Mike Parsons
Drinking from the Source of Life
It is the source that we need to drink from. And drinking, eating, they are all figurative, metaphors. Jesus said in John 6 that whoever eats the bread that comes down from heaven will not die. We are not physically eating his literal body, and we are not literally eating actual bread. So what are we doing?
We are not literally drinking water either, because it is not water as such. It is life. It is energy. It is the source. We have to choose which source we drink from. You could say we are drinking either from the tree of life or from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In a sense, we are either drawing from our own limited capacity or from an external source that can continually fill that capacity without ever running out.
That is how I see it.
I believe individuals are born with a certain amount of energy and life, and their body is the container of that life. How that energy is used determines how long it lasts. Eventually, if it runs out, people die. But that was not how God intended it to be. He did not create humanity to run out of life. Our own independent source will eventually run dry unless we find another source.
506. The Mindset of Immortality | Secret to an Abundant Life
Now, people are looking for sources in technology. They are talking about extending life through nanotechnology, supplements and things that positively affect the cells of the body. I am not against any of that. But it is not the same as immortal life. That is extending human life. The human body was created to self-repair, self-heal and live forever. But I am talking about a source of life that Jesus promised, a source that comes out of eternity.
Choosing the Right Source
As we focus our intention on that source and choose to drink from it, that source energises us. It energises our mortal bodies and gives life to them. Romans 8 talks about this, that the Spirit gives life to our mortal bodies.
Our bodies are mortal unless they receive immortal life. Originally, they were not created mortal. They became mortal because humanity chose to walk away from life itself. Jesus came to abolish death and bring life and immortality into the light. The question is this: if he abolished death, why are people still dying? Because they are not embracing the life and immortality he brought into the light.
Jesus promised that if we drink from this source, it would become a fountain springing up into eternal life. That means both quality and quantity of life. The body does not have to die, but the life we live is also meant to be abundant.
Jesus promised abundant life in John 10. The enemy comes to rob, kill and destroy. That gives us a clear picture of what happens when we follow the wrong path. You could see that enemy as a personal being, but you could also see the path itself as an enemy. If we continue down that path, it eventually robs us of the abundance Jesus intended. Abundant life is not merely life without end. It is the quality of life we were created to live.
Living from Abundance
The source of that life is a life that sons were intended to live, a life carrying abilities beyond the merely natural. Eternal life was meant to be immortal life, but also abundant life, full of everything abundance carries within it. I believe abundant life is very different from what most people are currently experiencing.
If we choose daily to drink from that source and from no other source, then that source will energise our whole being. It will enable us not only to live without dying, but also to live the abundant kind of life Jesus promised. It becomes a matter of choice.
So how do we do that? Jesus said, “Come and drink.” Whoever drinks this water… Well, what do you do to drink that water? You picture it. You receive it. You choose it. Anyone who says they encountered Jesus and received life from him made a choice to receive that life. It was available, but they still had to choose it. So this is about choosing to focus our intention on a source of life that will never run out.
Relationship Rather Than Fear
But that choice has to become a state of being, not just something we mechanically repeat every day out of fear. Otherwise we start thinking, “I have to keep doing this or I will die.” That becomes fear-based. It becomes works again. This has to remain relational.
When Jesus talked about drinking living water, he was talking about relationship. You can drink natural water or you can come to him as the source of life itself. That is why he spoke about eating his flesh, drinking his blood and eating the bread that came down from heaven. He was speaking about himself.
The seven “I am” statements reveal not only who Jesus is, but who he becomes to us in relationship.
“I am the way, the truth and the life.”
That statement only becomes reality to me when I engage with him relationally as the way, the truth and the life. The same is true of resurrection life. I have to engage it relationally for him to become my source of resurrection and life.
Rivers of Living Water
Jesus also said, “Whoever is thirsty, come to me and drink, and rivers of living water will flow from their innermost being.”
So again, the source is him. What do we do? We come to him. We drink. Whatever that means in practice, we are responsible for engaging it. He is the source that never runs out. When we drink from his presence within us, rivers of living water begin to flow from our innermost being. It is not like repeatedly taking another cup of water. He himself becomes the continual source of our life. As we remain in relationship with him and do not turn to another source, the river within us increases in flow. You choose to drink, and the flow begins.
If we are the temple of the Holy Spirit, then there is an increase in the flow of spirit, life and energy within us. Whether you call it living water, spirit or energy, it is his life within us. John 7 says that Jesus spoke of the Spirit who was with them but not yet in them because he had not yet been glorified. He had not yet returned to heaven to establish the kingdom and give it to the saints of the Most High.
Then in John 14, Jesus said he was going to prepare a place for us so that where he is, we may be also. People often think he was talking about heaven after death, but he was talking about relationship. A few verses later he explains it clearly: “I am in the Father and the Father is in me.”
So he was saying, “I am going to the cross, I will return, and I will bring you into the relationship I have with the Father.” Later in John 14 he says, “On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.” That day was resurrection day. When Jesus breathed on his disciples and said, “Receive the Spirit,” he became resurrection life for all mankind. Humanity was made alive in Christ.
God breathed into Adam at the beginning, and now Christ breathes life into the new humanity. All died in Adam, and all are made alive in Christ. That relationship has now been established.
The Flow of Living Water
If we are the temple of the Holy Spirit and God dwells in us, then Ezekiel 37 talks about the flow of water flowing in the temple and from the temple increasing. It can be ankle deep. So we can drink, but the flow only be ankle deep. Or we can drink and the flow becomes knee deep, waist deep, until it is completely flowing with the fullness of energy, life and spirit to bring life wherever it goes.
