I went to Zimbabwe, Africa on a 6-week mission trip after I graduated from Bible School. We went to a remote village and did a crusade, and when I got the pastor’s home that I’d be staying in, they got me some refreshments. They put water in front of me, and the glass was clear, but you couldn’t see through the water. In fact, I was sure I saw something swimming in it just looking at me, daring me to drink it. Yikes!
On the last day, the climax of the festival, Jesus stood and shouted to the crowds, “Anyone who is thirsty may come to me! Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.’” (John 7:37-38)
The Bible has a lot to say about water. In John 4, He tells he Samaritan woman that He will give her living water. Revelation 22 tells us that the river is called Life and flows from the throne of God and the Lamb and is clear as crystal. Ezekiel tells us that this river brings life everywhere it flows.
But if you look very closely at John 7, we see the prerequisite to the river of life flowing out of us. What is it? We must first be drinking in of the river of life. Come and drink!
Sometimes we have rivers flowing out of us all right, but they aren’t rivers of life! Sometimes those rivers that are flowing from us are rivers of anger or offense. Sometimes they are rivers of insecurity. Sometimes they are rivers of attitude and pride.
I’ve been taking a close look lately of the kind of “water” that has been flowing out of me. After all, isn’t that why God created January? I’ve looked at what’s been flowing out, and to be honest, I wouldn’t want to drink all of it. There is some life….but there is some other gunk too. 🙁
What we drink in directly impacts what flows out. I don’t want my river muddied up with anything else. I want that clear water of life flowing out. What about you? And this is what I have found.
Life in = life out!
Whatever we are drinking in is what is going to flow out. And sometimes it’s a mixture of life and other things. We are drinking in life, on Sundays and maybe 10 minutes in the morning, but the rest of what we’re drinking looks like that water they put in front of me in Africa.
What we are most conscious of is what we are drinking in and will be what’s flowing out.
Are we most conscious of the doom and gloom in the news? That is what’s going to flow out. (We need to remember Greater is He anytime we watch the news.) Are we most aware of drama? That’s what is going to flow out. Are we drinking in of gossip? That’s going to muddy up our river real quick. Are we more focused on the problem than the Answer?
I want the river of life flowing out! I want there to be life wherever I go! So how do we do that?
By drinking in of Him continuously throughout the day. How do we do that? By a continuous, conscious awareness that He is with us – of the fact that the same power that raised Christ from the dead lives in us! It’s every day being like Jesus, “I’m in the Father, and the Father’s in Me. We are one!”
If something bad is flowing into a river, they either remove the source of contamination (like a power plant dumping toxic waste into the water) or build a damn to block it’s entry into the river.
We need to protect our river and drink in continuously of the water of life, so that what’s flowing out is pure life…..is pure Him. That is what brings life and healing to everyone around us. How’s your river? What are you drinking?
The upright (honorable, intrinsically good) man out of the good treasure [stored] in his heart produces what is upright (honorable and intrinsically good), and the evil man out of the evil storehouse brings forth that which is depraved (wicked and intrinsically evil); for out of the abundance (overflow) of the heart his mouth speaks. (Luke 6:45)