Overflowing with Living Water

In this chapter we will consider several outreach promises which motivate you to witness about your Savior. There are many more where these came from. "Oooh! Aaah!" you'll exclaim when you continue to find outreach promises in your own Bible reading.

Hiking and talking. A missionary to Japan told me about a profound conversation between two Japanese believers. The ideas exchanged between them are dramatized in the following fictional account.

Rieko and Suzuki-san had spent a pleasant morning hiking in the mountains. Now they relaxed at a small restaurant beside a mountain stream.

Once the food was served, Suzuki-san spoke up. "Rieko, my dear" she addressed the younger woman affectionately, "I invited you on this excursion, because recently you appear less cheerful in your faith. Am I correct about this? Is something wrong?"

"You know me well, Suzuki-san. Six months ago, I confessed faith in God and was baptized into His holy name. What joy I had then," Rieko's eyes danced, and she giggled as you might expect from a teenager, which she was. Then her eyes dimmed, "But in the last month, my life in Christ has seemed dry, predictable--

"And stagnant?" the older woman ventured.

"Yes, that's the perfect word. How did you know?"

"I have seen it before in other new believers. Some have drifted far from their Savior. I don't want that to happen to you, Rieko. May I share some wisdom with you?"

"Yes, please do."

"Diligently you have worked to fill your heart with Bible verses, hymns, doctrines, and prayers. But now you say you feel stagnant." Suzuki-san lifted the teapot, "More tea?"

"Yes, please," Rieko set her teacup down for Suzuki-san to fill. The older woman poured and poured, overflowing quite a bit of tea onto the table cloth. Rieko looked away, embarrassed for the ineptitude of her elder.

"Which teacup are you?" Suzuki-san quizzed, pointing to her own cup, filled to the brim, and then to Rieko's overflowed cup.

Flustered, Rieko asked, "What do you mean?"

"Rieko, you are like my cup here, properly filled to the brim with truths about the Lord your God. But Christ provides you with enough to overflow. He said, 'Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him' (Jn. 7:38-39). This refers to the Holy Spirit. Christ also said, 'I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full' (Jn. 10:10). The phrase 'to the full' means to have a surplus, more than you need for yourself. Our Lord supplies you so plentifully that you are free to overflow, to splash the life you have been given on the unbelievers you know. Living this way, the Holy Spirit will refresh both you and others, and your faith will not be stagnant."

Suzuki-san paused, permitting Rieko time to reflect. For a few minutes the young woman gazed at the rushing stream by their side. "I think I understand," her face brightened. "If this stream were damned up, it would become polluted, but as long as it flows, it remains pure. God placed His Holy Spirit in me not for me to hoard, but to flow through me to others. But how do I do that, Suzuki-san? Speaking up about Jesus is a difficult task for me"

"Often Christians think that sharing their faith requires always saying the perfect thing at the perfect time. That is too difficult for us. We never learn perfectly, and the perfect moment never seems to come. So we say nothing."

"I have made that mistake," Rieko admitted. "So what is the right way?"

"To realize that witnessing is far more than a human activity. It is God's work done through us. Witnessing is yielding ourselves to Christ and to the Holy Spirit, so they may testify through us."

Supporting verses. Suzuki-san led Rieko through a discussion of several more verses, including these.

I will pour our my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit (Joel 2:28-29).

I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing (Jn. 15:5).

You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem... and to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8).
Then the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Sovereign LORD, when I show myself holy through you before their eyes (Ezek. 36:23).

With each verse Suzuki-san stressed that, while Christians play an active role in testifying about Christ, God Himself is the main actor. She concluded, "Rieko, we are like someone following the lead of a dance partner. We don't need to do witnessing; we simply are His witnesses, as we follow His lead. Do you understand how this takes the pressure off of us?"

"Yes, I think so. But I have one other concern. I am only one person. We Christians in Japan are barely one percent of the population. So much needs to be done to reach so many. I feel like I should be doing the work of a hundred persons, but I don't know if I can bear such a burden."

"Then give it to God, who alone can bear it." Suzuki-san looked past the hills to a dark blue line on the distant horizon. "Isn't it amazing, Rieko," she reflected, how this little mountain stream fills the whole Pacific Ocean.

Rieko laughed, "You are playing games with me again. This little stream doesn't fill the ocean. On our hike we crossed a dozen streams. There are thousands of them in Japan and millions in other lands. It takes many streams to fill the ocean."

"You are but one stream from which God's Spirit flows. God does not call you to fill the ocean of need in Japan or in the whole world. He only calls you to refresh those you pass along your way. If we all do our one-stream-sized part, God will accomplish His plan to refresh the nations."

"Your wise words remind me of a verse I love: "For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea" (Hab. 2:14).

"How true," Suzuki-san agreed. "Thank you for splashing that promise on me."

Prayer: Lord, cause me to overflow with Your life and Your love.
Action: Whenever you face a witnessing opportunity, remind yourself, "This is a job for God--who works through me."

Best Case Scenarios

He vowed he was willing to die for Christ.
Then he was alone fearing enemies on every side.
He was offered a chance to declare his faith in Christ.
But he denied he had ever met his Lord.
When the rooster crowed, he wept bitterly.

This story is no outreach promise. It's an outreach disaster! It makes us quiver and question: "If Peter, Jesus' most solid disciple, cracked under pressure, what hope is there for me?"

Worst-case scenarios. Why did Peter falter? When he imagined what would happen, all he could picture was rejection and danger. He was incapacitated by his worst-case scenarios.

Use your imagination for a moment. What bad things might have occurred if Peter had spoken up about Christ?

Think of a time when you lacked the courage to witness. What worst-case scenarios hampered you?

Best-case scenarios. Use your imagination again, but this time focus on best-case scenarios. What good things might have occurred if Peter had witnessed about Christ?

Worst-case scenarios paralyze us. Best-case scenarios motivate us to take risks. God's outreach promises are best-case scenarios. Read the following promises and apply them to an outreach frustration you presently are facing. Perhaps they will help you picture a best-case scenario.

The [gospel] promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off--for all whom the Lord our God will call (Acts 2:39).

Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12. Hint: invert the thought to a positive statement.).

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you might declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light (1 Pt. 2:9).

Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us (1 Pt. 2:12).

Wives, in the same way be submissive to your husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, when they see the purity and reverence of your lives (1 Pt. 3:1-2).

What best-case scenario occurred to you as you reflected on these verses?

A surprise. Did you notice who stated all these outreach promises? Peter. The same fellow who denied Christ later proclaimed Him boldly and taught others to do the same.

Wow! Peter was lifted from tragedy to triumph, because Christ, in His grace and mercy, restored Peter as His disciple. Perhaps even Peter's outreach disaster is a sort of round-about outreach promise. If Christ could restore him, then He will restore you too when you repent of your failures to share His love.

Prayer: Father, remove my blindness to the good results You intend to accomplish through my simple witness.
Action: Begin to act upon the best-case scenario you visualized.

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society.