Rivers Of Living Water

Several countries in Southeast Asia celebrate the regional new year with a water festival. Traditionally, people sprinkle each other with water as a sign of respect and blessing, but many people intensify it with wild, joyful, boisterous dousing of anybody and everybody with water. Walk or drive down the streets during those days and you might be accosted with garden hoses, water cannons, water pistols, or even bowls and cups filled with water. It is raucous. It is fun. It is vivid. Everyone knows it is out with the old, in with the new.

Water was a key feature of the ancient Jewish festival called the Feast of Tabernacles. For the first seven days of the festival, with trumpets blowing, a priest would take water from the Pool of Siloam and carry it through the streets in a golden vessel, eventually delivering it to the altar in the temple.

Jesus was in Jerusalem during the Feast of Tabernacles, when, on the climactic day of the festival, he stood up and shouted out, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them” (John 7:37–38). The Gospel of John then has this explanation: “By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive” (John 7:39).


“Influence” means something hidden flowing out in order to affect others. Jesus talked about the spiritual reality of a person taking in the life of God and then having “rivers of living water flow from within them.” This is a wonderful description of spiritual influence–not the kind of thing you will hear at a leadership training seminar while you sit on an uncomfortable seat at a long table in a hotel somewhere–but perhaps the most important principle you will ever get anywhere to deepen your ability to serve and lead others. You seek the “flowing in” of the truth and life of God, and it flows out to the eternal benefit of others. Amazing. What would happen to the quality of our leadership if we committed ourselves entirely to this dynamic? What if we really believed that we “will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail” (Isa. 58:11)?

John 7:37-38

New International Version (NIV)

³⁷ On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. ³⁸ Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”^[a]

Footnotes:

1. John 7:38 Or me. And let anyone drink ³⁸ who believes in me.” As Scripture has said, “Out of him (or them) will flow rivers of living water.”

John 7:39

New International Version (NIV)

³⁹ By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.

Isaiah 58:11

New International Version (NIV)

¹¹ The Lord will guide you always;
    he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
    and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
    like a spring whose waters never fail.

TAKE AWAY – We all need to be better influences in our work, our families, our leadership, our churches, our communities. You are invited to an online seminar called “Deepen Your Influence” starting next week.Information HERE.

“Deepen Your Influence – The Online Seminar”

In life and in leadership we all want to have a stronger, deeper, and better influence.

We should—and we can.

You are invited to follow along with “Deepen Your Influence – the Online Seminar” beginning in the next couple of weeks. This is not a webinar or a class, but a gradually unfolding learning and networking experience over an 8-week period, ending in December. There are no scheduled sessions. You will be able to follow the steps of the seminar on your own time.

“Deepen Your Influence – the Online Seminar” will help you in four specific ways:

1) “Getting Grounded” focusses on strengthening your spiritual roots; 2) “Taking Initiative” shows how you can deepen your influence through your spiritual resources; 3) “Going Deep” reveals your potential power to produce enduring influence; and 4) “Facing Challenges” will help you get through difficulties and discouragements that prevent you from being a deeper influence.

How will this “online seminar” work? Very simply.

How will this “online seminar” work? Very simply.

If you sign up, in the 8-week period beginning the week of October 15 you will receive a series of emails that will lead you step-by-step through the seminar.You will learn through four kinds of experiences…

1) READING SEGMENTS: Over 8 weeks you will gradually read through Spiritual Influence: the Hidden Power Behind Leadership by Mel Lawrenz (Zondervan, 2012). This will only take you about one hour a week. (Information about the book HERE.)

Scot McKnight (Jesus Creed) calls this book “a missional view of leadership.” Skye Jethani (Senior Editor, Leadership Journal) says “we need help understanding how to lead effective, transformative change in [all our] callings. For that reason I am incredibly grateful for Spiritual Influence.” Mark Batterson (Pastor, National Community Church, Washington, D.C.) says “it is exciting to think about believers at every level of society rising to a new call to exercise powerful spiritual influence…. Mel Lawrenz has given us all a new baseline for leadership that is personal, wise, and spiritual.” One reader commented: “it was like someone threw open all the windows and let the fresh air clear out the musty places. It left me changed and changing.”

2) VIDEO INSTRUCTION: In the emails you will get links to 20-minute videos on the four themes of “Deepen Your Influence.” You will view one 20-minute video every other week.