November 2014
Dear Friend,
Have you ever been in a situation where you see your gas meter reaching "E" for Empty; and you start accelerating frantically, looking every where and hoping to find the nearest gas station for a refill? You start doing everything from chanting mantras to offering quick prayers that the gas will last you till the next station (I exaggerate).
I find that to be extremely true even among us Christians in the Church! Read John 7:37-38 with me:
John 7:37-38 (NKJV)
37 On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.
38 He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.
When Jesus proclaimed that 'rivers of living water' would flow out of the person who believed in Him, the word 'rivers' would; in my opinion evoke images in one's mind of a river that's gradually moving gently; being serene, peaceful.
Not so in this passage. The word 'rivers' in John 7:37-38 is the word 'potamos', which has been translated as rivers in various parts of the Bible, but can also be taken to be defined as 'floods'. Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words even defines it as 'torrents'!
Merriam Webster defines a torrent as:
1. A violent stream of a liquid
2. A tumultous outpouring
Water has the ability to alter the shape of things, if it moves at a speed that's extremely fast and has the pressure behind it to be able to have an impact on the object in question. We even have water jet cutters; industrial tools that use a very high-pressure jet of water to cut through various materials.
That tells me one thing when I read John 7:38, that the 'rivers' pouring out from us should be literally torrents of living water that have the force necessary to change our circumstances to reflect what God wants it to be! Those torrents should have an influence not only on our own lives, but also the lives of those around us!
However, that is not the case for some of us; even you, possibly! We get so drained and tired that we literally feel like we're the vehicle that's running on 'Empty'. We focus so much on how we should have those rivers moving and changing our circumstances that we completely miss what Jesus said prior to His promise that those rivers would flow from us.
You cannot give what you don't have.
Isn't it amazing that we want verse 38 to be made real in our lives
and we mentally put it before verse 37 in our order of thinking, whereas
verse 37 comes just before verse 38?
Read John 7:37 again:
John 7:37 (NKJV)
37 On the last day, that great day of the feast,
Jesus stood and cried out, saying, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to
Me and drink.
It's that simple. Instead of you focusing on what's coming out from you, just do what Jesus said; go to Him!
When you put it in that order, the emphasis shifts from you having to draw from within to give out to others to you being able to give out of the overflow that you receive from just being in His Presence and drinking in of Him.
As you go to Him and drink from Him, you'll find that you'll get what you drink, more of Him! And as He fills you with Himself, you'll begin to find that what comes out of you will be the overflow of what He pours into you; His Goodness, His Glory, His Presence!
And as you keep drinking from Him, you'll see torrents of living water pouring from you; changing not only yourself but those around you!
So if you're running on empty, go to Jesus and take a drink!
Blessings
Ken
