Rivers of Living Water

"On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." By this He meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified" (John 7:37 - 39).

This is one of my all time favorite verses; I'm happy that I have the opportunity to write about it. One of the reasons I love it is because Jesus is so intense and passionate in His delivery. The other reason that I love it is because it is so symbolic. The context for His discourse is the Feast of Tabernacles which commemorated God's provision and care for the Children of Israel during their 40 years in the wilderness, during which they constructed temporary booths or shelters; it also is a harvest festival. In later times of celebration, the Jews added another aspect to this feast: On the last day, the priest and worshipers traveled from the Temple to the Pool of Siloam. The priest then collected water in a golden pitcher and returned to the Temple. Afterwards, the priest poured the water along with a mixture of wine through a silver funnel which flowed down to the base of the altar symbolic of the refreshing water that flowed from the struck rock at Horeb (see Exodus 17:1 - 7).

The power of this scripture for me is that it is an invitation -- an invitation to the authentic reality of true life -- of the Holy Spirit's overflow pouring out of us. Jesus, evoking the symbolic act of the outpouring of water informs His audience that if they are thirsty for real life and believe in Him "as the scripture says," that out of the depths of their inner selves rivers, not streams, not trickles, not creeks, but RIVERS of living water will flow and overflow out of them. This was important, especially within a desert culture, where water was scarce and was a precious resource, so when Jesus made this announcement, the people had a historical context in which to place this statement.

The other thing that's interesting about this scripture is that, from a purely geological standpoint, rivers are not stagnant waterforms -- they move -- some gently flowing, others rushing and rapid. Whatever their speed, because they are in constant motion, they are made to kick up dirt, debris, and other things that pollute them and carry them downstream (perhaps not the East River or the Potomac, but most). They also tend to shape anything that is within close proximity to them such as rocks or the land. Just look at how God commanded the Colorado River to dig up earth for millions of years. Now we have the magnificence of the Grand Canyon that testifies of God's glory and power to witness!!! Awesome!!! Consequently, rivers don't just affect the rivers themselves. They affect everything that surrounds them.

How does this all apply to us? Jesus is on a daily basis inviting us to come to Him and to gulp down the life of His person; He desires to be the only One who satiates our thirst. His rivers are alive and life-giving! How many times do we knowingly or unknowingly look at everything except for Jesus in order to quench our parched hearts and souls. We can do this with anything -- it may be a job, our own ideas, food, TV, the Internet, shopping, the quest for a mate or even the mate himself or herself. We can even do this with ministry and spiritual gifts (mooooo! I hear the slaying of sacred cows!). But Jesus is crying out in a loud voice that He desperately and passionately wants to be the One to satisfy our thirst; we need not look for other things or try to compensate for what we, from our limited thinking, feel we need or don't have. So why don't we allow Him to fill every dry place, and in the filling, the Holy Spirit will be uncontainable within us. He will be a river that brims over and spills on the outside. Flowing through and out of us, He will transform and shape the dry places in our vicinity -- our homes, places of employment, the grocery store, Borders (yea!!), etc. Then we can step back and rejoice with the Lord over the beautiful shaping of the world around us.

Kimberly Rae Ross