Are you spiritually thirsty? Many people seemingly have everything and yet find themselves still empty on the inside. They pursue pleasure and dreams for happiness believing that the accumulation of riches and material possessions or popularity and political power will satisfy them, yet they are lacking contentment and find themselves adrift in the sea of life--still seeking...still longing...still thirsting....God created man with the capacity to worship Him and the need to be in fellowship with Him as was noted by H. G. Wells who stated that every person has a “God-shaped vacuum in his heart--a void that only God can fill.” St. Augustine put it this way, “My soul is restless ‘till it rests in Thee.” Without a relationship with God we lack fulfillment and contentment! Nothing satisfies this inner God-given spiritual craving or thirst except God Himself! This is what Jesus Christ was speaking of when He said,
"If any man thirst let him (John 7:37-38).
Jesus promised, "rivers of living water!" We will discuss the context of this passage from the seventh chapter of the Gospel of John below, but first let us look at the story that John relates a few chapters earlier in which Jesus offered a woman "living water" to quench her spiritual thirst:
Jesus Christ is the only One
Jesus Christ promises to satisfy your thirst!
If you haven't yet done so, click here and read how to be "born again" by receiving Jesus into your heart (then click Back to return here). In our church we often enthusiastically sing the hymn:
Satisfied
For a draught from some cool spring, That I hoped would quench the burning Of the thirst I felt within. Chorus: Hallelujah! I have found Him Whom my soul so long has craved! Jesus satisfies my longings; Through His blood I now am saved. Feeding on the husks around me, Till my strength was almost gone, Longed my soul for something better, Only still to hunger on. Poor I was, and sought for riches, Something that would satisfy, But the dust I gathered round me Only mocked my soul's sad cry. Well of water, ever springing, Bread of life, so rich and free, Untold wealth that never faileth, My Redeemer is to me. It is important to consider the context of Scripture (i.e. surrounding verses and setting). Often the meaning of Scriptures are twisted because they are taken out of context.
The context of Christ's words in John 7:37-39 "In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)" (John 7:37-39).
This was the Feast of Tabernacles which was celebrated by the Jews in remembrance of God’s provisions for his people in the wilderness wanderings. During this feast there was a special ritual in which the priest drew water from the well in Siloam and joyfully carried the vessels of water through the streets to the temple singing the words of Isaiah 12:3, "Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation." At the temple, the water was poured into a large basin. At a given time the priest raised the basin and poured out the water upon the altar. The water ran down the altar and steps of the temple like a river reminding them of the river of thirst-quenching water that miraculously flowed from the rock Moses struck with his rod at God’s command (Exodus 17:1-7). As Jesus watched, He knew that this ritual was more than just a remembrance! It pictured and pointed to a time soon when the "rivers of living water" would be poured out after His work on the cross. It was in this setting that Jesus stood and cried out "If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." His words echoed Isaiah's prophetic and divine invitation: "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters..." (Isaiah 55:1). Little did the onlookers at that feast realize it, but The Rock from which their fathers drank water had come in the flesh to give them "Rivers of Living Water!"
Jesus is The Rock! As the water is poured out during this Feast of Tabernacles, Jesus makes the claim, "I am the Rock!" He is saying "I can satisfy your spiritual thirst--your innermost needs--I am your salvation!" David prophetically spoke of Christ when he said, "He only is my rock and my salvation" (Psalms 62:2). Interestingly the passage of Scripture used in this ritual is full of prophetic references to Jesus Christ! "Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the LORD JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation. Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation. And in that day shall ye say, Praise the LORD, call upon his name...Cry out and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion: for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee" (Isaiah 12:2-6). Just a few chapters earlier (John 4) Jesus had mentioned this "living water" to the Samaritan Woman at the well. It was similar because it would satisfy her thirst, but there is a difference here. With her, Jesus promised not rivers, but "a well of water springing up into everlasting life." Here in this chapter (John 7), John clears up the difference in the two. The well that Christ was talking about was the Holy Spirit’s work in Salvation--like an inner well of satisfaction. But in Christ's declaration at this feast, John makes it clear that Jesus was referring to the Baptism of the Holy Spirit that becomes "Rivers of Living Water!"
Jesus is The Baptizer in the Holy Ghost! Throughtout the Bible, water is a type of the Holy Spirit. Like the priest that poured out the water in this Feast of Tabernacles ritual, Jesus is our Baptizer in the Holy Ghost! Those that believed on Jesus had not yet received the baptism of the Holy Ghost at that time, but later all 120 that were gathered in the upper room received that baptism on the Day of Pentecost.
Jesus expected those who believed in Him to be receptive to this soul-satisfying and life-changing experience.
The baptism of the Holy Spirit produced such a vast change in the lives of New Testament believers that it was just expected that they should receive the baptism of The Holy Spirit after they believed in Jesus Christ.
