LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
An Exchange Of Waters
The Spirit for the Soul
John 4:1-24.
The Lord says to the Samaritan woman: –Will you give me a drink?
The woman is surprised. How was this possible? He who asked this was a Jew who, and Jews and Samaritans could hardly be in each others presence. –You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink? - she responds.
The Lord says to her: –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.
The woman is even more surprised by these strange words.
Then the Lord adds: –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 a spring of water welling up to eternal life. (John 4:7,10,13-14).
Two types of Water
In this passage two types of water are mentioned: the water from the well and the living water. We note that the Lord asks the woman for water from the well, and then offers her living water. The Lord asks for stagnant water in order to satisfy his physical need, and in turn offers her a water that will satisfy her spirit.
However, water from the well will not satisfy forever. That's why it was necessary for the woman to go time and again to extract water from the well. But the water that the Lord offers her is water that will satisfy her forever.
In light of John 7:38-39, the living water is the Spirit. And the water from the well? The water from the well represents the waters from our own soul, because it does not, and nor will it ever satisfy
Thus, in reality, what the Lord said to the woman was: –Give me your soul and I will give you my Spirit. When you drink from it, you will not be thirsty ever again.
Of the soul or of the spirit?
As you know, there is a great difference between both types of water, both in the natural as well as in the spiritual.
On the natural level, the water from the well fulfills a need to drink, but it is not always of the best quality, because it can be easily contaminated. What's more, it is subject to temporary variations, because in Summer, or in days of drought, it is scarce.
The situation with living water is different. You find this water high up, in the steep mountains, far from the "worldly noise." In order to reach it one must climb up, and there are only a few who ever drink of it.
But you can also find it deep under the earth. When a deep well is made (of 30 or 40 meters), one can find a river of living water that never runs dry. Although there may be just a little water in a shallower well, in this deep underground river there is no shortage. And in order to drink of it you do not need to go far, because you really are right on top of it.
Did you know: the rivers of God are flowing above in the celestial places; they flow from the throne of God. But those of us who are of Christ also have these rivers flowing inside of us. We do not have to go here or there in order to find them. They are within us, in the deepest part, even beyond the soul.
When we have given over the stagnant water of our well to the Lord, he has given us his Spirit to drink from. When that happened for the first time, our life suffered a radical and absolute change; it was the most precious experience of our life. However, it is possible that today those rivers have become stagnant, or have come to be mere trickle. Or it may be that, after fruitfully enjoying the living water for a time, we have returned to drink, at the same time, of the water from the well. It is possible that we are still depending too much on the appetites of the soul and that are we are still walking around thirsty, searching for how to satisfy ourselves.
How can we know if this is true in our own case?
When a person is desperate to have things, it probably means that they are living by the life of the soul. The soul can be momentarily satisfied with things, when one has something new they will find a momentary satisfaction. But afterwards, they return once again to a desperate and vehement, parched thirst.
It may also be that you are pursuing achievements. If you are a student or if you work, you want to be the best. You want to have the satisfaction of developing your task, and receive congratulations for it when you are finished. In order to achieve that goal, you stretch yourself; you get up very early and go to bed very late. If this is happening to you, it may be a sign that you are drinking from the water of your own well (your own soul). But you must know by now that that this water does not satisfy.
In the world, one often sees this: people want to be the best, the most recognized and applauded. They seek satisfaction in these things. Must this happen to us as well?
It may also be that you are immersed in a religion of works, and that you strive to please God by complying to the demands of your law, but everything turns out tiring and burdensome. What is happening in this case? You are not drinking from the river of God, but rather from your own well.
The Lord says: –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 to eternal life.
Worshipers
In his conversation with the woman, the Lord says the following to her: – Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth. (4:23-24)
What does this have to do with the waters which we have been discussing? What does that have to do with worshiping God? We could phrase it like this: With what do those who worship God worship Him with? With what kind of water? With the water from the well? No, it is with the other water, those that flow through us: the living waters.
It may seem strange that a conversation about water ends up with a discussion about worship in spirit. But it is not. The Lord gives us of his Spirit so that we can be worshipers.
The Lord wants us to drink of his water so that we can become true worshippers. The water of our own well will get progressively drier so that we no longer desire to drink from it.
God allows us to see our water as it really is, and that we find it contaminated and nauseating. The water from our well isn't crystal clear, it doesn't have a good taste, it is not pure. We must turn from this water and drink the water that He gives us, so that we can be true worshippers.
If we drink the water from our own well we are going to be Christians with dominant souls, intellectually competent, enterprising and successful - and also very well received by the World- but spiritually poor. Or rather, we wil come to be well respected within our own religious sphere, but unsatisfied.
Let us ask this: What has God called us to? Has He called us to be drinkers from the well, or has He called us to be worshippers?
The Lord also now says to us: –I want you to drink my water so that you can be a worshipper; so that, when you come before me, your mouth does not close. So that your heart does not feel as if it were a desert. So that the water flowing through you would not be a trickle but rather a flood.
In order for this to be possible, the Lord has given us of His Spirit to drink from.
On one occasion, the Lord stood up amongst the Jews that were in the temple, and raising his voice, he said: –If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him. (John 7:38)
He was speaking of the Holy Spirit, that was poured out on Pentecost. This is a valid invitation for us. He wants us to drink from these streams. If we are already drinking from them, He wants us to increase the quantity. We need to ask that the living waters do not cease flowing, but that everyday they are more prevalent within us.
We make the water flow
It is said that when one loses the use of some physical sense, that the others develop even more. Therefore, when we restrain our soul, we strengthen the spirit. When our spirit dries up, we strengthen the life of the soul. Yet if we deny the appetites of the soul, we favour the life of the spirit.
Therefore, let us leave the water from our well and make the streams of living water flow. Let us commit our contaminated water to the Lord, and receive a greater volume of his water from Him, because God gives the spirit without limit. (John 3:34)
Whenever God asks something of us, it is because He wants to give us even more!