The
Fountain of Living Waters
The Abundant
Life
Introduction:
Jesus Christ’s proclamation as recorded in John
10: 10b is the foundational Scripture for Absolute Bible Study.
... I am come that they [believers] might have life, and
that they might have it more abundantly.
-- John 10: 10b
This verse literally changed my life. When I began in the Christian ministry, I was
fortunate to initially learn this Scripture.
Prior to this I had lacked an abundant life to make a major
understatement. I was especially alerted
when I read from the Word of God that Jesus Christ said He had come to give us
a life more than abundant. As I looked
about me at the world and among the people with whom I had associated, the
abundant life was frequently not evident.
In contrast to Christian people, I could see that the secular world of
non-Christians were manifesting a more abundant life more than were members of
the Church. Thus I earnestly began to pursue the question, "If Jesus Christ came that men and women might have a more abundant life, why is it that the Christian believers do not even manifest an abundant life?"
I believe most people would be thankful if they even lived an abundant life; but the Word says Jesus Christ came that we might have life not just abundant, but more than abundant.
If God’s Word, spoken by Jesus Christ, is not reliable here in John 10: 10b, how can we trust it anywhere else? But, on the other hand, if Jesus told the truth, if he meant what he said and said what he meant in this declaration, then surely there must be keys, signposts, to guide us to the understanding and the receiving of this life which is more than abundant.
This Bible Website, Absolute Bible Study, is one way of showing interested people the abundant life which Jesus Christ lived
and which he came to make available to believers as it is revealed in the Word of God.
This is a Website containing Biblical keys. The contents herein do not teach the Scriptures from Genesis 1: 1 to Revelation 22: 21; rather, it is designed to set before the reader the basic keys in the Word of God so that Genesis to Revelation will unfold and so that the abundant life which Jesus Christ came to make available will become evident to those who want to appropriate God's abundance in their lives.
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The
following is the actual teaching:
The Fountain
of Living Waters
The first and most basic key for power for abundant living is
that the Bible is the revealed Word and Will of God. This key is the greatest secret in the
world today. It is a secret not because
God is keeping it to Himself; it is a secret because people have not
believed. Most people do not believe
that the Bible is the revealed Word and Will of God. They take out one segment of the Word of God
and insert another. But to be logical and consistent, either the entire Bible
is the Word of God from Genesis to Revelation or it is not the Word of God
anywhere. Knowing that the Word of God
is the Will of God is the primary step in our search for power for abundant
living.
For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me
the fountain of living waters, and hewed
them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water. – Jeremiah 2: 13
To whom is God talking?
He says, "MY people."
He is not talking to people who are on the outside of His fold; He is
talking to those within the fold when He says, " ...
my people have committed two evils; [first] they have forsaken me the fountain
of living waters .... " God is a fountain as opposed to cisterns which belong
to people.
A fountain has an unlimited supply of water. When people forsake God who is a fountain,
they hew out for themselves cisterns which are man-made and which hold only a
limited amount. If the cistern is a
fifty-barrel one, fifty barrels is the
maximum supply a person can get from it.
When people forsake God, the fountain of living waters, they hew out for
themselves, not fountains, but cisterns. Furthermore, those cisterns are broken
cisterns; always leaking away their limited supply.
I too was like a broken cistern at one time in my life. I had hewed out for myself and tried
countless theological concepts. I had
read this, I had read that, I had concluded this, and I had concluded that; but
just when I needed power, I didn't have the necessary resources. I looked into Dianetics, transindental meditation,
Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Assembly of God, even white witchcraft and I came up
empty. When I needed the limitless supply of living
water, all I had was an empty hole. This
dilemma is what brought me to years of Biblical research; the questing for a
solution to my empty cistern spurred my start in the Biblical field. I once began to read Proverbs and everything
seemed to come to life. I buried myself
in the Word of God and witnessed like a house on fire. I was able to get many people into Biblical
Research classes and do you know what they said to me. I asked them why they became so interested
and they said that they wanted what I had.
People will
read you before they read the book.
Before we move on, I want to make sure that you get this idea
or concept about broken cisterns deep in your heart. I would like to tell you a different aspect
concerning broken cisterns. I am going
to reach back into my memories and tell you that my second aspect of searching
for peace was different than searching for the proper religion or
denomination. I also turned to many
material things in my search and quest for the truth and for peace. I could not find a purpose to be alive. The world was corrupt and I was a serious
nonconformist. I tried everything you
can think of – especially girlfriends. I
hurt one girl badly. Satan arranged the
whole thing by deceiving me into thinking something that was not true. That person never gave me a chance to
apologize to her for what I did. Because
of that, every steady girlfriend I had after that situation did a number on
me. I had it coming. The only time I felt like I was alive was
when I had a girlfriend. It was the
strangest thing, but it was true for me.
