Dwelling in God’s Heart – The Fountain in the Courtyard

Dwelling in God’ Heart – The Fountain in the Courtyard.

“I am inside My Father, and you are inside Me, and I am inside you.” (John 14:20).

Mutual Indwelling. Even though the phrase “accept Jesus into our heart” is not in Scripture, we get the picture. Accepting Jesus into our hearts means we receive Him into the very core of our being, into the centerpiece of who we are, affecting everything about us. When we receive Jesus into our heart-home, our identity becomes His, the essence of our personhood is intimately wrapped into the essence of Christ’s Personhood. When we make our home in His home, He miraculously become a resident inside each of us as well. And when we experience that Double Union with Jesus Christ, we discover that our spiritual location is inside of the very heart of God. In other words, if the Son is inside the Father, and we are inside the Son, then logically we are inside the Father! By dwelling in the Son’s heart, we dwell in the Father’s heart as well. By living inside the “Person after God’s own heart,” we find ourselves inside God’s heart! As Paul claims in Colossians 3:3, believers are “hidden within Christ, inside of God.”

Living in God’ Heart-Home. Way back in 1954 there was a creative little evangelistic tract produced by Inter-Varsity Press, written by a pastor named Robert Boyd Munger. He entitled his brief tract, “My Heart – God’s Home.” I recommend it if you find it. Following up on Revelation 3:20, Pastor Munger imagined a believer opening his door and escorting Jesus through the home of his heart, now that Jesus has taken up residence in him. Now that Jesus dwells in him, and He has moved into his heart, what will Jesus see there? So the believer in the tract proceeds to give a tour of his heart-home with Jesus as he welcomes Christ into his heart. Together they tour the person’s study, dining room, living room, workroom, recreation room, bedroom and hall closet. I thought this was an engaging idea, but now I would like to give the other side of the story. Jesus lives within us, to be sure. But we also live within Jesus, hence inside the very heart of God. So if the Father was to give us a guided tour of His heart, what would we find? What will be waiting for us to discover in the many rooms of God’s heart? We could easily entitle this, “God’s Heart -My Home.”

Divine Interiors. Like anyone’s home, God’s heart will reflect His attitudes, motivations, personality, character traits, His heavenly “tastes” in interior décor. God’s deeply held convictions will be revealed in His heart-home, as they are in our own hearts. Using Scripture as our guide, we will explore God’s heart as we make ourselves at home and abide in Him. We will explore everything from the front porch to the front door, the living room to the dining room, from the kitchen to the study to the chapel. And many more rooms as well, like the bedroom, the bathroom, and the nursery. There may even be a sneak peek at the family room, the children’s playroom, and the school room. Of course, every mansion has a courtyard, complete with the family fountain, the Trinity Fountain…

God the Father. Throughout the Hebrew Bible, Yahweh God declared Himself to be the fountain of living water. He stated in certain terms that He was the source of spiritual water that would slake the thirst of every person who comes to Him. He alone would provide the waters of salvation to all who would come to Him and drink of His life-giving stream.

1. Jeremiah 2:13. “For my people have committed two crimes: they have abandoned me, the fountain of living water, and dug water-tanks for themselves, cracked water-tanks that hold no water.” 
2. Jeremiah 17:13. “Those who turn from you will be registered in the underworld, since they have abandoned Yahweh, the fountain of living water.” 
3. Psalm 36:9. “You give them drink from your river of delights. For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light.” 
4. Isaiah 49:10. “They will never hunger or thirst, scorching wind and sun will never plague them, for He who pities them will lead them, will guide them to springs of water.” 
5. Isaiah 55:1. “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters.” 
6. Isaiah 12:3. “Therefore you shall draw water with rejoicing from the spring of salvation.” 

God the Son. As the Son of the Father, Jesus wasted no time in declaring that He will walk in the footsteps of Yahweh. He will continue the Father’s ministry of providing living water to those who are spiritually thirsty. He too is the fountain. Jesus claimed to be on equal footing with Yahweh God by inviting others to drink of Him. He only does what He sees the Father doing, which is spring forth with fresh waters from the fountain of the Lord.

1. John 7:37-38. “On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, ‘If a man is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.’”  
2. John 4:10, 13-14. “Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water… Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
3. Revelation 7:17. “For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water.” 
4. Revelation 22:1. “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb, down the middle of the great street of the city.” 

God the Holy Spirit. If the Father and the Son are the fountain, the source, what exactly is the living water they are providing? The living water is the Holy Spirit, flowing freely from the Father and the Son. The Holy Spirit is who gives us life, who is to be taken into our hearts. The Spirit of God gushes forth from the eternal fountain for our salvation and our transformation.

1. Isaiah 44:3-4. For I shall pour water on the thirsty soil and streams on the dry ground. I shall pour out my Spirit on your descendants, my blessing on your offspring, and they will spring up among the grass, like willows on the banks of a stream.” 
2. John 7:37-39. “If a man is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him. By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive.” 
3. Nehemiah 9:20. “You gave them your good Spirit to instruct them, you did not withhold your manna from their mouths, you gave them water for their thirst.” 
4. Revelation 22:17. “The Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come!’ Let everyone who listens answer, ‘Come!’ Then let all who are thirsty come. All who want it may have the water of life and have it free.” 

Jesus the Messiah. By declaring Himself to be the source of living water, the fountain of life, Jesus claimed to fulfill the messianic prophecies of the Scriptures. Christ is the long-awaited Messiah, bringing fresh streams of His Holy Spirit to the thirsty souls of the people.

1. Joel 4:18. “When the Day comes, the mountains will run with new wine and the hills will flow with milk, and all the streambeds of Judah will run with water. A fountain will spring from Yahweh’s Temple.” 
2. Zechariah 13:1. “On that Day a fountain will be opened to the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and impurity.” 
3. Zechariah 14:8. “On that Day living water will flow out from Jerusalem…” 

‘O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.”  (Psalm 63:1).

“No one has ever gazed upon the fullness of God’s splendor. But if we love one another, God remains united with us, and He makes His permanent home in us and we make our permanent home in Him. His love is then brought to its full expression in us. He has given us His Spirit within us so that we can have the assurance that we remain united with Him and He with us…. Those who confess and give thanks that Jesus is the Son of God remains in union with God, they live inside of God, and God lives inside of them. We have come into an intimate experience with God’s love, and we trust in the love He has for us. God is love; and those who remain in this love remain united with God, and God remains united with them.” (1 John 4:12-16, The Complete Jewish Bible and The Passion Translation).