It is impossible to completely comprehend the idea that God, the Spirit, lives inside of us. We could spend years studying this lofty truth and never fully fathom it. We could meditate for months, trying to wrap our mind around the fact that the Creator God lives in us and we would never fully understand.

God showed His extravagance to us when He sent His own Son to die on the cross in our place. He showed His exceeding extravagance when He sent His Spirit to make His home in our hearts. Jesus knew how grand it would be when the Spirit arrived. He knew it was a gift beyond our human understanding, so He explained it in terms we could grasp.

Jesus first made mention of the coming Spirit, when He was talking to a woman at a well in Samaria. According to the culture of His time, Jesus should not have been talking to a woman, especially not a Samaritan woman. Jesus, and I am sure many others, also knew that this particular woman had repeated affairs or marriages. No doubt, she was hurting on the inside and grasping for ways to fill the emptiness she felt inside.

She asked a simple question, “Can you give me water to drink?”

She wanted him to draw water from the well and give it to her to drink. It was a simple request. Along with her role of gathering water for the family, the warm air of Samaria had likely made her thirsty. But Jesus saw beyond her physical thirst to a thirst deep inside her heart, an emptiness she was trying to fill on her own.

This is what Jesus said to her in John 4:10-14…

10 “Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water."

11 She said to Him, "Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep; where then do You get that living water?

12 "You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle?"

13 Jesus answered and said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again;

14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life."”

Jesus talks to the woman about living water. But she does not understand what He is saying. She thinks He is merely talking about the life-giving properties of water. We can only survive for three days without water. Water gives life to the plants that grow the food that we eat. It is one of the most important sources of life.

Since the woman did not understand what He was saying the first time, He gives a further explanation. The water that Jesus offers will forever quench the soul-thirst of everyone who takes a drink. They will never thirst again. They will take one drink of this water and it will become a well inside of them, a well that will never run dry.

Deep inside, our hearts long for something beyond the physical. We were made to be spiritually alive. We were made to thrive spiritually. But apart from God, apart from Jesus, there is a deep, dark void inside. We try to fill it with many things, hoping that something will make us feel alive again, but nothing works.

The Samaritan woman had tried to fill her emptiness with physical relationships. It did not work. She was still empty inside. So, Jesus offered her a well of living water that would fill her heart. That well, He said, would spring up inside her. It would overflow. Ultimately it would produce a quality of life above ordinary physical life. It would be life in the realm of the eternal, in the kingdom of heaven. He called it eternal life.

I am sure this was a bit of a mystery to the woman and to His disciples when He recounted the story to them. But Jesus often revealed truth progressively. He would teach one thing and let His disciples struggle with it. Later, He would fill in more of the story. Interestingly, this is how the Spirit often teaches us today.

Jesus tells more of the story in John 7:37-39…

37 "Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink.

38 "He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, 'From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.' "

39 But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.”

Jesus’ teaching here is like his conversation with the woman at the well. His offer is to anyone who is thirsty. That would be anyone with deep longings in their heart for fulfillment beyond the physical. That would be everyone.

His offer includes instructions and a promise. His instructions are simple. Come to Jesus and drink. And how do we do that? We drink from the water offered by Jesus when we believe in Him. The idea here is that of complete abandonment of ourselves and complete trust in Jesus death and resurrection to forgive our sins and give us new life.

The promise is that when we believe in Jesus and follow Him, rivers of living water will flow from the deepest places of our being. From deep inside our hearts, there will be a constant flow of life-giving water. Jesus sends the Holy Spirit to live inside us. And the Holy Spirit becomes a river inside of us, constantly speaking life, giving life, and pouring out life to our souls.

No wonder, Jesus talked about abundant life, life overflowing. He knew that He would be sending the Spirit to pour life into us in ways we never dreamed possible. He understood that the Spirit would well up inside of us with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, and gentleness, filling us full of life the way it was meant to be in the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God.

This was the fulfillment of what the LORD, YEHOVAH said in Isaiah 55:1-3…

1 "Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters; And you who have no money come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk Without money and without cost.

2 "Why do you spend money for what is not bread, And your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, And delight yourself in abundance.

3 "Incline your ear and come to Me. Listen, that you may live…"

So, what does the Holy Spirit do for us today? He brings us life. He heals the wounds of our hearts that have crushed our spirits. He speaks truth to replace the lies of the enemy. He gets instructions from the Father and speaks them to us in a way that we can fully understand the will of God. He takes the rhema words of God and engraves them on our hearts. He reveals things to come, especially those that lead us and others to life abundant.

He springs from the deepest places of our hearts and He flows life through our soul, spirit, mind and body. He is life within us. How could we not seek the things of the Spirit today, tomorrow and every single day of our lives?

WORSHIP: Worship the God who gives you the gift of living water. Worship Jesus who gave His life so you could have living water. Worship the Spirit who flows from the deepest places of your heart as living water.

PRACTICE: God gave you His Spirit so you can experience the fullness of the kingdom of God. Write down the areas of your life or the places in your heart where you would like to experience the rivers of living waters. When you are done, pray through each one and ask God to bring you living water in each of these places.

MEDITATION: Take some time to process the idea that the Spirit lives in your and constantly flows water through your heart, soul, and body. As you pause to reflect, ask God to show you the Spirit inside you. He is as real as your own flesh and blood; He just happens to be Spirit. Let yourself feel Him flowing through you. Let yourself hear His voice. Let yourself sense His presence in you, the presence of the Almighty God.

ABIDING: By this time, it is very possible that the Father, your Spiritual Director, has led you to a place in Scripture where He wants you to abide. As you go back and read through this teaching one more time, ask the Father if there is anything in these passages specifically for you. Look for the things that reinforce what God is teaching you at this time. Write down anything you hear from Him. Spend some extra time listening to see if the Spirit has anything more to say to you or if there is a deeper teaching for you today. Write down whatever you hear. Ask the Father if there is someone, He wants you to share this with and follow through with His assignment.