Thirsty?

"Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, 'If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.' By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive" (John 7:37-39)


Here again we have the first step toward the baptism with the Spirit, namely, faith in Jesus Christ: "whoever believes in me." But we have also a fifth step in the word "thirsty", "if anyone is thirsty." Our Lord Jesus evidently had Isaiah 44:3 in mind when He uttered those words: "For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessings on your descendants." Note carefully the words "if anyone is thirsty."


Where you ever really thirsty? I was among the sixty thousand troops at Chickamauga Park during the Spanish-American War, and where there was no rain for many days. The air was full of dust thirty feet high day and night, and we ate dust and drank dust and slept dust and dreamed dust, and no water was fit to drink. I know what it means to be thirsty. When a man really thirsts, it seems as if every pore in his body has just one cry: "Water! Water! Water! And when a man thirsts spiritually, his whole being has just one cry: "The Holy Spirit! The Holy Spirit! The Holy Spirit! O God, give me the Holy Spirit! Then it is that God pours floods upon the dry ground, pours His Spirit upon us.


Within us there must be an intense desire that arises out of our utter need of power to do effective service for God, that longs for it at any cost. And it may cost you a good deal. It may take you out of a nice home here in America to China or to India or the heart of Africa. And your intense desire must spring for the glory of God and not for your own glory. Acts 8:18-22 records the solemn case of Simon the magician who desired the Holy Spirit out of his unholy desire. Be careful at this point. Get alone with God and ask Him to show you whether you desire the Holy Spirit that you may glorify God as you should.


Spirit of God, I thirst for You in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water. I am as dry as dust apart from You. Purify my heart that my only motive is to glorify God, to serve My King in a manner that is worthy of His great rule. Amen


~R. A. Torrey~