River Rafting 101 Series

Series: Let the river flow pt 2/3

John 7:37-39 “Jesus has the life giving water!”

• 37…Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. 38Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” 39By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive…

• How thirsty are you for this water of life?

Revelation 22:1-2 “It flows from the throne of God and the Lamb to bring life, and healing to the nations.”

• 1Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.

• Where is the original source of this life giving water found? – In Heaven! – In the Holy City! – Inside of you if you are a believer!

• It starts and flows out of the throne of God and the Lamb and it flows from His throne and it brings eternal life and healing to all who drink it and soak in it.

So what holds back this life giving water today?

• How are spiritual dams erected? These dams are manmade structures which hinder or even stop the flow of this life giving water.

• Paul warns us in 1 Thessalonians 5 not to block the flow of the river of the Spirit!

• I Thess. 5:19: “Do not put out the Spirit’s fire.”

• The Apostle Paul lists several things here which will block –hinder or even stop the flow of the water of life into a church, a community, a family or even a person’s life.

• Remember – the water of life represents the Spirit of the Lord- the Holy Spirit!

The dream

• Share the repeated dream you had and the vision from the Lord for Christian Hills and the community.

• The dam represents what man does to flowing water -- they dam it up and stop the flow of the river and in so doing – it causes things to die because of the lack of water. The nutrients which sustain life are blocked from parts of the river bed and therefore it dies.

• Mankind is known for building dams to stop or hinder the flow of water – now the same is true spiritually – when men or women start adding to the Word of God or taking away from the Word of God or even create man made rules and regulations we in essence erect a dam that hinders the flow of the Spirit into our churches, our community and our own lives.

• We actually can block the flow of the water which sustains our spiritual lives and therefore we slowly dry up and eventually die spiritually.

• Last week I had an analogy illustration of a dam: I had a symbol of the vision and the dream –We had a wall which looked like dam – we had water – we hit with hammers, money, bats and even sledge hammers –We saw the trickles from the cracks in the wall – we learned how to break down the dam- we discovered how to release the flow of the Holy Spirit and the River of Life into our community, our lives, our families and even our church.

• We talked about some of the blocks which hinder the flow of the Spirit – We looked at 1 Thess. 5: 12-28:

• Final Instructions

12Now we ask you, brothers, to respect those who work hard among you, who are over you in the Lord and who admonish you.

13Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other.

14And we urge you, brothers, warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone.

15Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else.

16Be joyful always;

17pray continually;

18give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

19Do not put out the Spirit’s fire;

20do not treat prophecies with contempt.

21Test everything. Hold on to the good.

22Avoid every kind of evil.

23May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

24The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.