441. Living Waters will Flow
Zechariah 14:8 And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be.
In the days of the Messiah (in which we are still living) living waters shall go out from the Church. The waters will flow to every place (former and hinder seas) and in every season (in summer and in winter). The metaphor of flowing rivers of living water is used in Genesis in Eden, in Ezekiel in the new Temple, and in Revelation in the New Jerusalem in eternity.
Jesus causes the living water to flow. The waters flow out from the Church. When the churched believers meet to hear the Gospel the waters flow out to a dry and thirsty world. Jesus says the water He gives will become a spring of water welling up to eternal life. When believers live and believe in Christ out of their belly shall flow rivers of living water.
The Holy Spirit is the living, flowing, refreshing water that gives and nourishes life inwardly. The inward life keeps growing strong and healthy and lives eternally. The inward man affects the mind, will, and emotions positively, and it makes the soul better, as we pray in the Lord’s Prayer. The refreshed and alive-to-God soul affects the body with its dying aches and pains. Even though the outward man wastes away and is perishing the inward man is renewed day by day with the Spirit who comes through the Word of God. Hearing, studying, and abiding in the Word brings the promised water of life.
The waters flow from Jerusalem, which is the Church of all believers. When the Church gathers in assembly to hear the Gospel the living waters flow out, When the individual hearers leave the assembled body and live their daily lives the living waters flow from each of them to the world around them wherever they are. This is the constantly fulfilling promise. Both the assembled Church and individual members of the Church make the living waters (the Gospel and the Spirit) go out from them. Believe the promise and live in it. Go to church to hear the gospel; go home and love the family as you have been loved; go to work in the world and forgive those who trespass against you as are forgiven. Keep the water flowing.