Psalm 42:1-2 (TLB)
As the deer pants for water, so I long for you, O God. I thirst for God, the living God. Where can I find him to come and stand before him?
Traveling out of town for a concert and shopping with my three girls was such a blessing! In the heat of South Florida surrounded by palm trees and outlet malls, we exercised retail therapy amongst the plethora of shops, eating yummy food and jamming out to the one and only Taylor Swift. However, upon our return, I began feeling a dull ache in my back. My stomach didn’t feel so good. As I began to self-assess my body, I realized that I had unintentionally become dehydrated with all our fun in the sun. Throughout the course of a normal day, I drink probably six to eight glasses of flavored water. However, I had forsaken my routine and did not drink more than a glass or two a day. My body is used to constant hydration and how is voicing its displeasure in its thirst. Distracted by our travel and fun, I neglected taking care of my body. It is thirsty. I need to supply the hydration it needs to function properly.
As a deer pant for water, so I long for you, O God. I thirst for God, the Living God. Our family is in the midst of a transition. We are in the process of praying for and seeking out a new church. I haven’t said this before publicly but after a month or more of no church, I feel it is obvious. Now as I our family makes this change, I am not only dehydrated from our trip but also the lack of church in our life. Thankfully, I have the Source of Life running through me. One thing that is commonplace between both my natural need for more water and spiritual need is that it took some symptoms to elicit the thirst that I now have. Our bodies and spirits can live on our reserves for a while. We can learn how to survive on less, but that is not God’s Plan for us.
Psalm 65:9-12 (TLB)
He waters the earth to make it fertile. The rivers of God will not run dry! He prepares the earth for his people and sends them rich harvests of grain. He waters the furrows with abundant rain. Showers soften the earth, melting the clods and causing seeds to sprout across the land. Then he crowns it all with green, lush pastures in the wilderness; hillsides blossom with joy.
For those who live in countries like the United States, clean drinking water is easy to find. We may choose bottled or fancy water but the truth is the public works department in each community works to keep clean drinking water flowing throughout. In the Spirit life, it is not different for those who seek the Kingdom of God. If you want His Spirit, all one must do is welcome Him as a part of salvation. The Spirit of God is given to everyone who calls Jesus Savior and Lord, but not as many drink Him in or use Him to satisfy their soul. There are many dehydrated Christians out there who barely survive rather than thriving in the Overflow of God pouring out of Heaven for all mankind.
He waters the earth to make it fertile. God is watering our life each day. His River never runs dry as it runs right through us. Will we drink from it daily is up to us? Or will we get busy, travel away or become too distracted to properly maintain our body and spirit? It can happen so easily in the hustle and bustle of the daily grind. Just as I may forget to keep drinking water because it is not handy or I do not feel thirsty in that moment, I do the very same thing to my spirit man, too. The Lord sends His Rain to drench us, soften us, fill us, and prosper us every single day. His River never runs dry. The question is are we running to it.
John 3:4-7 (TLB)
“Born again!” exclaimed Nicodemus. “What do you mean? How can an old man go back into his mother’s womb and be born again?” Jesus replied, “What I am telling you so earnestly is this: Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God. Men can only reproduce human life, but the Holy Spirit gives new life from heaven; so don’t be surprised at my statement that you must be born again!
Nicodemus was a Pharisee. He was smart. Still this whole concept of being born again did not make any sense so he had a conversation with Jesus. Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, He cannot enter the Kingdom of God. Men can only reproduce human life. The Holy Spirt gives new life from Heaven. When you and I were growing inside our mother’s woman, her body fed us. Through the umbilical cord, the blood flow gave the nutrients needed to grow and develop hidden within. Submerged completely in the amniotic sac full of water, hydration occurred from the outside in as our bodies absorbed what was needed. From the moment of birth, a baby begins to suck and seek hydration. It is a natural innate response. If you gently brush your hand on a newborn’s cheek, they will immediately open their mouth and begin rooting in that direction. It is this reflex that enables a child to thrive. I wonder what our spiritual response is when the Lord comes close enough to brush up against us. Do we respond?
