Your Identity
2 de julho de 2025
For some time, I have wanted to explain why our church is called Oasis House Church. The name was not simply chosen because it sounded good or worked well in both English and Portuguese. Before the church even began, God had already placed Psalm 84 strongly on my heart, and it was from that passage that the idea of Oasis began to take shape.
Psalm 84:5-6 says, “Blessed are those whose strength is in you, whose hearts are set on pilgrimage. As they pass through the Valley of Baka, they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools.”
The picture was of an oasis in the middle of a desert, a place of refreshment, restoration and life. But as time went on, I understood that Oasis should not only describe the church we belong to. It should also describe the way we live.
There is something very important in the order of this passage. Before the Psalm speaks about the valley becoming a place of springs, it says, “Blessed are those whose strength is in you.” Before we think about what can flow from our lives, we first need to consider where we are drinking from.
Jeremiah 2:13 gives us a serious warning. God says that His people had committed two sins: they had forsaken Him, the spring of living water, and had dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that could not hold water. The problem was not that they were thirsty. The problem was that they had left the Source and were trying to find somewhere else to satisfy that thirst.
We can easily do the same. Money, relationships, knowledge, ministry, success and many other things can be good, but they become dangerous when we expect them to give us what only God can give. The question is not simply whether we will ever feel empty or tired. At some point we all will. The important question is where we go when we realise that we are empty.
We see another picture of this in the life of Samson. After a great victory in Judges 15, Samson became extremely thirsty and cried out to God. Although God had just used him in an extraordinary way, Samson was still completely dependent on Him. God provided water, Samson drank, his strength returned and he revived.
This teaches us something important. Being used by God does not remove our dependence on God. We may grow in knowledge, experience and responsibility. We may serve others and see God working through our lives, but none of that makes us the source. Great victories do not remove our need to keep receiving from Him.
Jesus makes this even clearer in John 7 when He says, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink.” He then says that whoever believes in Him will have rivers of living water flowing from within them, referring to the Holy Spirit.
Notice the order. First there is thirst, then we come, we drink, we believe, and then the water flows. Jesus does not begin with what we can offer. He begins with what we need to receive. Before there can be a river flowing from our lives, there must first be a place where we drink.
Later, in John 15, Jesus changes the picture but keeps the same principle. Instead of water, He speaks about a vine and its branches. He says, “Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine.”
The image is different, but the principle is the same. A branch does not produce life by itself. It bears fruit because it remains connected to the vine. In the same way, our relationship with Jesus cannot simply be somewhere we visit when we feel tired or empty. He calls us to remain in Him.
Our strength is not something God gives us once so that we can then become independent. Our strength comes from a continuing relationship with Him. This is also part of what it means to rest in Christ. Rest does not mean doing nothing. It means no longer trying to produce spiritual life apart from the One who gives it.
As we continue through this series, we will look more closely at what it means to live as an Oasis, to walk through dry places and to carry something of God into the places where He has put us. But everything begins here.
Before we think about what should flow from us, we need to ask ourselves one simple question:
What source are we drinking from?
Jesus still says, “Come to me and drink.” He also says, “Remain in me.”
We are not the Source. Our strength is in Him.
