Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of the Holy Spirit

Spirit of Life

We cannot survive without water. Today we can take it for granted, but in biblical times water was treasured.

“37…If anyone is thirsty, he should 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.” (John 7:37-38, HCSB)

We thirst, so we come to Jesus and drink. When we believe, our thirst is quenched from the river of the Holy Ghost which flows out of our belly or innermost being!

John 4:6-14 talks about how Jesus enters Samaria and sits by Jacob’s well. Jesus is the Well or Fountain of Living Waters. Essentially, the ‘Spiritual Well’ Himself sat beside a physical well.

“But whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never get thirsty again – ever! In fact, the water I will give him will become a well of water springing up within him for eternal life.” (John 4:14, HCSB)

The word paga means a fountain, spring, or a well fed by a spring. This represented a source of life, especially for travelers in the desert. People always dug wells and camped about them. When Israel needed water in the wilderness, God said that He would provide water.

“Then Israel sang this song: Spring up, well – sing to it!” (Num. 21:17, HCSB)

God is the Fountain of Living Waters

“For My people have committed a double evil: They have abandoned Me, the fountain of living water, and dug cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns that cannot hold water.” (Jer. 2:13, HCSB)

God is supposed to be the source of our life. Our lives are meant to be built and focused on Him. God’s people forsook Him as their primary life spring and centered their lives around other things. In the absence of a well, cisterns were used to store rain water. People would run to these cisterns expecting to find fresh water, only to find that they were broken and holding stagnant water. These ‘broken cisterns’ are symbolic of anything or anybody we put our heart and soul into over experiencing the presence of God. If we run to these distractors in a time of trouble, we will find that they are broken and do not hold the healing waters of Life.

“Lord, the hope of Israel, all who abandon You will be put to shame. All who turn away from Me will be written in the dirt, for they have abandoned the Lord, the fountain of living water.” (Jer. 17:13, HCSB)

“7The man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence indeed is the Lord, is blessed. 8He will be like a tree planted by water: it sends its roots out toward a stream, it doesn’t fear when heat comes, and its foliage remains green. It will not worry in a year of drought or cease producing fruit.” (Jer. 17:7-8, HCSB)

This is similar to Psalm 1:1-3, for the man whose delight is in the law of the Lord. We must be rooted in God’s word and delight in it.

River flowing out of the temple of God

“Then he brought me back to the entrance of the temple and there was water flowing from under the threshold of the temple toward the east, for the temple faced east...” (Ezek. 47:1, HCSB)

The river increases in depth every 1,000 cubits. The water levels rise from being ankle deep, to knee-high, to waist deep, until it becomes ‘a river that cannot be passed over’.

“7When I had returned; I saw a very large number of trees along both sides of the river bank. 8 He said to me, “This water flows out to the eastern region and goes down to the Arabah. When it enters the sea, the sea of foul water, the water of the sea becomes fresh. 9 Every kind of living creature that swarms will live wherever the river flows, and there will be a huge number of fish because this water goes there. Since the water will become fresh, there will be life everywhere the river goes.” (Ezek. 47:7-9, HCSB)

This passage describes the river of life of the Holy Spirit bringing life and healing wherever it goes. The Holy Spirit makes dead things come to life. The fish represent people who will come to life and healing as the river engulfs them. Remember Jesus called us fishers of men.

“All kinds of trees providing food will grow along both banks of the river. Their leaves will not wither, and their fruit will not fail. Each month they will bear fresh fruit because the water comes from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be used for food and their leaves for medicine.” (Ezek. 47:12, HCSB)

If we are like these trees, whose roots go down to the river of the Holy Ghost, we will bear spiritual fruit for God. We will fulfill God’s purpose for our lives and bring food and healing to the dead people around us. Just as the waters come out of the sanctuary, the source of our Life should be from the presence of the Lord.

“Then he showed me the river of living water, sparkling like crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2down the middle of the broad street of the city. The tree of life was on both sides of the river, bearing 12 kinds of fruit, producing its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree are for healing the nations, 3and there will no longer be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and His slaves will serve Him.” (Rev. 22:1-3, HCSB)

Compare this passage with the following passage from Genesis 2.

“8The Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there He placed the man He had formed. 9The Lord God caused to grow out of the ground every tree pleasing in appearance and good for food, including the tree of life in the middle of the garden, as well as the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 10A river went out from Eden to water the garden. From there it divided and became the source of four rivers.” (Gen. 2:8-10, HCSB)

We see the same pattern running through scripture. The pattern in the book of Revelation is very similar to that of God’s original creation in Eden.

God’s will for our life is that we thirst and drink from Him by drawing Life from His Presence. Our innermost being will be a conduit for streams of living water. We will be as trees planted by this river, whose roots will go down to the river; whose leaves will not wither, and will bring healing; who will bear fruit for food, in season. If we allow this river to continually flow through us, we will be used to bring life and healing to the dead and needy around us.