What is Living Water?

Audio Version

In John Chapter four we see Jesus purposely traveling to the city of Samaria near the place that Jacob’s well was located. Jesus was tired from His journey and sat down to rest.

There came a woman from the city of Samaria to get water from the well. Jesus therefore asked the woman for a drink of water. The woman who noticed that Jesus was Jewish and that Jewish people didn’t have anything to do with Samaritan people, was very surprised that this stranger would speak to her (herself a Samaritan).

This may seem strange to people in our generation especially in the free world where it is believed in general that all are equal. However, in the past and still in many parts to today’s world there is much prejudice and even hatred over people who are different than the mainstream.
 
Jesus though is different, He doesn’t know the word hate. He went purposely to this place to give the gift of living water or eternal life to this one lone woman. The Jews in that day didn’t associate with Samaritans. The woman asked Jesus why He would ask a drink of her who was a Samaritan.

Jesus bypassed that issue entirely because He didn’t come to that place to crusade for Jewish – Samaritan relationships; He came to save the lost. This is an issue today’s church needs to return to. We can get into civil rights, politics, saving the environment, and other social issues so deep that the individual salvation of souls takes a back seat.

People are lost. They need to be saved and receive that living water which will give them entrance into eternal life. This is for real. We can get so concerned with trying to live this life and pursue the things in this life that the eternal soul remains in darkness and is separated from God.

Jesus then told the woman that if she only knew who it was that she was talking to, she could only ask and He would give her living water in which the partaking of would cause her to have eternal life. It was literally a well of living water that would spring up within her soul and cause her to receive life eternal.

Eternal life would mean that at the point of her natural death, her soul would leave her body and go to be with the Lord to await the resurrection of the body. “To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.” This “Living Water” was not literal water that would cause her body never to suffer natural thirst if she went a few hours without water. This “Living Water” referred to that which comes into us by the Holy Spirit of God when we believe in Jesus.

Jesus said in John 14 that “If a man love me, he will keep my word: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.”

Imagine that for one minute. If we love Him, we will keep His words. The Father in Heaven will love us and come and abide within us. The Father and the Son of God abide within a believer by the presence of the Holy Spirit. This is what Jesus is speaking of when He talks of the living water. This is another way of saying that we must be born again by God’s spirit to be saved. This living water is a well springing up within us that changes our entire life and makes us a new person.

To receive this “Living Water” we first believe in Jesus Christ as Lord, savior, Messiah and then we believe His words. This opens the door and will allow Him into our lives. As we do this, our sins are washed away. All things become new and we are “Born Again” by God’s spirit. We are not merely accepting a religion called Christianity. This is not another religion. This is a cleansing, washing, renewing and the saving of our soul.

The women then asked Jesus, how He could give her the living water when He had nothing to draw water with. He had no bucket or pail in which to get water from the well.

“Jesus answered and said unto her, every one that drinks of this water shall thirst again:
But whosoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up unto eternal life.”

The woman right away wanted this living water and proceeded to ask Him for this living water. Then Jesus seems to change the subject.

“ The woman said unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come all the way hither to draw. "

Jesus said unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither.
The woman answered and said unto him, I have no husband.
Jesus said unto her, Thou said well, I have no husband:
for thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now
hast is not thy husband: this hast thou said truly. “

Jesus was wanting to give this woman the living water that would save her soul but He had to get rid of the sin first.

Sin is what separates us from God. When Adam disobeyed the word of God in the beginning of creation, He allowed both physical death and eternal separation from God to result and to come upon all mankind. Now all of us are born with a natural instinct to sin. That sin makes us separate from a Holy God. To reverse this awful curse that came upon mankind, a just perfect man had to suffer the penalty of death without having sinned himself. The Bible says that the soul that sins, shall die. That means to die physically first; then have the soul enter eternity in a place for departed spirits that do not know God. We call that place hell. The spirit and soul of all of us does not go out of existence. It will be somewhere, in either heaven or hell. The soul is the part of us that needs to be saved.

