Written by His Grace,
Kevin K. O’Connor
Main
thought: to explore the joys of living water available to everyone that
thirsts.
Streams of Living Water
NIV
Whoever believes in me, as[ 7:38 Or / If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me. /
And let him drink, 38 who believes in me. / As] the
Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him."
(Whole Chapter: In context: )
"He who believes in Me, [Is 44:3; 55:1; 58:11] as the Scripture said, 'From his
innermost being will flow rivers of [John 4:10] living water.'" (Whole
Chapter: In context: )
Streams of
Living Water! What a beautiful picture and notice from where it flows, from
within. Only those who have experienced the death of self-pride at the feet of
Christ will experience such joy. This water is not one that is stirred up by
our own efforts, activities, or words, but is that which is birthed by the Holy
Spirit in the innermost parts of our heart. And notice how these thirsty souls
get to Christ, by just allowing them to, “let him come”, and “let him drink”.
There are
those who think that they are responsible for birthing many souls into the
kingdom of God but, the way i read these verses is
that it is already ingrained in our hearts to return to the source from which
we came; Romans 1:18-20 18The
wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and
wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19since
what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to
them. 20For since the creation of the world God's invisible
qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being
understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. And some more beautiful scriptures
that testify to this truth; Psalm 19:1-6 1The
heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth
his handywork.2Day unto day uttereth
speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge.3There
is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard.4Their
line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the
world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun,5Which is as a
bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth
as a strong man to run a race. 6His going forth is from the end of
the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from
the heat thereof.
We must be
careful not to get in the way of those who hunger and thirst for life by
presenting them with a form of righteousness that denies the heart of
righteousness which is a living loving relationship with Christ. Notice the
following scripture where there are two groups appearing to do godly works and
yet only one group is truly doing so; Philippians
1:16-17 15It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and
rivalry, but others out of goodwill. 16The latter do so in love,
knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. 17The
former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that
they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains.
Oh how the
heart of God desires to spend time with us and us with Him. How His love begins
anew each day for each one of us to partake of Him; Lamentations 3:22-24 22The LORD'S (1) lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, (2) For His
compassions never fail. 23They are new (3) every
morning; Great is (4) Your faithfulness. 24"The LORD is my (5)
portion," says my soul, "Therefore I (6) have hope
in Him." The
handiwork of God’s hands depicts the depth of His heart. Man has yet to see the
end of it and that is the kind of love that awaits every heart that hungers for
a living, loving relationship that is endless and bountiful. And many of us,
instead of seeing the heart of the artist get our hearts wrapped around his
work and neglect His heart. Or, we lose ourselves in the study of what He said
and totally miss what He is saying. It is not the quantity of God’s Word in our
heads that matter, but the quantity of His Word in our hearts.
Oh how we
think that we have to perform a certain way or with such an intensity for God
to hear us and yet, He is the One Who is already talking, all we need to do is
take time to listen; Who among you will give ear
to this? Who will give heed and listen hereafter? (Whole Chapter: In context: ) And another
beautiful verse that shows how God speaks to us; 1 Kings 19:11-13 11 And
he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the LORD. And, behold, the
LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in
pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind: and after
the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake:12 And
after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the
fire a still small voice.13 And it was so, when
Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and
stood in the entering in of the cave. And, behold, there came a voice unto him,
and said, What doest thou here, Elijah? His voice is so tender and we’re
usually so stressed and worked up we hardly ever hear it unless we learn how to
still our hearts within His presence.
The power of
God is expressed through His might but the tender loving kindness of God
through His gentleness. How He loves to show Himself powerful to those who know
Him in His gentleness. How sad it is for those who must see the miraculous
before they know Him in His gentleness. These are usually the ones that lack
depth of character due to their inability to see with their hearts more clearly
than their eyes. No wonder our Lord told doubting Thomas in the NASB John 20:24-29 24But (36) Thomas, one of (37) the twelve, called (38) Didymus,
was not with them when Jesus came. 25So the other disciples were
saying to him, "We have seen the Lord!" But he said to them,
"Unless I see in (39) His hands the imprint of the nails, and
put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, (40) I will not believe." 26After
eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came,
the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst and said, "(41) Peace be with you."27Then
He said to Thomas, "(42) Reach here with your finger, and see
My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into My
side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing."28Thomas
answered and said to Him, "My Lord and my God!" 29Jesus
said to him, "Because you have seen Me, have you
believed? (43) Blessed are they who did not see,
and yet believed."
I believe
there is a deeper level of relationship for those whose sight of faith
surpasses the sight of the eyes And without faith it is
impossible to please Him, for he who [Heb 7:19] comes
to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.
(Whole Chapter: In context: ). There is a beauty and depth of faith
that reasoning will never comprehend.
Such are ones that the Heavenly Father’s heart searches for because He
delights in pouring of Himself into those the Streams of Living Water. Our
response should be to freely give as we were given to NASB; "Give, and it will be
given to you. They will pour [Mark 4:24] into your lap a [Ps 79:12; Is 65:6, 7; Jer 32:18] good
measure--pressed down, shaken together, and running over. For by your standard
of measure it will be measured to you in return." (Whole Chapter: In context: )
There will
be those who say that they don’t have much so they won’t give much. To those
God’s Word says, you don’t have because you don’t ask and when you do ask it’s
only for selfish reasons; James 4:1-3 1What
causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that
battle within you? 2You want something but don't get it. You kill
and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not
have, because you do not ask God. 3When you ask, you do not receive,
because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your
pleasures. How very sad
it is for those who think that Christ came to save them from their sin so that
they can go right back and live therein.
Streams of
Living Water not droplets await those who will listen to the heart of God and
not settle for a ho-hum relationship with Him. If we’re not experiencing the
Streams, we need to start looking within our own hearts for there is One Who set
aside the splendors of heaven and Who laid His life
down and then picked it up again so that each and every one of us can live in
Him and He can live in us. Relationship
takes two. He has already committed ALL of Himself and held back nothing from
us. What are we doing in response to that kind of Love?
Heavenly
Father, teach us how to spend time with you, listening to Your Word so that we
may hear your heart speaking to us and enter into those Streams of Living Water
you have for each one of us. In Jesus Glorious, Wonderful Name, Amen.
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