Out of Us Will Flow Streams of Living Water

The authors of Scripture use a lot of metaphors. One of the most common is water, as in ‘living water’, a ‘well-watered garden’ and ‘streams in the desert’.  In general, the use of water, especially living water, symbolizes the Holy Spirit, healing, the Spirit-filled life, and the Kingdom of God. Some of my favorite uses of water in Scripture symbolizing life, healing, and the Spirit are:

“And he shall be like a tree firmly planted and tended by the streams of water, ready to bring forth its fruit in its season; its leaf also shall not fade or wither” (Psalm 1: 3 AMP).

“Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. The burning sand will become a pool, the thirsty ground bubbling springs” (Isaiah 35: 6, 7 NIV).

“For I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland. The wild animals honor me, the jackals and the owls, because I provide water in the desert and streams in the wasteland to give drink to my people, my chosen, the people I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise” (Isaiah 43: 19 – 21 NIV).

“Wait and listen, everyone who is thirsty! Come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Yes, come, buy priceless spiritual wine and milk without money and without price simply for the self-surrender that accepts the blessing” (Isaiah 55: 1 AMP).

“The Lord will guide you always: He will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail” (Isaiah 58: 11 NIV).

Also see Jeremiah 17: 8 and Ezekiel 47: 7-12 for more examples of water used to symbolize healing and salvation.

In the New Testament, three references to water come to my mind:

Jesus, speaking to the Samaritan woman, said “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked Him and He would have given you living water.” After she replies to Jesus, He tells her this: “Jesus answered, everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up (flowing, bubbling continually in the AMP translation) to eternal life” (John 4: 10, 13 NIV. To me this spring is life in the Kingdom of God — which is eternal life that begins now).

Then there is the iconic statement of Jesus on the steps of the Temple during the Feast of Tabernacles when the Priests pray for rain. “Now on the final and most important day of the Feast, Jesus stood, and he cried in a loud voice, “If any man is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink! He who believes in me, who cleaves to and trusts in and relies on Me, as the Scripture has said (some believe Jesus is referring to Isaiah 58: 11), from his innermost being shall flow continuously springs and rivers of living water”. But He was speaking here of the Spirit, Whom those who believed, trusted, had faith in Him were afterward to receive” (John 7: 37, 38 AMP).

Finally, in Revelation water is used to symbolize life, healing, and the Kingdom of God. Under the heading ‘The River of Life’ John writes “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for healing of the nations” (Revelation 22: 1, 2 NIV. This passage evokes the images of Ezekiel 47)).

These are powerful verses using water to represent life, healing, the Holy Spirit, and the Kingdom of God in both the Old and New Testaments. You are undoubtedly familiar with these and other verses in which the writers used water as a powerful metaphor. So here is a question with an obvious answer and, I think, a not-so-obvious answer — why water?

First, obviously water is the essence of life. No water, no blood, and blood is necessary for the cleansing from sin. We are mostly water. We can live without food for a long time, we can only live without water for a few days. Even mild dehydration causes physical problems. Water is necessary for all life. In these passages water symbolizes God’s life in us. He will make streams flow in the desert — His life flowing into us, restoring us from the wasteland of self-deception and selfishness that is our home in the kingdom of the world, aka the kingdom of self.

Life in the kingdom of self is empty, a wasteland filled with thirsty people. Life in the Kingdom of God is like a well-watered garden. In the Kingdom we are like trees planted by streams whose leaves are always green and who never fail to bear fruit (fruit of the Spirit) even in times of drought. Water symbolizes the Spirit of Christ. Water also symbolizes the healing power of God and the abundant life that Jesus gives us.

I believe that there is another not-so-obvious-answer to the question about why water is used so often in the Bible. Flowing water, which is living water, not stagnant or still water, has incredible power to shape and sculpt landscapes. It erodes, transports particles, and deposits sediment when the rushing stream or river decelerates. Much of the land surface of the earth is modified by living or flowing water. Lofty mountain ranges are reduced to hills, valleys are filled in and leveled, and once flat regions are incised and turned into steep gorges. Moving water can break down almost any barrier and cut through any rock, given enough time. No earth process is more capable of tearing down and building up than flowing water in the long-term (and even in the short-term for catastrophic floods, which are probably more common in the geologic record than we recognize).

