04/20/2026
Are we satisfied with the state of our spiritual lives? Does living water pour from us as Jesus said it would, or, are we praying for it to do so but feel like our words are drawing very little from us? If we believe that the latter is a true statement regarding where we are in our faith, we shouldn’t believe that we are lost, but have patience as we continue to seek out and divine the living water that is within us.
“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
I know a bi-vocational country Pastor that can take a Y shaped sprig from a tree, and holding the two forked ends of it in his hands, walk slowly around a house until suddenly the leg of the Y dips down towards the ground, and more specifically towards a source of hidden water beneath it. When this happens, he will double check himself and then mark the spot as he announces, “Dig your well here!” This is called divining or dowsing for water, and the person who can do it will be able to tell you where the water is and how strong the flow is; and sometimes they can determine if it is fresh water or Sulphur water. This sounds mystical, and I guess it is, and yet it works.
As believers we are all a little like those country yards; there is living Water hidden deep within us, but it just hasn’t reached the surface yet, and to find it we need a divining stick too, and we need to believe that it works. Our dowsing rod is Jesus, and we must have enough faith in Him to dig the well. As I was reading Pastor Andrew Murray, he wrote about the process of achieving the full power of the Holy Spirit, and that in some of us it takes time to reach. Listen to his words...
“Do not imagine that the joy and power of Pentecost must be felt and seen immediately. Restoration takes time and often comes slowly. At first, one receives the full blessing as only a seed: the full life is wrapped up as if it were a capsule. We tend to judge God and His work in us by sight and feeling. We forget that the whole process is a work of faith.” - Andrew Murray
The interesting thing about water is that it is everywhere; it is in the sky above us, in the rain that falls on us, in the rivers that flow around us, and in the lakes and seas that hold it as reservoirs, but all of this is dwarfed by what lies beneath our feet within the earth itself. We see evidence of it in springs and artesian wells that bubble forth out of the ground in various amounts. Some of these flow so slowly that the ground just seems to remain wet, while others, like the headwaters of the Jordan River flow up in great force. Water is life, and so is Jesus Christ. Like Him, water brings with it the origins of life itself.
“Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him."”
John 14:6-7 ESV
In Jesus we see what was once hidden from us… God… and the Holy Spirit, reveals Him to us as well. Yet like all relationships, ours starts as an acquaintance, grows into friendship, and then into love. Like ground water it begins hidden deep in the earth, and then seeps to the surface... stronger and stronger until at last it flows forth with great force. However, the truth remains, and that is the life that is in the water, no matter where it is.
“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”
John 14:26 ESV
When I was a boy, my grandparents had a farm hidden in the forested countryside of western North Carolina, and down a steep red dirt road from their house was the home of my Aunt Margie. It was a white clapboard home sitting up on flat rocks with a hand dug well in the yard which looked every bit like a wishing well you would see illustrated in children’s books. But, if you walked just beyond her small yard into the forest there was a magical place we called Dripping Rock. It was a rock outcropping in the hillside beneath a dense canopy of trees that was covered with moss, and seeped water slowly but steadily into a small pool at its base. From there it fed the trickle of a creek which made its way down a rocky ravine before disappearing once again into the ground. As a boy this was a place of magic and mystery where salamanders and crawfish lived, and where a barefoot boy could while away the hours on hot summer afternoons in the cool of this place. Although it couldn’t hold a candle to the flowing and gurg
As believers, we all have living Water within us. How our water reveals itself depends on a number of things, but it all comes from God, and is all life. I have prayed over and over with people who have sought a greater manifestation of the Holy Spirit as they wanted living water to flow mightily from them; I have prayed with people who barely uttered a word before they were filled with the Holy Spirit, and I have prayed with people who at the end of our prayers had no physical manifestation at all, and yet were changed forever. It is all Living Water, and even when we judge ours to be less than someone else’s, it is not... all water is life, and you carry it with you from the moment you pray the sinner’s prayer and place your hand in the hand of Jesus Christ. Remember what Jesus said...
“Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'"”
John 7:38 ESV
The flow of Living Water is spiritual, and whether it comes in the form of tongues, or any other gift or manifestation, it is life, and flows within, and from, all who believe in Jesus. The greater the relationship we have with God and Jesus Christ, the stronger the flow. So, don’t judge the flow of living water that you by some bold physical evidence, but by the relationship you have with the Lord, and the impact your life has on those around you. If you get a spiritual sprig and divine yourself... you will find that there is water there that is just waiting to be brought forth.
Prayer:
Father, thank you for the Living Water that flows from my heart, and thank you for your Son Jesus Christ and the Living Water he brings forth from within me. I pray Holy Father for all those who desire to feel the rush of this living water in a more tangible way, let them feel it welling up within them, but Father, I pray too for those quiet souls who carry rivers of Living Water into the world in buckets, but show no sign of the torrent of salvation they deliver, except by the lives that are washed clean in their wake. In Jesus we find life Father, because He speaks of you, and through His blood He has washed us clean of sin and death. In Jesus the water of life has been imparted to us, and in Him we have begun to leave first a dampness, then a trickle, and finally a river behind us as we walk through this world. Help us to see the living water Lord, and pay less attention to the leaves that float upon it. Help us to understand that as we grow in you, so does the volume of water that flows from us... this i
“Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb”
Revelation 22:1 ESV
Rich Forbes