Rivers of Living Water

Reading Time: 9 Minutes

Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. The one who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’” But this He said in reference to the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.  John 7:37-39 NASB

Jesus described the Holy Spirit as a river of living water. We receive the Holy Spirit when we’re born again but we need Him every day like we need water!

Connected to Heaven by a River

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb… Revelation 22:1 NIV

The river originates in Heaven from the Throne of God and from the Lamb who is Jesus. But Jesus asked the Father to send the Holy Spirit to all who believe, and He did!

Ephesians 2:1-10 tells us that we used to be spiritually dead in our sins when we followed this world and the ruler of the kingdom of the air– Satan. But now we are made alive by God’s Spirit because we believe and follow Jesus. God has spiritually raised us up and seated us with God in the heavenly realms. The Holy Spirit lives in us and that is how we can be filled with God’s river from Heaven! That is also how we are able to be seated with God– by God’s Spirit!

The Cleansing Power of the Word

It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. John 6:63 NKJV

The Word of God is alive and active because Jesus is the Word (John 1:1-5) and because the Holy Spirit empowers God’s Word to give life when the reader believes from their heart. A few years ago I had the following dream:

Heavenly Faucet Dream

I was inside a shopping mall standing in front of a small public sink. The problem was that instead of a water faucet, the clean-looking water was coming up out of the drain through something that looked like dark chewing tobacco. Beside me to my right, was a line of people waiting to wash their hands. As I looked into the sink, I may have made a face because I didn’t want to put my hands in that water. I tried getting just my fingers wet but I couldn’t without touching the dirty tobacco.

As I tried to wash them, I closed my eyes and said, “…and nothing shall harm you,” from the scripture Luke 10:19. When I opened my eyes, water was flowing over my hands from a different sink and faucet. The water was clean enough to drink! Surprised, I looked at the people in line and said, “Did you see that!? I said, ‘and nothing shall harm you’ and the sink changed!” Then I woke up.

Love Saturates the Bridegroom’s Word

I had been meditating on Luke 10:19 for some time and used that scripture whenever I had even a fleeting thought that something might affect me in a negative way. This dream shows us how the Word of God opens us up to God’s truth in the realm of the Spirit and cleanses us. If we truly believe in our hearts that nothing shall harm us, the living water cleanses us from the evil we once feared would harm us.

For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word. He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault.  Ephesians 5:25-27  NLT

If we focus on how Christ loved the church in this passage, we can see that Jesus washed us with His Word. The Word spoken to us about Jesus dying on the cross cleansed us when we believed. We continue to be cleansed by paying attention to the Holy Spirit. It is not a method of reading the Word that cleanses us. It is communion with the Word, Jesus Christ, through the Spirit that gives us supernatural life-giving water!

Drink From the Vine

I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.  He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. John 15:1-5 NIV

Jesus is the whole vine, not just the trunk or the roots. He is the vine and we, the branches, have become one with Him. A natural branch that doesn’t bear fruit will steal energy from the other branches. That’s why it gets cut off. We don’t want to be cut off! However, pruning, though sometimes painful, is very good. Spiritual pruning is the process of submitting to God by rejecting anything that doesn’t belong in us now that we are born again into Christ. (Matthew 5:27-30) When we drink from Jesus and His Word, we will bear the good fruit of the Holy Spirit- love, joy, peace, patience, kindness goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control… truth, justice, courage…

If we try to clean up our heart and produce good fruit by our own power we are only religious. It sets us up to receive credit for our efforts. Over time we will wither and die. But when we let Jesus deliver us and grow us, we will always give Him the glory!

Getting Thirsty

As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants for You, God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; When shall I come and appear before God? Psalm 42:1-2 NASB

In the early days of the church, Holy Spirit was poured out on believers and thousands were coming to faith in Jesus. The apostles were so busy distributing food to the poor that they didn’t have enough time for prayer and reading the Word. I believe they felt spiritually thirsty. They asked the church to appoint 7 people full of the Holy Spirit to help with ministry.

I wonder if the apostles thought of the Mary/Martha moment in Luke 10:38-42. Mary was drinking in the words of Jesus as she sat at His feet. Martha, on the other hand, was stressed and angry at Mary for not helping her in the kitchen. Jesus corrected Martha because her heart was not in the right place. We cannot serve others in a way that pleases God until we have sat in the presence of Jesus, allowing the Holy Spirit to fill us with the living water of His love.

The apostles loved serving others, but they knew it was important for them to guard their time with the Holy Spirit. They knew that all believers drink of the same Holy Spirit and should be engaged in loving and ministering to others.

We Drink of One Spirit

My husband and I planted some fruit trees and were told to water them often until they became established. Once their root system grows deep and taps into the water table they will be able to “drink” by themselves. 

For just as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body—though many—are one body, so too is Christ.  For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body. Whether Jews or Greeks or slaves or free, we were all made to drink of the one Spirit. 1 Corinthians 12:12-13  NET

Like our watering can, a baby Christian needs extra encouragement and teaching from Spirit filled believers. The Father Loves Us is the story of someone that was filled with the Spirit when I desperately needed grace. But if new Christians are going to grow they must learn to drink from the Holy Spirit for themselves.

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper. Psalm 1:1-3  NKJV

Quenching the Spirit

Do not stifle the Holy Spirit. 1 Thessalonians 5:19 NLT

We can stop the flow of the River of life in our lives. Offenses, unforgiveness, jealousy, dishonoring others and other sins are signs that the Spirit of life is not being honored and welcomed by us. 

There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. Romans 8:1-2 NKJV

From the living river of the Spirit flow all the blessings of God’s grace– forgiveness, healing, deliverance, protection and provision! The gifts and fruit of the Spirit flow from us to bless others by the power and love of God.

Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never be thirsty; but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up to eternal life.” John 4:13-14 NASB

Come to Jesus and drink! Let the river of life, the Holy Spirit, well up and overflow to others!

How priceless is your unfailing love, O God! People take refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the abundance of your house; you give them drink from your river of delights. For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light. Psalm 136:7-9 NIV