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Today Pastor Richard preached a timely message on the river of life, and how to have it flowing through you. If for nothing else, I knew I needed to write it here for posterity's sake, because I for one found it extremely helpful (though I hope you will too).

At both the very start and end of the Bible we hear about "a river watering the garden [that] flowed from Eden" (Gen 2:10), filled with "the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb..." (Rev 22:1). I had personally never noticed it, or I may have unwisely dismissed it as some unusually salubrious garden stream, but this river has a far more profound meaning; it flows from God and the Lamb giving life, and we ourselves can tap into it to have the life of God directly flowing through us by his Spirit.

There's nowhere else you'd want to be. If we can just get ourselves healthy, the rest will take care of itself. If we can just immerse ourselves in the river of life we'll experience God's full favour and blessing, which is an attractive place to be! After all, God's plan for us is good, always good, remember; it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. (Gal 5:1)

So how do we get into the river (as opposing to impeding its flow)? Richard looked to the story of Adam and Eve's original sin (Gen Chap 3), and came out with these three principles:


1) We need to put revelation in front of reason

To Adam and Eve, the serpent actually seemed an innocent being. To them, it was just another God-created animal dwelling in the perfect paradise they lived in, with no particularly evil or deceitful stigma to give away its destructive plan. The first problem there is that, in trusting him and not God, they put the created in front of the creator, and that immediately impedes the flow of life.

But more importantly, they put their reason, their own ideas, their own intellectual and logical faculties, ahead of the God-given revelation that they had previously been living by. By assuming themselves to know better than their Creator, they brought about their own downfall.

The point is that sometimes we have to let reason go and be committed to forgive, love, trust, sincerely engage with people, even if it doing so doesn't agree with our presupposed reason. In our relationship with God, we need to commit to seeking His revelation, and to live by it. There, we find the flow of life.


2) We need to put relationships before knowledge

When you put knowledge before relationships, it will amount to a stop of the flow. To look at Adam and Eve's downfall again, what they were seeking was a greater knowledge of good and evil, despite their (suppressed) awareness that seeking this knowledge would jeopardise their healthy relationship with their Father in Heaven.

The principle to take from this is that when we pursue knowledge we need to ask ourselves, 'is this knowledge going to help me love others and/or love God?' (This is where a not-to-do list can be helpful - is anything in your life not helping you to love others?). Knowledge must serve love, not the other way around. Certainly, knowledge can aid and empower love, but not if it is self-seeking and the loving part comes as an afterthought.

God wants us to pursue the furthering of relationships with others, as this is what will facilitate the flow of life. Sometimes it can mean changing yourself to better your relationship with someone you'd been stubbornly insisting should change for you. If you really want to please our people-loving relationship-valuing God, why not just love the people in your world?


3) Pure and simple devotion to Jesus

Adam and Eve, instead of choosing to remain in what was simple, in eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, chose complexity. Paul writes; "but I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ (NIV) / that simplicity that is in Christ (KJV). (2 Cor 11:3)

We need to move away from complexity and towards simplicity. In reaching out to others in need, this can mean that instead of striving for complex answers to why there is a need, we find out what can be done to help.

Ultimately, what really matters is your pure and simple devotion to Christ. It will change everything. If you have a pure and simple devotion to Christ you can connect with anyone, because you'll no longer be trying to convince someone of your conviction, but instead you'll see them as instrinsically valuable just as Jesus does, and together you'll enter into a place of shared conviction.

Want to have the river of the water of life flowing through you? The answer is a simple and pure devotion to Jesus.


love,
dan.

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