The Lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and will guide them to springs of the water of life; and God will wipe every tear from their eyes. Revelation 7:17.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
If you are waiting for joy to come when all outward circumstances are perfect and free from all trouble, then that will not happen in the world as it is now. John 16:33. But even if all were perfect outwardly, you could still not have joy. You could be having troubles within– a spirit of depression, hopelessness, and sadness that has robbed you of your joy. You could be troubled with worries about your future, your past, your family, your finances, or dissatisfaction with your life. All these things are not from Me and I want to set you free of these.
I sent Jesus to set the captives free and to lead you out of your darkness into My own marvelous Light. I sent Him as your good Shepherd to give you abundant life, a life overflowing with everything good, but especially filled with joy—joy that no one can take from you. For a life without joy is not true life at all.
It is time for you to rise up out of the chains that are ensnaring and entangling you and walk in the life of the redeemed. I have redeemed you from the slavery of sin and death to the freedom of My children. It is time to joyfully draw water from the springs of Salvation. It is time for you to have joy unspeakable filled with glory.
Are you ready? If so, I will now lead you on a journey to joy.
First of all understand that a mind set on the flesh is a mind set on death. But a mind set on the spirit is a mind set on life and peace. If your hopes are limited to this life only, you are subject to hopelessness, for the flesh will return to the dust from which it came and to those focused only on the flesh that seems to be the end.
But a mind set on the spirit sees beyond the grave to resurrection. Sees past your flesh to your inner person of the heart, the spirit and soul, that is the real you that is forever. The flesh is useless, like a suit of clothes that wear out, but the Spirit gives life eternal. You will be clothed in immortality when the mortal passes away.
Yes, you will receive a new and immortal body that will live forever. You have much to look forward to, for life will only increase like the light of dawn, getting brighter and brighter until you reach perfect day that will never end. And then outwardly and inwardly everything will be perfect. And there will be perfect joy. But you can have that joy beginning now if you locate its source.
How do you find the source of joy? Men and women search for the fountain of youth, at one time to locate one geographically, and now they look more into vitamins, ointments, medical treatments to rejuvenate, diet and exercise, thinking this will give them joy, but what they are really looking for is the fountain of life, the living waters that will spring up in you to eternal life. And that is what I want you to find and enjoy.
But it is not an outward journey of the flesh to a particular place or body treatment, although what I am going to show you will lead you to health, youthful vigor, and clarity of mind into old age. But what I am speaking of is an inner journey of the spirit and I have given you a good Shepherd to guide you to the springs of the water of life, and there I wipe every tear from your eyes. Revelation 7:17. A joy no one can take from you because you have tapped into its source. And it is a continuous feed, livestreaming from My throne. Come share My joy, for My joy in you is your strength. I am your strength and song and with joy you will draw water at the springs of Salvation. Isaiah 12.
But to have this joy, you will have to drink and drink deeply until you are so full you overflow and rivers are flowing out of you to cover the world with My glory (goodness) as the waters cover the sea. If you are not drinking you are drying up in years of depression, anxiety, fear, hopelessness, sadness and pain. These are unclean spirits from hell that are oppressing you, but you can cast them out of your life when you get filled with the waters of life, for there will be no more room in you for these things any longer. Only joy.
Jesus, while among you in the flesh as one like you, was on a journey from Judea to Galilee, and He purposefully passed through Samaria. The people in Samaria had a form of religion but it was a mixture of pagan beliefs and some of My Word. And He stopped at a city named Sychar, near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph; and Jacob’s well was there. Jesus sat down by the well. It was about noon and His disciples went into the city to buy food, but Jesus remained at the well.
A woman came to draw water. She was searching for joy and Jesus knew it. She had been married five times looking for love and joy, and now she was living with a man she was not married to. She was thirsty for meaning in her life, for stability, and for joy. Little did she know the man sitting by the well could guide her to it. And many people are like her today and they also do not recognize Jesus as the one who will guide them out of their troubled lives to perfect peace, joy, and stability in these times.
