02/07/2021
You are a Christian, but do you feel rivers of living water flowing from your heart? If you have opened yourself up to the Holy Spirit, and are being led by Him, then you are most certainly a spring from which living water bubbles up to cover the earth, and will quench the thirst of many who are parched by walking through the world’s unrighteous desert that surrounds them.
“Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.”
John 7:38-39 ESV
Living water is not stagnant, or polluted, but is flowing, and cleanses us. One of the requirements for placing an Old Testament temple or tabernacle was that it had to be supplied with living water to fill its cleansing pool, or Micvah at as it is called. This requirement is adhered to today in the placement of orthodox, and many other Jewish temples. Placing a synagogue on a spring, or very near another source of living water, is of paramount importance, and plays heavily in selecting the site for its construction.
So living water plays a critical role in the purification process, and there are many needs for purification... Jewish Women immerse in it after menstruating, men do the same following ejaculation, someone converting to Judaism is cleansed in it, new metal or glass cooking and eating utensils are immersed in it, and corpses are cleansed there in preparation for burial. Water is critical in purification, and living water a critical part. Is it any wonder that the source of the Jordan River is a gushing spring, and part of many biblical stories... even the water in which Jesus was immersed as John as he baptized Him?
So today in our opening scripture we hear the Holy Spirit referred to as living water, and to understand that reference, and others in the Bible, we first needed to understand what living water meant to those in biblical times. This is the reference point they used to understand that there was physical living water... but that there was spiritual living water that cleansed them too. Listen to Jesus as He speaks to the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well:
“The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” ( For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.””
John 4:9-10 ESV
We know that water from Jacob’s well was living water supplied by underground streams, but Jesus was referring to spiritual water that would have cleansed her, and brought her eternal life. He tried to get her to understand this by saying...
“Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.””
John 4:13-14 ESV
But the woman was still confused regarding His meaning and thought He was referring to physical water...
“The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.””
John 4:15 ESV
Today many Christians get confused, or miss the significance in scriptures when we don’t understanding the differences, and similarities in living water. Jesus, like all Jews, knew that living water filled the Micvah, and that it was required to cleanse those of Jewish faith, so He called on this to convey the importance of spiritual cleansing; God did this as well, and as a master of fact referred to Himself as the source of ALL living water.
“Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the Lord, for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.”
Jeremiah 2:12-13 ESV
So read our opening scripture again, and see if you don’t understand it differently when it refers to the Holy Spirit as living water, and ask yourself if you believe, if you have opened your heart to the Holy Spirit, and if you feel rivers of living water flowing from your heart. Contemplate this today as you immerse yourself in God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.
“And the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.”
Isaiah 58:11 ESV
Prayer:
Father, thank you for the living water you have provided us from wells, springs, rivers, and oceans, but thank you most for the living water that nourishes our spirits through your Holy Spirit , and Jesus, who are our spiritual Mikvahs, and cleanse us day to day, and for eternity. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you our God who is the fountain from which the living water of Jesus Christ flows, and He who forgives us... our sins having been cleansed by the Son. Merciful are you Father for making the water of Christ available to all who would receive it. Great is your grace for quenching our thirst without charge; allowing us to drink freely as you draw the water for us and say “come, drink”. Lord, open our hearts to your Holy Spirit that He will lead us to Jesus, and give us an understanding, and a cup by which we can drink from Him. Hear our prayers of contrition Father, and cleanse us in the blood, and living water, of your Son Jesus. Give us life everlasting as we immerse ourselves in first the living water of the Jordan, and then in the living water of spirit and truth.
“Thus says the Lord who made you, who formed you from the womb and will help you: Fear not, O Jacob my servant, Jeshurun whom I have chosen. For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants. They shall spring up among the grass like willows by flowing streams.”
Isaiah 44:2-4 ESV
Rich Forbes