"He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’” But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified." (John 7:38-39)
What do you think Jesus was talking about? Does it have to do with a baptism of Spirit within Chrisitians or something else?
Once a pastor prayed for me and it felt like water flowing inside of me, first upward, then downward, then up again ...
It says He spoke of the Spirit, so we know what He was talking about. He was likely referring to Jer. 2:13 as Himself being the fountain of living water. Also possibly referring to Prov. 8:24 metaphorically as Himself being the wisdom that brings life. Also possibly referring to Prov. 25:25 as the administering of the gospel to people "thirsty" for it, in which the Spirit works only through (or to) believers.
Everyone has different experiences, so since Jesus said "he who believes..." is a universal truth He is speaking, it has to be something that
every Christian experiences, and we must go to the scripture to extract that information. We can go to several apostolic witnesses to describe such experience for every believer:
John: anointing to know the truth: 1 Jn. 2:27; love from an assured heart: 1 Jn. 3:19
Paul: witness of being sons of God: Rom. 8:16
Peter: joy of salvation: 1 Pet. 1:8
Writer of Hebrews: "sabbath" rest: Heb. 4:9 - resulting in joy of salvation and free willingness to share the good news with others. Also hope as an anchor for the soul which has the same result: Heb. 6:19
Peter expressed this "living water" of truth causing others to believe in Acts 2 and elsewhere, and was the same for all the apostles. They believed that God was in them (as He was in Christ, reconciling the world- 2 Cor. 5:19), thus the metaphor "out of his belly..." If a man is speaking the truth boldly with confidence in God, then "out of his belly" is flowing "rivers of living water" whether he feels something about it or not. The Spirit transcends feelings, since
feelings is of the flesh. I believe in experiential feelings, as I have had some myself; however, we must not get caught up in thinking that spiritual things always involves feelings, lest we be confused between what is spiritual and what is fleshly. Our faith must transcend feelings, just as the Spirit transcends the flesh. God may (or may not) grant us such experiences for the benefit of our faith, but in the long haul, we are required to believe in the promises of God regardless of what our feelings or experiences say to us.
TD