Just as the water (picturing the Holy Spirit) did not flow until after the rock in the wilderness was struck (picturing Christ's sufferings on the cross), so the Holy Spirit could not be poured out until after Christ's death, burial, resurrection, and ascension. Jesus explained it to his disciples like this:
On the Day of Pentecost, Peter explained it like this:
Obviously, the early Christians desperately needed the baptism of the Holy Spirit for many reasons. Christ had commanded them, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature" (Mark 16:15). He commands us to do the same! The trouble was that they faced an hostile world. So do we! They needed all of the divine help, power, and satisfaction included in Christ's promise of "rivers of living water!" So do we!
We need these "rivers of living water!
Pastor Lundmark's Personal Testimony In my early teen years I started to drift away from the Lord and began to get interested in things of the world. It was the early days of Rock and Roll and whenever I had the chance, I secretly listened to my favorites on the radio. As soon as one was over, I was at the dial searching for another one. There were other things that I began allowing in my life that the Lord was not pleased with. Thankfully, I never got into sinful habits of drinking, drugs, etc., but I began to become rebellious to my parents and developed a horrible, uncontrollable temper. My brother who was a year and half older than I, often took the brunt of my temper. He was more muscular than I. When we got into fights, I would lose my temper and throw things without thinking of the consequences. One time he did something to set me off and with all my strength I threw a dinner plate at him across the room. Somehow it broke--perhaps on his elbow--and it took quite a few stitches for the doctor to mend him up. I think to this day he has scars from that and when I threw a knife and a fork at him. I got disciplined and whipped for each of these and I was really sorry, but again and again, I would lose my temper in a split second and couldn’t control it. Our family started attending a lively black congregation--Church of God in Christ. One day a visiting minister came down from the platform and laid his hand on my head. When he did, I felt the glory and presence of the Lord like I never had before and I desperately wanted more of Him! A deep hunger for the Lord was ignited in my heart and I began to really seek the Lord. I began reading my Bible through and often read for hours. At church I responded to the altar calls and sought the Lord in prayer. This continued for about three months and then something happened that left a huge vacuum in my life--my dad suddenly and unexpectedly had a heart attack and died while we were in classes at school. It was an immense shock to our whole family. That Thursday evening of my father’s death, my mother encouraged me to attend the revival services going on at our church. As I earnestly sought the Lord during the altar service I knew I needed God's presence and power in my life. As my soul cried out and longed for God, I became determined to receive all that God had for me no matter what the cost! While in prayer, the Lord revealed to me that my chess set was between myself and Him. Although nothing is wrong with playing chess, I had played it for hours on end and had made an idol of it. My best friend at school had taught me to play chess and I loved it! I dedicated myself to it and we played it often! When I started winning him all the time, he wouldn’t play me anymore. We were a very poor family and the only money I had came from finding and selling pop bottles at about 5 cents each. I spent my savings on a cheap plastic chess set that probably cost less then two dollars. Then I taught my brothers to play chess. We played it for hours on end. My mother often reminded us to do our chores and we would say—“Just a minute Mom, we are almost finished with this game!” As soon as one game was over, we were playing another one! Most of the time, my mom’s strap broke up the games. Chess became the most important thing in my life. I not only won most of the games, I cherished that chess set! One time I was playing chess outdoors with my brother just older than I. When I checkmated him, he kicked the table over, spilling all my chess pieces, and he took off running. I instantly lost my temper, grabbed a brick, and pursued him until I got close enough to throw the brick at him. When the Lord showed me that night that I had made my chess set an idol that stood between myself and Him, I promised the Lord that I would destroy it that very night. When I arrived home, I immediately got my chess set and threw it into the flames of the wood stove. My oldest brother was standing there and saw me burn it. Knowing how much I loved that chess set, he thought that I had lost my mind because our father had just died that day. I returned to the church services the following evening to seek Jesus Christ who said, "If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink" (John 7:37). After the service, I stayed to seek the Lord in the all-night prayer meeting. About 2:00 a.m., while I was earnestly praying, my pastor saw a vision of Jesus standing in front of me with His hands outstretched toward me. When my pastor came over and laid his hands upon me, I experienced what felt like a burning ball of fire within my chest moving upward! Suddenly I was filled with heavenly ecstasy and began to speak in other tongues just as the 120 did in Acts 2:4 where it says, “And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” After several hours of worshiping the Lord in the Spirit, things settled down and our pastor was having people testify what God had done for them. He asked me if I had just received the Baptism of the Holy Ghost. I responded, “I don’t know—but I’ve never experienced anything like this before!” Then he asked if I had spoken in other tongues. I had been so lost in the Spirit and overwhelmed with the glory of God that I was not even aware that I had been speaking in tongues, so again I said, “I don’t know.” Then everyone around me spoke up and said, “That’s all you have been doing