The Holy Spirit in Figures
By Jerry Batson, Th.D.
Special to The Alabama Baptist
Last week we addressed the use of wind in association with the Holy Spirit to suggest truths about the Spirit. This week the association of the Spirit with water suggests other truths.
A good starting point is a prophetic passage from Isaiah that says, “For I will pour water on him who is thirsty, and floods on the dry ground; I will pour My Spirit on your descendants, and My blessing on your offspring” (44:3). The connection of water with the person of God’s Spirit is obvious.
‘Let him come to Me’
Jesus made a similar connection in the Gospel of John when He stood and cried, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (7:37–38).
The immediate connection with the Holy Spirit and water follows with the explanation, “But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified” (7:39).
What then might we draw from the biblical connection between water and the Holy Spirit?
- A divine thirst-quenching is available through the Spirit’s ministry to believers. No doubt all of us can recall times when we were gripped by physical thirst for a drink of water. God stands ready to pour His Spirit upon His spiritually thirsty children.
- A life-sustaining dimension to the Spirit’s work resides in a Christian’s heart. We humans cannot live very long without drinking water; dehydration is not to be ignored. Attempting to live the life Jesus came to give while ignoring the person and presence of the Holy Spirit in our hearts is to be beset with “spiritual dehydration.”
- A fruit-producing possibility is associated with the Holy Spirit’s active presence in our hearts as God’s children. Some of us may recall forgetting to water a house plant or a flower bed, only to discover in time that the plants withered and possibly died. Dead plants cannot bring forth fragrant and attractive flowers. Part of the purpose for the Spirit indwelling and filling a believer’s heart is that attractive fruit will not flourish apart from Him.
The psalmist long ago knew where to turn when thirst beset him: “As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God” (Ps. 42:1–2). Can we say that?
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