Stepping in my basement door I was greeted with a “splash.” It stopped me dead in my tracks. That had never happened before. Our oatmeal colored Berber carpet looked like a layer of sand under an inch of water, as if a wave were retreating along the shoreline. If you’ve had the misfortune of finding yourself in a similar situation, you no doubt understand the importance of properly working, well maintained plumbing in your home. When plumbing is working correctly we never notice it, and we take it for granted. But faulty plumbing is noticed with alarm and taken seriously.

Piping in our homes has flow coming in and flow going out. It is designed to be a channel  for water to come in, be used, and then leave. Spiritually we are designed to operate similarly. Just like empty pipes would be useless, our lives devoid of the Spirit flowing through us would be of little use in God’s kingdom. We are designed with a capacity for the Holy Spirit to come in and fill us. But just like the piping in our house, we are also meant to have the filling of the Spirit pass through us in ways that are useful and effective in the lives of the world around us.

Spirit input. We should be constantly seeking more of the Spirit’s filling. A steady intake of the Word of God each day and seeking His heart through prayer keeps us constantly being filled. It prepares us to let the fruit of the spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control – flow through us whenever and wherever.

Quenching the Spirit. We’re instructed in 1 Thessalonians 5:19 to not quench the Spirit. If we are seeking to be a part of God’s kingdom coming here on earth and His will being done in society around us we must be aware to nurture His Spirit within us, to listen to it and obey it and not to quench it. Quenching the Spirit in our metaphor is very much like cutting off the water supply valve to your whole house. You leave yourself unprepared and empty of the very thing you need the most.

Outflow of the Spirit. When we turn on a water faucet in our house we expect the water to flow out. In our lives, we expect the Spirit to flow through us in all his varied and glorious ways. Acts 4:31 tells us of those who were filled with the Spirit and spoke the Word boldly. In other places in the New Testament we see a variety of other things coming from those filled with the Spirit: wisdom, faith in the face of imminent death, healing, ministering to needs, and an outflowing of many other gifts of the Spirit. Are we so filled up with Him that the Spirit’s power is able to flow through us at a moment’s notice just as water would flow when we turn on a faucet?

In Genesis 12:2-3 God told Abraham, “I will bless you;… and you will be a blessing… and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” We too are blessed to be a blessing. The blessings of that Spirit that flow into us are meant for us, but they are also meant for others. We are not to be a stopped up pipe. We are to allow the Holy Spirit’s power to flow freely into us and out of us. John 7:37- 39 puts it pretty plainly:

On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.

There is a thirsty world all around us. People are in desperate need of a drink of the living water we possess. Is your plumbing working? Is the living water flowing from within you? Or have your pipes backed up? Be a conduit of the myriad of gifts the Spirit has to offer the world around you. Allow the fresh, living water of life to flow forth wherever you go.