Have you been spiritually thirsty? I have. My soul dry and cracked. Nothing growing. Nothing thriving. Life was just hard. I had no idea I was missing was the Holy Spirit’s Living Water. I mean, I knew I wasn’t in the Word like I had been. Our church attendance was sparse, but just as when you don’t realize how physically thirsty you are until you drink a cold glass of water, I didn’t recognize how dry my spirit was until I attended a beautiful worship service.
As the singers began to lead, tears trickled down my face. It wasn’t the sound of their voices or the talent of the band causing the tears. It was the presence of Him. The Holy Spirit began to fill the auditorium and my soul. I needed a lot of tissues. Thankfully, I had some in my purse. After the service my husband and I both agreed we’d been watered with Living Water. Ya’ll it’s real.
The promise of living water
The Bible tells a story of another woman whose dried, cracked soul needed refreshment. She’d trudged to the town’s well in the heat of the day to fill her bucket like she’d done a thousand times before–a normal day until a stranger asked her for a drink.
The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water. “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock? Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
John 4: 9-14 NIV
Jesus offered her Living Water and right away she said, “Give it to me! I never want to come here again.” Of course, Jesus wasn’t talking about physical water. What He offered would not change her physical needs, but what He had would change her forever.
Her story is one of my favorites. I spend a whole chapter about her in A Mary Like Me . I could write on and on, but really Jesus’s promise needs to be my focus today, not her miserable life or how misunderstood she’s been by most preachers. By the end of her conversation with Jesus this woman changed. She transformed from a bitter introvert to a joyful evangelist. Her encounter with Jesus filled her to overflowing. Living Water does that.
Jesus at the water ceremony
Three chapters after the apostle John wrote about the woman at the well, he recorded Jesus’s attendance at the Feast of Tabernacles, Sukkot. This feast played an important role in the lives of the Israelites reminding them of God’s presence and provision in the wilderness.
According to The Complete Jewish Study Bible, during the Second Temple period, during the festival of Sukkot a priest would fill a pitcher with water from the Pool of Siloam where people waited for the healing waters to stir. A crowd of joyful people would then follow the priest to the Temple dancing and singing the Hallel (Psalm 113-118). This ceremony culminated on the seventh day with the priest pouring the water over the altar. Tremendous praise and rejoicing ensued. This ceremony became known as “Rejoicing of the House of Drawing Water.” Rabbis explain that the joy wasn’t only for the hope and promise of rain for the year ahead, but it came from the promise in Isaiah.
Then you will joyfully draw water from the springs of salvation. Isaiah 12:3
Jesus’s name means salvation
This ceremony was a prophetic demonstration of Messiah’s coming and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit over Israel when the Messiah’s rule and kingdom would come. This is what Jesus proclaimed on the last day of the feast. His Hebrew name is Yeshua which means salvation. Keep His name, the water ceremony, and Isaiah 12:3 in mind as you read John’s words:
On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus (Yeshua) stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified. John 7:37-39 (addition mine)
I wonder how many came to faith in Jesus that day. And I wonder if they we in Jerusalem celebrating Pentecost when the Holy Spirit entered our world. It was a day of great rejoicing perhaps even greater than the celebration of the “Rejoicing of the House of Drawing Water.” That’s the thing about the Living Water. When it fills us, our spirits rejoice and flourish.
The Living Water produces fruit
I’ve never thought of connecting the Living Water of the Spirit to the Fruit of the Spirit until now, but doesn’t it make so much sense? Just like my newly planted drift roses produce more flowers when I water them (a lot), so our spirits will produce beautiful fruit when we’re watered with the Holy Spirit. That fruit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal. 5:22-23). Yes please, I’ll take a gallon of Living Water every day.
Bible reading plan
Come soak in scriptures about the Living Water of the Holy Spirit for an entire month. Click on the image to download the printable. Let His Spirit satisfy your spiritual thirst you may not even realize you have. Drink deeply daily. Let these verses be the diving board into deeper waters of truth. I pray they fill you with joy. May their truth and His Spirit fill us to overflowing, and may our joy spill over onto those around us like the Samaritan woman whose joy and testimony brought a whole town to Jesus. Hallelujah!
you are invited
PS.
If you want to know more about Holy Spirit and how to get Him, watch this video.
