Sourcing the Flow

It all comes back to Jesus!

“On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, ‘If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.’ By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believe in him were later to receive.” (John 7:37-39a)

The Holy Spirit was sent by Jesus into the world (Acts 2:33), so that we might know Jesus as our Lord and Saviour and be one with Him; and have the power to live the Christian life in a worthy, God-glorifying, obedient manner.

All of us who know, love and serve the Jesus Christ need to learn drink from our Lord and Saviour and thereby receive the Holy Spirit and all the enabling He brings with Him.

Jesus said, “I am the true vine….Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.” (John 15:1a, 4-8)

Fruitful, obedient, Holy Spirit empowered service is the type of service to which we should all aspire. We cannot do this on our own – we need to remain or abide in Christ. We need to learn how to draw deeply from Him and give out what we draw to wherever He directs us to give. This will require us to allow God’s words to remain in us. So, we must feed on the Word of God and let its inspirer, the Holy Spirit, help us to understand and apply its truths. We must also learn how to attune ourselves to the Holy Spirit’s direct leading, which will always be in harmony with the Bible. If we remain in Christ and His words remain in us, then we can ask the Father whatever we wish and it will be done for us.

So, if we remain in Christ and He in us, we should be fruitful for God – it is expected! And any fruit we produce as a result of remaining in Christ and He in us, will bring glory to the Father and show us and the world that we are true disciples of Jesus.

1. Choose to get to know God through prayer, praise and worship, God’s Word and Christian fellowship

2. Choose to see ourselves as God sees us God sees us in Christ We need to see ourselves in Christ We need to live in the good of who we are in Christ

3. Choose to dig deep in God, especially in the tough times When things don’t go according to plan or expectation (and they will!), we should not give up Rather we should go to our loving, kind, merciful, unchanging God for help in our times of need and trust that He will be there for us in the way that we need (though not necessarily in the way that we want!)

4. Choose to believe that God is always working for our good

If we love God and are one of His, nothing can and nothing will stop Him always working for our good

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28)

This verse is not teaching that all things that happen to us are good in and of themselves – it is what God does with them that turns them to our good. He is working as an all-powerful, allknowing weaver carefully interlacing all the strands of our life so that we better reflect His nature and conform more completely to His purposes, as this is the most ‘good’ thing He can do for us. He is not discovering or learning. He is not watching and then adapting His plan to fit around decisions we make that surprise Him. His plan is set and His knowledge is complete. He gives purpose to every chaotic circumstance that we endure in this fallen, corrupt world. When God does us good, it may not give us immediate happiness, but it is always a good which is for our eternal best. We need to learn to trust Him with everything we are and have; and we need to keep in step with His Spirit, no matter what happens to us.

“We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:10) God has a specific purpose for each of us and when God purposes something, He carries it through.

God’s greatest purpose for us is that we are conformed to the image of His Son, thus bringing glory to God by who we are and what we do. We need to be people who are certain about our ultimate destiny, even though we may not be certain about what is happening to us at the present.

It is not our frail grasp of God that matters, but His Almighty grasp of us!

5. Choose to let the Holy Spirit be the controlling principle of our lives

Christians are in partnership with the Holy Spirit in our service for God, but for obvious reasons (like He is omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, omnibenevolent – all good or all loving – and we are not!), He should be in charge. We can resist the Holy Spirit – He will not force us to do anything (Acts 7:51), but better by far is to choose to let Him inform, guide and empower us as we live our lives for God.

6. Choose to actively seek God for His directives to us Jesus is our Lord and He does have things that He wants us to do for Him This means that we should seek Him for directives and know how to distinguish between His voice, our own inner voice and the very loud voice of the world and the enemy. This should be an important part of our prayer life and also of our Bible reading and studying time

I like to think one of the roles of the Holy Spirit within us is that He is our divine prompter. He compels (Acts 20:22); urges (Acts 21:4); warns of/predicts future events (Acts 11:28; Acts 20:23; Acts 21:11); positions (Acts 20:28); directs (Acts 8:29; Acts 10:19-20; Acts 15:28; Acts 16:6-7); commissions and sends (Acts 13:2-4); strengthens and encourages (Acts 9:31); and opens our spiritual eyes so that we can see God’s glory (Acts 7:55). We need to learn how to sense and correctly interpret these prompts.

7. Choose to obey any directives we do know are from God If we aren’t obeying God, is Jesus really Lord of our life?

If we don’t obey God, we will be obeying our flesh, the world or the enemy and giving them our allegiance instead of God! Choosing to obey something other than God was how sin came in and corrupted God’s perfect world, and the enemy still seeks to corrupt and destroy our walk with God by presenting us with seductive, enticing alternatives to obeying God.

If we have succumbed to temptation, we must repent and put Jesus back as our Lord, as such choices only hurt us and our eternal prospects.

We all succumb to temptations at times, so it is what we do when we realise we have made such a choice that counts. Do we turn from them and re-establish Jesus as our Lord, or do we continue to dig a deeper hole for ourselves? Remember, Jesus doesn’t share Lordship with anyone but His Father and the Holy Spirit.

Words and intentions are not enough! If we truly know Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour, then God expects us to obey Him with appropriate action when He makes His will clear.

Our obedience is one of the ways that we know that we know Him “We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. Whoever says, ‘I know him,’ but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.” (1 John 2:3-6)

“We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. Whoever says, ‘I know him,’ but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.” (1 John 2:3-6)

If we are in Christ Jesus, we must walk as He did, and learn to humbly serve our heavenly Father’s will in the power of the Spirit. The truth is that you cannot truly know God and not want to do what He asks of you. The more we do what God wants us to do, the more complete our love for Him will be.

The good news is that when we do obey God’s directives, it will bless us and others This is usually how God chooses to bring His will to bear on this earth; and it will have an eternal impact – what a privilege and a responsibility! Obedience, especially in terms of witnessing, will often be accompanied by Holy Spirit enabled miraculous signs and wonders to confirm the message (Acts 1:8; Acts 14:3; Acts 10:44-46)

“The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’ And let him who hears say, ‘Come!’ Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.” (Revelation 22:17)