Telling the Truth for Women

Jill Briscoe: Hidden right in the middle of this man's writings is a little parable that talks about what happens when you keep your roots in the river. Let's read it beginning at verse five of Jeremiah 17. Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord. Now, he's going to be like a bush in the wastelands. He won't see prosperity when it comes. He'll dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives.

But blessed, happy, joyful, fulfilled is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It doesn't fear when the heat comes. Its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit. Now, the heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?

I, the Lord, search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve. Who can know what is in the heart of a man? Well, only God. The answer to that is a no-brainer, as they say. And God looks down into our hearts and he sees either a shriveled, brittle, dry person, like a little scrub bush in the salt flats, or he sees a tree planted by the river whose leaves are ever-green, who produces nourishment and fruit for all who come by.

Of course, the reason is the tree's roots are in the river. And this river is the river of God. This is the river that the Bible speaks about over and over again, using the water and the river as a symbol. And remember, we're looking at some of the symbols in the Bible. It's a wonderful symbol of the work, the refreshing work of the Holy Spirit. Remember, the Holy Spirit renews, he supplies, the Holy Spirit regenerates, brings new life, and the Holy Spirit refreshes.

Now, it's a great life if you don't weaken. Apart from ministry here, Stewart and I are now heading off for Singapore, Malaysia, Korea, Hungary, Romania, UK, and Portugal. So many of you friends ask us, "How do you do it?" and your eyes say, "And at your age?" Well, I would have to say that he never calls without equipping. As far as I'm concerned and Stewart's concerned, it's the refreshing work of the Holy Spirit.

It says in the Book of Proverbs that he or she that refreshes others will themselves be refreshed. As you allow the water of life to pour in and out of your life, you yourself find refreshment. Yes, of course, the body gets tired. Yes, of course, the mind gets tired. Yes, of course, there's things called jet lag. But that doesn't alter the powerful work of the Holy Spirit. He never gets old. He never gets tired. And he it is that indwells the life and the heart of the believer.

In both the Old and New Testament, the Bible streams with images of the water of life: storms and rain, streams in the desert, springs and wells, rivers and waterfalls, watersheds, and the gentle dew of heaven. It's to help us, basically, that we use and look at symbols or study symbols in the Scriptures because the Godhead is obviously impossible to understand except we can get a glimmer of what a father is because we have a father.

We can get a glimmer of what a son is because we know sons or we have a son. But a spirit, what do you do with that? And so the writers of the Scriptures help us. Jesus helped us. He talked about living water. He used this symbol of water to explain what the Spirit of God can do in our lives and in the world. And so we've been looking at how he renews and he refreshes and he revives the believer.

He regenerates the soul of a person. He supplies the spirit of a person with all he needs. He enlightens or intelligizes our mind and he freshens our faith-sight. He opens the eyes of our soul. Did you know that you had eyes in your soul? Well, Paul tells us that: that he prays for believers that the eyes of our soul may be enlightened to the things that God has for us. And one of the things he has for us is a whole lot of promises about what our lives should be like.

The one that I want to bring to your attention is in Isaiah 58 verse 11. Years and years ago, when I began to travel, one of my friends did this beautiful piece of stitching and it was my favorite verse at that point. It says, "The Lord will continually guide you and satisfy your desire in scorched places and give strength to your bones. You will be like a watered garden and like a spring of water that never fails."

You will be like a watered garden and like a spring of water that never fails. Let me ask you something. Is that what your life's like? I should be preaching this sermon in England. I don't know if you really know what a garden is in America. But I tell you, in England, my mother had a rose garden. It wasn't a very big piece of land, but there must have been hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of rose bushes in it.

Of course, it was always well-watered because we live in England and we have two seasons: winter and the second week of August, and that's it. And it rains and it rains and it rains and it's perfect for growing roses from May all the way through to December. When I think of a well-watered garden, I think of my mother's rose garden. I remember total strangers walking past the little wall and looking into this incredible garden and coming through and knocking on the door, which you really don't do in England.

