Let The River Flow - The One Year Praying the Promises of God

Life will flourish wherever this water flows.

Ezekiel 47:9

In John’s revelation of heaven, he saw exactly what Ezekiel had seen in Ezekiel 47:3-5. “The angel showed me a river with the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb” (Revelation 22:1).

Jesus defined the river for us: “‘Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, “Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.”’ (When he said ‘living water,’ he was speaking of the Spirit)” (John 7:38-39).

Water is nearly always a symbol of the Spirit of God. Ezekiel learned that you can wade on the fringes where the water is ankle deep, or you can plunge into the depths. Where would you like to be?

Let your imagination loose. You’ve been hiking rough terrain. You are thirsty and wasted and desperate. Listen! Rushing water? Hope turns to anticipation as you run toward the sound and glimpse a river. Cool, fresh, sparkling water rushing in torrents through the landscape. Inviting you. Offering refreshment and relief. All you have to do is immerse yourself in it.

As you peel your shoes and your socks from your tortured feet, already you can feel the water’s spray touching you with the offer of renewal. Feel the water as it wraps your feet—your hot, tired, swollen feet. Ahh! Sit still and let the healing waters do their work.

The water courses around you, and you become more aware of its power. Now wade deeper. Walk out until the water is waist high. Not only do you experience the reenergizing effects of the river, but the deeper you go, the more you encounter its power and strength. Now you have to work harder to walk through the water. The river has a path and an agenda of its own, and it pulls at you. Hardest of all is to stand still in the mighty, rushing waters.

Deeper still. Now you have only one option: give yourself to the river’s flow. Surrender. God promises that life will flourish in the deep places.

Father, let me drown in you.

As rivers, the nearer they come to the ocean whither they tend, the more they increase their waters, and speed their streams; so will grace flow more fully and freely in its near approaches to the ocean of glory.

John Owen(1616–1683), English theologian