To those who held the Feast of Tabernacles, on the last day of their feast, He said, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes into Me, as the Scripture said, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water" (John 7:37b-38). We must believe into the Lord Jesus. We must have such a union. We must be "plugged in." When the current of electricity flows into something that has been plugged in, it works. It is not sufficient merely to believe the Lord Jesus. We must believe into Him. We may have believed the Lord Jesus without having any connection with Him. This is why we need the preposition into. The Lord Jesus is like electricity, and we must be plugged into the current of this electricity. Then rivers of living water will flow out of our innermost being.
We lose our temper so easily because we are dry and unsatisfied. Sometimes when a person is very dry, I realize that I should not touch him. Otherwise, he may have an outburst of temper. When this is the case, I do my best to water him. Then he will not lose his temper, because he has been watered. There is a river of patience to deal with our quick temperament, which can cause us to lose our temper. On one occasion Brother Nee asked me, "What is patience?" When I could not give a satisfactory answer, he eventually told me, "Patience is Christ." Christ as the Spirit is a flowing river to us to become our patience. Also, it is hard for us not to be proud, but there is a river flowing to us to become our humility. The rivers of living water are the many flows of the different aspects of life originating from the one unique river of water of life (Rev. 22:1), which is God's Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2).
In John's last book, Revelation, the Lord said to all people, "I will give to him who thirsts from the spring of the water of life freely" (21:6b). The fountain is the source; the spring comes up and emerges from the fountain; then it gushes out to be the flowing river.
The Lord as the Spirit calls with His bride, the transformed church, "Let him who is thirsty come; let him who wills take the water of life freely" (Rev. 22:17b). This is a call with a strong promise.
The Lord as the Lamb will "guide them [those who answer His call] to springs of waters of life" (Rev. 7:17b).
We all know that this calling with a promise from the Lord is still sounding today to everyone who lives on this earth. Hymns, #12 speaks of God as a flowing fountain. God flows first in the Son. Then He continues to flow as the Spirit to reach us and to dispense Himself as the life element with the tree of life to quench our thirst and to satisfy us. The water quenches; the tree satisfies.