Rivers of Living Water

Author Francis Chan wrote a book called The Forgotten God which reminds us of the place of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  There are many references to the third person of the Trinity throughout Scripture but one of the clearest descriptions is found in John 7:38-39, "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."  The work of the Holy Spirit is described as both inward and outward.  We are to receive Him; that is inward.  He is to flow out of us to those around us; that is outward.  The Holy Spirit is not merely a doctrine to be believed; He is the living presence of God in our lives.  He comes to change us and make us new kinds of people.

Initially the Holy Spirit's work is to lead us to faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord Savior.  As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12:3, "Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says 'Jesus is accursed!' and no one can say 'Jesus is Lord' except in the Holy Spirit."  The natural person cannot understand the things of God but they must be revealed to him or her by the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit does this through the preaching of the Word.  Prior to Pentecost the Spirit was with those who heard the Word (John 14:17) and guided them to faith in Jesus but after Pentecost the Spirit comes to indwell every believer.  As Peter said on Pentecost in Acts 2:38, "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."  Wherever there is a change of heart away from sin and towards God and baptism the result is the entrance of the Holy Spirit.  Every believer becomes a temple of the Holy Spirit.  As the old hymn says, God now "walks with me and talks with me and tells me I am his own."

But there is more to the Holy Spirit and more to Pentecost than the inward work of the Spirit.  There is also an outward flow of the Holy Spirit.  Jesus tells his disciples in Luke 24:46-49, "Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.  You are witnesses of these things.  And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high."  Jesus knew that the disciples would never be able to be His witnesses without the river of living water flowing out of them.

There are some Christians who are satisfied with the inward work of the Spirit and never get around to experiencing the outward work of the Holy Spirit.  They are content to know that Jesus came for them and their salvation but they care little about the salvation of others.  God doesn't want us to have a pond of the Holy Spirit; He wants us to have a river of the Holy Spirit.  It doesn't matter whether you are an extrovert or an introvert.  I am more of an introvert when it comes to my natural inclinations.  But the Holy Spirit can even turn introverts into rivers of living water.  He gives His gifts to those who want to be used by Him to bless and reach others.  Sometimes the others are fellow believers and sometimes they are those who still don't know the Savior.

How do we access the Holy Spirit?  How do we move from those who are merely enjoying the Holy Spirit's inward work to joining Him in His outward work?  The key is faith.  Paul writes in Galatians 3:2, "Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?"  The answer is obviously by hearing with faith.

Luther loved the allegorical interpretation of Scripture.  He could see things in the Psalms that I would never have seen.  Today we rely more on an historical grammatical way of Bible interpretation but I would like to share a little allegory that I see (with some help from Paul) in the Exodus/Promise Land events.  The Exodus story is about coming out of bondage to sin and into the freedom of the Gospel.  The crossing of the Red Sea on dry ground was like the gift of baptism and the spiritual food and drink were like the Lord's Supper and the Gospel message contained in them.  Paul sees this same allegory when he writes in 1 Corinthians 10:1-4, "I want you to know, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ."  This speaks to me about the inward work of the Spirit.  Crossing the Red Sea was entering into a new life, no longer slaves but free.  In repentance and through faith we have become new creations.  Baptism initiates and testifies of this new birth and the Lord's Supper nourishes it.

However, that is not the end of the work of the Spirit.  God wanted to lead His newly born children into the Promised Land which included another miraculous crossing of a body of water, namely the Jordan River, which, like the Red Sea, parted, allowing them to cross on dry land.  In former generations crossing the Jordan was seen as an analogy or allegory of going to Heaven but I don't think that that is the best analogy.  For one thing, there won't be any battles to be fought in Heaven.  The war will be over.  But the Promised Land had to be liberated from giants, child sacrifice and all manner of wickedness so that God's Kingdom could reign there.  This is analogous to the outward work of the Spirit.  Only the Holy Spirit can bring such liberation.  Politics will fail every time.

If Israel had listened to Joshua and Caleb they could have gone right from the Red Sea into the Promised Land.  What kept them out?  Two things: viz. rebelliousness and unbelief.  They rebelled against Moses, who symbolizes God's Word, and they allowed fear to reign over their hearts so that they refused to go into the Land of Giants.  The only answer to rebelliousness and unbelief is repentance and faith.

While writing this blog I heard the stories coming out of Asbury University in Wilmore, Kentucky, where people are experiencing what might be called revival or an awakening. This appears to be a genuine stirring of God to move Christians from merely the inward work of the Spirit to the outward work.  What has moved my heart is that there was a similar revival at Asbury in 1970 that coincided with the "Jesus Movement."  It began on the West Coast and moved across the country and around the world leading hundreds of thousands of young people into the Kingdom of God.  Students from Asbury started a Jesus House in Lexington, KY called Christ Center where I met my wife of 49 years.  I myself experienced a crossing of the "Jordan" at another Jesus house in upstate New York in 1971 prior to moving to Kentucky.  May God do it again in me and many, many others. May rivers of living water flow out of my innermost being!  My hope is that you will have the same prayer.  That river doesn't come through striving but in simple repentance and through faith.  It is a much a God thing as crossing the Jordan on dry ground.

William Fischer