God. The only reason why it seemed so weird, was that it was not something I was at all familiar with. The one thing that I could not deny, however, was the overwhelming feeling of God’s love. I felt like God had personally invited me that night. I absolutely knew that this presence of God was real. In fact, I had also been baptized in the Holy Spirit and healed of a back condition in that same meeting.

With the Spirit of God now living inside me, I was immediately hungry for His Word (the Bible). I had taken it for granted in the past, but now my life had purpose and I wanted to learn more and more. I started to see how the whole purpose of God’s creation and humankind was about relationship.¹ The fact that He—the God of the whole universe—desired to have a loving relationship with me was and still is truly amazing!

I was on a pursuit to know God more and was learning to understand the moving of the Holy Spirit in my life. I was also beginning to see how the Holy Spirit was working on the earth and in people around me. My perspective of life had radically changed as I was able to see it through the lens of God’s love and grace. One of the passages of scripture I had particular interest in was found in the book of Acts.

And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your young men shall see visions, Your old men shall dream dreams. (Acts 2:17)

Very early in my new life as a Christian, I would reflect upon that verse and pray that God would speak to me personally through dreams and visions. Since then, I have been learning how to improve my hearing of the voice of God. Most often, I have heard His voice while reading scripture; other times it has been through the Holy Spirit speaking directly to my heart. There have been prophetic encounters and direction from others as well, but many times, He has spoken to me in the form of dreams and visions.

Over the years I have received several dreams that I knew were from God, but on February 25, 2001, I knew that this one was different. First off, it was an encounter with the Lord Jesus Himself, which had never happened to me before. As well, there was a weightiness or gravity to the relevancy of this encounter. It was this particular vision and a very detailed connecting dream that followed, that are the premise for this book. These two incredible events have rocked my life! Although I had known and loved the Lord and had experienced incredibly intimate times being in His presence, these two carry a totally different status. While it has taken some time to digest and disclose various details, there has not been a day since either of these encounters that some facet of them have not come to mind.

Throughout this book, you will see portions of these two visitations from the Lord broken down into areas of practical ministry and application. I am confident that God will speak to everyone reading this book. My prayer is that you will have a clear understanding of God’s incredible love for you and that you will be hungry for more of His presence. That said, whether you are a new Christian or a seasoned saint—or perhaps you are not even a follower of Jesus—I believe this book will minister to you in a very powerful and dynamic way.

Do you have a clear and accurate understanding of God’s grace? Grace has been perhaps the most misunderstood aspect of Christianity throughout the entire existence of the human race. God has gone to great lengths to display His loving grace to us. Proper understanding of this grace is the key that will unlock the door to knowing God intimately and walking-out life with purpose and blessing. Sadly, there are those who believe God’s grace is not available to them, while others take God’s grace for granted. Many are simply confused about His grace. Ironically, some Christians have even been reluctant to talk about grace for fear that others may somehow devalue the holiness of it. To be sure, satan has a huge target on our understanding of God’s grace; it stands to reason. But the grace of God is much stronger than any scheme or tactic available to satan. Additionally, our faith and trust in God gives us access to His power. We however, must choose to open the door of our own understanding. God has given us the freedom of choice, which includes what we believe about Him and His attributes. That said, I am convinced that you cannot truly know who God is without first understanding His grace.

The magnitude of the outpouring of God’s blessing for us is far deeper and wider than what you may have ever imagined; it is enormous! However, for many of us the flow of His blessing is being held back. This is not God’s desire, and I pray that as you read-on, you will identify what may be holding it back. Moreover, I pray that you will recognize the voice of the Lord as He identifies to you what needs to be done to open the flood gates. Furthermore, my prayer is that you will see both the prophetic and practical applications presented and respond with such an intense hunger for the presence of God that it dramatically changes your life, family, church, and community.

The following paragraphs in this first chapter are the written events of the aforementioned vision and dream in their raw form, recorded just after they happened. Each of the remaining chapters will begin with a correlating excerpt taken directly from the content of these two prophetic records.

The Vision

On February 25, 2001, while in the Sunday evening