WATER OF LIFE

D.L. Moody said the best class of Christian has not only accepted and surrendered but has the water of life flowing from them.

To all who are thirsty I will give freely from the springs of the water of life. All who are victorious will inherit all these blessings, and I will be their God, and they will be my children. (Revelations 21:6-7)

I wrote in a previous blog: “Before I received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, I was moved by sunny days, the beauty of the ocean, and the wonder of my children—all God’s creations. Now that I am walking in the Holy Spirit, those things still move me but pale in comparison to knowing God through the power and the fruit of the Holy Spirit.”

This is only scratches the surface of how much more satisfying the water of life is than anything the world has to offer. From the viewpoint of personality type, as a feeling type, I used emotional release and romantic love, as a way to temporarily relieve or fill up the emptiness that only the water of life (the Holy Spirit) could fill permanently.

I relieved myself through dumping emotions with a therapist, but it was only temporary relief because only God can provide permanent healing and transformation through His indwelling Holy Spirit. Contrary to what psychology teaches us, healing doesn’t come from emotional release it comes from the Holy Spirit.

I also tried to fill the void with feelings or emotions of romantic love. Emotions, like thoughts, are natural and part of our soul—even God experiences anger and other emotions, for example: You must worship no other gods, for the Lord, whose very name is Jealous, is a God who is jealous about his relationship with you (Exodus 34:14). Even though emotions are natural they can’t fill the emptiness in our spirit—only He can.

Different personality types try to fill the emptiness in different ways: thinking types might use success and status, and sensing types probably use excitement and material possessions. As a feeling type, I used sex and food for comfort—whereas, for a sensing type, that might be a sensual pleasure, but both are still temporary and increasingly not satisfying.

Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit. (Ephesians 5:18)

Intuitive types, like myself, escape through intellectual pursuits, fantasy, and imagination. My passion for writing, the search for intellectual understanding and universal truth, becomes progressively less fulfilling if I try to use it to fill the emptiness. These are only a few examples of the way we stop the water of life (the Holy Spirit) from flowing in and through us by trying to fill ourselves with temporary worldly things.

This can also be seen on a culture types level too. The sensing Japanese use food, sex, and consumerism as a way to temporarily fill the emptiness. When something loses its sensing appeal there is always a new product (food, technology, etc.), new fashion trend, or new celebrity being rolled out. A culture, like a person, can go to extremes looking for that original high. The extremes in Japanese pornography is an example of how far this culture has gone seeking to fill the emptiness. The Japanese also idolize consumerism—just look at the tourists in Hawaii with armfuls of shopping bags.

The American culture type, instead of turning to the Holy Spirit for lasting satisfaction, creates the static of ongoing diversions in their life like the Japanese, but in a more thinking way, for example, through increasing work commitments and trying to pay for larger houses and cars. Americans desensitize themselves to the voice of the Holy Spirit through escalating graphic violence (and images of war) in the media (movies, news, etc.).

Americans have an increasing desire for global security (economic and political) but only God gives us permanent security. We are like the Israelites in the Bible who relied on an alliance with Egypt to save them from their enemies instead of turning to and relying on God’s unlimited power. God turned this around on the Israelites, and Egypt eventually became their oppressor. Americans rely on a massive defense department and war technology instead of God, and our national debt (that has come out of our defense spending), among other things, has become our oppressor.

Ask and we shall receive. Ask God for His living water and we will be filled with it and the emptiness and related feelings will go away. The water of life is the answer.

“Then the angel showed me a river with the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb. It flowed down the center of the main street. On each side of the river grew a tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, with a fresh crop each month. The leaves were used for medicine to heal the nations” (Revelation 22:1-2).

Herman Riffel, who has traveled through 50 countries lecturing and presenting seminars on dreams, observed that western cultures aren’t receptive to the idea of dream interpretation, whereas, the rest of the world is. On the other hand, the rest of the world is still learning about walking in the Holy Spirit.

“This quite different point of view, which finds dreams highly significant and meaningful, has been held in practically all other cultures. Indeed wherever, peoples have not been touched and influenced by our Western world-view with its belief that man is limited to sense experience and reason, the dream has been viewed as the chief medium through which non-physical (or spiritual) powers and realities spoke to man” (DREAMS: The Dark Speech of the Spirit).

I proved in my book, Where in the World Do I Belong??, that western culture is sensing and thinking—an STJ culture type. This is a concrete, realistic, rational and logical culture type which is opposite of the subjective, intuitive nature of dreams. Western cultures may reject or resist listening to their dreams because they are sensing culture types. In Western cultures, intuition is a weak or inferior function and may be neglected or repressed (which becomes the shadow or darkside of the culture type). Western Christianity neglects the vital function dreams are to being a healthy Christian. In Western culture, dreams, like healing of the soul, have become prisoner to realm of psychology. They both belong in the church through spiritualtherapy and Christian dream interpretation facilitated by pastors, church elders, and shepherds.