Because if we are only a receptacle of living water, it will stagnate. It has got to flow to release the energy. If we just drink it and keep it to ourselves, then we either consume it or it stagnates. But it is meant to flow. That is why it says rivers of living water will flow from our innermost being. Not just remain in our innermost being, but flow from it.
The river flows through the gateways of our spirit and soul. If those gateways are not open and flowing, then there is a limit to how much can flow. So you are only going to get ankle deep if the gateways are partially closed. Only a certain amount of energy is allowed through. We need to remain open to the flow.
The Core of Our Being
When it speaks of our innermost being, I believe that is not our spirit alone, but the union of spirit, soul and body as we were created to be.
Within that union there is, you could say, an eternal mechanism or technology, if you want to use that term, which turns spirit energy, living water, flowing water, into energy that will never cease. That energy energises our body and releases the powers of eternal life within us.
Ecclesiastes says God has placed eternity in our hearts. I believe that is what it is talking about: the eternal perspective of abundance, life and energy. We have the capacity within us to receive living water and to produce energy from that living water which energises our whole being.
That includes what I would describe as the seven energy gates within us. Just as we have a blood system, a lymphatic system and a nervous system, we also have an energy system designed to be energised by the flow that comes from heaven.
That flow is energised within us and then distributed through our whole being as living energy, light or spirit, however you want to describe it.
Flow, Energy and Creation
Those energy gates are inside us so that we can be energised by what comes as a flowing river.
If you think of hydroelectric power, you have a flowing river that is usually dammed up so there is a huge capacity of water. Then the water flows through gates, through turbines, and produces electricity. It is similar within us. Something is flowing that needs to be focused so it generates increasing amounts of energy through the gateways of our being, which then flows outward.
So there is a lot involved in drinking from the source. It is relational. It is not a formula. It is a relational connection to life that gives us abundance, overflowing life, the abundant life Jesus promised. But we still have a choice regarding where we drink from and what relationship we engage with. Most people are not consciously connecting to the life and energy within them that flows from heaven.
Where does the river of life flow from? From the throne of God, through the tree of life, into us. And that source does not come independently of the tree of life, which you could say is Jesus himself. He is the relational point through which we drink from that source.
The Increasing Flow
The river that flowed through Eden split into four rivers which watered the earth. There is symbolism in that. Rivers produce energy. That can translate into the seven rivers flowing through the seven energy gates, which can also connect symbolically with the seven Spirits of God and the many patterns of seven throughout Scripture.
That flowing energy carries the capacities of sonship and the aspects of God’s character and nature. It energises us in many different ways. So there is a lot to consider in all of this. But I do not think it is complicated. It requires choice and intention until it becomes a state of being.
I have done many things intentionally until they became part of who I am. So I began every day by picturing a door within my spirit and opening that door, because Jesus wants me to choose to open the door and allow him to fill me and let the flow begin.
Then I drink from the source, which is him. He is my source, but I have to allow that source to flow. Otherwise it remains only a trickle, and most people live from a trickle. But that is not enough to sustain eternal life or immortal life. The flow must increase until it brings life wherever it goes. Then we ourselves become a source of life.
Living Beyond Survival
Those rivers are meant to flow through us into creation itself. Creation needs energy to overcome entropy. The laws of thermodynamics say that energy within a system eventually runs down.
Creation itself is drawing energy from what some would call the quantum field, but only in limited ways. Humanity was intended to operate differently, not merely surviving, but drawing creatively from that field and aligning it through intention and choice. Our personal energy, however, is meant to come from relationship with the living source.
So there is interaction between the flow of life that comes from God and the creative field within creation itself. We were designed to connect with those dimensions from the eternal core of our being.
The quality of eternal life and immortality is not merely endless existence. It is the ability to live multidimensionally, non-linearly, unrestricted by time and space, functioning again in the kind of sonship Adam originally carried. Many people think about immortality only as a wish or a hope. They do not really consider its implications.
Jesus said, “Drink.” He also said, “Come to me and find rest.” He did not say, “I will force this on you.” Relationship requires engagement. He is already present. He is already within us. We simply have to connect with him and open ourselves to the flow.
The Purpose of Abundant Life
If we are not going to die, then the real question becomes: how are we going to live? Not dying is not really the issue. Living is the issue. What source are we living from? How are we sustained? What does abundant life actually look like? Abundant life includes health, provision and purpose. Many people retire and then quickly die because they no longer have purpose.
But sonship is our purpose. Co-heirship with creation, co-creation, the ongoing expansion of God’s kingdom and peace — there is much to do when we begin to understand who we really are as sons of God.
And if immortality is real, then we also have to think about the emotional implications. If others around us continue dying because they have not embraced life, there would be sorrow in that. Children, grandchildren, generations. That is why relationship with Jesus remains central. He carries our griefs and sorrows. He remains the relational connection that enables us to live abundantly even in difficult situations.
Immortality is not an isolated idea. It flows from health, abundance and relationship. If someone is sick, miserable, purposeless or mentally incapacitated, why would they want to live forever in that condition? There is much more to this than simply “not dying.”
God wants to bring us into abundance so fully that we actually desire to live forever, functioning as sons within creation, bringing freedom to creation itself. That will require immense energy. Creation groans under corruption and decay. God has given us responsibility within that process. Everything has been provided. We simply have to remain connected to the right source and allow that life to flow outward through us into creation.
So there is a lot to think about. But ultimately, “keep drinking” simply means remaining relationally connected to the right source and allowing that life to continue flowing within us.
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Sons of Issachar 