Prayer
Briefly prepare your heart in silence, and ask the Holy Spirit to awaken your sense of anticipation that God is about to speak to you through His Word. Then, before you read, I invite you to pray this prayer based on Isaiah 12:2-3:
Lord, You are my salvation;
I will trust You and not be afraid.
You my Strength, my Defender
and my Saviour.
With joy I will gaze into the light of Your Word
and draw water from Your wells of salvation.
Amen.
Reading
Jesus’ ministry at the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem unleashed a new wave of criticism and even a plot to kill him (v.30). But, by the Father’s protection, He continued to minister against the backdrop of the great festival.
Every day of the Feast, the people gathered at the altar in the Temple courts, with palm branches in hand. Water was fetched from the Pool of Siloam in a golden pitcher and brought up to the Holy Place in the Temple. As the people recited Isaiah 12:3, “With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation”, the water was poured out on the altar. This was a symbolic reminder of God’s provision of water for the Israelites in the wilderness.
But on the last day of the Feast, that water was not poured out. This symbolised the fact that God had brought His people through the wilderness and settled them graciously in a place where they had permanent access to water.
With that context as a dramatic backdrop, Jesus stood in a very public place on the last day of the Festival and declared:
‘Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.’ (v.37-38)
Then the author John explained:
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. (v.39)
Jesus was essentially declaring that He is the answer to every spiritual thirst, and that all who come to Him and entrust themselves to Him, will find that He satisfies every such thirst. How? By pouring into us the Holy Spirit, the Living Water, the One who is the Source of all spiritual life. And He would not only grant us the Spirit in small measure. He would so permanently and fully impart the Spirit that He would become a permanent well inside of us, and would even bubble up and overflow from us to impact the world around us.
This would be the fulfilment of God’s ancient promise in Isaiah 58:11,
The Lord will guide you always;
He will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail.
William Barclay concludes his comment on this verse:
It is as if Jesus said: “Come to me and accept me; and I will put into you through my Spirit a new life which will give you purity and satisfaction, and give you the kind of life you have always longed for and never had.”
So today, hear the invitation of Jesus. As a believer, you already have the deep-seated well of the Holy Spirit present within you. Go to that well now. Ask the Holy Spirit to infuse you with God’s presence, love and life. Entrust to the Holy Spirit every activity and interaction that lies ahead of you in your day today, and consciously receive from Him the life-giving power and love of God to overflow from you and be poured into those situations through you.
Contemplation
Please take time to ponder what Jesus has commanded us. Turn these declarations over and over in your mind. Keep them in mind throughout the day and live in step with Your King, Jesus.
As a disciple of Jesus Christ:
- I will drink deeply from the well of the Holy Spirit’s presence.
- I will allow His presence and influence to overflow from me into the world around me.
Lord Jesus, please satisfy my spiritual thirst from the deep well of Your Spirit within me. Holy Spirit please flow through me and from me today. Amen.
Leave a comment