What He said!, Pt 3: Living water

John 4:13-14                          13Jesus answered, “If you drink from Jacob’s well you’ll be thirsty again and again, 14but if anyone drinks the living water I give them, they will never thirst again and will be forever satisfied! For when you drink the water I give you it becomes a gushing fountain of the Holy Spirit, springing up and flooding you with endless life!”

John 7:37-39                          37Then on the most important day of the feast, the last day, Jesus stood and shouted out to the crowds—“All you thirsty ones, come to me! Come to me and drink! 38Believe in me so that rivers of living water will burst out from within you, flowing from your innermost being, just like the Scripture says!” 39Jesus was prophesying about the Holy Spirit that believers were being prepared to receive. But the Holy Spirit had not yet been poured out upon them, because Jesus had not yet been unveiled in his full splendor.

I think we have all heard cliches like ‘still waters run deep’ and culturally we understand that living water refers to running water as in a mountain stream: aeriated with oxygen, white, and lively.  But Scripturally its meaning is much different.  In the 1st Century and before the Rabbis used ‘living water’ to refer to water from moving streams, as opposed to water stored in cisterns or jars.  But Jesus’ use here is even more specific than these understandings.  And remember we are speaking of a part of the world most people would consider a desert environment.  The need for water was constant.  In the 21st Century we in the West consider water availability a non-issue mostly but such was not the case then.  Does Jesus mean we will never be thirsty again if we follow him?  Not at all.

Just as water satiates a physical need for life-enhancing nourishment, so Jesus uses it as a metaphor for the spirit-enhancing nourishment of the Holy Spirit.  The gospel is not good news if it requires that you must do penance, reform your life, keep a bunch of rules, do an unspecified number of good deeds, and hope that someday God might let you into heaven on that basis. But it is wonderfully good news if God offers it to you as a free gift, which He does!  But we know from Ephesians 2:8-9 and others that

For it was only through this wonderful grace that we believed in him. Nothing we did could ever earn this salvation, for it was the gracious gift from God that brought us to Christ! So no one will ever be able to boast, for salvation is never a reward for good works or human striving. (Passion Translation)

But is that all there is?  Once saved, always saved is the complete answer?  Well of course in one sense it is because faith in Jesus is all that is needed for entry into eternity.  But after that moment of salvation we all have the balance of our earthly lives to lead and that is not an easy task.  Many believers trust in the efficacy of rituals and ceremonies in the out-working of their faith, but if the Ephesians verse says anything it says that relationship with the living God is the only way to spiritual fulness.  The true believing life is not primarily a matter of rituals and ceremonies, but rather an inward, personal relationship with the living God. It must be in each person’s heart. The picture of this living water springing up points to the continual source of life that the indwelling Holy Spirit supplies to believers. It’s active and always flowing. There may be times of greater and lesser flow, but it never dries up.

I believe there is a time in every believer’s journey towards righteousness when a sort of ‘critical mass’ of faith is reached.  The growth toward that moment is the result of the activity of the Holy Spirit working in our lives.  We are all aware of our humanity and its sinful nature.  Now I’m not saying we ever approach sinlessness, but at some point we begin to realize the Holy Spirit is helping.  We hunger and thirst for righteousness (Matthew 5:6), or we pant after God like the deer after water (Psalm 42:1), or we cry,

1You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water. 2I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. 3Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. 4I will praise you as long as I live… (Psalm 63:1-4a NIV)

At this point our life changes.  Here’s an example of what I mean:  I lost my wife not too long ago and in the wake of the mourning and grieving I realized life held no meaning.  I had lost my sense of direction.  There was nothing left to do other than the pursuit of God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength.  The sinful human does not make those kinds of decisions all on his own.  It is the Holy Spirit at work.  I am now in the flow of a stream of living water that is beyond delicious.

This kind of blessing is available to every believer!  We learned in the last post that abiding in Christ is the source of great strength.  Similarly here, the out-flowing of the Holy Spirit in our lives allows us to see things differently.  Maybe we don’t have to struggle in the finding of actual water, but we do have dissatisfactions in our live and we are occasionally discontent.  That is part of our fallen nature.  Maybe we gripe that the other guy is succeeding where we are not, or maybe we are striving against oppression of some kind.  But now as believers we have an additional resource:  The Holy Spirit’s role is to mediate the presence of Christ in our lives and to create a sense of intimacy with the Father and Son.  The phrase ‘endless life’ in vs 14 refers to the age to come and also to the rest of our earthly lives.  In spite of our sinful nature we human beings have an innate need for relationship with God.  The Holy Spirit satisfies even in the here and now.

But this blessing, wonderful as it is, is insufficient for Kingdom growth if kept secret in the heart of the believer.  It is the ministry of the Spirit, flowing out of a heart redeemed by God, that blesses believers and, through them, brings life and light to the world.  As we are blessed through the ministry of the Holy Spirit we must share those blessings with the world.  Those of us who have reached ‘critical mass’ enjoy a life filled with an intimacy with God we never imagined was possible.  Can we share that joy with others?