I am adult. I know have the knowledge and wisdom to keep my body properly hydrated. That doesn’t mean that I always do, but that God has empowered me with understanding so when I am thirsty or experiencing symptoms of dehydration, I know to drink more water. What about my spirit? When I am dry and thirsty do I know to tap in to the Living Water inside of me? This is just as if not more important than my physical health but directly related to my spiritual well-being. I have living water flowing in me. It is the Holy Spirit. Without a properly watered soul, I will not grow into the new life that God has given me through Jesus Christ.
John 7:38-39 (TLB)
For the Scriptures declare that rivers of living water shall flow from the inmost being of anyone who believes in me.” (He was speaking of the Holy Spirit, who would be given to everyone believing in him; but the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet returned to his glory in heaven.)
The Holy Spirit works within us as believers much like the natural God-Given responses that keep us alive. God gave us hunger so we know to eat. He gave us thirst so we will drink. Pain tells us to stop doing that which is causing it to avoid injury, etc. The Holy Spirit is the same to our spirit man or woman. He is the One who helps us to respond properly in the Spirit. He is the Overflow of God that waters our soul making our soft heart soft and preparing us to prosper. Without Living Water, the Fruit of God’s Spirit will not be cultivated in us and we will not grow spiritually beyond a newborn state.
Proverbs 21:1-3 (TLB)
Just as water is turned into irrigation ditches, so the Lord directs the king’s thoughts. He turns them wherever he wants to. We can justify our every deed, but God looks at our motives. God is more pleased when we are just and fair than when we give him gifts.
I can go to the gym, diet and drink lots of water to improve my physical health and appearance. But if I neglect my spiritual health, all is for naught. My body is dying. I may be able to delay the process but it is appointed to man once to die so it is inevitable. But if I work diligently to maintain the health and well-being of my spirit man as well, I do not have to worry about dying because I will live again. My spirit man operates on the same principle of hunger and thirst as the natural body. I must get in tune with the Holy Spirit feeding and watering my soul properly as I do my body in order to prosper my soul and have a well-watered life.
We have not been to the gym in months. Life got busy and it just became hard to fit in our schedule. When I go to the gym, not only do I work out my body, but I work out my mind. Often I pray through the 45 minutes on the elliptical machine. I started this when I would get back from chemo treatments with our son to clear my mind and renew my spirit. Our son is healed and delivered from cancer. We have not been going and I have discovered my spirit girl misses that time. Running, praying and praising God working my mind, soul and body out until everyone agrees so we are headed back. Our flesh never aligns with our spirit willingly. It is a day by day work out and diet that must be closely monitored and maintained in order to continue to prosper body, mind and spirit. It is worth it.
John 4:14-15 (TLB)
“But the water I give them,” he said, “becomes a perpetual spring within them, watering them forever with eternal life.” “Please, sir,” the woman said, “give me some of that water! Then I’ll never be thirsty again and won’t have to make this long trip out here every day.”
John 4:28-30 (TLB)
Then the woman left her water pot beside the well and went back to the village and told everyone, “Come and meet a man who told me everything I ever did! Can this be the Messiah?” So the people came streaming from the village to see him.
Jesus daily offers us the same Living Water that He told the woman at the well about. The kind that allows us to worship Him in Spirit and in Truth. When she finally realized who Jesus was and what He was offering her, she left her water pot. Are you carrying around a water pot today filled with all those dreams and visions not yet come to pass? Or maybe it is filled with all the cares and worries not yet surrendered to our Savior and Lord? Or perhaps its unclaimed blessings and the seeds of faith that you are afraid to plant as your life is in a season of drought? It’s time to leave that water pot behind. Your life does not belong to you anymore. You are filled with living water looking for a way out. If we will tap into the Living Water in us, it will flow out in our life to make us prosper again. Dreams and visions will come to pass as quickly as they come streaming in our heart and mind. Worries and cares will fall off of us into the Lord’s Waiting Hands. We will being to overflow and prosper in a well-watered life. What are you waiting for?
Revelation 21:5-7 (TLB)
And the one sitting on the throne said, “See, I am making all things new!” And then he said to me, “Write this down, for what I tell you is trustworthy and true: It is finished! I am the A and the Z—the Beginning and the End. I will give to the thirsty the springs of the Water of Life—as a gift! Everyone who conquers will inherit all these blessings, and I will be his God and he will be my son.
Pure Devotion 