When I was 18, I was blessed with a camping trip to the Canadian Rockies with my brother and some friends. We stopped along the way to see the sights. One of them was the Continental Divide. There was a river that broke into two parts. For the first time in our lives, we saw a clear water river. We were more amazed by that than the divide. We all ran down to the water, cupped our hands and started drinking it. Our chaperones tried to stop us, but we couldn’t help ourselves. The water was cold and refreshing, and of course clear and moving, which meant clean in our minds. I’ll never forget that experience.
In John 7, Jesus was in Jerusalem celebrating the Feast Of Tabernacles. On the last day of the feast, which was the most important one, He began to shout into the crowd. Verses 37-38 say, “All you thirsty ones, come to me! Come to me and drink! Believe in me so that rivers of living water will burst out from within you, flowing from your innermost being, just like the Scripture says!” TPT They must have been physically thirsty from all the feasting, but Jesus was referring to their spiritual thirst. He not only wanted to satisfy that thirst, but to also produce in them, and us, rivers of spiritual water to quench the thirst of people around us.
We all have rivers of water flowing from us. Is yours crisp, clean and refreshing or is it polluted? Does your river make people want to come and drink? Most of us live such busy lives that we forget to check the quality of the water that’s flowing out of us. We must make sure that the source is the Holy Spirit rather than ourselves. He gives fresh water that’s full of revelation, healing and restoration. When those flow from our lives, people want to be around us. They want to drink deeply from that river because it satisfies something deep in their spirit. It will then lead them to the source of that river and then they too will have a river bursting forth from their inner most being satisfying the thirst of people around them.
Photo by Tim Peterson on Unsplash
Devotions by Chris Hendrix 
A very thought provoking post Chris; so often we say much and thirst for His water, but never think whether the water is polluted after filtering through us. Certainly makes me ask today, “is my spiritual filter clean?”
That’s another great question we must ask ourselves often. I know mine needs constant cleaning. Thanks.
Being one of my recent favourite posts, I am re-posting this today. God bless you this Lord’s Day brother Chris.
Sounds great! Thank you for the repost.
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I love that illustration Chris. I live on the divide in Minnesota and we have many waters and rivers that are Chrystal clear.
Thanks! I’ve always imagined Minnesota to be wild and beautiful. I haven’t been there yet.
Get to northern MN. I don’t think southern Minnesota has much clear water except some trout streams. The BWCAW area and Lake superior is great. I live where the Mississippi river starts, flows north, then east then goes south to the gulf. Add to bucket list. To your blogs point though, a candy wrapper in the clear river water ruins the effect…a little sin not taken care of effectively ruins our testimony before a watching world.
Amen. I’ll add that area to the list. Thanks.