“On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, ‘Let anyone who is thirsty come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.’ By this He meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.” John 7:37-39.
Because the subject of baptism with the Spirit (see Part V) can potentially be a controversial topic (often over matters of terminology), it is worth clarifying its main points, as well as bringing together some of the points so far considered in this study, before we continue with it.
Baptism with the Spirit is when the believer is submerged totally and completely with a revealed sense of the presence of Jesus Christ through the out-pouring of the Holy Spirit. It is an experience that is captured so well by the wonderful hymn of Samuel Trevor Francis:
“O the deep, deep love of Jesus!
Vast, unmeasured, boundless, free,
Rolling as a mighty ocean
In its fullness over me.
Underneath me, all around me,
Is the current of Thy love.”
The purpose of this baptism is for that of comforting and strengthening the believer by bringing an increased sense of the presence of Jesus and of His cleansing mercies, assuring us of His love, aiding us in our pursuit of the kingdom of God and its righteousness, and can often come as an anointing to some kind of service.
John 7:37, 38 first reminds us that this is an invitation to come to Jesus and to not only drink of the rivers of living water but to drink of them so deeply that they become rivers of water flowing out from within us. The emphasis here is upon the abundance that is offered out to us.
We also see that this is an invitation that is offered to anyone – anyone who thirsts truly after Jesus. This is an open and free invitation for those who desire it to come and drink of the waters of life that only Jesus can give – waters that we are invited to come to by being invited firstly to Jesus Himself.
John 7:39 reminds us that these rivers of living water speak of the Holy Spirit and of the life He brings to us as He fills us to over-flowing with Jesus and His deep, deep love. This was something that couldn’t be done fully before Jesus’ glorification because Jesus wasn’t yet in a position where this gift had been given to Him. Yes, Jesus was in possession of all of these wonderful things, but we had no right to them as we had forfeited that right with our sin. Jesus needed to win these blessings for us – on our behalf – so that He could then graciously give them to us through the out-pouring of His Spirit upon us.
All of these blessings are offered to us, and given to us, in our salvation – but do we always enjoy them as fully as we should? If not, then why not? The answer is because not only do these blessings have their source in Jesus but these blessings are nothing without Jesus and our desire and seeking for Jesus are just not always what they ought to be.
It’s always worth pointing out as we discuss the blessings that Jesus gives to us that we don’t come to Jesus because we want the blessings. We come to Jesus because we want Him. These blessings that Jesus then gives to us are just a part of the gracious nature of His character. We can want these blessings (and should do) but only as a subsidiary want to our wanting Jesus.
Matthew Henry, helpfully as ever, points out that if this water of life and blessing, in all of its wonderful abundance, is promised to us then this is a promise that we can trust Jesus to perform. If we come to Him we will be able to drink of this water so abundantly that rivers of living water will flow from within us.
Do you believe this? Do you believe in Jesus enough so that you can believe this?
The Champs-Elysees is a well-known avenue in Paris, so beautiful that someone gave it its name (translated as ‘Elysian Fields’) because they thought this street to be like “heaven on earth”. It is certainly a very beautiful place (try Googling it if you’ve never seen it for yourself), but its not heaven on earth. Heaven on earth occurs when the child of God’s belief in Jesus is strong enough (not just as an intangible, mental type of belief, but also a belief that affects, and can be seen throughout, their entire life), because it is then that these rivers of Jesus’ presence are poured out upon us through the out-pouring of the Holy Spirit.
In reference to our salvation, Charles Spurgeon once said, “A little faith will bring your soul to heaven”, but then, in reference to this matter we’re considering, he said, “A great faith will bring heaven to your soul.”
Belief and faith here can perhaps be seen like empty cups that we bring before Jesus when we come to Him, for Him to fill. How big are the cups that we are bringing? Are they big enough? Do we even bring cups with us at all when we come to Jesus? What would that reveal about how strong our belief and trust in Jesus is?
How big do you think the Apostle Paul’s cup would have been in the prayer below?
“I pray that out of the Father’s glorious riches He may strengthen you with power though His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3:16-19.
Amen.