As my wife, Jen, and I were praying about what the Lord wanted me to share with you today, Jen received a picture of a river and sensed that it represented the river of God. As I prayed into this, a lot of imagery from the Bible about streams and rivers and flowing water began to spring up into my mind. The following passage from the Psalms came clearly to mind:
“There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High. God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved; God will help her when morning dawns.” Psalm 46:4-5 (English Standard Version).
John, while exiled because of his faith in Jesus, received a similar revelation from Jesus and wrote down the following:
“And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.’ ” Revelation 21:2-3 (ESV).
Next, John was shown a river:
“Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him.” Revelation 22:1-3 (ESV).
Though the ultimate fulfillment of this is in the future, our memory verse from earlier in Lent tells us: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” 2 Corinthians 5:17 (ESV). Another translation puts it: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (New International Version, ©2011). The new creation begins in our lives from the time faith in Christ is born in us. For the first time, we are able to see and enter the kingdom or realm of God. (Look at Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus in John 3:1-14 that Ray David preached on recently.)
Garth preached last week on “the Woman at the Well” who was told by Jesus that “… whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:14 ESV)
Later in John’s Gospel, on the last day of the Feast of Booths or Tabernacles, one of the feasts given to Moses by God to help prepare the people of Israel for the coming of the Messiah, John recounts:
“On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” John 7:37-39 (ESV).
Ezekiel, a prophet of Israel, was also given a vision of the River of God:
“Then he brought me back to the door of the temple, and behold, water was issuing from below the threshold of the temple toward the east (for the temple faced east). The water was flowing down from below the south end of the threshold of the temple, south of the altar. Then he brought me out by way of the north gate and led me around on the outside to the outer gate that faces toward the east; and behold, the water was trickling out on the south side.
Going on eastward with a measuring line in his hand, the man measured a thousand cubits, and then led me through the water, and it was ankle-deep. Again he measured a thousand, and led me through the water, and it was knee-deep. Again he measured a thousand, and led me through the water, and it was waist-deep. Again he measured a thousand, and it was a river that I could not pass through, for the water had risen. It was deep enough to swim in, a river that could not be passed through. And he said to me, “Son of man, have you seen this?” Then he led me back to the bank of the river. As I went back, I saw on the bank of the river very many trees on the one side and on the other.” Ezekiel 47:1-6 (ESV).
We have these wonderful promises of the river of God’s life that begins to flow when faith in Jesus comes alive in us. But we must choose to what extent we will allow this living water to flow in our lives and to what extent we will enter into the river of life. Ezekiel first saw the water, then went in ankle-deep, then waist deep and then he would have had to swim.
When my family and I were vacationing in Prince Edward Island a few years ago, I went swimming in a river that flowed into the sea. At one point the river flowed through a channel with steep perpendicular walls. Once you started in to this channel, there was no going back. I swam toward the channel and entered it. Though I am a reasonably good swimmer and not particularly afraid of the water, I began to feel that I wanted to get through this section rather quickly to make sure I would get through it safely. I began to swim to speed up my progress. I was starting to feel that I was getting tired and this made me feel a little fearful which in turn made me breathe faster which, of course, tired me more. Then the Holy Spirit impressed on me to relax and let the current take me. When I did this, the fear left and I enjoyed the rest of the passage through the channel and landed safely and on the shore glad that I had trusted the Lord and learned a lasting lesson.
Are you willing to take the next step deeper into the river of life? What joy and peace it is to enter into the river of God and to let the current take you. As Ezekiel noticed, you can only pass through this river by getting in over your head.
In this Lenten season of the Father’s love, may you be blessed with more and more of all that He has for you through your faith in Jesus and by continually yielding to the Holy Spirit whom you can trust with your very life.
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The first verse of this beautiful hymn by Frances Havergal is:
“Like a river glorious is God’s perfect peace, over all victorious in its bright increase. Perfect, yet it floweth fuller every day; perfect, yet it groweth deeper all the way.
Stayed upon Jehovah, hearts are fully blessed — finding as He promised, perfect peace and rest.”
Another very moving piece is called “Find me in the River’
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