Rivers of Living
Waters
John 7:37-38
Renae Forbes
This study begins as I looked up key words in the Strong’s Concordance.
John 7:37 & 38
"...If any man
thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the
scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water."
Vs 37 b, "if" denotes a condition; what follows is a condition depending on what you choose. Any man denotes any person, (that includes YOU & ME!) If I choose to thirst for Christ, I will literally come to Christ and drink of Christ. When I believe, I will have faith in, entrust, commit, put in trust with, on CHRIST, as the WORD has said, Out of, {or originating from, the point where motion or action proceeds, heartily, vehemently} my belly, {or my womb, the matrix, figuratively, my heart.} shall flow {continuous running or flowing} rivers {a current or brook, freshet, drinkable, running water} [this could include current, stream, flood river, insinuating we decide to what degree the water flows, whether a little or a lot] {also, RIVERS, plural, more than one river!!!} Rivers of LIVING WATER; Water that is ALIVE AND QUICK!!
In this passage, it says that Jesus stood and cried, saying.... this word "cried" means that he shrieked, screamed out loud, exclaimed... I would say that he was very passionate when he declared the words that followed. This is something that He really wanted the listeners to hear! The first thing He said was IF ANY MAN THIRST… So there is the condition that Jesus set forth. He is speaking to the thirsty. In Psalm 42:1 it says "As the deer pants after the water brooks, so pants my soul after you, O God" and in Matthew 5:6 "
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness; for they SHALL BE FILLED!"So my questions to you are: "ARE YOU THIRSTY?" and "HOW THIRSTY ARE YOU?"
Psalm
63:1 Message Bible
God - you're my God! I can't get enough of you! I've worked up such hunger and
thirst for God, traveling across dry and weary deserts.
If we are truly thirsty, we would do just about anything for water. Without water, we become dehydrated and medically speaking, dehydration will cause hemorrhage, profuse sweating, vomiting, or excessive loss of urine as in diabetes. So how passionately we come to HIM [Jesus] depends on how thirsty we are for him.
I can remember a time when I felt that I personally was the Sahara desert. I had grown up in church and knew much about God, but didn't really "know" Him. I had plowed through life, having my ups and downs, living like a roller coaster. I got to the place where I felt that there was no "water" in me, no living water that Jesus is talking about. I likened myself to a dry, brittle sponge… one that would break apart when pressure was applied. But one day, praise the Lord! I began to be desperate for that living water. I begin to thirst for Him. I was so desperate for a "drink" of living water, that I cried out to God and asked Him to fill me, or take me. I could not live my life any longer as a dry sponge. Abba did not refuse me. I had to get to the point where I was so thirsty that nothing else would do. Not my religious upbringings, not my past victories. Nothing! Abba Father began to touch me, and the amazing way that he touched me, is when I began to earnestly pray for SOMEONE ELSE! I began praying for a friend's daughter, and Holy Spirit begin to pour out in me and through me, that living water began to truly flow out of my belly and began to saturate my entire being. Over a period of a few weeks, I lost the dry brittle outlook and began to experience the power and anointing of God to such a degree, that I began to ooze out God! That dry brittle sponge had once again become soft and pliable and eventually so wet with the rivers of living water, that when pressure was applied, guess what came out?? That is right! LIVING WATER!!! So I can relate to what this passage is saying! God began to use me in my gifting and callings and began to anoint me again as an intercessor. That LIVING WATER began to flow! Notice this didn't take months and years to become saturated. It literally took days!
Now I admit, I have not stayed saturated by no means. I have failed in many areas and have allowed myself to begin to become dry again at different times since this pouring into my life. But I can look back, and know that when I become thirsty enough, and when I COME TO HIM, and DRINK, and BELIEVE, out of my belly the rivers will flow again. I shouldn't wait till I am panting for thirst to come and drink! I have to daily make the decision to come to HIM and to DRINK!! You know the saying, “You can lead a horse to the water, but you can't make him drink!” Well, God is not going to make us drink. He offers the water and sets it before us, but it is up to us to DRINK!! Hallelujah! The ball is in our court! We blame God that we are thirsty, and we blame others. We whine and complain, "I can't feel the anointing... I can't break through...", but in reality, IT IS OUR OWN FAULT IF WE DON"T DRINK!!!
