“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so My ways are higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts. For just as rain and snow fall from heaven and do not return without watering the earth, making it bud and sprout, and providing seed to sow and food to eat, so My word that proceeds from My mouth will not return to Me empty, but it will accomplish what I please, and it will prosper where I send it.” Isaiah 55:10-11
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her to sanctify her, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to Himself as a glorious church, without stain or wrinkle or any such blemish, but holy and blameless. Ephesians 5:25-27
Jeremiah 17:13 refers to Him as “the LORD, the fountain of living water.”
Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again. But whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up to eternal life.” John 4:13-14
“… If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said: ‘Streams of living water will flow from within him.’” John 7:37-38
Where I live, it rains an average of less than 20 inches / year. There are 264 days (on average) of sunshine. In comparison, the U.S. average sunshine days are 205. I share these statistics to say that it doesn’t rain much where I live.
Over the past couple of weeks we’ve enjoyed more clouds, rain, fog / wet than usual. The smell of the moisture in the air, the sound of rain drops on the roof and / or windshield, the splash of water puddles …. I am enjoying these gifts!
Water is essential to life. Life on this planet cannot be sustained without water. The human body is about 60% water. So many things go wrong when we get dehydrated. In nature the trees, grass, plants of all kinds, crops will wither and die without consistently being watered. Wildlife migrates and congregates around water sources.
Truly, the ecology of our planet is founded upon and revolves around the supply of water.
I believe that everything in the created natural realm represents an unseen eternal reality. In Isaiah chapter 55, God equates rain / snow to His word, that “just as rain and snow fall from heaven and do not return without watering the earth, …. so My word that proceeds from My mouth will not return to Me empty, but it will accomplish what I please, and it will prosper where I send it.”
So, when it rains, providing what is needed in the natural realm, I think of Him sending His Word, cleansing His bride with the washing of the water of His word (Ephesians 5), providing what is needed in our spirits and souls, as well.
The prophet Jeremiah refers to the LORD as the fountain of living water. I think of a fountain as the head water, the source of the flow of water. Jesus tells the Samaritan woman at the well that whoever drinks of the water He provides will never thirst again. And later, at the Feast of Tabernacles (John 7), Jesus stands up and declares that whoever believes in Him, “Streams of living water will flow from within him.”
Just as life is sustained by water in the natural realm, so it is in the unseen realm. His Word washes, cleanses, nourishes, renews, and sustains us as rivers of His living water spring up and flow within us, from Him – the fountain of life.
I love the rain!
