We are told that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is needed in order to fulfill God’s call in our lives and I firmly believe that to be true. In order to do that we need to receive the Holy Spirit and be filled with him, wrapped with him, and be ignited by the all-consuming fire of God. But it is not right to be filled with him and then keep asking him to keep coming and refilling you. It isn’t biblical to tell God that you are Thirsty for him because he will not let the soul of the righteous go hungry as we are informed by Proverbs 10:3. To be dry in the spirit is an admission that you are not drinking the well of God. It is an admission that you are drinking from the wrong well. Stop reading this book right now if that has already offended you. If you have decided to press forward then let me explain to you why it is not biblically sound to proclaim that you are hungry or thirsty for God.
Does the Bible teach us that we are to hunger and thirst for God? The answer is yes, we are to hunger and thirst, at least until we find God and accept Jesus. After that happens, then it is strictly carnal for us to claim that we are hungry and thirsty for God. Here is a verse that I am going to reference quite often throughout this teaching,
“My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water." -Jeremiah 2:13
So, you are thinking to yourself now, “but what about, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be FILLED?" -Matthew 5:6. Good question. If you are filled, then how can you be thirsty still? You do not thirst for water when you are filled with water. What is this water that Jesus is speaking about that quenches our thirst? We learn from John 7 the water is Holy Spirit. Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink.
"He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, 'From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.'" But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified.”
Now, remember the Story of Jesus at the well? He talked to the woman of Samaria and told her he was the Messiah. John 4 tells us,
"13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” John 4:13
There we have it, in plain English. The Holy Spirit is the water that satisfies your thirst. I have searched the Bible, read every passage about hungering and thirsting, and nowhere have I found a scripture that says that after you receive the Holy Spirit that you need to be refilled with him because you are getting dry and Thirsty, and in no place have I found that it says we are to hunger for God after we receive Jesus Christ as our Lord and savior.
That being said, let’s talk about the soul thirsting in the Old Testament. Let’s look at some of those passages and figure out what was being said. “as the deer pants for water, so my soul thirsts for you.” That is true, it does say that. After researching the verse where it says, that I learned the reason this Psalm (ps.42) was written was that the author was in a place of deep depression. In verse five this Psalm states,
“Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him For the help of His countenance.”
This person was seriously depressed. They had no hope in God, they had no joy, they didn’t even want to praise God! You must also take note that this Psalm was written before we had Jesus. Jeremiah 2:13 tells us that God is the well of living water, therefore if the author of this psalm was going to God for refreshment, he would not have thirsted. That is why the author of Psalm 42 is constantly telling their depressed soul to praise God. At every turn, this Psalm speaks of how their enemies are saying, “Where is your God?” It speaks of how the depression they are in is like endless waves of sorrow, and yet the author says Because I am afflicted, I will worship God.
If you are in a deep place of depression, a deep funk, an endless barrage of waves of sorrow and depression, then you need to turn to God. He is our source of refreshment. He is our source of Joy. You may think to yourself that you are always going to God, but if you are blaming God for what ails you then you are not going to God for refreshment. There are two wells, just as there were two trees in the Garden. Two represents Choice, trial, testing, division, and blessing. The blessing comes after the testing as a result of choosing God rather choosing the bad fruit, or the leaky well that leaves you thirsty and dry. It’s o.k. to get depressed. It is not ok to get depressed and remain in that depressive state.
The bible clearly teaches us that we need to Go to him and worship him in order to get free. Heck, even Saul had to have David worship the Lord so the Tormenting spirit that came over Saul would be lifted. The devil cannot remain in a place of high praise. It may not be easy. It may take a while, but if you persistently and consistently turn to God in praise and worship when depression hits you, it will most assuredly set you free from the grasp of Depression. That is how you stop the spiritual thirst and remain being filled by God. Choose the well that never runs dry.
Take a look at Isaiah 61 (I’ll be referencing this quite often) We know, because of Jesus, that this verse is referring to the time at which Jesus comes because he so boldly tells his relatives and townsmen in his hometown that is about him:
“The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, 2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, 3 and provide for those who grieve in Zion— to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor. “
Please allow me to quickly reference a couple of bible verses that compare spiritual food to doing the work of God. "My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.” John 4:34; " I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; 3 for you are still carnal." 1 Corinthians 3:2. "3 They all ate the same spiritual food 4 and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ." 1 Corinthians 10:3
The people that were not spiritually mature, that were carnal in 1 Corinthians 3, were reprimanded. They were called children. An infant that nurses is hungry every two hours. They are incapable of doing any works because they completely rely on someone else to take care of them, to lead them, to change their dirty diapers, etc. An infant in Christ is the only person that is able to say that they hunger and thirst for God because Jesus has become the wellspring of water that is overflowing out of us, and doing his will is the meat, and laying on of hands and healing the sick is the bread. Just simply living life the way the bible outlined will leave a person fully satisfied. Praying for the sick, living a Christian life and you will no longer be hungry because you have a three-course meal. Paul reprimands those carnal believers that were being selfish, the ones that were getting drunk, overeating, fighting with each other and living according to the flesh! He teaches and Jesus teaches that it is a good thing to hunger for God. That hunger is what draws you into Jesus, that Thirst is what draws you into God. After you receive Jesus you stop hungering and thirsting for the lord because you are no longer wondering how to achieve his will, or focusing on just achieving your will, but you are doing his will which is the food that God has for us.
I have noticed that when a person typically says that they are dry, or that they are hungering, is when there is nothing supernatural happening at Church. There seems to be no evidence that the Holy Spirit was at work in their lives and so on. When this happens it’s easy for a person to feel as though they are dry but it is not biblical. The only way you could be spiritually Thirsty is if God has left you, which is something he said he would never do.
Let's look at Isaiah 49:8-10
“In the time of my favor, I will answer you, and in the day of salvation I will help you; I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people, to restore the land and to reassign its desolate inheritances" (Check back later this week for part two ).
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