The surface of this amazing planet we call home is more than 70 percent water. Pictures from outer space show the oceans, lakes and rivers of Earth’s surface in beautiful shades of vivid blue. As bodies of water move as a result of gravity, the Earth’s rotation and pressures from other sources, much energy is released. Think about the awesome power unleashed by the current of an ocean rip, the flow and fall of water over Niagara Falls, or a swiftly flowing river. There are titanic amounts of latent energy contained in these waters, released as it moves and flows.

You can see why God compares the power of His Holy Spirit to rivers of living water (John 7:38-39)—it electrifies and energizes our lives. By considering how man has been able to harness the energy released by flowing water to produce electricity, we can learn much about how God’s Spirit—His living water—works in our lives. One of the best examples of hydroelectric energy farming is the Hoover Dam.

To grasp this analogy, imagine yourself as the Hoover Dam and the Holy Spirit as the water flowing through you.

At 726.4 feet tall, the Hoover Dam is constructed of enough concrete to pave a two-lane road from Seattle, Washington, to Miami, Florida. When full, Lake Mead—contained by the Hoover Dam—contains a volume of water equivalent to the average annual flow of the Colorado River. The volume of water behind the Hoover Dam causes the colossal structure, with its clever U-shape design, to become stronger as the energy latent in the water pushes against it. Though there is a massive energy source stored in Lake Mead, the Hoover Dam would be nothing but a giant concrete plug if the water was not allowed to flow through it.

The Hoover Dam releases 15,000 cubic meters of water each second from Lake Mead, which is more than half the water in an Olympic-sized swimming pool. During periods of peak electrical demand, enough water runs through the turbines to fill 15 average-sized swimming pools (20,000 gallons each) in one second. That is an amazing 300,000 gallons of water in one second.

That water flow must be present in order for the hydroelectric process to begin. The greater the flow, the greater the potential output of energy.

As water is released from the lake, it flows through pipes to turn the turbine blades of 17 hydroelectric generators. Through a process known as electromagnetic induction, an electric current is produced. What is interesting to this analogy is that the action is not all done by the river of water. As the river of water moves through, the flow causes action within the dam. This action allows the Hoover Dam to become a productive structure. Through this process, an average of 4.8 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity are produced at the Hoover Dam each year. These billions of kilowatt-hours of electricity service 1.3 million people.

The power man can harness from the flow of the Colorado River into Lake Mead, regulated through the Hoover Dam, is awesome! But it is minuscule in comparison with what God can accomplish through us, if we allow His Spirit to flow through us.

In our analogy, the parallels should be obvious. God freely showers His Holy Spirit—His living water—upon Spirit-begotten members of His Family. But, like the awesome energy contained in Lake Mead, it is useless bottled up inside of us—it must flow through us to be productive. If God’s living water is actively flowing in our lives and impacting our minds, like the water flowing through the Hoover Dam turbines, it will be generating powerful results—there will be evidence, or fruit, of its action.

Ponder these three points from the physical example of the Hoover Dam: 1) the rate of flow is critical; 2) the flow must create action within; and 3) the action creates electricity. In the same way that the electricity produced by the Hoover Dam can light a light bulb hundreds of miles away, the “electricity” produced by the river of living water in our lives can light up our lives spiritually.

Galatians 5:22-23 list the fruits of the Holy Spirit. We need to produce this kind of spiritual electricity: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Whether or not these fruits are evident reveals how strong the flow of the Spirit is in our lives, and how we are allowing it to create action in our lives.

A big difference, however, between us and the Hoover Dam is that there is no limit on the supply of God’s Spirit. We can always go to God for more (Luke 11:13).

What a powerful analogy flowing water is of God’s Holy Spirit in action. It is truly an energy source that can produce electrifying results—if we do our part by allowing it to flow through us and replenish it continually. God’s Holy Spirit truly is a “river of living water.”