2015.06.28_Out of the Believer’s Heart Flow Rivers of Living Water

The Holy Spirit Who Comes into the Children of God

God is the Holy Trinity. God is not someone who exists in our imagination; He is the one who created and governs everything that we see, hear, touch and experience throughout our lives. We are not religious people who treat God merely as a notional being, but His children who believe in the living God.

The reason many people cannot become God’s children is their ignorance of God. Because they don’t know God, they don’t believe God; because they don’t know God, they don’t obey God; and because they don’t know God, they don’t follow His will. Knowing that we were sinners, God gave His precious blood to redeem our sins. The children of God are those who understood this will of God and accepted His precious blood.

We have received the forgiveness of our sins, meaning we have been freed from the condemnation of the Law and the punishment that follows thereafter. The reason we have this confidence is because God’s precious blood is within us. Who testifies to God’s blood being inside us? The Holy Spirit does. The Holy Spirit cannot be seen, yet when He comes, the person is given an experience, of which the most concrete and immediate is speaking in tongues.

The Model Believer According to the Lord

The tongue is the hardest part of man to be tamed. Despite living a zealous life of faith, if a person is tempted and denies the Lord with his tongue, for that he will be judged. So Jesus said, “For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned” (Matt 12:37). However, the Holy Spirit instantly tames the tongue of even such a callous person, enabling him to speak in tongues.

Speaking in tongues in Jesus’ name means to have received a new tongue from God. While we express our thoughts and feelings with our tongue, with God’s given new tongue, our spirit speaks to God. This is what Jesus promised His believers, and that promise has continued to being fulfilled in the believers, starting from Mark’s Upper room on the day of Pentecost to this present day.

Even if we might consider ourselves as believers, it is meaningless unless Jesus acknowledges us as His believers. Jesus said, “And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover” (Matt 16:17-18). According to Jesus, this is the model believer.

It is written in John 7:38, “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” This is what Jesus said concerning the Holy Spirit whom His believers would receive. As He was speaking, perhaps Jesus thought of the fountain that springs near the Sea of Galilee. When the snow melts on Mount Hermon, it flows beneath the surface of the earth and wells up again through the lakes and streams near the mountain. Some of that water springs up and forms a fountain near the Sea of Galilee. Whoever does not have streams of living water flowing from within him as so, is not a believer according to Jesus.

Later the Lord will separate the sheep from the goats, the grain from the chaff out of those who call on His name. On the day of His return, we must be found in His sight as believers. Those who always doubted God’s word and hence never experienced streams of living water flowing out of their hearts, will be separated as goats and chaff on that day.

Lay Down Your Arrogance and Repent!

Whoever believes must experience rivers of living water flow out of his heart, as the Lord has said. If a person considers himself a believer yet does not have this experience, it may be that he has not yet received the remission of sins. The Holy Spirit came into us, who were formerly sinners because we believed in the merits of Jesus Christ and thus received the forgiveness of sins. The Holy Spirit does not go beyond the merits of Jesus Christ. Therefore He does not come into anyone who is not empowered by the merits of Jesus Christ.

If the Holy Spirit does not come into a person, it is because he has not yet received grace. Then why hasn’t he received grace? Because he has not repented. Why doesn’t he repent? Because he is proud. God does not listen to the proud; instead He resists such a person. Thus if anyone hasn’t received the Holy Spirit, he must lay down his arrogance and pride before God, and seek His mercy.

The reason people are conscious of other people and cannot cry out loud in prayer is also their prideful hearts. We cannot afford to do that. We have to beat our chests and cry out in order to live. Even the Lord is praying for us night and day. So how much more should we?

Cry Out for the Manifestation of the Holy Spirit

There are various gifts of the Holy Spirit apart from speaking in tongues. It is written in 1 Corinthians 12:7-11, “But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills.” The Lord desires to reveal Himself through us. If we lay aside our pride and cry out to Him earnestly and sincerely, the Lord will surely give us the manifestation of the Holy Spirit.

When you pray, cry out loud. Jesus also prayed in that way. On the night He was captured, Jesus prayed at Gethsemane, about a stone’s throw away from His disciples (Luke 22:41). However the disciples were still able to hear the Lord praying. That is just how loudly Jesus cried out. We must take after the way Jesus prayed, crying out until His sweat became drops of blood (Luke 22:44).

One who desires the gifts of the Holy Spirit would pray that way. Many people today are either hindering or denying the work of the Holy Spirit. What is more, some even denounce a person as a heretic if he has the gift of the Holy Spirit. However, we must be determined to accept anything, if it is granted by the Holy Spirit. Whoever desires to be blessed in the Holy Spirit should not reject or ignore the manifestation of the Holy Spirit. We should eagerly ask for the gifts of the Holy Spirit remembering the Lord’s word which said, “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him,”