Here are some photos from a state park in New York State showing what streams of ‘living’ or fast-moving water can accomplish.

These are pictures of the Gorge Trail at Robert H. Treman State Park outside of Ithaca, NY. The Gorge Trail is what it sounds like — a trail constructed in the 1930s along the side of a huge gorge cut by the water flowing in this steam both between glaciers and at the end of the last glacial episode. I am guessing the erosion occurred between 10,000 and 20,000 years ago, although the erosion might have occurred mostly during a short window of time during those 10,000 years. The stream has cut through about 400 feet of strata visible along a steep 2-mile long trail. There are 12 cascades on the trail, the biggest is 115-feet high. All of this was cut by a relatively modest stream, although mostly during high-flow events. This is an example of the extraordinary power of flowing or living water. And, of course, this is a baby stream compared to, for example, the work done by the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon. Here rivulets, arroyos, channels, streams, and the river, all connected in a dendritic-shaped pattern of erosion, have incised into the Colorado Plateau forming one of the greatest canyon systems in the world — over 15 miles wide with a central river flowing a mile below the surface of the plateau.

Jesus says that out of us will flow streams of living water — water that will bring life to a dead and dying world, streams of water that will heal in Jesus’ name. But the water that flows out of us will also be powerful —  powerful enough to destroy enemy strongholds in our hearts, destructive mindsets and patterns of thinking and living, demonic attacks on us and others, the power of the flesh, spirits of infirmity, and spiritual, emotional, and physical illnesses. The power of living water has the capacity of washing away every word, thought, action, and manifestation of Satan in our lives, in the lives of others, and in the world around us. In the long run, and sometimes in minutes or hours, living water will erode and remove the obstacles and impediments erected by the Devil to prevent the restoration of God’s creation — both for one person and ultimately the entire universe.

Nothing can stop ‘living’ water — mountains, rock outcrops, and man’s efforts to channel and contain flowing water with large amounts of concrete will all succumb to the power of rivers over time. The victory is certain. And nowhere in Scripture does it say that Satan can release rivers of water. Water in the Bible is life and power. It brings healing and wholeness. ‘Rivers of Living Water’ is another way of describing the Kingdom of God. God, I believe, is telling us “nothing can stand in my way. I will tear down the proud, the high and mighty; I will build up the lowly and humble, and I will destroy the fortified cities and the works of the enemy in your hearts and in the world. I will make level the way. You can count on it!”

And, to me, here is the  most amazing thing:  this water will flow out of us! We are the aroma of Christ, the salt of the earth, the light of the world, and the source of living water into a dying world. Yikes! Really? Me? Are we ready for this? It is of course, not my light or my water. It is Christ in me. I don’t do the work — He does. But still — God are you sure you made the right choice? Apparently He is sure. We are important to God, we are valuable to Him, we are His chosen vessels and conduits. This increasingly self-centered, increasingly lonely and alienated world needs a Savior who will give them life — ‘living water’ — and Jesus has chosen to deliver this life through us. Where do we begin? We begin with the first words of Jesus: “Repent and believe the Gospel of the Kingdom of God.” As we do these two things, in the power of the Spirit of Christ, something amazing happens: we are filled with the love of the Father — this living water — which we can then pass onto the world around us.

The Kingdom of God is within us so that through us it can be released into the kingdom of the world. In the Message, Eugene Peterson translates the words of Jesus in Matthew 5: 13 this way “Let me tell you why you are here”. Well, this is why you and I are here — We are here, on earth, right now, wherever you are living, with whomever you are connected, to be the flavor, the color, the fragrance, and the living power of God. You are called to be a Kingdom man or woman who releases the Kingdom of God into the kingdom of the world for His glory and to accomplish His essential purpose — the restoration of His creation, including all those who are made in His image.

It is through us, the body of believers, Kingdom men and women, the Church as Christ intended it to be, that the world will come to know Him.

In awe and wonder of Him,

John