According to the MBTI Manual, the American population is 26.7% intuitive personality types. Many intuitive personality types, like myself, are deeply interested in hearing from God through our dreams. My wife is a sensing personality type and doesn’t have as much of an interest in dreams as I do; she looks more for the voice of God in her physical surroundings, or circumstances. We all have different personality types and God speaks to all us in a myriad of different ways, but some personality types might try to discount dreams and the inner growth possible through them. I highly admire and respect Joyce Meyer but even her wonderful book, How to Hear From God, gives us a good example of the misconception of dreams in mainstream Christianity: “Dreams are interesting but usually very unstable in giving us direction. People who try to make too much out of their dreams are asking to be deceived.” Many Christians are missing out on the incredible gift of dreams. One person said that the uninterpreted dream is like an unopened letter. Are you reading your mail from God or treating it as spam?

Different culture types filter and interpret God’s truth in different ways. Each culture type has a unique view of the world and this also applies to their understanding of God. Pastors from different cultures illuminate the Word of God’s truth in unexpected ways.

Joseph Prince is a pastor of a large church in Singapore. In a recent TV sermon he explained that the modern translation of the water of life flowing out of God’s heart is not correct. The correct translation of the Hebrew/Greek word is not heart but stomach. Japanese proverbs describe someone who does evil as having a black stomach—instead of a black heart. They probably have a similar idea in the Chinese dominated culture of Singapore, and that is why he picked up on this translation difference.

Prince said that when we decide to do something—because we believe it is right or wrong—we are living under the law and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. We have to be living under the tree of life where our belly tells us if something is life or death. This is what he calls living in the spirit and not out of a sin conscious. If it feels like the life is dwindling within you then probably that thing or activity is death for you.

He said that the water of life flows not only from Gods belly but also from ours. For example, when we speak in tongues it flows from our belly and heals stomach and intestine problems, and female problems like cramps. He picked up a book at the bookstore and began reading it and realized it was on metaphysics. He put it down and later in the day had some diarrhea (IBS), and God told Him it was from holding that book. You touch death and it brings death in you, in your belly, where the waters of life flow.

I have heard several people say that the Christian movement in Japan is beginning to take off. In our conversation, Neil Verwey said that ever since 1963 the number of conversions has dropped off. The Japanese obsession with materialism has been biggest obstacle to conversion to Christianity in Japan. He said some of the youth are being reached through music, but the harvest in Japan is more like a fruit orchard, where every piece of fruit must be picked individually and handled carefully. Is there a revival in the making? Verwey said they are experiencing a few raindrops.

The Korean population is ten percent Christians, whereas Japan is less than one percent. So why is Korea the “Christian nation of the east” and not Japan? Verwey in his autobiography, Half a Century in Japan, attributes the success of Christianity in Korea to their penchant for prayer. “Korean Christians love God more than sleep, more than money, more than food or even the daily necessities of life. When they yield to Christ, they give Him their all.”

My Japanese wife thinks Christianity is more successful in Korea because of their strong Confucianist culture. Koreans are famous for being more Confucianist than the Japanese. Showing respect up the hierarchy is extremely important, which means Jesus’ Lordship in their lives is taken much more seriously.

Confucianism also demands loyalty, which is a facet of the feeling preference. In my book, Where in the World Do I Belong, the Korean culture type is extroverted feeling. As I mentioned in my previous post, Masculine Christianity and Myers-Briggs thinking types, Christianity is a feeling type culture; therefore, it fits the Korean extroverted feeling culture. Koreans resonate with Christian feeling values such as love, loyalty, kindness, understanding, humility, harmony, compassion and empathy. Japan is an introverted sensing culture type, so may not resonate with Christianity as much as Korean culture does. Japanese are more focused on sensing aspects of religion (such as rituals and music) as opposed to the feeling aspects of it.

There is a saying in Japan that children are the hinge on the door that keeps the mother and father together. I asked Verwey about reaching Japanese in troubled or broken marriages and he said the problem is only going to get worse. On April 9th a new law went into effect that gave Japanese wives the right to half their husbands estate upon divorce. This isn’t anything new to us Americans, but in Japan its probably weakening the glue that has kept many marriages together. He said the government has started classes to try to teach Japanese husbands how to say ‘thank you’ and ‘I’m sorry’.

Boy, is Japan a country hurting for a spiritual revival or what?! We’re going to Japan in April for my sister-in-laws wedding. I hope to attend some churches while we’re over there.