You don't intrude on someone else's privacy—and saying, "Would you mind if I walked around your garden? It's so beautiful." Now, that's what our lives should be like. Your life shall be like a well-watered garden. To my surprise, I found another of those verses in Jeremiah chapter 31. He said when the people of Israel will come back from exile, their lives will be like a well-watered garden. They will be refreshing others and they themselves will be refreshed.

God wants us to have a soul-refreshing ministry for other people. I think of Moses and David who used this image at the end of their lives. Moses was 80 when he began his ministry. His sister was older than that. His brother Aaron was older than he was. But all of them went out into a desert and their lives became like a watered garden. People wanted to walk around those lives and see Jesus sitting in the shade and receive a bit of nourishment and a bit of fruit and find that the evergreen leaves stop the sun beating upon them.

That's what our lives should be like. People should be beating a path to the door of our lives. Are they? Are they? Moses said, "Let my teaching fall like rain, my words descend like dew, like showers on new grass, like abundant rain on tender plants. These instructions aren't mere words; they are your life. These instructions aren't mere words; they are your life, your life, your life. It's rain, you see. It's rain."

Is that what you think of this book? It's what I think of it. And then I see David at the end of his life. He said, "The Spirit of the Lord spoke through me, his word was on my tongue. The God of Israel spoke, the Rock of Israel said to me, 'When one rules over men in righteousness, when he rules in the fear of God, he is like...'" here's some more pictures. "...the light of the morning at sunrise on a cloudless morning, like the brightness after rain that brings forth the grass from the earth."

David had a fresh life. We are freshened as we wander around the Psalms. That's a result of that watered garden called David, King of Israel. Now, it wasn't always so. Sometimes weeds come. Weeds came into David's life. You remember the story how he walked upon the top of his roof one night and he saw a beautiful woman who happened to be married to his best friend, who was out at war where he should have been.

He was lazy and he stayed in bed all day and he got up in the evening and he saw this beautiful woman. And the Holy Spirit began to do what the Holy Spirit does best. He is called the "prompter" in another place in Scripture. Now, you know what a prompter is. You've got a play, you've got a plan, you've got a plot. Everybody learns their line and you get on stage and if you have stage fright, you might forget your lines.

There's a prompter in the corner and the prompter is giving you your line. And that's what the Holy Spirit does. And the Holy Spirit whispered in David's ear, "Get off the roof!" It was a loud whisper. "Get off the roof!" And he didn't. He didn't. Now, the first look at Bathsheba wasn't sin, but the second look was. And he didn't obey the prompting. He resisted the Spirit.

The Bible says you can resist the Spirit and you can quench the Spirit's fire and you can grieve the Spirit of God because he lives within you. Have you ever lived in a house and somebody is hurt in the house and angry and you know what that does with the atmosphere and you can't get away from it? He lives within you and he has chosen not to exit when you don't get off the roof and I don't get off the roof. And so he's miserable because he's holy and we're unholy and that grieves the Spirit of God.

David was confronted by the prophet Nathan and he repented before God, his heart in his hands before God, until it became broken and contrite. And God brought him down and he said, "Oh, purify me from my sin and I shall be clean. I just feel so dirty, Lord. Wash me and I will be whiter than snow." That's the work of the Holy Spirit. Those of you that feel guilty today, the Holy Spirit can do something about that guilt.

If you feel guilt, it's because you're guilty probably. It might be false guilt, but I doubt it. All of us know what guilt is. Guilt is not doing what he tells us to do. And he renews our spirit after we've been forgiven. "Don't banish me from your presence," says David. "Don't take your Holy Spirit from me." Now, in the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit came upon people to do special jobs: the prophet, the priest, the king, go out and fight a battle, speak to someone.

Ordinary people as well as the big people of Scripture. The Holy Spirit would come and go. Saul found that the Holy Spirit had left him and now lit upon David. And he was conscious of that: that he had lost the Holy Spirit. You cannot do that, I believe, according to Scripture. After Pentecost, the Holy Spirit is given to those who in repentance and faith will receive him. He makes Christ real to us and he does not exit our lives. He stays there.

