RIVER WALK

He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, "From his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water (John 7:38)."  Jesus is referencing the flow of the Holy Spirit coming forth from within believers.  That would include us.

We are to be a people who are overflowing our banks in life.  We are flooding our communities with hope, joy, and encouragement.  We are not the sour.  We are not to be whiners.  God has implanted His Spirit within us that we can move like rivers; constantly flowing with Spirit nature.

Watchman Nee offers a sobering comment.  He insists that we must be sure that those who are around us do not leave our presence thirsty for life.  Their parched hearts should have been satisfied by drinking in our overflow words and hopeful dispositions.  Our conversations, our facial expressions, and our actions are to be contrary to the natural drain of tedium.  River flows with rebound and rebounce!

We need to inquire of ourselves, do people have no more thirst once they have had contact with us?  Or do they continue to feel thirsty after they have been with us?  If when people say their life is miserable, sad and undone, we in response acknowledge the same thing, then this shows we are not rivers of living water but are barren deserts which dry up the moisture and deaden the plants.

It is up to us to abide refreshed in the Spirit of God; anointed and flexible.  As a result we may freely offer hope to thirsty, crusty, hurting neighbors.  We must not forget that we are wells dug by God to quench the thirst of every passerby.  If we join others in sighing as to how pitiful our days are, we offer not the Spirit flow but the desert heat which bums those near who were needing just a sip of relief.

Our joining in on distraught conversations offers no water to the comrade.  Our frustrations are not with us to bemoan.  Rather, they are useful tools to share with others how God overcomes.

No.  We do not deny stresses in our own lives.  But these do not serve to define who we are .  We are real individuals who live an overflowing, overcoming, overwhelmingly wonderful kind of life.  Our ability to arise, when those who do not buy into this God-thing wither, makes the point.  Only those who have the empowering Holy Spirit of God could dare approach life with overflowing enthusiasm when we, too, are riddled day by day with legitimate excuse to throw up our hands in frustration.

River walk people always know why the blessing is in the center of each distraction. Life in Christ is an overflowing one.  We are up!  We are grateful!  We not indifferent to troubles.  But, we know how to transform them from intended discouragement to intentional encouragement.

This is a secret of moving from a desert-to-river kind of walk.  May we do well as we take our daily walk along the River.