09/23/2022
Have we built a dam across our heart to hold back the flow of the Holy Spirit? Is our intention that the Spirit be made full in us by stopping its flow, and making it a deep lake of living water within us? Regardless of our intentions, this gift, this wonderful river, is meant to gush forth and water the world. Do we allow it to flow from us? Do we share this spiritual water with others so that it will bring them life… an eternal life that quenches their spiritual thirsts, and satisfies us as the cool water of our faith runs freely from within us to cleanse the world, and glorify God?
“Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’””
John 7:38 ESV
We talk about the gospel of Jesus Christ, the great commission, and living water, but how often do we keep it to ourselves, or in other words, walk around without remembering to share it as we should? Today our devotional thought will be a short and sweet one; it is this… we should walk about in life wearing wet clothing, drenched by the living water that flows eternally forth from us. In this way we are springs of eternal life…
“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
Like a powerful stream from within us, our faith, the Holy Spirit, and the gospel, are not simply reservoirs, or cisterns of life that we hope others will dip into to splash its refreshing life onto their face, or step into slowly to cool their aching bodies, no, we are meant to be gushing, flowing, raging, rivers of life, and our faith is meant to spring forth from us mightily in search of those who are dead or dying from the lack of its living water… our life giving water is meant to search relentlessly, powerfully, and endlessly, for those who are dying of spiritual thirst. Have we forgotten this?
“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 2:13 ESV
Today let’s break down the walls of the dams we have constructed within ourselves to contain our faith, and let Jesus, the living water of life, that we have kept bottled up within us, flow forth in a flood, so that it will wash the filth from not only the feet, hands, and faces of a few, but from the entirety of the world as it was intended to do.
““For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”
John 3:16-17 ESV
We are the temple of the Holy Spirit, and, we stand as the Church upon the rock, Peter. So life is intended to flow from us even as it did from the rock in the desert that provided for the children of Israel… only now, the water is the living water of Jesus, meant to quench the thirst of the world. Are we broken cisterns of stagnant water, or are we flowing springs of living water?
“They did not thirst when he led them through the deserts; he made water flow for them from the rock; he split the rock and the water gushed out.”
Isaiah 48:21 ESV
Prayer:
Father, thank you for your Son Jesus Christ who is an eternal flow of living water to the world. Thank you for Peter, the rock on which the Church of Jesus Christ is built, and for the gushing stream of living water that you intend to flow from this rock, so that from the Church’s foundation, the gospel of Jesus will flow into all the world… every nation, and people there. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you our God who placed the water in the rocks from the foundation of the world. Merciful are you who provided Moses with the staff that would bring forth from them the desert water for Israel, Loving are you who, through Jesus, would rend the temple veil, and break the stones to release His living water to flow forth, and perfect is your plan that made your Church to be the spring of faith, the rock of Peter from which the world would receive the good news of life everlasting. Praised be your name for every word of life we speak, and every soul that the living water of Christ redeems. Hear our prayers for strength as we go into the world to spread the good news of Jesus, and cover them in the living water… lifting the cup of the new covenant to the parched and suffering in the world. We pray that you will be pleased with us Father, and see the image of Jesus flowing from us in our moment of judgement. See us washed in His blood, cleansed and redeemed, bolstering our once broken Church, as it stands on the rock of Peter, renewed in its faith, and baptizing the redeemed in the living water of Jesus. Call us worthy of eternity with you, and pronounce new eternal names as you call us your children.
Rich Forbes