|
|
What is Living Water?
Audio
Version
In John Chapter four we see Jesus
purposely traveling to the city of Samaria near the place that
Jacob’s well was located. Jesus was tired from His journey and sat
down to rest.
There came a woman from the city of
Samaria to get water from the well. Jesus therefore asked the woman
for a drink of water. The woman who noticed that Jesus was Jewish
and that Jewish people didn’t have anything to do with Samaritan
people, was very surprised that this stranger would speak to her
(herself a Samaritan).
This may seem strange to people in our
generation especially in the free world where it is believed in
general that all are equal. However, in the past and still in many
parts to today’s world there is much prejudice and even hatred over
people who are different than the mainstream.
Jesus though is different, He doesn’t know
the word hate. He went purposely to this place to give the gift of
living water and eternal life to this one lone woman. The Jews in
that day didn’t associate with Samaritans. The woman asked Jesus why
He would ask a drink of her who was a Samaritan.
Jesus bypassed that issue entirely because
He didn’t come to that place to crusade for Jewish – Samaritan
relationships; He came to save the lost. This is an issue today’s
church needs to return to. We can get into civil rights, politics,
saving the environment, and other social issues so deep that the
individual salvation of souls takes a back seat. I know people that
work hard to provide for their children's education and their
ability to obtain well paying jobs and careers but neglect the most
important thing of all, the salvation of their souls.
People are lost. They need to be saved
and receive that living water which will give them entrance into
eternal life. This is for real. We can get so concerned with trying
to live this life and pursue the things in this life that the
eternal soul remains in darkness and is separated from God.
Jesus then told the woman that if she only
knew who it was that she was talking to, she could only ask and He
would give her living water in which the partaking of would cause
her to have eternal life. It was literally a well of living water
that would spring up within her soul and cause her to receive life
eternal.
Eternal life would mean that at the
point of her natural death, her soul would leave her body and go to
be with the Lord to await the resurrection of the body. “To be
absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.” This “Living
Water” was not literal water that would cause her body never to
suffer natural thirst if she went a few hours without water. This
“Living Water” referred to that which comes into us by the Holy
Spirit of God when we believe in Jesus. The living water is the Holy
Spirit.
Jesus said in John 14 that “If a man love
me, he will keep my word: and my Father will love him, and we will
come unto him, and make our abode with him.”
Imagine that for one minute. If we love
Him, we will keep His words. The Father in Heaven will love us and
come and abide within us. The Father and the Son of God abide within
a believer by the presence of the Holy Spirit. This is what Jesus is
speaking of when He talks of the living water. This is another way
of saying that we must be born again by God’s spirit to be saved.
This living water is a well springing up within us that changes our
entire life and makes us a new person.
To receive this “Living Water” we first
believe in Jesus Christ as the very Son of God that God the Father
sent to save us from sin. We then we believe
His words. This opens the door and will allow Him into our lives. As
we do this, our sins are washed away. All things become new and we
are “Born Again” by God’s spirit. We are not merely accepting a
religion called Christianity. This is not another religion. This is
a cleansing, washing, renewing and the saving of our soul.
The women then asked Jesus, how He could
give her the living water when He had nothing to draw water with. He
had no bucket or pail in which to get water from the well.
“Jesus answered and said unto her, every
one that drinks of this water shall thirst again:
But whosoever drinks of the water that I
shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give
him shall become in him a well of water springing up unto eternal
life.”
The woman right away wanted this living
water and proceeded to ask Him for this living water. Then Jesus
seems to change the subject.
“ The woman said unto him, Sir, give me
this water, that I thirst not, neither come all the way hither to
draw. "
Jesus said unto her, "Go, call thy husband,
and come hither."
The woman answered and said unto him, I
have no husband.
Jesus said unto her, "Thou said well, I
have no husband:
for thou hast had five husbands; and he
whom thou now
hast is not thy husband: this hast thou
said truly."
Jesus was wanting to give this woman the
living water that would save her soul but He had to get rid of the
sin first.
Sin is what separates us from God. When
Adam disobeyed the word of God in the beginning of creation, He
allowed both physical death and eternal separation from God to
result and to come upon all mankind. Now all of us are born with a
natural instinct to sin. That sin makes us separate from a Holy God.