If we grieve the Spirit, we will know it. If he's miserable, we'll be miserable. How does it happen as you put your roots in the river of the Word of God? As you put your roots in the river of the Spirit of God? The Word of God, which is the sword of the Spirit, will prick your conscience. Years ago, I wrote a little poem.

O Word of God, pour on my soul,

Drench my life and make me whole.

Accomplish that for which you came,

Sprinkle my way with gentle rain.

And if sometimes the Word seems cold,

Help me to read though it feels old.

For ice and snow can melt with spring,

And in God's time change everything.

O Word of God, produce in me a bud, a flower, who knows? A tree.

A gentle shade for those in need,

A place where hungry ones can feed.

A watered garden I would be.

O Word of God, rain thou on me.

It's always easier to pull out the weeds after the rain, you know. David's life was a well-watered garden most of the time, and so can ours be. People are looking for freshness because most of them, even believers, are living their lives like a little scrub bush instead of a tree. Now, much of these scriptural images come from the Old Testament, even though Jesus, of course, used them in two very specific points in the New Testament.

But the one that I love is when Moses was trying to take a million and a half people through the desert and keep them alive without food and water, apart from supernatural help. Can you imagine that? As he was doing this, they began to grumble and they grumbled about this and they grumbled about that. And they grumbled about the fact they didn't have any water. And you can't really blame them.

You're in a desert and you don't have any water. And so they said, "Why did we ever leave Egypt?" and they all started to grumble against Moses and grumble against God. And Moses said, "What am I going to do?" and God says, "Stand on the rock in Horeb at my mountain. Take the staff in your hand and strike the rock and water will come out for the people." And so Moses did that. Now, the New Testament writers pick up that image.

There's a wonderful side image here: the rock, the rock who is God, the rock who is Jehovah. And in some strange way, he was going to be struck and because he was going to be struck, he would give living water. And the New Testament, especially in 1 Corinthians 10 about verse 4 onwards, explains that this rock is Christ. The rock that followed the children of Israel was a spiritual rock.

On the cross, he was struck with a staff of our sins. But because Christ was struck on the cross, water, living life that never runs out, eternal life, would be given. Marvelous pictures! So because the Father gave the Son, the Son could give the Spirit and because Jesus was struck with our sins, he was able at Pentecost to send forth the Spirit into our hearts. And now as Jesus said to a very, very thirsty woman sitting on a well, "What are you thirsty for? Men? Do any good? You've drunk five times and married five times. You still thirsty?"

"I'm still thirsty." "If you knew who you were talking to," said Jesus Christ to the woman of Samaria, "you'd have asked me and I would have given you living, living water so you never thirst again." "Sir, give me this water. Give me this water. My soul is so thirsty. So thirsty." And so Jesus gave her the living water, which is belief in him. And her life became a living, wonderful, watered garden.

She went back to the men, her weakest point of the village, and something about her alerted them. "Wow, there's something fresh about this woman. She is changed. She is different." And she said, "Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did and loves me just the same." Now, there's a fresh message. Come and see somebody that turned me inside out. He knows all about me, but he loves me just the same.

He has given me this fresh hope that there is something else in life apart from sex. And they all came out to see the man, the man Jesus Christ, who sat on the well. A few chapters later, Jesus stood in the temple and as the High Priest carried the water signifying the water that was struck out of the rock, came out of the rock for Israel. Jesus stood up by the High Priest at the point drama as he was pouring the water out in a symbolic fashion and said, "If anyone's thirsty, come to me and drink. And out of your innermost being will flow rivers of living water."

"Come to me," he said. Not to them. "Come to me." Not to him. "Come to me." Not to her. "Come to me." Not to church. "Come to me." Have you been to him? Have you said, "I'm sorry for the mess in my life"? Has he put that well of living water in your heart? Well, one way you'll know is if your life is becoming like a watered garden and people are knocking on the door saying, "Can I walk around your life? I want to figure out the secret." Is that happening?

So those are the images of the water of life. But the problem is we have a well-organized enemy who wants to bung up the well. Wonderful story in Genesis 26:12-17 of Isaac. He's called the "well-digger". Abraham dug a lot of wells. Philistines came along and started to fight Abraham's family soldiers and Abraham died and Isaac took over. And Philistines said, "You know, we don't need to fight physical battles.

