From “Feast of Tabernacles,” Chapter 14- Tabernacles – The Feast of His Appearing, continued
OURS IS A LEAPING FOUNTAIN
“A well of water leaping up into everlasting life (Jn. 4:14). This is Christ’s promise to His people. We do not write for the purpose of settling any doctrinal disputes: but simply for those whose souls are thirsting for this living stream. If men are content with their Passover experience, this is not for them. If they are satisfied with their Pentecost experience, this is not for them. Such contentment only proves that the Rivers of Living Water have ceased to flow from their souls; for this Fountain that Christ places within, if not cluttered up with the mire of the Philistines, is a Fountain that is constantly leaping up into everlasting life. Thank God for every measure of truth and power and glory that God has restored to the Church from the Reformation until now. But let it flow, child of God,–let it surge forward until it becomes a mighty Amazon in this desert-world of sin, sickness, and sorrow.
Said Jesus, “Out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.” We are not looking forward, then, to some strange, foreign power . . . some glory or some experience that does not really belong to us. But we are awaiting the release of the Divine flow which is now locked up in the hearts of God’s people. We are “A spring shut up, a fountain sealed . . .” The Church has passed through a long, cold, arduous, and barren winter. But the All-wise God has been the author of the winter; for He is working out a great and a mighty plan:
“He giveth snow like wool: he scattereth the hoar frost like ashes. He casteth forth his ice like morsels: who can stand before his cold?” (Ps. 147:16,17).
Yes, the winter has been upon the Church for centuries. We could not understand it; but God has intended it for the glory and the triumph of those who shall be living in the day of Spring! Already we can see the firstfruits of Spring and the banishment of winter: “He sendeth out his word, and melteth them: he causeth his wind to blow, and the waters flow . . . He hath not dealt so with any nation” (Ps. 147: 18,20).
The breezes of the Spirit are gently sweeping through the Church; and with the winds of the Spirit, and the illumination of the Sun of Righteousness, there is a melting. The ice and the snow and the frost are melting, and dissolving, and flowing together–to form this living stream from Lebanon. Therefore, let us even now begin to rejoice in the New Day of Spring, as the first rays of hope arise on the Eastern horizon:
“Lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land; The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away” (Song 2:11-13). GHW
Late Harvest Wesleyan Ministries 