John 7:32-52 "Be the River"

When I think of the river of living water, I often think of drinking from it. I am used to being thirsty, and I can understand needing to drink from the river of living water that comes from Christ.

What I don't often think is that I am the source of living water. But I suppose it makes sense. In Revelation, the water comes from the throne of God. If I believe that I am the Temple of the Living God, then I believe that the throne of God is in the holiest place in that Temple (just like it was in the Old Testament Temple). And if I believe that God has staked a claim to the throne room of my body (the heart), then it stands to reason that I would be a source of living water. The Bible fits together in amazing ways, I think.

So I am called by Jesus to be a source of living water. Believing in Jesus makes me that source. So is my belief strong enough to be life-giving?

As powerful as belief is, I'm afraid that it isn't strong enough to become a stream of living water. The Spirit is called upon for that task in verse 39. The Spirit enters us and flows out from us. So, other than being a cool image, what does that mean for my life?

My life should soak the world around me in Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is not for our consumption, it is for the sake of the world around us. Where I go, where I stand, should be affected in a life-giving way by my presence. And this is the Spirit's doing. It happened in Jesus' life with the Temple guards, people who were trained for absolute obedience to the religious leadership. And despite the training, the way of Jesus soaked them in Spirit and freed them from the constraints of their system.

The alternative to being a stream of living water is a scary one. The religious leadership mocked the faith of the guards, seeking instead a pathway of arrest, oppression and death for Jesus. Their way of being was a denial of life, not an appreciation of the Creator of life.

Today I seek the Spirit and to become that stream of living water. I pray that the world around me is increasingly soaked in grace. What would the world look like if streams of living water grace-soaked everything? Hmm...