Never Suffer Spiritual Thirst Again

Holy Spirit
Jesus instructs a progressive lesson on a very special gift.


  

Woman Under Anointing of Holy Spirit, photo by Bill Hunt (c) 2010.

You've heard of progressive dinners, people going from house to house to eat the next serving of a neighborly meal. All through his ministry, Jesus served a step-by-step progressive lesson essential to his disciples, that many people miss. Here it is, in brief!

How important is it to you?

Jesus talked with Nicodemus who visited him in the dead of night.

Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit”  (John 3:5-6 NIV).

Jesus did not reject the woman at the well who experienced five husbands.  Indeed, he promised her a gift.

Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:13-14).

He publicly proclaimed the meaning of the streams of living water.

On the last and greatest day of the Feast, 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. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified (John 7:37-39).

The condition for receiving the Holy Spirit 
is love and obedience to his commands.

"If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you”  (John 14:15-17).

Jesus leaves the Holy Spirit with us to remind us of his teachings.

“But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you”  (John 14:26).

The ultimate purpose of the Holy Spirit 
is to testify to Jesus.

"When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me”  (John 15:26).


He is the divine Spirit of Truth who speaks from the Triune God.

“But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you”  (John 16:13-14 NIV).

The Holy Spirit is the divine Gift Jesus offers to us, the streams of living waters welling up to eternal life.


 – Bill Hunt © 2010

NOTE:  Please let us know your thoughts in the comment box.  Have you received the empowering Gift of the Holy Spirit?

How to Pray for the Release of the Holy Spirit by Dennis Bennett is a very informative book to read. Dennis Bennett is a very solid teacher.