How to Wake Up to Living Water
All study with little or no direct experience with the risen Jesus makes Christianity boring. Is there a more powerful approach to the Gospel? Yes, indeed.
Living water, rushing rivers, can be studied and analyzed. However, most people prefer to experience and enjoy them — to watch, to wade, to splash, to play, to swim, to float, to raft, to fish, to hike, and so much more. Sure, it’s good for a few scientists to investigate whitewater rivers academically, but for most of us that approach quenches (1 Thessalonians 5;19) our joyous spontaneity.
Jesus offers people inner rivers of living water (John 7:38-39) that will forever satisfy their thirst and spring up from within them into eternal life. (John 4:14) Jesus doesn’t give us those rivers of living water just so we can study and hear lectures about them. He wants us to continually experience and enjoy those rivers, both individually and in open-hearted community.
Jesus calls His disciples friends. (John 14:15) Friends don’t simply focus on studying to learn endless detailed information about each other. Instead, they get to know more and more about each other by enjoying continually interacting heart-to-heart with one another. They treasure experiencing daily life together. Let Jesus be your forever best friend not merely an academic religious assignment.
A Christ-less crisis can crush you. Whatever you’re going through, get through it with Jesus. (Matthew 11:28-29) Desire-led and pride-led people are drawn away from Jesus. (Mark 4:19 & James 4:6)) Spirit-led people are directed into His presence. (Romans 8:14)
If you’ll invite Jesus into your darkness, He’ll be your living light. (John 8:12) If Christ is truly Immanuel, God with us, He should be experienced, not just lectured about. (Matthew 1:23)
Baby stepping by sermon hearing is good, but if Christians never begin to take the steps that lead to maturity and discipleship, they stay stuck with baby steps. “Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity . . .” (Hebrews 6:1)
Sermon hearing is a good thing, but it is far from enough. Sitting and being taught once a week is a fine first step toward Christian discipleship, but without these important additional steps Christians will stay spiritual babies in the light of how Christ-followers lived in the New Testament.
* Deny yourself, take up your cross daily, and follow the risen Jesus. (Luke 9:23)
* Be continually filled with the Spirit. (Ephesians 5;18)
* Pray without ceasing. (1 Thessalonians 5:17)
* Devour, ponder, savor, and absorb the Bible both day and night. (Joshua 1:8)
* Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God. (1 Peter 5:6)
* Confess your faults one to another. (James 5:6)
* Walk in the light. (1 John 1:5-7)
* Cultivate the fruit of the Holy Spirit deep within your soul and demonstrate it by how you live your daily life. (Galatians 5:22-23)
* Learn to receive and frequently flow with the gifts of the Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12:4-11)
* Love one another (John 13:35) and even your enemies. (Matthew 5:44)
* Keep Christ’s commandments. (John 14:15)
You can experience a Holy Spirit led meeting right where are. No need to travel to a conference, a seminar, a famous church, or a revival.
Holy Spirit led gatherings are amazing, powerful, life-changing, supernatural, and extremely rare. Yet all it takes to experience one is group listening to God the Holy Spirit and obedient surrender to what He says. Gather a few friends and experience one soon! (Romans 8:14 & 1 Corinthians 14:26)
Let me clarify. Holy Spirit led gatherings are rare because people seldom are willing to gather together to listen to God’s Spirit and then allow each person to say and do what God tells them to. If Christians were willing to do that, Holy Spirit led meetings would happen frequently.
