Are You Bearing Kingdom Water?
Recently, while leading a Soaking Prayer session with a focus on Psalms, I took a personal moment to soak as well. I closed my eyes while the meditative music was playing and immediately saw an image of an old game I used to play on my first iPhone. The game, which is called “Up There,” features a red balloon that you guide through various obstacles as it ascends toward the sky. I didn’t know why this image came to mind, so I went with it. I am a highly visual person, and I find that God often uses vivid images to speak to me. So in this vision, I decided to hold the balloon and see where it would take me. Instead of going upward, I found that we were traveling horizontally across open fields. It looked something like the south of France with beautiful fields of sunflowers and lavender spread out below me. The light was golden and warm. God certainly had my attention as this type of landscape is my idea of earthly perfection, a reflection of heaven.
It was surprisingly easy to hold the string of the balloon. There was no gravity pulling me down. All I had to do was hold the string gently and let the balloon guide me. It struck me that this was quite unlike “Up There” in which I was the one guiding the balloon. Here, God was doing the leading, and I was along for the ride. Before long, we passed into a verdant valley surrounded by majestic mountains reminiscent of something in the Alps. It was peaceful and cool. Further into the valley we began to rise into the soaring mountains where crystal clear streams flowed down toward the lush valley.
As I looked at the cascading water, a scripture passage came to mind. “There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells.” (Psalm 46:4) This was indeed glad water, pure and holy. In Revelation 22, we learn that the source of this water from Psalm 46 is the very throne of God. The passage in Revelation speaks of “the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb.” All I could think was, I want some of that! And yet, the water of this earth is often polluted, sometimes toxic, and certainly not holy. In some places I have worked in Madagascar, there isn’t any water at all, dirty or otherwise. So what was God trying to show me?
As I reflected on this, I realized that all Christians have access to this “water of life.” When we pray, we enter the Kingdom where this water flows in abundance. God wants us to be filled to overflowing with His water. Our purpose is to be His vessels. He wants to use us to bring this life-giving water to a thirsty and dying world.
The image for me was something like this: The pure water flows from God’s kingdom, but as it flows into our world it becomes polluted by sin – ancestral sin, personal sin, corporate sin. In this state, it is no longer life-giving. But when we pray, we have access to the Kingdom and all that it offers. We can ask for this water, just as Jesus tells us in John 4:10-14, and not only are we restored, we become vessels to bring life to others. However, just as the water that flows from the high places gets polluted as it flows down, so it can be polluted by vessels that are unclean. For believers, this is a call to holiness. Our Heavenly Father wants us to be holy as He is holy because we are called to be bearers of pure water – – the water of life.
Do you want to see healing in our broken world? Do you want to see God’s “will be done, on earth as it is in heaven?” (Matthew 6:10) What could our world look like if all Christians accepted their call to be vessels of pure water, bringing the very essence of God’s Kingdom to earth? The invitation is yours! He wants you to be a part of His wondrous Kingdom plans. Are you willing to accept His call to be a holy vessel? If so, you won’t be disappointed!