Flow River Flow


“But the water I give them takes away thirst altogether. It becomes a perpetual spring within them, giving them eternal life.”” John 4:14, NLT.
I always have this tendency:  looking up for water—looking outside of myself—looking to the heavens—-looking  elsewhere—the metaphor “come O Lord Jesus”…
“On the last day, the climax of the festival, Jesus stood and shouted to the crowds, “If you are thirsty, come to me! If you believe in me, come and drink! For the Scriptures declare that rivers of living water will flow out from within.” (When he said “living water,” he was speaking of the Spirit, who would be given to everyone 
believing in him. But the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet entered into his glory.)” John 7:37-39, NLT.

According to Jesus:
  • I keep looking in the wrong place 
  • The Spirit is within me—from ‘within’
  • KJV version uses the term ‘belly’
  • This is the seat of the inward life, of feeling and desire… the hidden innermost recesses of the human body
  • The point:  the Spirit is IN me

Smith:  So the Spirit is to be found in the core of our own humanity.  One of the wonderful things about my discovery of the spirit was the sense that is had been there (Smith found an ancient healing spring in a meadow under the feet of cows who were grazing—-muddy—stinky) , flowing, all the time, for centuries.  It just needed to be uncovered.  I know God was teaching me about my own baptism in this experience.  The Spirit had been in me all the time.  Finding the Spirit of God in my life was not a matter of looking for something I never had.  It was a matter of actively uncovering through faith a Presence in the depth of my being which had been there all along, and which had been at work in my actions and sufferings, my fears and my desires. p 18 (A Season for the Spirit Martin L Smith;  Harper Collins, 1991) 


  • The Spirit is active—alive and powerful in me
  • The issue is not looking for something I already have—and by faith activating that Spirit—allowing that Spirit to manifest Himself through me

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