Are You Really Thirsty?

Matthew 5:6 (NIV) 
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for 
righteousness, for they will be filled. (satisfied)

John 7:37-39 (NIV) 
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. 

Only thirsty people drink. You’re probably saying: “Pastor Ken, that’s obvious.”  Well, it might be obvious, but in the spiritual realm it’s important to understand.   See, really thirsty people drink. They don’t just talk about drinking. Many people say, “I need to spend time with God every day.” Then the next year we say, “Well,  I haven’t gotten around to it yet, but I need to spend time with the Lord.” If you are constantly saying that, your problem is that you are not thirsty.

Alcoholics don’t talk about drinking. They do some serious drinking. Jesus offered the living water of the Spirit to all who were spiritually thirsty. All they had to do was come to Him and ask, like the woman at the well. (John 4:15) The way you know you are serious about the Holy Spirit is that you come.  If you get thirsty enough, you will come. There must be the desire and then the action predicated on that desire.

Some Christians say devotions are boring. They’re boring because they are not a worship service. But when you come to your  devotions spiritually parched and ready for Holy Spirit to quench your thirst, your time with God will come alive. In fact, let me suggest a way to start if you have a problem  being spiritually thirsty every day.

Every morning when you get up, start with this simple prayer:
“Lord, for the next 24 hours, I’m Yours. Do with me whatever You want. Have Your way with me, because the only thing that matters to me for the next 24 hours is Your will. Whatever You bring  to me today, I give back to You. I only ask You to remind me to consult You all through the day so that I bring the Spirit to bear on my life. I ask you to fill me with Your Spirit   right now.”

Start your  day that way, add in a few verses of Scripture, and after  awhile  you are going to start being late for work because the worship is so good! That’s what God does when you are thirsty for HIM.

Just a thought:
The reason many of us don’t have more of the Holy Spirit’s power is that we’re not yet thirsty enough to drink of Him. How thirsty are you today?