Living Water

4.12.15
"Living Water"

In 1905 a miracle happened. The Colorado River was engorged with excess water from massive snow melts and burst through the irrigation system that the early California settlers had built to tap into the fresh supply of water to plant and develop a lush agricultural industry. These forceful waters flowed free of their restraints for two years before engineers were able to stop the flow and return the man made irrigation system to working order. In those two years the waters spilled into the Salton Sink.

The Salton Sink was a 40 mile long salt flat and desert area sixty miles inland from Palm Beach. The water filled the Sink and formed the Salton Sea. Developers arrived in the 1950s and began promoting the lake as the California Rivera. By the 1960s there was a town of 15,000 with vacation homes, resorts, and marinas popping up every day. It was a dream location and the future promised only more and more fun!

Then disaster. In the 1970s, run off from area farmers, which included agricultural chemicals, caused huge amounts of algae to grow. As the algae died, bacteria consumed the decay and released tons of Hydrogen Sulfide gas into the water. This poison filled the water and caused millions of fish to die overnight. As the fish floated to the shores, birds from the area fed on the fish and died from the poison. The miracle of the desert had become a graveyard.

The primary issue was a lack of fresh water. When the engineers corrected the flooding in 1907, they cut off any fresh supply of water to the lake. The poison collected, and there was nothing to flush it out. People are too often like the Salton Sea. There is a promise of life, but in the end there is none.

Jesus made a promise that everyone who followed him and were believers in him would have "rivers of living water flow from within them." (John 7:38) The bible explains in the following verse that he was referring to the Holy Spirit, which would come to dwell in all who believe. How many times have we seen people or churches come from seemingly miraculous new births. The individual who accepts the offer of forgiveness from Jesus, but never submits to him as LORD. The church which plans and surveys themselves into the heart of a community, only to be left hollow at the core with only their community service as its shell. Where is the flowing life giving water Jesus was talking about? Why is it we see too often a Christian or church who is a dry and parched land, not a source of refreshment or renewing?

I believe God reveals an answer to this question in Jeremiah 2:13. There God tells Israel -

"My people have committed two sins: they have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water."

Have we forsaken the living water of God for the false hope of finding life in empty cisterns? Who would do that? I am a fan of Dr. Pepper cola. For others it may be Mt. Dew or Diet Coke or maybe Crystal Pepsi (it was a real thing, honestly...Google it). These drinks have faithful followers and once smitten with a brand, we do not switch easily. There are times though when finances do not allow for the name brand, and in a moment of weakness we seek an alternative. Perhaps you have been to the store and seen the Dr. Thunder or Mountain Lightning cans. They look similar, smell similar, but taste...not quite the same. But hey, we can save a few cents getting the inauthentic alternative.

What does knock off cola have to do with us and the flow of the Holy Spirit? We have this amazing, true, authentic, genuine source of life, knowledge, comfort, and connection with God but we too often block the flow of it in our lives because we are busy building reservoirs of our own making. Reservoirs that cannot hold water. They cannot offer life. In the end they will bring disappointment and death.

What are the knock offs in your spiritual life? What have you filled your spiritual plumbing with? Service? Giving financially and being recognized for doing so? Committee work? Planning? We too often assume that if there is movement, we must be doing something right. The Israelites were moving for forty years, but it wasn't getting them any closer to the promise land!

How can we get the flow of the Holy Spirit in us again?

1. Confess. James 5:16 connects confession with healing. If we want ourselves individually and our churches to heal we must begin with confession of our self made reservoirs. They don't work anyway, so why cling so hard to them instead of clinging to Jesus?

2. Repent. God tells us in Jeremiah 15:19 that if we repent, he will restore us so that we may serve him. Repentance is an act of refusal. It is our declaration that we will not go that way again. We confess that we made those broken cisterns, and repent to ever doing it again.

3. Believe. Jesus told his disciples in Matthew 21:22 that if we believe in that which we pray for, it will come to be. Prayer with belief is praying for a sunny day and not taking an umbrella with you for a walk. Prayer with unbelief is taking an umbrella...just in case. 

Salton Sea had a good run. There are people still today who remember the "good old days" there at the beach or out on the water. Do people talk about you that way? OR your church? Perhaps like the poisoned sea we should place warning signs at our church doors warning people of the hazard to their spiritual health if they chose to come in. Or perhaps we should pray to God to restore living waters in us and in our church? Won't you pray for that right now?