The Deeper Water
These verses reveal a promise from Jesus:
37 On the last and most important day of the festival, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. 38 The one who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, will have streams of living water flow from deep within him.” 39 He said this about the Spirit. Those who believed in Jesus were going to receive the Spirit, for the Spirit had not yet been given because Jesus had not yet been glorified. - John 7:37–39, CSB
This, as verse 39 reveals, is Jesus’ promise of the giving of the Holy Spirit to his disciples after he ascends to heaven (Luke 24:49-51, Acts 1:4-8, 2:4,38). I’d like to make a couple of comments regarding these verses that can help us take Jesus words seriously and practically as I believe he intended them to be.
Firstly, if we look closely at the text, we see that this promise is much than just the initial ‘receiving’ of the Holy Spirit by his disciples. In verse 37 Jesus makes this invitation, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink”. It seems Jesus is anticipating not just our initial reception of the Spirit, but also a time when we will become spiritually thirsty again. How often do you need a drink of water? The same applies to spiritual thirst. Our thirst is not quenched from just being aware of our thirst. It is our decision to drink followed by our action to drink that quenches our thirst. The promise Jesus gives in these verses is our ongoing access to the Holy Spirit in a way that will quench our spiritual thirst. However, we need to make the decision to drink. The idiom, ‘you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make them drink’, is literally true as regards to Jesus’ promise. Do you feel spiritually dehydrated? You may have received the gift of the Spirit, but are you returning to Jesus to keep drinking at the streams of living water?
Secondly, as I noted in the previous blog, this promise is for “The one who believes in me…”. The promise of ongoing access to the spiritual steams living water is for disciples that both ‘come to Jesus’ and ‘believe in’ him. Put simply, this about our action to come to Jesus in faith knowing who he is. Jesus is the Christ, the “Messiah” (Acts 5:42), the now enthroned King (Heb 1:3-13). When we come to Jesus we come recognising and acknowledging him as King that has authority over all creation. Jesus the enthroned King is the one through whom we have access to the Spirit. Indeed, the Holy Spirit testifies and glorifies Jesus (John 15:26, 16:14). Therefore, when we come to drink from the streams of living water we do so as disciple-subjects of King Jesus, who acknowledge we are living for him and not ourselves (Rom 14:8).
Thirdly, Jesus says, “as the Scripture has said, (those who believe) will have streams of living water flow from deep within”. The Scripture Jesus is referring to could be one of several (Ex 17:6, Psm 105:51, Psm 78:15-16, Isa 21:3, 48:21, Zech 14:8). The point of these scriptures is this: the Spirit is given to sustain us in an ongoing way, in the same way fresh water and manna sustained the Israelites in the desert. And these life-giving waters of the Spirit “flow deep within” us. Accessing the deep waters of the Spirit doesn’t come from merely cognitively believing the doctrines of Christian faith, but by drawing from the sustaining waters of the Spirit who resides deep within us. However, the deep waters of the Spirit are not accessed through our head but our heart. My experience is that my head if often a hindrance to accessing my heart and therefore a hindrance to accessing the deep waters of the Spirit. Here is an example: Have you ever struggled to forgive an offence? Jesus tells us to love and do good to our enemies, bless those who curse us and pray for those who mistreat us (Luke 6:27-28). Jesus words make no rational sense to our worldly logic and understanding. Jesus words are also a rebellion against our wounded emotions that want to take revenge when we are offended. But consider the amount of peace you experience when you hold onto offences and seek to do others harm. Accessing the deep life-giving waters of the Spirit is not through our rational thinking or logic, or through acting on our wounded emotions. Rather, peace comes from the obedience of our heart to Jesus words. Jesus says, those who are ‘pure in heart’ are the ones that will ‘see God’ (Matt 5:8).
These words of Jesus in John 7 speak about the deeper life to which all Christians are called to live. I will finish with the words of A.B. Simpson, the founder of the Christian and Missionary Alliance:
“Beloved, this is God’s message to us today—‘Go deeper!’ Perhaps you have exhausted all the store of truth and experience that you have so far found. Give up trying to spread to wider fields, and sink to deeper depths, and you will find new and undiscovered riches, and the depths will lead you to the heights, and the death to the life of the risen Christ and the fulness of His ascension power…Shall we meet the light? Shall we accept the love? Shall we go deeper?” - A. B. Simpson
