The Lord God of the Universe wants to Arrange your life and Accompany your trip through life and authorize everything needed from now on. Wow, that is the best life there is. SPIRIT-OVERFLOWING LIVES. Jesus explained the Holy Spirit in our lives by using the image of a strong river of water flowing out of us. Let us turn there to John 7.37-38. Rivers of water is the way Jesus describes the normal life of believers, His children. o Rivers of water would mean that when we were saved He flowed out of our lives making us joyous and thankful.
o He flowed out of our lives making us so excited about all our sins being gone.
o He flowed out of our lives so that when we read the Bible it seemed just like God was talking to us. And each day it seemed like all of life was brand new. And that is life as God made it to be with that mighty river of water flowing out of our lives. We were refreshed, we were victorious, we were rejoicing, we were serving joyfully. The Holy Spirit was flowing through our new lives like the rivers of water that flowed in that new house of ours. That is the life of a believer as God intended it to be.
Years ago through the love, prayers, and hard work of so many friends we moved into the very first new home of our lives. It was fantastic, especially considering the size of our family.
o The bathtub was the size of our old plastic swimming pool, and easily held all three of the little buddies and all their toys in an ocean of warm water. In fact, the water roared out of that new plumbing with a roar and flow that sounded an awful lot like the Niagara Falls. It seemed the water lines into our house were enlarged and very strong.
o And the shower. Whew, what an experience. Hot and strong came that flow. It was almost like we had built the house over Old Faithful the geyser. Just turn the handle and POW, out came the waterfall. What a shower.
But something happened one day the week before our first Christmas here in Tulsa. Bonnie noticed that the washer slowed down day by day until it took all day to just do one load. .
At first, it was a bother and then as the toilets, bathtubs, and washers slowed to nearly a stop. We were horrified, our new home was ruined, it was broken plumbing we thought.
In 15 minutes he arrived whistling and still smiling. While we wrung our hands showing him all the terrible non-functioning appliances and fixtures – he just smiled. And then after all our grief and disappointment at our new home was all spilled out he said to follow him. He walked to our coat closet a.k.a under stairs tornado closet a.k.a. kids hideaway and knelt down chuckling. He asked, “Do you have any two or three-year-olds that play in here?” In a moment he stood and said, go try the shower. We ran and voila, Niagara Falls was back. He opened his hand and there was the small road shut off valve handle that one of our precious buddies had been slowly turning bit by bit each day until the rivers of water into our home were choked, quenched and closed out of the house.
Why am I giving you the My Old House show? Because the experience of the water slowly getting choked out of our home is so clearly a picture of what happens so often to so many believers!
Jesus talked about such a strong flow of water in a spiritual sense. Let us turn there to John 7.37-38. Rivers of water is the way Jesus describes the normal life of believers, His children.
And that is life as God made it to be with that mighty river of water flowing out of our lives. We were refreshed, we were victorious, we were rejoicing, we were serving joyfully. The Holy Spirit was flowing through our new lives like the rivers of water that flowed in that new house of ours. That is the life of a believer as God intended it to be. Then slowly something happened. It seemed that we didn’t find God’s Word so exciting, and soon we hardly understood what we read each day. We also experienced troubles in prayer, it seemed we talked to ourselves and all those words just bounced around inside our heads.
That is exactly what happens when the water valve of our spiritual lives is twisted shut by sin. And that is what the Bible describes as Quenching and Grieving the Holy Spirit. We are let with the command to keep our lives filled with the Holy Spirit. We are to walk in Him, live through Him, bear fruit by Him, and overcome sin with Him as our Sword of the Word.
For all of our earthly life, it is God’s Holy Spirit that is our lifeline for all that we need to make it. Because of this vital supply line that we share with Him, we must protect our relationship.
We must not hinder the Holy Spirit in our lives.
(BC&D-26) For more of Dr. John Barnett's Bible teaching messages go to:
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