for the last several hours—worshiping the Lord in other tongues!” Before I got home that morning, my pastor had already called my mother and told her the good news that I had received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. I did not know it then, but after my dad died, my mom’s biggest concern was my rebellion and uncontrollable temper. I was her problem child and her prayer request to the Lord was “What am I going to do with Danny?” She had specifically asked the pastor to pray for me. Well, Jesus heard her prayer and did just as John the Baptist said He would do in Matthew 3:11, “…He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire.” After telling my mom what had happened to me, I went to bed. I awoke around 9 a.m. with the glory of God still filling my soul. But something was really strange—it was totally quiet in the house—that was never the case in our small house with seven brothers and two sisters! No one was home and it dawned on me that my mom had taken the family for my dad’s private viewing and had let me sleep because I had been at the all-night prayer meeting. As I walked around in our home, the glory of God was all over me! I was aware of a new and distinctive shaking or quaking in my jaws which I had never before experienced. I knew it was the Holy Spirit prompting me to again speak in other tongues and as I yielded to the Sprit, I began to praise and worship the Lord again in other tongues. Another unique thing I noticed was that I actually felt physically lighter. One end of our kitchen table was near a counter top and whenever I walked between the two, I was in the habit of placing my hands on them and propelling myself upward through that gap. Well, as I was worshiping the Lord in other tongues while walking through the home that morning, I did that out of habit and I thought I was going to go through the ceiling! For three days I actually felt like I was walking on clouds--it was a glorious and unforgetable experence! When I attended my dad’s funeral that day, I was aware of the sorrow of having lost my dad, but at the same time I experienced an amazing and awesome comfort. The Holy Spirit had become my “Comforter" just as Jesus promised in John 14:16, “And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever!” After the funeral we were invited to my aunt’s home for a meal. While it was being prepared we had the rare opportunity to watch Hopalong Cassidy on TV. We never had a TV, and whenever we got a chance to watch it, we were glued to it! But that day I had no interest in it—I had such an intense desire to just get alone with God and pray in the Spirit that I got up and found a laundry room, closed the door, and began worshiping the Lord in other tongues again. This desire to pray and worship the Lord remained with me. My oldest brother had a darkroom upstairs—it was the only place in our house that I could be alone with the Lord and that winter it became my prayer closet where I went to enjoy the glorious presence of the King of Kings! About two weeks after receiving the Baptism of the Holy Ghost, an incident arose with my brother, just older than I, in which I normally would have lost my temper and threw something at him. To my amazement, I wasn’t even angry! I remember thinking to myself at the time “This is strange—I would have lost my temper before. I should be getting mad for what he just did, but I am not even getting angry! Then it hit me—I had not lost my temper ever since I was baptized in the Holy Ghost! Soon every member of my family knew that God had changed me! In Galatians 5:22 we read that one of the fruits of the Spirit is temperance! I like to say it like this, “Jesus tempered my temper when He filled me with the Holy Ghost!” When I look back to that part of my life, I realize that the Lord did some very powerful things in my life at that time. Jesus set me free from the sinful habits that were beginning to grip me. I lost all interest in worldly things! No one told me to quit listening to the rock music on the radio, I just wasn’t interested in it anymore—my interest and focus was Jesus Christ just as He promised in John 15:26, “But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me.” The baptism of the Holy Spirit gave me a love for Jesus that I never had before. In the summertime, I couldn’t wait to meet Jesus in my “hut” in the corn fields or at “the trees.” It was only about a month after I received the Baptism of the Holy Ghost, that the Lord called me into the ministry. That’s another story of God’s working in my life. At 16, my pastor made me the assistant pastor of our church, and then I attended a Christian school followed by attending a Bible college and being ordained to the ministry. I met and married my wife after graduating at that Bible college and immediately went into evangelistic ministry after our honeymoon. When the Lord told Peter to go and preach the Gospel to a gentile, Cornelius and his household, Peter began his message in Acts 10:34 with the words, “Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons.” Then he preached about Jesus and before he could conclude, we read “While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word.” The thing that astonished the Jews that came with Peter was “that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God.” God is no respecter of persons! What He did for me, He will do for you! I encourage you to receive this gift which Jesus called the "Promise of the Father" in Acts 1:4. After the Holy Ghost was poured out on the 120 in the Upper Room, Peter preached Christ to the 3,000 who gathered there. They were convicted and asked, “What shall we do?” His response was “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.” This is for everyone-this is for you! If you have not yet received this wonderful gift and promise of God, I urge you to earnestly seek Jesus, the Baptizer, firmly believing that:
"The promise is unto you..." (Acts 2:39) (Acts 2:38-39).
Keep believing... (Galatians 3:14).
Keep asking...
Keep waiting... (Luke 24:49).
Keep thirsting...
"If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." (John 7:37-38).
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