For a while now, I have been reading through the book of Psalms. It has taken me while to even get where I am, because I am not reading just for reading sake. I read in order to REALLY KNOW my God. Every morning when I sit down to read, I ask the Holy Spirit to lead me into those things that God would have for me. That is one of the 'jobs' of the Holy Spirit: to take those things of God and impart them to His children. I Cor. 2:10-12 A couple mornings ago, I started into the 78th Psalm. That morning, the voice of my God became unto me as it is described in Revelation 1:15, the sound of many waters. Truth after truth kept coming to me, and I had to ask the Lord to extend His unfailing mercy and grace unto me and allow me to take one thing at a time. We have an awesome God, y'all. He is HUGE! I was in this place of awe when I wrote the blogpost "The World Versus the Period." But I digress.
Another one of the things that the Holy Spirit gave to me that morning was a reminder that the OT is FULL of word pictures that point to future truths. In verses 15 and 16 of Psalms 78, we see reference to things that took place when the Isrealites were on their journey out of Egypt to the Promised Land, specifically, the water that came from the rock. As I read those verses, I was reminded of many other passages that refer to Jesus as the Rock. I Cor. 10:1-12, Luke 6:47-49, I Cor. 3:11, Eph. 2:20-22, Ps. 28:1, II Sam. 22:2, and Ps. 62:1-2 are just a few of them.
But think with me about what the Bible says happened in verses 15 and 16 of Psalms 78. It says, "He clave the rocks." Clave is an old word we don't use much anymore. It simply means something was split, or even more simply, something was broken. The rock was broken. And when the rock broke, water came out of it to give the Isrealites a drink. This passage says that "He brought STREAMS also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like RIVERS."
This is a perfect picture of Jesus and the Holy Spirit! Jesus is the rock. And in many verses in the New Testament, the Holy Spirit is referred to as water, my favorite right now being John 7:38(Notice how closely Ps. 78:16 matches John 7:38).
Jesus was broken. He DIED.
But because He was broken, the Holy Spirit was poured out. If Jesus hadn't been broken, the Holy Spirit wouldn't have been poured out.
But all this is also an admonition to us, to those of us who claim we are "Christians.' If we want to be vessels that are fit for the Master's use(and we should be, because THAT is why Jesus saved us), we have to be broken. We have to die. We have to die to sin and self. Because when we aren't broken, when we aren't dead to sin and self, the Holy Spirit does not flow out of us. And the world around us NEEDS those streams and rivers of the Holy Spirit. Our spouses need them. Our children need them. Our friends need them. Our coworkers need them. Our churches need them.
Don't be afraid to be broken. Know that when God breaks away from you those things that are hindering His flow in you, He is clearing the way for more blessing. Less of you-more of God. Let us allow Him to clear out our channels.
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