Rivers of Living Water
“On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 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.” (John 7:37-39 ESV)
What a wonderful appeal. Imagine the situation: The Lord and His disciples are on the last day of the Feast of Booths, also known as Sukkot. This feast is the Jewish commemoration of the forty-year journey of Israel through the desert. At this festival, booths are erected to commemorate the temporary shelters the Israelites lived in during that time. The situation here is taking place on the last day of the feast and Jesus and His disciples are in Judea where the religious authorities are already on high alert for Him (John 7:11). Halfway through the feast, Jesus and His disciples went up to the Temple, and he started to teach the crowds there regarding Himself (v.14). This triggered a commotion among the people, who debated about Jesus (v.25-27), which led the religious authorities to send men to arrest Him (v.32). Jesus was not oblivious to these things and knew what situation He was in, and yet, on the last day of the feast, He stood up and made this appeal from our passage with a loud voice. The Greek word here for “cried out” is “ekrazen,” which means to cry out, or to shout out, or to exclaim with a loud voice. In such a manner Jesus made His appeal to anyone who could hear Him: “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” Note that in the Greek the word for heart does not necessarily only refer to the heart, but means any and all internal organs, which can be translated as belly, stomach, womb, etc. It refers to the source of feelings and emotions that come from within. Jesus shouted out that this river of living water will flow from within your very self, where all our emotions and feelings, passions and fire are born.
I love that! Jesus did not say we will have a river of living water nearby that we can go to; rather He said that this source of life, joy and contentment, which satisfies any spiritual hunger and thirst, will come forth from within us, teaching about the coming presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
That means that our faith connects us to the Lord, and as we approach the day with that faith, the Holy Spirit within us produces a river, a steady stream, of what can only be described as life. Not natural life, but spiritual life, described as a river that can satisfy any and all spiritual and emotional needs.
As you go through your day today, tap into this river and source of life and let it impact your day. Make sure business does not carry you away, because by the end of the day it will not be about what you accomplished, but whether or not its source was the river of life.
What a wonderful appeal. Imagine the situation: The Lord and His disciples are on the last day of the Feast of Booths, also known as Sukkot. This feast is the Jewish commemoration of the forty-year journey of Israel through the desert. At this festival, booths are erected to commemorate the temporary shelters the Israelites lived in during that time. The situation here is taking place on the last day of the feast and Jesus and His disciples are in Judea where the religious authorities are already on high alert for Him (John 7:11). Halfway through the feast, Jesus and His disciples went up to the Temple, and he started to teach the crowds there regarding Himself (v.14). This triggered a commotion among the people, who debated about Jesus (v.25-27), which led the religious authorities to send men to arrest Him (v.32). Jesus was not oblivious to these things and knew what situation He was in, and yet, on the last day of the feast, He stood up and made this appeal from our passage with a loud voice. The Greek word here for “cried out” is “ekrazen,” which means to cry out, or to shout out, or to exclaim with a loud voice. In such a manner Jesus made His appeal to anyone who could hear Him: “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” Note that in the Greek the word for heart does not necessarily only refer to the heart, but means any and all internal organs, which can be translated as belly, stomach, womb, etc. It refers to the source of feelings and emotions that come from within. Jesus shouted out that this river of living water will flow from within your very self, where all our emotions and feelings, passions and fire are born.
I love that! Jesus did not say we will have a river of living water nearby that we can go to; rather He said that this source of life, joy and contentment, which satisfies any spiritual hunger and thirst, will come forth from within us, teaching about the coming presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
That means that our faith connects us to the Lord, and as we approach the day with that faith, the Holy Spirit within us produces a river, a steady stream, of what can only be described as life. Not natural life, but spiritual life, described as a river that can satisfy any and all spiritual and emotional needs.
As you go through your day today, tap into this river and source of life and let it impact your day. Make sure business does not carry you away, because by the end of the day it will not be about what you accomplished, but whether or not its source was the river of life.
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