By man sin entered the world so only a man can reverse that curse. But the sad thing is, we are all born with this tendency to sin that we inherit from Adam. There is no way a natural born man can live his entire life without once committing a sin. Sin is transgression of the law of God. All of us have sinned and are separated from God.

This is why God send His own divine eternal Son to become flesh. Jesus came into human flesh, was born into the world by way of a virgin that had never known man. The Holy Spirit placed the seed within Mary and the one born of her was God but was also man. “God in the flesh” or “God with us”. No natural man could be this savior because he would sin sooner or later. It had to be God but also a man of flesh and blood.

Jesus lived His entire life without breaking the law of God even once. He did not sin. When Jesus was crucified as a criminal, He allowed Himself to suffer death paying the penalty for sin that He didn’t commit. Since He was innocent of any sin, the penalty He paid can be transferred to us who believe in Him. He paid the penalty for us who believe.

We still have to suffer a temporary natural death but the minute we believe in Him, we are reconciled back to God and are no longer separated from God. How can this be?

Before we believe, sin is separating us from God. The penalty for sin is death. When Jesus died on the cross, He shed blood. This blood is what cleanses us from sin. When we believe in Him we are in reality repenting of sin or turning away from sin. His blood is applied to us and covers our sin. With the sin cleansed, we are then brought back into a right relationship with our creator. Then and only then can we have that “Living Water”. Then and only then can we be “Born Again” by the spirit of God.

This is why Jesus asked the woman about her husband and how she was living. He wanted to point out her sin so that she could come to repentance and be changed. She then would receive immediately the living water she asked for.

The woman at first tried to change the subject to where and when to worship but Jesus began speaking to her about worshipping in spirit and in truth instead of worrying about the place or religious rituals. This new and living way involves worshipping in Spirit and in Truth.

It would seem as if the woman believed what she was hearing because she immediately went into the city to proclaim the good news to others. This story can be found at the link at the bottom of this page in the KJV.

It is God’s will for all to be saved. We do not have to die in our sins. Without Jesus, we will die in our sins.

John 8:24 I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for except ye believe that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.

When Jesus said that if they did not believe , “I am He” He meant that they must believe that He was the Christ, the Savior sent from God to save from sin. Jesus saves us from our sin, not in our sin. We are to go and sin no more. We are cleansed from sin, not cleansed to go back and sin again. The Holy Spirit (Living Water) and also the cleansing that comes by the reading of the word of God, will help us to get victory over future temptations that Satan will try to do to get us to return to sin.

This is all ours by simple child like faith in Jesus as our Savior and Lord of our lives.

1. Forgiveness of sin
2. Cleansing from sin.
3. New Birth (Living Water) by the Spirit of God.
4. Reconciliation back into the Fellowship of God. God is now with us by the presence of the Holy Spirit.
5. Sanctification (Setting apart ourselves for God and no longer bound by the desires of the flesh or the world) by the Spirit of God.
6. The Baptism (complete immersion by the Spirit of God) of the Holy Spirit.
7. Eternal life in which our old bodies will be changed into bodies that can never die.

Salvation is just the beginning of many spirit blessings from God. Yes, we are saved from sin and granted this living water the springs up within our very souls. But there is more and more as we study God’s word and continually seek His face. We lose our desire for the world and the things that we once desired.

This may not happen all at once. Some of us take more time than others but the joy of our salvation can be with us continually as we begin to seek God. The Holy Spirit sheds the love of God into our innermost being. Satan will try to rob us of that but we must be steadfast and continually seek to be filled with the Spirit so that we do not give into the temptation to return to sin, allow roots of bitterness, or unbelief to enter our lives again.

We must always seek to be filled with the spirit. There is always a continuous supply of the Holy Spirit for it is like a spring or well of living water to fill us and refill us over and over again.

We can read the book of Acts and see where the apostles were filled with the spirit and with joy more than one time.

If you have made a commitment at this time and have received this gift of salvation, please write and let others know. This will not be published online unless you request it. Write to:

webmaster@lwlighthouse.com.

For the complete scripture of the John Chapter four about the Living Water, you can read it:

HERE.