July 4th, 2023
Have you ever thought about the significance of water in the Word of God? Throughout the scripture, water is used as an analogy for the Holy Spirit and this week, I want to share some thoughts about this, as it relates to our lives!
Joel 2:28-29 says,
“And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit.”
This scripture was fulfilled in Acts 2, when the Holy Spirit fell on the believers in Jerusalem, after Jesus resurrected and ascended into heaven. Peter declared that what was uttered by the prophet Joel came to pass when the Holy Spirit came in power. He was “poured out” on the believers and then they began to flow in the miraculous ministry that Jesus walked in. They lived so powerfully in the Spirit that even their shadows healed the sick!
The life of the Holy Spirit is what’s supposed to flow out of us to a world in need! It is possible, though, to block that flow of His power in us. Jeremiah 2:12-13 says,
“Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the LORD, for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.”
God rebuked His people for two things: forsaking Him, the fountain of living water, and digging cisterns for themselves. Now, cisterns are containers that catch and hold water. In this case, God’s people had forsaken Him to go after pleasure and other gods. They were trying to fill themselves with that which could never give them life. Just a couple of verses later, Jeremiah 2:18 says,
“And now what do you gain by going to Egypt to drink the waters of the Nile? Or what do you gain by going to Assyria to drink the waters of the Euphrates?”
God used this analogy because these rivers were in the lands of the gods they were seeking. They were drinking poisoned water by pursuing gods that weren’t gods, at all!
In the same way, I believe Christians can do this very same thing if we try to contain the Holy Spirit, or to have a little bit of God while still going after our own desires. See, cistern water can be controlled. It’s a contained amount of water that can be pumped out when we need it. When I was growing up, my parents had a cistern and there was a rustic, green pump I loved to play with near the cistern. I could prime the pump and then draw water from the cistern. However, the cistern water usually smelled terrible. It was stagnant water, so bacteria and all kinds of things could pollute the water, making it unfit to drink!
As believers, we can’t treat the presence of the Holy Spirit like cistern water. We do this by having an encounter with God and then trying to contain and store up what He’s poured out on us, for later. We put it in a spiritual cistern and try to hold it there, so we can go back to that same well over and over again and draw what we need when we need it. When we do this, we’ll always remain thirsty and exhausted in between, and no one will benefit the water that should be flowing from us. The encounter that refreshed you once will grow stagnant if that’s the only encounter you ever have!
Jesus discussed this idea with a Samaritan woman at a well. The story is recorded in John 4:7- 15:
‘A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”’
Whoever drinks of this water will never be thirsty, again.
The Holy Spirit can’t be contained and the encounter that filled you last week won’t sustain you today. He is a fountain and a river, meant to flow in us and out of us. We can’t control the Holy Spirit any more than we could control a river!
Jesus said in John 7:37-39,
‘“If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.’
John 3:34 says,
“For he whom God has sent utters the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure.” Cistern water can be measured, but rivers never can be. We aren’t meant to have a cistern with some of God’s Spirit stored up in us. We’re meant to flow in the river of His presence, so the thirsty can drink!
This week, if you’ve been trying to drink the water of past encounters with God, I want to encourage you to come again to the fountain of living water. As Revelation 22:17 says, “…Let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.” It’s fresh every, single day, just as you could never stand in a river and be in the same water twice. The Holy Spirit is always the same, pure presence of God, but no two encounters with Him are the same. We could never exhaust the depths of God’s presence!
Joel 2:28-29 says,
“And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit.”
This scripture was fulfilled in Acts 2, when the Holy Spirit fell on the believers in Jerusalem, after Jesus resurrected and ascended into heaven. Peter declared that what was uttered by the prophet Joel came to pass when the Holy Spirit came in power. He was “poured out” on the believers and then they began to flow in the miraculous ministry that Jesus walked in. They lived so powerfully in the Spirit that even their shadows healed the sick!
The life of the Holy Spirit is what’s supposed to flow out of us to a world in need! It is possible, though, to block that flow of His power in us. Jeremiah 2:12-13 says,
“Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the LORD, for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.”
God rebuked His people for two things: forsaking Him, the fountain of living water, and digging cisterns for themselves. Now, cisterns are containers that catch and hold water. In this case, God’s people had forsaken Him to go after pleasure and other gods. They were trying to fill themselves with that which could never give them life. Just a couple of verses later, Jeremiah 2:18 says,
“And now what do you gain by going to Egypt to drink the waters of the Nile? Or what do you gain by going to Assyria to drink the waters of the Euphrates?”
God used this analogy because these rivers were in the lands of the gods they were seeking. They were drinking poisoned water by pursuing gods that weren’t gods, at all!
In the same way, I believe Christians can do this very same thing if we try to contain the Holy Spirit, or to have a little bit of God while still going after our own desires. See, cistern water can be controlled. It’s a contained amount of water that can be pumped out when we need it. When I was growing up, my parents had a cistern and there was a rustic, green pump I loved to play with near the cistern. I could prime the pump and then draw water from the cistern. However, the cistern water usually smelled terrible. It was stagnant water, so bacteria and all kinds of things could pollute the water, making it unfit to drink!
As believers, we can’t treat the presence of the Holy Spirit like cistern water. We do this by having an encounter with God and then trying to contain and store up what He’s poured out on us, for later. We put it in a spiritual cistern and try to hold it there, so we can go back to that same well over and over again and draw what we need when we need it. When we do this, we’ll always remain thirsty and exhausted in between, and no one will benefit the water that should be flowing from us. The encounter that refreshed you once will grow stagnant if that’s the only encounter you ever have!
Jesus discussed this idea with a Samaritan woman at a well. The story is recorded in John 4:7- 15:
‘A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”’
Whoever drinks of this water will never be thirsty, again.
The Holy Spirit can’t be contained and the encounter that filled you last week won’t sustain you today. He is a fountain and a river, meant to flow in us and out of us. We can’t control the Holy Spirit any more than we could control a river!
Jesus said in John 7:37-39,
‘“If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.’
John 3:34 says,
“For he whom God has sent utters the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure.” Cistern water can be measured, but rivers never can be. We aren’t meant to have a cistern with some of God’s Spirit stored up in us. We’re meant to flow in the river of His presence, so the thirsty can drink!
This week, if you’ve been trying to drink the water of past encounters with God, I want to encourage you to come again to the fountain of living water. As Revelation 22:17 says, “…Let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.” It’s fresh every, single day, just as you could never stand in a river and be in the same water twice. The Holy Spirit is always the same, pure presence of God, but no two encounters with Him are the same. We could never exhaust the depths of God’s presence!
No Comments