Living Water

 

Let us recall the conversation Jesus had with the Samaritan woman at the well:

A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink. (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things in common 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.”   (John 4:7-10)

Jesus, on the day of the Festival of Booths in Jerusalem, further explains this living water:

 

On the last day of the festival, the great day, while Jesus was standing there, he cried out, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, ‘Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.’” Now he said this about the Spirit, which believers in him were to receive; for as yet there was no Spirit, because Jesus was not yet glorified.   (John 7:37-39)

Jesus was glorified on the cross. He purchased for us forgiveness for our sins and salvation. He also purchased the right to baptize us in the Holy Spirit with fire. Do we have the fire of the Holy Spirit inside us today?

Is the baptism of the Holy Spirit merely a theological subject to be debated? Isaiah wrote:

With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.   (Isaiah 12:3)

The gift is by invitation. Jesus purchased the price of this gift by the cross so that he forgive us and purify us. We must receive his invitation. We must respond to his call.)

There is a well of living water. Have we sought this water? If we have not, Satan has prepared a counterfeit for us. God spoke through the Prophet Jeremiah:

My people have committed two evils:
    they have forsaken me,
the fountain of living water,
    and dug out cisterns for themselves,
cracked cisterns
    that can hold no water.   (Jeremiah 2:13)

The psalmist wrote:

How precious is your steadfast love, O God!
All people may take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
They feast on the abundance of your house,
and you give them drink from the river of your delights.
For with you is the fountain of life;
in your light we see light.   (Psalm 36L7-9)

How do we receive this living water? Jesus told the Samaritan woman:

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.

We must know the gift of the Holy Spirit. We must know Jesus. We must ask him for the gift, Jesus is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit and with fire. (John 1:33)