For the last few months Holy Spirit has been bringing me back to the phrase in the New Testament, “the River of Life” or “the River of Living Water.” Over and over again the imagery of Living Water and the mentions of it in God’s Word kept flooding my heart and mind. It started when I visited a church in DC and they sang the song, “Fountains,” written by Josh Baldwin. I had not sung this song in years, but as we sang the lyrics about our Living Water and the Fountain that never runs dry, unrelenting tears flowed. In a moment I realized this song was leading me to the next Name of God I would paint. 
 
Now before I start, I always like to find out when these Names of God are first mentioned. The very first time Jesus refers to Himself as the Living Water is in John 4:10-14, when he spoke with a Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well. When Jesus came to the woman at the well, he said, "If you knew who was talking to you, you would ask, and he would give you living water." Now what it is interesting to note is John uses the word "well" in the passage twice. The first mention of the well, the well of Jacob, is phrear and it means a cistern, a holding tank. But then he said to her later, “The water that I put inside of you will be a well springing up of living water,” and that's a different word, that's pege, which means an artesian well. In other words, a fountain. 
 
Most translators use the word “well” twice in that passage, but you completely miss the meaning of what Jesus is saying if you don't understand that He is using two different words there. You have the phrear, the cistern, and then you have pege, the artesian gushing well. What Jesus was saying was, “I want you to be a gushing well, I want you to have something in you, that's alive. I don’t want just a holding tank for what I did way back then with Jacob, but something now. The living water standing in front of you is ready to be put it inside of you. If you knew who you were talking to, you would have asked Me for it and I would give it to you.” 
 
The next time Jesus refers to Himself as the Living Water is three chapters later, in John chapter 7, during the feast of Tabernacles. Jesus is watching them perform one of the ceremonies in the temple. In this ritual they would take water and would put it in a pitcher and they would pour it out and would chant scriptures from the Old Testament. And Jesus, as always, just delighted in interrupting and upsetting them. He has the audacity, in this sacred feast, with the people reverently watching this procedure to stand up and says, "Hey! If anybody's thirsty, come to me and drink." Can you imagine what this was like for them? I’m sure they were so confused. To their hardened hearts He was announcing, “All of this that you're doing is a picture of me. I'm the water. I've come to put my living water in you - not some ritual, not just Jacob's cistern. I want to put Myself in you and bubble up inside of you with living water.”
 
Every verb in those verses is present tense and imperative. So every verb means you do this “continually.” The form of the word means it is a command, not a suggestion. So to paraphrase what He said: “To those who are thirsty, really thirsty, continuously thirsty, let them come to Me. You must come to Me and you must keep on coming to Me and drink My water and keep on drinking My water. I'm not suggesting that you drink my water. I'm commanding you: you need to drink the water that I'm bringing. If you do, out of your belly is a fountain that will flow and keep on flowing. If you drink this water and keep on drinking this water because you're thirsty and you continue to be thirsty I will keep pouring it into you and it will keep flowing out of you.”
 
In John 7:38 He says, “He who believes in Me, as the scriptures said, ‘From his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.” The word “innermost being” is koilia in the Greek. It means womb, matrix, innermost being…the place inside a woman that carries a baby, reproduces and brings forth life. This isn’t just a one-time thing. This kind of life reproduces! 
 
Again here is a paraphrase of what Jesus was trying to communicate to them at the temple and to us now: "There's coming a time when you're going to be finished with these pitchers and all these rituals because I'm going to come and show you what this was all about. I'm going to put Me in you and the river of life's going to start bubbling up inside of you and I'm going to command it to flow out of you! So you're going to keep coming, you're going to keep drinking, you're going to keep flowing.” 
 
Now we have to understand that the Living Water there in John 4 with the woman at the well, is also the exact same phrase in Greek as the River of Living Water in Revelation 22. The very same river flowing from the Lamb that will one day transform, restore and renew everything is the very same river that is supposed to be flowing out of us now! I believe God is raising up a remnant right now who will have this river from Revelation 22 flowing out of them everywhere they go. Church will not look the same any more. It will look like the book of Acts again and even greater. 
 
This is why I believe God has me paint this imagery of His hands pouring out His “Living Water” over the entire earth. In the past we have seen pockets of revival being released in the earth, but now I sense God is about to release a flood of His presence like never before to immerse the world in His cleansing, living water. It will be like the Days of Noah once again. For some this will mean Judgment, but for those are thirsty, it will mean Salvation. 
 
Friends as we enter this new year, let us be those who are thirsting for the Living Water, those who will keep coming, keep drinking and keep flowing with Him. Nothing else satisfies like He does and our only Hope is in Him. Will you join me and sing the words from the song that started me on this journey?