Rivers of Living Water

I led devotions this morning; it was my turn, and my first one since coming here.  I won't detail all of it, but here's some of it.

From John 7:37-39, Jesus says on the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.  Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'"  He said this of the Holy Spirit, who would come to make residence in the hearts of all who would believe after him.

During the Feast of Tabernacles, the priests would draw water from the pool of Siloam and carry it to the Temple, where they would pour it on the altar--a place of sacrifice for sins.  Picture a river of water flowing from the altar of sacrifice.  From the place of sacrifice, a river of life flows.  Jesus says, "Come to me...and a river of life will flow."  Our crucified savior, the place of sacrifice, is where a river of life flows.  I make this point, because this living water comes only from Him.  To receive it, we must come to Jesus.

But once we come to Him, we must also drink.  Lord forgive us for having come to the water of life so many times and leaving without drinking!  Some of us do not have the river of life Jesus promises, because we have stopped drinking.  Indeed, even a believer can have a lifeless heart if we are not abiding, being filled, drinking.  We want to be people who bring life; too many people have rivers of death instead of rivers of life from the heart: anger, frustration, rudeness, impatience, etc.  But "the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, etc " (Gal 5:22).   But we must drink.

What does that mean?  How am I "filled of the Spirit?"  I'm learning what this means, but flip to Ephesians 3:14-19.  If we want to be "filled with all the fullness of God" we must become "rooted and grounded in love...and know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge."  We must know and be continually experiencing the love of Jesus.  By "abiding" in His love (see John 15) we are filled of Him and filled of His Spirit.

How do we know that we are filled of the Spirit?  This is what I love.  Jesus says (back from John 7:38), "out of his heart."  Did you get that?  He said "out" not "in."  It's not how much flows in, but how much flows out that we know.  Do not measure your life against how much church, devotions, study, prayer, etc goes into your life (indeed, we could do all these things and rarely ever drink), but by how much love and fruit of the Spirit that flows out.

When Jesus' heart was pierced on the cross by the Roman's spear, blood and water poured out.  Meditate on that for a while.

If we want to be filled, and if we want to know the love of God, we need to become a people that lets love flow forth like a mighty river from the heart.

Since coming to Sudan, I have realized how much I have underestimated and undervalued the power and supremacy of love (see 1 Corinthians 13).  It's easy at home.  Let's debate predestination and freewill.  Let's fight and divide over spiritual gifts, the supernatural, and denomination.  Forgive me, I do not mean to belittle these things; it is important that we individually wrestle with and know God.  But when you leave the States and see God in a poor place, many of these things fade away.  Jesus Christ comes plainly and powerfully into view, and I realize how distracted I was by some things, how afraid I was of what certain people thought, and now all I want to do is know the love of Christ and make His love known.

I no longer want to be a person who leaves church each Sunday and says, "that was a good message."  I want to drink deep of the love of Christ and be filled and be changed so that rivers of life flow forth from my life.  What are we going to talk about and remember when we're in heaven?  Gifts? Prophecy?  Predestination?  I think that is part of what Paul is getting at in 1 Corinthians.

Ok, maybe I did detail most of it, and then some.  You don't have to be in Sudan to know the Lord and follow Him.