Jesus, on the final and great day of the Feast of Succoth, or Tabernacles, declared Himself as the fulfilment of that great feast of the Israelites. In John’s gospel, chapter seven and verse thirty-eight, Jesus promises “Living Water” for all who are thirsty and comes to Him to drink.

And the Holy Spirit graciously gives the understanding and meaning to what Jesus says. John comments through the Spirit in the following verse, “But this He said in reference to the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.“

The Holy Spirit is most truly the Gift and Promise of the gospel of God to all who believes and trust in Jesus Christ as their Savior (Acts 2:33). And Jesus in saving a soul, saves the whole person, entirely, and for all eternity, including past sins. And His Spirit, now dwelling within the believer, makes this salvation so real, personal and experiential to the believer. And the Spirit of God and of Christ is doing this within the believer, in union with Christ.

I used to wonder about this particular passage of John’s gospel, and this wondrous experience of having “living waters flow out of the innermost being”. The heart is most certainly referred to here. What is at the core of the human being. The domain of the soul and spirit. That sacred inner temple which God has prepared for a dwelling for the Triune God when a soul comes to their senses, and realize through grace alone, and faith alone, that life is all about having an intimate relationship with Almighty God through the Person of the Son by the indwelling of the Spirit.

All the trees in the garden of life will not be equal to the Tree of Life, which is Christ Himself. Jesus makes a dramatic and “hard” statement to the Jews in chapter six of John’s gospel, 53 “Truly, truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. 55 For My flesh is real food, and My blood is real drink.”

It is impossible to understand what Jesus is saying, especially when we desire to hear how this verse relates to each one of us personally. How do we eat and drink of the flesh and blood of the Son of God?

Jesus is pretty explicit here. He says that “unless you eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man, you have no life in you.” We have a clue in Deuteronomy chapter eight, verse 3, “so that you might understand that man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.” This is within the context of God’s provision to the Israelites during the forty years of wandering in the desert.

Man lives by faith alone upon the grace of God alone. Jesus prepares His disciples to understand John 7:37 & 38, with His amazing statement in John 6:63, “The Spirit gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.“

The Spirit of God and of Christ is the chief means of grace to the believer of Christ. And the Spirit is identified with the Word of Christ. A close study of Eph 5:18 ff, “be filled with the Spirit” passage, and Col 3:16, “let the word of Christ dwell richly within you” passage will bring out the fantastic similarities of the effect and outcome.

Truly as Peter, inspired by the Holy Spirit, writes in 2 Pet 1:3 & 4, “His divine power has given us EVERYTHING that pertains to life and godliness (covering both psychosocial and physical/biological needs) THROUGH the knowledge (not head knowledge mind you, but personal and experiential intimacy) of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness.“

As the Spirit says in Rom 8:37, “we are MORE than conquerors through Him who loved us.“

Having Christ dwell in us by faith is to meditate upon His written word day and night. In the great Joshua of Joshuas, we meditate upon Him through His word. And the Spirit loves to mediate His grace to all who meditates upon the Bread of God from heaven. The Spirit gives to all liberally who feasts upon Him who gives living water to those who are thirsty.

The life of faith of the believer consists in daily, and continuously “drinking” by Verbalizing, Internalizing, and Personalizing the written word of God, and by faith with the energizing enablement of the Holy Spirit, partaking of the Christ who gives Himself to us so freely so that we may taste and see that He is good, and allow ourselves to be His channel and medium of blessing to other lost sheep.