"The
water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of
water springing up into eternal life." (John
4:14)
"And Isaac digged again the well of water, which
they had digged in the days of Abraham his father; for
the Philistines had stopped them up..." (Genesis
26:18)
The Word makes it clear that from the Lord's side the
life of the Holy Spirit, with all its up-welling and
outflowing, should be a spontaneous thing. On God's side
there are no difficulties. So far as He is concerned
there is nothing more to be done to make possible the
reality of the well within. The very fact that when the
Lord Jesus ascended to glory in the power of a completed
and perfected work, the Holy Spirit spontaneously came
down from heaven, is proof that from God's side there was
nothing remaining to be done to effect that release. The
Lord had made full provision. On the other hand, though,
such a spontaneity of up-welling and outflowing of the
waters of the Spirit is not as general among Christians
as it should be. It is our intention to seek some
explanation of this limitation.
The well is there; the spring is provided. If we have
believed into Christ and truly belong to Him, then His
Spirit is present as the well within. There can be no
doubt about this if we are true believers. But we may
have seen a swampy patch, with all the evidences of water
but no freshness or flow, and have discovered that
although a spring existed, its water was interrupted by
some stone or obstacle which hindered its flow. This can
happen in human life. The spring of the Spirit may be
present, but with various obstructions lying heavily upon
it, preventing the outflow in a definite course.
Abraham was noted for the wells which he dug. He was a
man of faith, and faith always digs wells. The
Philistines, however, blocked them up with rubbish after
he died, so that his son, Isaac, had to unstop them.
Isaac speaks of the power of a risen life in union with
heaven, and this gives a good indication of the meaning
of the opened wells. The Old Testament type finds its
fulfilment in the Lord Jesus, the greater Isaac who, in
the power of His resurrection, ascension and heavenly
life, has opened up anew those fountains of the Spirit
which had been blocked and choked by many things which
were contrary to the will of God. The wells are opened in
His resurrection. The Spirit is now freely given. But we
have to see that no obstacles are allowed to hinder the
flow. Perhaps it will help us to do so, if we consider a
few of the hindrances which need to be removed if the
well within is to be unstopped and the water allowed to
flow freely.
HINDRANCES
IN THE REALM OF THE MIND
Firstly,
there are hindrances in the realm of the mind. We have
been told that man is quite unable to cope mentally with
the spiritual and heavenly things of God. For this reason
God has provided the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of truth,
of revelation and of spiritual knowledge. So there will
obviously be hindrances to the free flow of the Spirit if
we try to reason things out for ourselves instead of
heeding the Spirit-inspired Scriptures. If we try to
think things through ourselves, we become involved in all
sorts of problems and questions. We are specifically told
that: "the natural man receiveth not the things of
the Spirit of God... he cannot know them, because they
are spiritually judged" (1 Corinthians 2:14), a fact
which needs to be accepted and remembered by Christians
for themselves, as well as for the world around. There
will always arise moments of crisis or experiences full
of perplexity and seeming contradiction, for which the
only answer is that we must trust God. If we resolve that
we will reason the matter out, or if we turn to other men
for their explanations, we will never understand the ways
of God. His Word is our only source of light. It will, at
times, be hard to understand. It will, perhaps, be
difficult or even impossible to explain. But if we heed
its message we will be delivered from man's foolish
reasoning, and we will have lifted off a load of rubbish
which was blocking up the well within.
There are bound to be matters which defy analysis or
argument, for the ways of God are past finding out. The
real test is whether we will trust God when we cannot
fathom His ways; whether we will deliberately and
positively take up a position of faith reliance on His
faithfulness. Even that may not provide us with an answer
which satisfies our minds and solves all our intellectual
problems, but it will bring us that blessed peace which
is promised to those whose minds are stayed on the Lord.
This is just the opposite of the mind of the man who is
stayed on himself and his difficulty. "Thou wilt
keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee;
because he trusteth in thee" (Isaiah 26:3). It does
not say that his heart will be at peace because he knows
the answers to all the questions. No! The basic thing is
a faith attitude towards God's faithfulness. To act in
this way is to remove a big stone, and I venture to say
that it will clear the way for a new joy, and new peace
and a new strength. The Holy Spirit has been pent up,
blocked, hindered, arrested, by incessant reasonings of
the natural mind. He is released by the simple exercise
of a faith which feeds on God's Word and relies on His
faithfulness.