All we need to do is go and find all the wells that Abraham dug and fill them up with stones and dirt. And that will mean there's no water to drink and they'll all die of thirst and we don't need to fight a battle and lose anyone." And so in the dead of night, the Philistines came and filled up all the wells. And it says that Isaac went around and got rid of all the dirt and stones so that the water could flow out again.

Actually he spent most of his life doing it. That's why he's known in the Old Testament as this person, this character who re-dug the wells that Abraham his father had dug. And there is a wonderful, wonderful picture for us. Because when we grieve the Spirit, some Philistine or other, if you will—the devil or ourselves that lives within us, our selfish self—will manage to fill up that well with dirt.

It can be the stone of fear or the stone of selfishness or the stone of laziness or the stone of pride, could be the stone of pride, that is enough to stop the water flowing out into the desert of need. I was thinking about this one day, conscious that I had grieved the Spirit but not knowing how. You can grieve the Spirit in all sorts of ways. He is the Spirit of Truth, so anything deceitful grieves him.

I was rushing out of Pick 'n Save the other day and I realized that I had things on the bottom of my carriage that I hadn't paid for. Have you ever done that? You put them on the bottom and you forget to pick them up and put them on the thing. And I stood there and I had a choice. I had a choice because nobody had noticed to put them in my car and drive home.

Plus, I was late for a plane. "Oh, I can come in next time, pay for them." And I stood there and I realized that he is the Spirit of Truth. And that if I got in my car and drove home with those things on the bottom of my carriage, I would grieve him. So I picked them up, put them back in the cart, took them back in, said, "I'm sorry, I went through and I didn't put these."

The girl looked at me as if I'd pollaxed her. She said, "Thank you for being so honest." I said, "I didn't want to." She said, "Really?" I said, "No, it was a battle. But I said that's what it's like when you're a Christian. There's always a battle to do the right thing, isn't there?" And I smiled, a nice big smile, and she just stood there with her mouth open looking at me.

We can grieve the Holy Spirit in all sorts of ways. But I do remember being conscious I grieved him and not knowing why. When that happens, get on your knees and attend to the Word and the Word will show you how and why and what. I like to write conversations between me and God. I had been speaking somewhere and I'd been a help and a blessing. I was feeling good about that.

People were saying nice things and I was saying nice things back. "Oh, I'm glad I've been a help," etc., etc. But I thought I'd better check in with the Lord to make sure I wasn't proud. "Let another praise you and not your own lips," he advised me. "I did, Lord," I said smugly. And then to make sure he heard my humility, "I'm working on the personal pronoun."

I'd thought of that phrase all myself and I'd actually used it in my talk. I thought it was rather good. "You need to work a little harder," he replied mildly. "Oh?" I looked at him quickly, but he was looking into the distance and it was obvious his mind was on more important things. Suddenly he turned to me and looked at me intently. "Let not your left hand know what your right hand is doing," he instructed me.

"Never promote yourself. Work much of my work in secret. Why do you want only to do my work in an advisory capacity, Jill? When will you get down and dirty in the ditch without being asked? Why do you want to take all the credit? You can achieve anything if you're willing not to take the credit. Forbid people to praise you overmuch and never take yourself so seriously. After all, what have you that you did not receive? I hate pride and I hate self-righteousness," he said simply.

I saw him then as clearly as anything: the Pharisee in me. He whom my soul loved was gone, but I lingered long until the shadows came and I left my penitence on the front door in the shape of a poem and returned home sad. As I walked through the woods, I heard my smug and less than honest words again and I curled up inside. "I'm working on the personal pronoun, Lord." I felt sick. It just wasn't true.

And he is the Spirit of Truth! And the idea is as he prompts us, we repent, we repent, we repent. Moment by moment and step by step, incident by incident. And we keep the waters flowing, you see. And we do not grieve the Holy Spirit within us. He is the Spirit of Truth, so anything false or deceitful grieves him. He is the Spirit of Grace, so that which is hard, bitter, ungracious, unthankful, malicious, unforgiving, grieves him.

