Drinking and The Holy Spirit

Text: John 7:32-39

In John 7, Jesus stands up and says to the audience in the temple, (I'm paraphrasing...) “If you believe in me, I will fill your heart with a water that will forever quench your thirst. This water will not just quench your thirst, but it will so fill your heart that it can potentially lead to seeing others quenched as well." This was a profound statement to make. But, honestly what does it mean? In the next verse, John answers that question. In the next verse, John says that the quenchable water is something Super-Natural; it is the supernatural gift of the Holy Spirit.

Many of us, when we look at our lives and churches we don't see much that is “Super” or “Natural”. Much of our lives and churches are instead, “Mediocre and Planned.” And worse of all, we tend to be pretty content with that. But this is NOT how life was meant to be lived. Jesus tells us that if we believe in Him, then God the Holy Spirit would come to live in us and our world would be opened up to things unimaginable.

As a Christian, a natural question would be “How do I receive a deeper measure of the Holy Spirit?” Our tendency will be to think that the measure in which the Holy Spirit is poured out is through how holy we behave. But, the gospel says that in Christ, you are as holy as you will ever be. You have Christ's perfect holiness (2 Cor 5:21) which was given to you at salvation. And so to tap into the Holy Spirit's power, is to simply pause long enough to believe by faith, that you have access to all the power that God intends for you to have, through Christ. Not because you are so awesome, but because the God who lives in you, through Jesus, is so awesome.

If you're thirsty; Have a drink.....

John 2:1-11 Do whatever he tells you to do.

Most of modern evangelicalism has a problem when it comes to seeing Jesus do miracles in the scriptures. Typically we don't know what to make of them. Should we try and over spiritualize them to make sense of it? Should we try to find some hidden meaning in it or some sort of moralistic teaching? Or should we just throw it out all together and not wrestle with it at all?

In most biblical circles, and even many seminaries, people are trained to break their hermeneutical understandings in order to try and over spiritualize the miraculous. The problem with that is first, the bible doesn't give us the freedom to do that. And Second, if we can fully explain and interpret the miraculous, it ceases to actually be miraculous.

In the case where Jesus turns water into wine, we see the foundation of being witness to the miraculous. Jesus told a couple of servants to do something, and they did it. And in doing so, they saw a miraculous work of God. At the wedding, Jesus' mother very clearly tells the servants to "do whatever he (Jesus) tells you to do." and in their obedience to Jesus, those servants had the opportunity to witness Jesus's first miracle. The same truth is for us today. As we hear the voice of God; whether it be through His Word, through the community of believers, or even supernatural revelation. When we hear His voice and are obedient and courageous in doing what he says; we have the awesome opportunity to see His wonderful hand at work. “Don't be just a hearer of the word, be a doer of the word.”