HINDRANCES
IN THE REALM OF THE HEART
There is
another possible realm of hindrances to the up-welling of
the Spirit, and this is the realm of the heart. The Holy
Spirit is also the Spirit of love. If there is coldness
towards the Lord, a lack of true devotion to Him, then
this is like a heavy stone which makes the life more like
a quagmire than a fresh spring. Any reserve which we
have, not in the knowing of God's will but in the
willingness to do it, will inevitably stem the flow of
the Spirit's power. It is always the work of God's enemy
to clog up our lives by introducing love of self or love
of the world, and it needs ruthless determination to
remove the accumulated rubbish and re-dig the well in
purity of devotion to Christ.
It may well be, though, that the hindrances arise from
lack of love to our fellow believers. We must remember
that the Holy Spirit can never have free course in us and
through us if we harbour unloving thoughts concerning
other of God's children, let alone put those thoughts
into actions. He is the Spirit of fellowship, so that if
we fail in that realm then we fail in the matter of love.
It is so easy to allow unworthy considerations to quench
brotherly love, to be clogged up with resentment or to be
wrongly influenced by our susceptibilities or hurt
feelings. What is more, we find it the easiest thing in
the world to say or hear unkind things about others,
things which put them in a bad light and somehow make us
feel self-righteous. We must not dismiss such matters as
unimportant, for although they may seem small in
themselves, they become the deposits which unite to clog
up the well of the Spirit.
This matter of personal relationships is one in which we
have to set ourselves definitely to digging out the
earthiness which stops up the wells of the Spirit. We
must refuse to speak and refuse to listen to those
critical accounts of other believers which would grieve
them if they heard and do grieve the Spirit who is always
present and who always hears. More than that, we have to
be active in positive cultivation of fellowship. To some
it is quite natural to be independent. For them deference
to others represents a major difficulty. Sometimes they
may deliberately ignore or despise others, but sometimes
they just prefer to do it alone and never seriously think
of inter-relatedness and inter-dependence.
The Word of God, however, is most explicit in ordering us
to esteem one another, to submit to one another and to
live and work together. The Holy Spirit demands that the
people of God live according to a team order of things,
that they should be governed by a family spirit. Anything
which is of an isolated or detached nature, which fails
to recognise and fully accept the family thought of God,
is a check on Him. By failing to observe fellowship we
quench the Spirit. It is not only a matter of avoiding
giving offence but of active pursuit of fellowship. Some
may be wondering why there is so little up-springing from
the inner well, when they are sitting back in a wrong
kind of modesty, failing to bring in their own personal
contribution to fellowship life and ministry. Unkindness
is not the only obstacle in this realm. Shyness and
diffidence can equally rest like a stone on the flow of
life. The only thing to do is to dig it up and move it
away. Get in, get right in, and let yourself go! Do not
always choose the back seat because you like to be left
alone, but come forward in the Lord's name and give the
Holy Spirit a free course in your lives. He is well able
to check you if you become too self-assertive, but there
is little He can do if your well is all stopped up with
fears and inhibitions.
HINDRANCES
IN THE REALM OF DAILY LIVING
There is
one more area of life in which this hindering work may be
found, and that is that the flow of the Spirit may be
checked by inconsistencies in the daily life. The
question which constantly faces us is whether or not we
want to know the free flow from the well within. Do we
want that springing up of living water, of which the Lord
Jesus spoke? Do we want that, as He promised, rivers of
living water shall flow out from our inner life? If we
do, then we must always give serious consideration to
anything which may serve as a blockage. Any disobedience,
yes, any reservation in obedience, from our side will be
sure to hinder the flow from God's side, acting as a
deterrent to the Holy Spirit in our lives. We can never
know the well springing up and the river flowing out if
at any point where God has revealed His will, we fail in
the matter of obedience.
This well is choked by disobedience to the known will of
God. It is choked and blocked by inconsistency of walk.
The Lord wants more than mental agreement with His Word;
He expects to see it working out in practical terms. He
is concerned with how we spend our time, how we manage
our financial affairs, how we behave both alone and
before others. He watches us in the home and at our work,
as well as in our fellowship activities, always looking
for a walk worthy of the gospel which we believe and
preach. Not that He desires us to have a narrow life. Far
from it! The Spirit has come to bring enrichment and
fulfilment to us. God's command to us, though, is that we
must not quench the Spirit nor must we grieve Him; in
other words that we do not allow any rocks, stones or
rubbish to accumulate as a hindrance to the springing-up
well. We need to watch the practical expression of our
daily life and so avoid a quagmire of suppression,
whereas God provides for a well of water springing up
into eternal life.
From "Toward
the Mark" July-August 1976, Vol. 5-4.