He is the Spirit of Holiness, so anything unclean, defiling or degrading, grieves him. He is the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation, so ignorance, conceit or arrogance or folly, grieves him. He is the Spirit of Power and Love and Discipline, so that which is barren, fruitless, disorderly, confused and uncontrolled, grieves him. He is the Spirit of Life, so anything that savors of indifference, lukewarmness, spiritual dullness and deadness, grieves him.

He is the Spirit of Glory, so anything worldly, earthly or fleshly, grieves him. He wants us like Jesus. And as long as we're indulging in known sin, we are living in the same abode with a grieved Spirit who is hindered from manifesting himself fully in us and through us. Are you grieving the Spirit? Is that what's wrong with you? Is your life like a watered garden?

Anybody coming around saying, "Can I walk around your life? I just know if I could walk around your life, if I could spend time with you, I'd be refreshed." Anybody doing that? Well, with joy you should draw waters out of the wells of salvation and let the river flow. And you have the well if you're a believer. If any man has not the Spirit of Christ, he is not a Christian, Romans tells us.

But if you have received Christ by his Spirit, the well is in you and the river runs deep. Now you have a choice. I think about Jeremiah. He had a choice to keep his roots in the river when every single person in Israel was like a scrub bush: priests, prophets, kings. And he had a choice. He could just become one of the lot and become like a tumbleweed being blown by the wind of chance across the desert of his world.

Instead, he gave us this priceless little parable and he said, "Don't you see? This is the problem. If you depend on flesh, on yourself for your strength, if you trust in man, if your heart turns away from the Lord, then you'll be like a bush," etc. "But if you will put your roots down deep into the river, you won't fear when the heat's on. Your leaves will be evergreen."

There's another picture in Revelation and Ezekiel that talks about the leaves being for the healing of the nations. I love that. Are we all sitting here? Have you said to God, "Why shouldn't I go?" or have you said, "Why should I stay?" instead of "Not me. Somebody else, somebody younger." It's nothing to do with age. It's to do with obedience.

I've watched their lives like this watered garden and that's all he wants us to be: a watered garden whose waters never, never, never fail. And when that happens, even if you have a year of drought—drought in your marriage, drought in your business, drought in your health—you'll still be like a tree. And people will come for nourishment and healing and help and shade to your life.

So there's the choice. Are your roots in the river? And what is this river? It's the river of God. The source is the throne, so the Bible says. And the course is our lives and the river runs absolutely round you. The river of life is within you, actually. And you have a choice: to put your roots down into it or simply to come Sunday by Sunday and become a little scrub bush sitting on a pew, singing little scrub bush songs, saying little scrub bush prayers, and being absolutely useless to yourself or your family or your world.

Seems an easy choice to me. So what are we going to do? Pray with me if you will. Heavenly Father, we would come to you and we would ask you to speak to us in this quiet moment. This could be the most important part of this talk as we think about the images that we have heard, as we think about our life, as we ask ourselves a very important question: is my life like a watered garden whose spring never fails?

Who wants to knock on the door of my life and be refreshed? Is that happening? If so, thank you, God. If not, why, God? Am I grieving the Spirit of God? Is there something I need to say, like "Sorry, forgive me, cleanse me"? One of those marvelous pictures of water is cleansing, cleansing. Holy Spirit can forgive you. He can cleanse you if you ask him.

The righteous will grow like a cedar of Lebanon, planted in the house of the Lord. They will still bear fruit in old age. They will stay fresh and green. Never too young and you're never too old to put your roots into the river. Maybe you want to ask the Lord, the Holy Spirit, to show you how you've grieved him or what's stopping the flow. Maybe you'd like to borrow a poem.

My roots in the river, my heart in your care.

My mind on your will, my soul walking on air.

Joy in your smile, my life in your hand.

My feet on your path, finding all you have planned.

My hand in your grip, my hope in your grace.

My trust in your promise, my eyes on your face.

My days full of Jesus and my spirit a song.

And my roots in your river, all the day long.

All the day long. That's what I want.