Christ In You - Varner continues

CHRIST IN YOU IS THE RIVER OF LIFE
Last week's chronicle introduced "Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Col. 1:27). This week we learn that the indwelling Christ is the River of life!
Psalms 46:4, KJV There is a RIVER, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High.
The CITY of the living God is the Church, the Lamb's Wife (Matt. 5:14; Heb. 12:22; Rev. 21:1-10). The prophet Isaiah added that Zion would also be a "place of broad RIVERS" (Isa. 33:21).
Moreover, the River from the Rock is a major Old Testament theme-that "Rock that followed them was Christ" (1 Cor. 10:4 with Ex. 17:1-6; Deut. 8:15; Psa. 78:15-20; 105:41; 114:8; and Isa. 48:21).
John 7:37, KJV In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink.
38 He that believeth on Me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall FLOW RIVERS of living water.
39 (But this spake He of the SPIRIT, which they that believe on Him should receive: for the HOLY GHOST was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)
Jesus makes it abundantly clear in this awesome passage that one of the major symbols for the indwelling HOLY SPIRIT in the life of the believer is a RIVER!
I shared with you in last week's Chronicle that "Christ in you" bears the marks of a prophet, a priest, and a king. Likewise, out of your innermost being flows:
First, a PROPHETIC RIVER, the river out of the "belly," for the word "flow" in John 7:38 is rheo (compare rhema), from which we get our English word, "rhetoric."
Second, a PRIESTLY RIVER that flows out of the Sanctuary, the House of the Lord, His Temple (Ezek. 47:1-12).
Third, a KINGLY RIVER, pure and living, that flows out of the Throne of God and of the Lamb Rev. 22:1-2).
Are you thirsty? Are you searching for strength from an external source, or are you drinking deeply from the Christ within? Have you, like David in his exile, found the refreshing waters of Engedi, the oasis of the leaping fountain (1 Sam. 23:29; 24:1)?
Is your life, your family, your business, or your ministry a "broken" (wrecked or ruptured) cistern, or is your Source "the Fountain of living waters" (Jer. 2:13)?