“The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want, He leads me to refreshing waters of peace and restores my soul,” sang David. And he was a prophet. Jesus explained to you that He fulfilled the prophecies in Psalm 23, and indeed of all the writings of Moses, the Prophets and the scriptures, including the Psalms. “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly, until it overflows. I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.” John 10:10-11. He came to undo the works of the devil. He is guiding you to green pastures, living waters of shalom, out of dark valleys of the shadow of death, to banquet tables of abundance in the sight of your enemies (such as the unclean spirits of depression, hopelessness and sadness), and right into the joys of My house forever. Psalm 23:1-6. He is leading you back to abundance of Eden and the eternal life Adam lost when he gave his dominion authority to the devil and turned his life away from Me.
So the Samaritan woman came to draw water from the well to satisfy her physical thirst, but Jesus had something better to offer. He first asked her for a drink, she did not have what He was asking for. So He told her what He now says to you, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” She regarded Him for a moment and noted He did not have a bucket with Him to draw water out of the well and give it to her. He clarified further, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.” John 4:10-14.
And He led her to that water, and once she had a taste of it, she declared Him to be the promised Messiah and ran back to bring the whole city to meet Jesus and find the source of joy.
What was the “gift of God” of which Jesus spoke to her? What was the living water He was offering to her?
I do not leave that question unanswered. Jesus answered it for you at the great and joyful appointed time of Tabernacles. The last great feast on the timeline of salvation I gave to Moses on the way to the Promised Land.
On the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood up in the temple and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’” But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. John 7:37-39.
The water of life of which you will drink is the Holy Spirit, and Jesus poured Him out on you the day Pentecost was fulfilled (the fourth appointed feast on the timeline of salvation), Acts 2:33, and everyone who received Him the people thought had drunk too much wine, there was so much joy bubbling out of them. And everyone who received and drank after that became filled with joy and the Holy Spirit. But they had to drink. Not everyone since then that receives the Spirit by believing in Jesus knows the treasure and drinks. Some are drying up from thirst while that great spring is left untouched.
Hagar in the wandering in the wilderness with Ishmael despaired, thinking she was dying of thirst, but I called to her and lifted her eyes to see a spring of water and it went on to provision and protection from there.
Now you have found the source, your good Shepherd has guided you there and given you the gift I sent Him to give you. And He had to die for your sins and turn your dormant spirit on again to Me and off to sin before your born again spirit could receive the gift. But now, how do you drink? For this is a spiritual reality and not a physical one.
And that will be Step 2. But I will give you a head’s up. I make you joyful in My house of prayer. That is where you draw water, in prayer, and once you have received Jesus as Lord and received the gift of the Holy Spirit, you are My house for My Spirit is dwelling in you, but you must drink by prayer and worship. Jesus told the Samaritan woman how to drink.
The woman said to Him, “Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.” Jesus replied with the answer you all need to know, “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.” First, He clarified it is not just one physical place where I have put My Name that you are required to go to in order to worship, and then continued with the answer of how to drink of the joy of the Spirit, “But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” John 4:19-24. And it was then, after these words that she recognized Him and He confirmed that He was the Messiah, the anointed One I sent to “preach the GOOD NEWS to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, and to proclaim the favorable year (Jubilee) of the LORD.” Luke 4:18-19; Isaiah 61:1-2.
And with what did I anoint Him to do all this amazing work of redemption? The oil of joy. Psalm 45:7; Hebrews 1:9. And I have told you that the good Shepherd anoints your head with oil so that your cup overflows. Psalm 23:5. He has given you His joy so that your joy can be full. John 15:11.
But to be led by your good Shepherd and to know exactly how you are called to follow and where to go in this life, you have to hear His voice, the voice of the Shepherd. The good news is that His sheep know and hear His voice. And in hearing Him you are hearing Me, for He only says My Words and gives you what He has from Me. For all I have is His. And the way He speaks to you and I speak to you is by the Spirit. And the only way you connect with My Spirit is through your spirit. And that is prayer. Prayer can be a joyful drinking party as you draw up the living water from the eternal spring.
I love you and that is why I gave you Jesus as your great good Shepherd. And that was not limited to this life, He will be that forever. Hebrews 13:20-21.