Hungering and Thirsting for Living Water
Author: Frank G. Tunstall, D. Min.
On the final day of the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem Jesus stood and cried, saying, “If any
man thirst, let him come to 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, KJV; Leviticus 23:42-43;
Deuteronomy 16:13-14; Isaiah 55:1).
The Apostle John’s explanation makes clear Jesus was referring to the coming of the Holy Spirit. Jesus spoke “of the Spirit which they that believe on Him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because Jesus was not yet glorified (John 7:39, KJV).
Your writer has tried many times to identify Jesus’s five most important prophecies. Narrowing my list down to five has been very hard for me to do. But each time I have set out to make a list, this prophecy has always been one of them.
John understood well the meaning of the rivers this prophecy. He even dated the arrival of the gift as following the Lord’s exaltation. These ‘spiritual rivers’ flow with the refreshing living water of eternal life. They will even be celebrated in heaven around the throne of God (see John 4:13-15; Revelation 22:1-5).
Jesus was clear this river would surge worldwide out of believers’ hearts to the needy and thirsty. The Word is “any man,” and that includes women and children. Any person is a candidate (Acts 2:17-18). All too often, however, people interpret the blessing as a reservoir to be bottled up inside them, and not as a flowing river.
Jesus spoke with a heart full of passion when He made this great prophetic proclamation. The English word translated as cried comes from a Greek word that describes a scream like that of an eagle. At a minimum it communicates Jesus was calling aloud and entreating, even yelling.
Will you please let yourself picture Jesus feeling so ardently He was yelling at the top of His voice?
The arrival of the Spirit had been scheduled from eternity on the divine timeline for the first century celebration of Pentecost (Acts 2). Jesus knew the time was near.
The body of Christ will never be able to get excited about the person and work of the Holy Spirit unless believers permit themselves to feel Jesus’ deep passion about this great gift from God.
The gift of the Holy Spirit was surely one of Jesus’ greatest promises. Indeed! The whole future of the Lord’s plan to build His Church rested on this prophecy becoming a reality, and it makes the intensity of Jesus’ feelings understandable. The burning desire of Jesus’ heart was for everyone at the Feast to receive the huge bequest He promised.
Embraced in the Lord’s loud yell was Jesus’ promise that the “living water” of the Spirit would also be available to any thirsty person in every generation, regardless of age, gender, social status, ethnicity, race, or national origin. No one anywhere in the world is left out; the provision is just that broad. “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female: for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28; Acts 2:39 NIV).
The question naturally follows: what is the requirement for receiving the Holy Spirit?
It has always been to come to Jesus boldly, in spiritual desperation with a dehydration--like thirst (See Luke 11:5-13).
Jesus passionately promised the gift of the Spirit. He wants each of His followers to be passionate about receiving the baptism with the Holy Spirit.
In Luke 11 Jesus gives two illustrations that show how we are to yearn for the Pentecostal baptism.
The first is the story of a man’s friend who arrives at midnight, hungry and dehydrated. But the host had no bread in the house to give him. At midnight, therefore, he does a very bold thing. He goes to a neighbor’s home, wakes him up, and asks to borrow three loaves of bread. Half asleep the man at first gives him a firm “NO!” But the neighbor is quickly wide awake. So, he starts thinking, my neighbor would have never come to me with that request at midnight if he did not have a man in his house starving and thirsty. I can’t let that man try to go to sleep starving when I have bread in my house.
The traveler gets the bread because his host was very bold.
Jesus made His application: "So I say to you, ‘ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.’”
The second word picture is of a father who has a very hungry son. The boy asks his dad for something to eat. And Jesus proceeded to make His point. "Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?”
Then comes the Lord’s application: “If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!"
Symptoms of hunger pains usually include tiredness, irritability, lightheadedness and rumbling in the stomach. Feelings of emptiness are also pronounced with painful contractions. As starvation advances the body will absorb the glucose in the blood. Because there is now very little glucose in the blood, the heart must work harder to pump its blood. The body will actually turn on itself and begin to break down fat for energy. But the brain cannot function on fat alone. Not only pain, but hallucinations become routine.
As for dehydration, the pain that goes with it can be worse than a very bad migraine headache that makes a person feel like his head is exploding.
Ah, dear reader. Jesus used the passion of a loud yell to announce the pending arrival of the Holy Spirit. He also used the pain of hunger and thirst to describe the yearning of the soul to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and for the river that is the Spirit to flow out of us to quench the thirst of a dehydrated world.
He also pronounced a blessing on all who “hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled” (Matthew 5:6).
The blessing of this River is as guaranteed as a dad giving a sandwich to a hungry child, or a neighbor loaning bread to his bold next-door neighbor at midnight, because a starving and dehydrated friend has arrived.
Have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed? (Acts 19:2). And, is the river flowing out
of you?
