Rivers of Living Water

John 7:37-39 Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. (38) He who believes into Me, as the Scripture said, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water. (39) But this He said concerning the Spirit, whom those who believed into Him were about to receive; for the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.

In the Gospel of John, at the end of the greatest religious festival of that day, Christ stood up and said that if any man was thirsty, he could come to Him and drink. In saying this, Christ was speaking about the Spirit. It is strange that the people could still be thirsty at the end of a great religious festival. But the truth is that no outward religious observances can satisfy a man’s inner thirst. The more we observe religious practices, the more we will be thirsty. What we need is a drink of the living water. Here the Spirit is likened to “rivers of living water.” This living water was not there at the time Christ spoke these words, because He had not been processed through His death and resurrection [i.e. “glorified”]. But after His death and resurrection, the process was completed, and today the Spirit as the living water is here. In other words, He has passed through the process of becoming a man, living a human life, dying on the cross, and resurrecting to become the life- giving Spirit. Now we do not need to sweat and struggle to reach Him; He has become so enjoyable and accessible to us. Now we can freely drink of the Spirit. This living water fully quenches our inner thirst.