To reverse this awful curse that came upon mankind, a just perfect
man had to suffer the penalty of death without having sinned
himself. The Bible says that the soul that sins, shall die. That
means to die physically first; then have the soul enter eternity in
a place for departed spirits that do not know God. We call that
place hell. The spirit and soul of all of us does not go out of
existence. It will be somewhere, in either heaven or hell. The soul
is the part of us that needs to be saved.
By man sin entered the world so only a
man can reverse that curse. But the sad thing is, we are all born
with this tendency to sin that we inherit from Adam. There is no way
a natural born man can live his entire life without once committing
a sin. Sin is transgression of the law of God. All of us have sinned
and are separated from God.
This is why God send His own divine
eternal Son to become flesh. Jesus came into human flesh, was born
into the world by way of a virgin that had never known man. The Holy
Spirit placed the seed within Mary and the one born of her was God
but was also man. “God in the flesh” or “God with us”. No natural
man could be this savior because he would sin sooner or later. It
had to be God but also a man of flesh and blood.
Jesus lived His entire life without
breaking the law of God even once. He did not sin. When Jesus was
crucified as a criminal, He allowed Himself to suffer death, paying
the penalty for sin that He didn’t commit. Since He was innocent of
any sin, the penalty He paid can be transferred to us who believe in
Him. He paid the penalty for us who believe.
We still have to suffer a temporary
natural death but the minute we believe in Him, we are reconciled
back to God and are no longer separated from God.
How can this be?
Before we believe, sin is separating us
from God. The penalty for sin is death. When Jesus died on the
cross, He shed blood. This blood is what cleanses us from sin. When
we believe in Him we are in reality repenting of sin or turning away
from sin. His blood is applied to us and covers our sin. With the
sin cleansed, we are then brought back into a right relationship
with our creator. Then and only then can we have that “Living
Water”. Then and only then can we be “Born Again” by the spirit of
God.
This is why Jesus asked the woman about
her husband and how she was living. He wanted to point out her sin
so that she could come to repentance and be changed. She then would
receive immediately the living water she asked for.
The woman at first tried to change the
subject to where and when to worship but Jesus began speaking to her
about worshipping in spirit and in truth instead of worrying about
the place or religious rituals. This new and living way involves
worshipping in Spirit and in Truth.
It would seem as if the woman believed
what she was hearing because she immediately went into the city to
proclaim the good news to others. This story can be found at the
link at the bottom of this page in the KJV.
It is God’s will for all to be saved. We
do not have to die in our sins. Without Jesus, we will die in our
sins.
When Jesus said that if they did not
believe , “I am He” He meant that they must believe that He was the
Christ, the Savior sent from God to save from sin. Jesus saves us
from our sin, not in our sin. We are to go and sin no more. We are
cleansed from sin, not cleansed to go back and sin again. The Holy
Spirit (Living Water) and also the cleansing that comes by the
reading of the word of God, will help us to get victory over future
temptations that Satan will try to do to get us to return to sin.
This is all ours by simple child like
faith in Jesus as our Savior and Lord of our lives.
1. Forgiveness of sin
2. Cleansing from sin.
3. New Birth (Living Water) by the Spirit
of God.
4. Reconciliation back into the Fellowship
of God. God is now with us by the presence of the Holy Spirit.
5. Sanctification (Setting apart ourselves
for God and no longer bound by the desires of the flesh or the
world) by the Spirit of God.
6. The Baptism (complete immersion by the
Spirit of God) of the Holy Spirit.
7. Eternal life in which our old bodies
will be changed into bodies that can never die.
Salvation is just the beginning of many
spirit blessings from God. Yes, we are saved from sin and granted
this living water the springs up within our very souls. But there is
more and more as we study God’s word and continually seek His face.
We lose our desire for the world and the things that we once
desired.
This may not happen all at once. Some of
us take more time than others but the joy of our salvation can be
with us continually as we begin to seek God. The Holy Spirit sheds
the love of God into our innermost being. Satan will try to rob us
of that but we must be steadfast and continually seek to be filled
with the Spirit so that we do not give into the temptation to return
to sin, allow roots of bitterness, or unbelief to enter our lives
again.
We must always seek to be filled with the
spirit. There is always a continuous supply of the Holy Spirit for
it is like a spring or well of living water to fill us and refill us
over and over again.
We can read the book of Acts and see where
the apostles were filled with the spirit and with joy more than one
time.
Dorna
For the complete scripture of the John
Chapter four about the Living Water, you can read it:
HERE.
|
|