John 17:6-8 I have revealed you to the ones you gave me from this world. They were always yours. You gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything I have is a gift from you, for I have passed on to them the message you gave me. They accepted it and know that I came from you, and they believe you sent me.
 
I remember years ago when I was at a transformative retreat, I was receiving a word from the Lord. I sat writing on the edge of a swelling river. It was beautiful and it was moving quickly for a river, and it was deep. There was a lot of rain and storming recently so the water was so high that it was moving trees back and forth that normally would not even be touched by the river.
 
I believe the Lord wanted me to swim uncomfortably out into the unpredictable waters. It was scary, but I did it. I didn’t have a change of clothes, but it was a sunny day, and I knew I would dry out just fine. I swam out and I swam back. I didn’t know what was under me or what was coming down the river at me.
 
Today as I reflect on that experience, I have thoughts. The river was flowing and it was high, God wanted me in the river, I was comfortable on the bank. There were long standing trees that were breaking and bending under the pressure of the river – God has no intention of me breaking and bending, but he wants me in the water and not on the bank.
 
I can (unlike a tree) tread the water and even swim in it. I can stand on the bank of his flow or I can get in.
 
Exactly what are we getting into, into the water or into John 17?
 
Jesus invited those that the Father gave him into the revelation of who the Father is. At the end of the journey with Jesus on earth, these who were chosen by the Father and received as a gift from the Father by Jesus, saw that there is an upstream.
 
With God there is always an upstream. God considers himself the source of the spring, the river’s origin.
 
Revelation 22:1-2 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
 
The Lord invites us into his river.
 
There is an upstream and a down-stream. There are those whom we have received from and those who will receive the water from us. It flows from the father through the Son, Jesus Christ. And it always will. That is what Revelation 22:1-2 is telling us. The river of life flowing from the throne will always flow because God is the source, and he lives to give.
 
The prayer of Jesus in John 17 is a picture of that flow. Here is another declaration made by Jesus about the river.
 
John 4:14 “…but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
 
From the Father to Jesus. From Jesus to the Apostles. From the Apostles to the early church leaders. And now here we all are.
 
The church is not broken or impotent, although parts of it are. God is, to this day, reaching people across the world through the river that he is. From he who sits on the throne all the way to you. And it is his intention to flow through you into the next generation.
 
Jesus at 33 years old fixed his eyes on the next generation that would come after him.
 
John 14:12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.”
 
If you listen to the words of Jesus closely, you can hear the flow from the Father, through himself right into you.
 
Are you open to the river of life?
 
Father, we indeed are open to the revelation of who you are that came through your precious Son Jesus. We desire to be in that flow for eternity. Thank you for considering us. Thank you for making a way for us through Jesus your Son. How grateful we are.
 
Blessings,
Pastor D