Welcome to the Welling: for your spiritual well-being and your ministry overflowing. If you come to water-scarce places of the world, there is a great excitement when there is a little bit of rain. When it pours, they hold the water in storage tanks, where the supply is kept. But to get from the water supply to the faucet, so that water is both usable, even potable, drinkable, you need a pump, a water pump. To provide for the fluid flow, to convey the water, carry the water from the source to the ends, to send it some way.
And so in many parts of the world, they have converters, electrical pumps, domestic water pumps and the energy that they use, in order to move water from the source into supply. The pump has no power until it is turned on. The pipe has no flow unless the pump sends the water through it. But the pipe, the pump and the power, are all part of one system. The real challenges happen when there is no water or when there is no electricity. But sometimes there is electricity and there is no water. And sometimes there is both electricity and water and the entire community exudes joy, when at the first trickle of water from the pump and the pipe brings relief to thirsty, parched human beings.
These water pumps can be expensive, but they’re unique to each household. That means, you cannot have my water supply in your household, unless I share it with a bucket or we put together a system. But the heart of the system is the pump. It is switched on and then there is the flow. If the water table is too high or too low, there are all kinds of struggles and control mechanisms needed so that the pumps can switch on and switch off, or you manually stop and start the pump.
When we speak about the spiritual life, especially from Galatians 2:20, Christ lives in me, the life I now live … guess what? It is one system, the pump, the power and the pipe; they all work together. He is the power for the pump, He is the source of the supply, for the strength that you need in order to live the spiritual life. He is the water source and the one who controls the pumping of the water, so that you can thrive and maintain a hearty spiritual life. This indeed is what God has done. You see the law of the Old Testament, it did not have power to turn on the pump. We needed God Himself to turn on the pump, so that we will have the power to function as we should.
So for the rest of our lives, we have been crucified with Christ and that condition is permanent and for the rest of our lives in a very mortal body, remember the concept of union, one system, the power is on, the pump is working and the pipe supplies the water. So there is no total inaction and passiveness in the Christian life. There is an intention and a reception and a flow through the Christian life. Because the Lord Jesus lives and you, the power is on. And since you are attached to Him as the pump, the water flows. It fills your whole being and there is the welling of life. The life I, the personal I, now live.
How do you live? You present the willingness and Christ provides the power. The secret of your welling is His indwelling in your spiritual life.