Notice, there is another step. After we are thirsty and come to Jesus and drink he says, "He that believeth on me..." It takes Believing...not just believing one time - making that one decision when you became born again was just the beginning, it was the starting point. Again, just as you daily have to choose to DRINK, you daily have to choose if you are going to BELIEVE! "Believe" in this verse comes from the Greek word, Pisteuo (pist-yoo-o), it means to have faith in, upon, or with respect to, to entrust (especially one's spiritual well being to Christ) to commit, to put in trust with. That is pretty powerful. Believe is not just a casual word, Oh, I believe this or that. It is a commitment to trust on Jesus. That means that no matter what is going on around you, you choose to trust in Jesus and know that He will cause all things to work together for your good. It means no matter what anyone says about you, you still believe. This is a radical kind of believing. Again, this is a daily decision! We can't be wishy-washy and double-minded as James 1:8 says.
So if we are THIRSTY and are believing in Christ, we can come to HIM and drink, and not only drink, but the rivers of living water will flow out of our belly. Notice it says RIVERS. That is not a pond, not a still-standing body of water. It is not a lake. It is RIVERS. More than one and it is flowing rivers! Flowing gives us the picture that it is constantly fresh. It has an intake and an outflow. A river is fed by a stream, which is fed by a spring. There is an origination point, which is God. The rivers flow from God. Aa part of God was placed within us when we became born again, and it is out of this part of God that is within us, that the rivers flow. We cannot manufacture or produce this river, it flows from the Father! So if we have a continuous flow of the Father, flowing through us and out of our bellies, then we have all that we need within our spirits to bring healing to our bodies, to destroy bondages and to pour out to others.
If you do not feel those rivers of living water flowing in your belly (or your innermost being, your spiritual womb) then there are more than likely things that are stopping up that flow. There are many things that we allow to clog up or to block the flow of the living water from Jesus. Lack of thirst will cause us not to come to Jesus and drink, if we are not thirsting for the living waters, then perhaps we have been fulfilling our thirst with other things. In the natural we can drink many other things besides water, and it will satisfy for a period of time, but there comes a time when you really have got to have an ice cold glass of water! Then you are satisfied. When we try to appease our thirst with the things of the world, then we may be temporarily appeased, but really are left empty. We fill ourselves with books, tv, going out, shopping, etc. But these things eventually will block the flow of the living water.
YUCK!!!
There are other things that will clog up the flow… things like bitterness, unforgiveness, anger, resentment, and discontentment. These things begin to grow like algae we see on these ponds. They begin to turn our river into a stale stagnant pond - one that the inflow has been clogged up, and there is not outflow. No giving out of ourselves to others, no pouring out of God's love to other people… no outflow and no inflow…Results are not good. It becomes that stagnant pond that is really only good for bottom feeders. Bottom feeders leech the life out of you. But you can take that pond and open up the inflow so that it is once again connected to a river, and open the outflow back up, and over a period of time, the flowing of the fresh water will begin to push out everything that was clogging it before. When you begin to allow the fresh water of the Holy Spirit to flow in your life, the bitterness and the anger, the unforgiveness will begin to be pushed out. We also allow our past to keep our rivers clogged up. The hurts and wounds and scars that people have caused us, or that we have caused ourselves stop the flow of living water. Things like rape and abuse, neglect and abandonment. We have to begin to allow the living waters to heal us from these things from the past. We cannot allow ourselves to live our entire lives not being free. God wants us to be healed so we can bring healing to others. There is a world of people who would benefit from those living waters that should be flowing from our lives.
I don't want to live my life being filled with these things that hinder me from drinking from the living waters! I want to allow that river to flow from my life into someone else's life and to bring refreshing and healing to them.
So today, I am asking you, HOW THIRSTY ARE YOU? Remember, Jesus cried and exclaimed, IF ANY OF YOU ARE THIRSTY, COME TO ME AND DRINK!! Believe on Jesus today and out of your belly shall flow the rivers of LIVING water! Allow him to flow in and through you to remove the things that have clogged your rivers up. Drink from the rivers of water that flow from the throne room of our Abba Father. Wash yourself in the Water of the Word, and as you do, you will be transformed and your mind will be renewed.
Blessed are those that hunger and thirst for THEY SHALL BE FILLED!!!!
In
conclusion, I want to tell you a verse that I just found last night.
It is Isaiah 44:3
“For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground; I will pour out my spirit upon thy seed and my blessings upon thy offspring.”
Will you come and drink of these living waters?
Picture drawn by Alice Russell