I also used to be fond of motorcycles and I wrote mine every
day thinking I would find peace. I
actually felt lonely on my motorcycle. I
rode alone.
I tried going to two different colleges and both times, I
quit right at the end of the year. In my
second try at college, I began to make a serious search and since I was far
away from home, I called my father in the middle of the night and he told me to
come home. God was far from my
thoughts. Everything I did came before
Him.
Now you should be able to understand that I hewed out
cisterns, broken cisterns that could hold no water. That was until the day I became born again of
God’s Spirit and learned God’s Word.
Then I turned to the fountain of living waters and have never looked
back. What God’s Word did within my mind
is unexplainable to anybody. I became
set free and at peace for once in my life.
Now, I had a purpose and nothing was going to stand in my way and even
to this day, this is true.
I would like to talk about another principle from God’s Word
that is an absolute necessity for you to find the fountain of living
waters. This is such a simple principle
that I am sure you have heard it many times, but we are going to go over it
from the Word of God and you MUST apply it.
But seek ye first the kingdom of God,
and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
-- Matthew 6: 33
If you are out there and you are hurting badly, feeling alone
and lost, you must get moving and you must seek out the kingdom of God. You must do what I did and keep searching
even for years if that’s what it takes.
You have heard the term said “seek and you shall find”. This statement is very true and it originates
in the Bible as you can see from Matthew 6: 33.
I cannot stress to you enough how important it is that you search for
what you are looking for. When God sees
that you are serious and that you are ready to hear His Word, He will send
someone to you. He will make a way. This website is designed to be
self-sufficient. In other words, the
great amount of God’s Word that is in Absolute Bible Study may be all that you
need to find God and the things of God that will lead you to the more than
abundant life that is mentioned in the introduction. This website may help you greatly, but you
are also to seek out more of God’s Word by studying diligently and working the
Scriptures with research materials such as a Lexicon and a large
Concordance. Believe me,
that is all that you need and I will be praying for you.
Have you ever asked yourself or considered what is the greatest sin you can commit? If you asked the residents of your community do you know what
they would say? One person would say
that the greatest sin is murder; someone else would say that it is adultery;
somebody else would say something else. You would come up with a
multiplicity of answers as to the greatest sin.
What does the Word of God say concerning this question? Matthew 22 tells us.
Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with
all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. -- Matthew 22: 37
This is the first and great commandment. -- Matthew 22: 38
If that is the first and great commandment, then what is the
first and greatest sin? By simple logic
we break the first and great commandment by not loving God – by loving something else more
than we love God, by putting something ahead of God - by hewing out our own religious systems, our
own ideologies, and our own thinking patterns - rather than adhering to the divine revelation
of God's wonderful, matchless Word.
My people are destroyed for lack of
knowledge: because thou hast rejected
knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy
God, I will also forget thy children. -- Hosea 4: 6
Again, God is talking to His people when He says: My people are destroyed for lack of
knowledge. This lack of knowledge is not
in science, philosophy, newspapers or the latest movies. If God's people are being destroyed today,
there is only one reason: a lack of knowledge of the Word of God. This lack of knowledge of the integrity and
the greatness of God's Word - that the revealed Word of God is the Will of God
- is the reason His people are being destroyed.
God gives us free will to accept Him or reject Him. If we reject His knowledge, He cannot help
us! The enemy sees what we are doing and
he has a legal right to afflict us. It’s
not God’s Will – we brought it on ourselves.
You need to understand that.
Many times people can see that I get excited about the Bible,
represented by Absolute Bible Study and Biblical research. That is right. Why shouldn't I be enthusiastic about the
greatness of God's Word with its message of unlimited resources? When I was playing racquetball, I was
involved and enthusiastic and even won a B league tournament. I became concerned and had tremendous zeal
for that sport. Why not have a
tremendous zeal for the greatness of God's Word which is much more lasting and
rewarding? A man is admired for being a
football or basketball fan; but when he dares to get excited about the
greatness of God's Word, people think that this Biblical fan has a "screw
loose." Surely there must be
something wrong with our scale of values.
The Word of God is so tremendous, so wonderful, and so rich, that when
Jesus Christ said He came that we might have life and have it more abundantly,
we should naturally respond with excitement.
Not only do we need to have a knowledge of the integrity and the accuracy
of God's Word applied, but we must also get the zeal, the enthusiastic believing,
the concern that other men and women might know that the Word of God is the
Will of God.
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