Quote for the Day
“…streams of living water will flow from within him.”
Today's Prayer
Father, this week let Your will be accomplished in my life, not my will.
John 7:25-44
John 7:25-44 (NIV)25 At that point some of the people of began to ask, “Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill? 26 Here he is, speaking publicly, and they are not saying a word to him. Have the authorities really concluded that he is the Christ? 27 But we know where this man is from; when the Christ comes, no one will know where he is from.”28 Then Jesus, still teaching in the temple courts, cried out, “Yes, you know me, and you know where I am from. I am not here on my own, but he who sent me is true. You do not know him, 29 but I know him because I am from him and he sent me.”30 At this they tried to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his time had not yet come. 31 Still, many in the crowd put their faith in him. They said, “When the Christ comes, will he do more miraculous signs than this man?”32 The Pharisees heard the crowd whispering such things about him. Then the chief priests and the Pharisees sent temple guards to arrest him.33 Jesus said, “I am with you for only a short time, and then I go to the one who sent me. 34 You will look for me, but you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come.”35 The Jews said to one another, “Where does this man intend to go that we cannot find him? Will he go where our people live scattered among the Greeks, and teach the Greeks? 36 What did he mean when he said, ‘You will look for me, but you will not find me,’ and ‘Where I am, you cannot come’?”37 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. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” 39 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.40 On hearing his words, some of the people said, “Surely this man is the Prophet.”41 Others said, “He is the Christ.”Still others asked, “How can the Christ come from ? 42 Does not the Scripture say that the Christ will come from David’s family and from , the town where David lived?” 43 Thus the people were divided because of Jesus. 44 Some wanted to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him.
Message
There is so much to absorb in this great passage. First we have the reminder about the relationship between Jesus and the Father in verse 29, “…I know him because I am from him and he sent me.” Jesus had no misunderstanding of his position or his mission. We see in this passage many who heard Jesus teach come into a personal relationship with him by believing in Jesus and what he has taught them. And then that great passage in verses 37 and 38 which we have heard so many times, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” Look closely at the last half of the verse: “…streams of living water will flow from within him.” We have the very Spirit of God himself as our life. It is the power of Christ that is our life as believers in Jesus. There is no need for the flesh; it is all God himself.Jesus has promised us the same relationship with the Father THROUGH Him. Jesus is our life, our power and our substance, nothing else is our concern. The paradox is that if we are to let him live this life, he is the only power to allow us… to allow him to live it. So our prayer needs to be, “Lord, not my will but yours. Jesus, not my power but yours.” In Matthew 26:39, just prior to his crucifixion, Jesus says, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” Jesus says that he came to glorify the Father, and he chose the Father’s will to allow that to be accomplished, and we need to allow our lives to be lost in His will, not our own.