EXTRACT – LIVING WATER

But I want now to say a little on what the power is. You see, as I have already said, it is not only that Christ died and bore the judgment, but He is risen; and if He has died and risen, there is an end before God of the man who was under the judgment of God. But you must have a link with Him as risen. What is that link? How are you connected with Christ? By the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God is your bond with Christ risen; "if any one has not the Spirit of Christ, he is not of him", Rom.8:9. I believe there are a great many who believe that Christ died, and are really converted, but who have not laid hold of Him as risen from the dead, and they have not got the answer to faith in Him risen.

The answer that the Lord gives to you if you see Him risen, is the living water; "whosoever drinks of the water which I shall give him shall never thirst for ever, but the water which I shall give him shall become in him a fountain of water, springing up into eternal life", John 4:14. "If any one thirst, let him come to me and drink. He that believes on me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this he said concerning the Spirit, which they that believed on him were about to receive", John 7:37-39. Now what is the effect in a man who gets this living water? It is this: he turns right round and takes a new course altogether. I could furnish examples of it even in my own experience. I have seen a man, in a moment, without taking an hour to think of it, turn right round and take a new course, making no question of difficulties, or of anything, but taking an entirely new course. And why? Because he had laid hold of Christ risen. What enabled him to do it? He has got the power of God. The Holy Spirit is the power that can put you beyond the influence of all your natural proclivities, whatever they may be; whether it be the club, or politics, or music, you will go diametrically contrary to your former tastes. The taste which once commanded you, you will command, as this poor palsied man was enabled to carry the bed on which he lay. That is what the gospel and the power of Christ can do for you. It can put you entirely beyond your natural inclinations; no matter what they are, you now go the other way. You have got to God, and you turn from the thing that would keep you from God.

J.B. Stoney Vol.6 pp. 186,187