John 7:38

Admittedly this is not a quotation from the Old Testament — these exact words are not found. But there can be no doubt at all that it is a very direct reference to an Old Testament passage. Turning to Isaiah we find: "If you draw out your soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul... you shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not." (Isaiah 58:10-11.) In Isaiah the condition is ministering to the hungry. In the day of grace the condition is changed: not works of mercy, but "coming" to Him and "believing" on Him.

The place of want, dear friends, is the belly — the very thing that drives a man to work hard for satisfaction. The Lord says that he will be so full, so satisfied, that "rivers of living water" will flow out of that craving heart of man. Out of his belly — no longer craving, but satisfied. Do you believe it?

We are then told that this promise means the gift of the Holy Spirit, which they were to receive who came to Him and believed on Him. The promise was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost. Then the Holy Spirit came to dwell in believers. The overflow, the streams of living water flowing from the believer, is the picture of the Spirit. He is the Spirit of power, showing Himself through the believer who bears testimony for Christ.

This picture differs from the one in John 3, where we are born again by the "water and the Spirit." It is not like "the well of water springing up" either. That well is the power of the Spirit within you, letting you enjoy the sense of being joined to the Father and the Son. In John 7 the "rivers of living water" are connected more with service than with worship.

He sets out a fulness of blessing from Himself. The believer, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, would not depend on plentiful harvests, pleasant circumstances, and a hundred wonderful earthly providences. He would be a perpetual marvel of happiness and blessing, and a constant giver to the world around him — not of drops of blessing few and far between, but of rivers, yes, rivers of living water. This is not mere charitable good, helping only men's bodies or their circumstances. It is spiritual good... These rivers flow on for all sorts and conditions of men, however much is taken from them. They flow night and day, in summer warmth and winter cold. The supply never tires, because its source is Jesus glorified.

I hope that he will read the word much for himself. I say for himself, not for his work. That is the right way to read it — "If any man thirst, let him come to Me and drink." You drink for yourself, you thirst for yourself, and that is how rivers flow from us for others.

"Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water" — out of his innermost affections. Out of what a man is at the bottom of his heart, as we say, streams of refreshment will flow to others. The poor vessel is so full that it overflows... When the Lord comes again the feast will literally have come... but until it comes, we have the Holy Spirit instead of it.