Author: Frank G. Tunstall, D. Min.
On the final day of the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem Jesus stood and cried, saying, “If any
man thirst, let him come to 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, KJV; Leviticus 23:42-43;
Deuteronomy 16:13-14; Isaiah 55:1).
The Apostle John’s explanation makes clear Jesus was referring to the coming of the Holy Spirit. Jesus spoke “of the Spirit which they that believe on Him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because Jesus was not yet glorified (John 7:39, KJV).
Your writer has tried many times to identify Jesus’s five most important prophecies. Narrowing my list down to five has been very hard for me to do. But each time I have set out to make a list, this prophecy has always been one of them.
John understood well the meaning of the rivers this prophecy. He even dated the arrival of the gift as following the Lord’s exaltation. These ‘spiritual rivers’ flow with the refreshing living water of eternal life. They will even be celebrated in heaven around the throne of God (see John 4:13-15; Revelation 22:1-5).
Jesus was clear this river would surge worldwide out of believers’ hearts to the needy and thirsty. The Word is “any man,” and that includes women and children. Any person is a candidate (Acts 2:17-18). All too often, however, people interpret the blessing as a reservoir to be bottled up inside them, and not as a flowing river.
Jesus spoke with a heart full of passion when He made this great prophetic proclamation. The English word translated as cried comes from a Greek word that describes a scream like that of an eagle. At a minimum it communicates Jesus was calling aloud and entreating, even yelling.
Will you please let yourself picture Jesus feeling so ardently He was yelling at the top of His voice?
The arrival of the Spirit had been scheduled from eternity on the divine timeline for the first century celebration of Pentecost (Acts 2). Jesus knew the time was near.
The body of Christ will never be able to get excited about the person and work of the Holy Spirit unless believers permit themselves to feel Jesus’ deep passion about this great gift from God.
The gift of the Holy Spirit was surely one of Jesus’ greatest promises. Indeed! The whole future of the Lord’s plan to build His Church rested on this prophecy becoming a reality, and it makes the intensity of Jesus’ feelings understandable. The burning desire of Jesus’ heart was for everyone at the Feast to receive the huge bequest He promised.
Embraced in the Lord’s loud yell was Jesus’ promise that the “living water” of the Spirit would also be available to any thirsty person in every generation, regardless of age, gender, social status, ethnicity, race, or national origin. No one anywhere in the world is left out; the provision is just that broad. “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female: for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28; Acts 2:39 NIV).
The question naturally follows: what is the requirement for receiving the Holy Spirit?
It has always been to come to Jesus boldly, in spiritual desperation with a dehydration--like thirst (See Luke 11:5-13).
Jesus passionately promised the gift of the Spirit. He wants each of His followers to be passionate about receiving the baptism with the Holy Spirit.
In Luke 11 Jesus gives two illustrations that show how we are to yearn for the Pentecostal baptism.
The first is the story of a man’s friend who arrives at midnight, hungry and dehydrated. But the host had no bread in the house to give him. At midnight, therefore, he does a very bold thing. He goes to a neighbor’s home, wakes him up, and asks to borrow three loaves of bread. Half asleep the man at first gives him a firm “NO!” But the neighbor is quickly wide awake. So, he starts thinking, my neighbor would have never come to me with that request at midnight if he did not have a man in his house starving and thirsty. I can’t let that man try to go to sleep starving when I have bread in my house.
The traveler gets the bread because his host was very bold.
Jesus made His application: "So I say to you, ‘ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.’”
The second word picture is of a father who has a very hungry son. The boy asks his dad for something to eat. And Jesus proceeded to make His point. "Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?”
Then comes the Lord’s application: “If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!"
Symptoms of hunger pains usually include tiredness, irritability, lightheadedness and rumbling in the stomach. Feelings of emptiness are also pronounced with painful contractions. As starvation advances the body will absorb the glucose in the blood. Because there is now very little glucose in the blood, the heart must work harder to pump its blood. The body will actually turn on itself and begin to break down fat for energy. But the brain cannot function on fat alone. Not only pain, but hallucinations become routine.
As for dehydration, the pain that goes with it can be worse than a very bad migraine headache that makes a person feel like his head is exploding.
Ah, dear reader. Jesus used the passion of a loud yell to announce the pending arrival of the Holy Spirit. He also used the pain of hunger and thirst to describe the yearning of the soul to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and for the river that is the Spirit to flow out of us to quench the thirst of a dehydrated world.
He also pronounced a blessing on all who “hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled” (Matthew 5:6).
The blessing of this River is as guaranteed as a dad giving a sandwich to a hungry child, or a neighbor loaning bread to his bold next-door neighbor at midnight, because a starving and dehydrated friend has arrived.
Have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed? (Acts 19:2). And, is the river flowing out
of you?