Jesus said,
“… whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life” (John 4:14).
We have that wellspring in our life. To operate in the Kingdom of God, with the Presence of God, we need to draw living water from that well daily.
… Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water’” (John 7:37-8).
In, and out
That river is supposed to flow out from us, touching people around us with the presence and the power and the Kingdom of God. Does it? I need to ask myself, is there a river in me that I am drawing from, and is that river flowing from me to touch other people? If it is not touching other people, then it is stagnating… and a stagnant river stinks. My river needs to be flowing: flowing from heaven, flowing in through my spirit, flowing out from me, to minister to people and to the world around me, to demonstrate the kingdom of God.
How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,
Nor stand in the path of sinners,
Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!
But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,
Which yields its fruit in its season
And its leaf does not wither;
And in whatever he does, he prospers.
(Psalm 1:1-3)
If we want to be prospering in our lives, succeeding to the highest degree in everything God has planned for us, we need to be drawing from the River of Life, not from our own resources.
Broken cisterns
In Jeremiah 2:13 we see how God was displeased because His people had turned away from Him and were drawing on their own resources, ‘broken cisterns that hold no water’. Our own cisterns can hold no water, and God wants us to be flowing with the water He provides.
The river brings life
But ‘It will come about that every living creature which swarms in every place where the river goes, will live. And there will be very many fish, for these waters go there and the others become fresh; so everything will live where the river goes’ (Ezekiel 47:9).
Wherever we go, with that River flowing from us, we are supposed to bring life: life to those around us, life to the world, life to our community. ‘Everything will live where the river goes’. That is a description of what our lives should be, overflowing with the presence of God, the love of God, bringing the life of God’s kingdom wherever we go.
We need to be connected to heaven for that River to flow in us.
By the river on its bank, on one side and on the other, will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither and their fruit will not fail. They will bear every month because their water flows from the sanctuary, and their fruit will be for food and their leaves for healing (Ezekiel 47:12).
The water flows from the sanctuary, from the presence of God. We are the sanctuary, and the presence of God is within us. Everything about our life should be fruitful, full of healing, health and wholeness, and passing this on to others.
That is why we must
Watch over [our] heart with all diligence,
For from it flow the springs of life
(Proverbs 4:23).