Bobby Bosler: Welcome to Thee Generation Podcast. I’m Bobby Bosler, and I’m speaking to you today from Menomonee Falls, WI, where we just finished the Victory Conference. God challenged our hearts to spend time with Jesus, to go from the bended knee to the bountiful life, to reach the world with much power.
On Wednesday evening, Dr. Rick Flanders challenged us out of John 7:37-38, which says, “If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” Near the end of his sermon that night, he shared a story with us that stirred my heart. And I trust it’ll stir your heart as well. Please listen as Dr. Flanders speaks to us from that passage in an excerpt from his sermon, “Let the Rivers Flow.”
Rick Flanders: Basically, the truth is there are two aspects of the ministry of the spirit in a Christian. Number one is the well. You take a drink, that drink of the living water will instantly become a well in you, springing up into everlasting life, called in Ephesians, “sealed with the Spirit.” He called on her to believe in him. The metaphor was, take a drink. He says, if you do that forever, there will be someone inside you to meet all of your needs. The well is in there not just to satisfy my thirst but to overflow, so that out of my innermost being flows not a trickle, not a fountain, but not a river, but rivers, rivers. He used the singular pronoun out of his belly. Shall flow rivers of living water. Everyone who has the well should let the rivers flow.
Toni and I believe in revival partially because we’ve been touched by the fire. Toni’s my wife. One of the times we believed in revival in seminary, and we saw the workings of the Holy Spirit. But then in Jackson, Michigan, back in the early ’70s, there’s a longer story. And of course, since I was involved in it, I’d love to tell you the story. But the bottom line was this. There were a group of students at Jackson High School who let the rivers flow. In public school, they had a vision, got down on their knees, they got clean and right with God, they surrendered their lives to God. A few people got saved. But you know what? The new converts saw the picture, sold out to Jesus Christ. They had no fear of opening their mouth for Jesus at the public school.
They went to the principal. They said, could we have a room before school where we could meet for prayer? He gave them a room. They started praying there. I was told, because I had little to do with the Bible club, about the prayer meetings in the morning, eight o’clock. I was an assistant pastor (who is very busy—assistant pastors are very busy). It wouldn’t fit into my schedule, but then what I heard made it so I changed my schedule. And I went down there at eight o’clock in the morning. There were about a dozen of them. “How you doing, Pastor Flanders? We’re doing fine. Well, we just prayed.” Most of them were new converts. They held hands. They started talking to the Lord. And they started saying things like this. “Now, George, dear God, George, has wrecked his life. He needs Jesus. And Tom’s going to talk to him in study hall this afternoon. Would you be there, Lord? Would you bring George to Jesus?”
We were hearing these names; they were praying. Then I was hearing movement in the room. With my head bowed, my eyes closed reverently, we were in a prayer meeting praying for their students, fellow students, and praying for the witnessing going on today. And I heard some rustling, moving. Finally, after a few minutes, I peeked, and then I counted. We had 50 kids in there. I had heard they had 50 every morning. And not only that, I’m going to tell you a testimony. For a period of three or four months, they saw public school students saved every day. Every day. Who got saved today? How did they do that? What was the curriculum? What was the gimmick? You know what it was? They let the rivers flow.
And you know what? That’s the intention of God. To put a well inside you that will satisfy your every need will be sufficient to meet the needs of people all around you. And our duty is to let the rivers flow.
