Are You Thirsty? | Holy Spirit, Week 4
Are You Thirsty?
Holy Spirit Series, Week 4 | Pastor Pat Bousum
Thirst has a way of making us aware of what we need. We can carry on for a while, keep ourselves occupied, and push the feeling aside, but eventually our need for water demands our attention. Spiritual thirst can be less obvious. We may know the language of faith, recognize the Scriptures, and participate in the rhythms of church while still needing to come to Jesus and drink. His invitation reaches beyond our familiarity with spiritual things and speaks to the deepest part of who we are. He offers life that satisfies our thirst and then flows through us to others.
In John 7:37–39, Jesus stands before a crowd and calls the thirsty to Himself. He promises that rivers of living water will flow from within those who believe in Him. John explains that Jesus is speaking about the Holy Spirit, whom believers would receive after Jesus was glorified. This promise gives us a picture of the Spirit’s work that is both deeply personal and outwardly directed. God comes to dwell within His people, and His life reaches others through them. We receive from Him, and what we receive is meant to flow.
Jesus spoke these words during the Feast of Tabernacles, a celebration that remembered God’s provision for Israel in the wilderness. His invitation carried the weight of that history. The people knew the story of their ancestors leaving Egypt and finding themselves in a dry place with no water to sustain them. In Exodus 17, their desperation became an occasion for God to demonstrate His faithfulness. He instructed Moses to strike the rock, and water came out so the people could drink. Their survival depended on provision they could never have produced for themselves.
Against that backdrop, Jesus’ invitation becomes especially meaningful. The God who had provided water in the wilderness was offering living water through His Son. Jesus was calling people to come to Him personally, to believe in Him, and to receive what only He could give. Remembering God’s faithfulness was meant to lead them toward the One standing in their midst. The same invitation reaches us today. The testimonies of what God has done can awaken our faith, but we must also respond to Him ourselves. We are invited to drink.
John connects this promise to Jesus’ glorification, directing our attention toward His death and resurrection. Later, in John 12:32–33, Jesus speaks of being lifted up, and John explains that He is describing the kind of death He would die. The living water He offers is inseparable from the Savior who gave Himself for us. Our access to God rests on His saving work. We come because Jesus has made the way, and we receive the Spirit as people redeemed through Him.
At Pentecost, the promise of the Spirit became a visible reality. Acts 2 describes believers filled with the Holy Spirit, speaking in other tongues as He enabled them, while people from different nations heard the wonders of God in their own languages. What God poured into His people reached beyond the room where they had gathered. The Spirit’s presence moved them into public witness, and others encountered the message of Jesus. From the beginning, the gift of the Spirit carried an outward purpose.
That purpose helps us understand the depth of Jesus’ promise. When He speaks of living water flowing from within us, He is describing something that reaches the inward parts of our lives. God desires to dwell in His redeemed people. His presence is personal, touching who we are beneath the surface of our routines and appearances. We can become so focused on what happens inside a church building that we overlook the wonder of God making His home in us. Through the Holy Spirit, our everyday lives become places where His presence can be expressed to the world around us.
Ezekiel 47 gives us another powerful picture of life flowing outward. In the prophet’s vision, water emerges from the temple and becomes a river. As Ezekiel is led farther along, the water grows deeper, moving from his ankles to his knees, then to his waist, until it becomes deep enough to swim in. Pastor Pat connected this vision with Jesus’ promise in John 7, inviting us to consider what it means to yield more fully to the Holy Spirit. The increasing depth offers a picture of surrender, dependence, and a life increasingly shaped by God’s presence.
That application invites an honest response from us. We can enjoy being near the things of God while remaining hesitant to let Him direct us. Prayer brings us to our knees, where we acknowledge our need and surrender our will. As we respond to the Spirit, His work bears fruit that reaches beyond our own experience. The picture of water too deep to stand in challenges our desire to remain in control of every outcome. Following the Holy Spirit requires trust in the One leading us, including when obedience carries us beyond familiar ground.
But the river’s depth is only part of the vision. Its destination reveals its purpose. The water flows toward the Dead Sea, and the place associated with barrenness becomes a place of life. Ezekiel sees trees along the banks, living creatures in the water, and fishermen spreading their nets. The river changes the environment it enters. Where life seemed impossible, abundance appears. This is the hope that stood at the heart of Pastor Pat’s message: the Holy Spirit can bring life into places we have come to associate with spiritual death.
That hope matters for how we see our community. It is easy to recognize brokenness, describe the condition of our culture, or become discouraged by what surrounds us. Ezekiel’s vision invites us to see those places in light of God’s life-giving power. Through His Spirit, God works through His people to reach others. Our prayers for renewal therefore involve our willingness to be available to Him. We ask Him to move, and we offer Him our lives through which to move.
Pastor Pat described the river in terms of its source, its force, and its course. God gives the life, and He chooses to let that life flow from within His people. We cannot manufacture the Spirit’s power through religious performance or rely on a family history of faith to replace our own response to Jesus. Fear of rejection, concern about appearances, and resistance to inconvenience can make us reluctant to obey. The invitation is to trust Him enough to respond, allowing His presence to shape our words, our decisions, and our relationships.
For us at LEV, this connects directly to our vision to be the heartbeat of our community. Pastor Pat invited us to look at the unoccupied seats around us as places being saved for people we have yet to meet. Behind each seat is the possibility of a person encountering Jesus, finding restoration, and becoming part of our church family. That perspective gives our preparation and prayer a personal direction. We are making room in our hearts and our lives for the people God loves and desires to reach.
As we look toward Vision Night, we want to carry this expectation with humility and faith. Our hope rests in the Holy Spirit bringing life where there has been emptiness, awakening faith where there has been unbelief, and drawing people to Jesus. His invitation still begins with thirst: come to Him and drink. From there, His promise moves outward. As we receive His life and yield to His leading, may our homes, our relationships, and our community experience the living water He has promised to pour through His people.