This week I developed Influenza A according to the emergency room doctor. I had collapsed in the night walking to the bathroom. There was high fever, and very low blood pressure. They attributed it to being dehydrated. Of course, they gave me two bags of IV. My wife, especially, and many others have always encouraged me to drink more water. But, I guess I’m one of those that just doesn’t obey. Therefore, there are consequences. A few years ago I collapsed at home, and Joanne had to call the Highland Park emergency team and they took me to the hospital and did one thing, gave me bags of IV (water).
On average, depending on age, sex, and other attributes, the human body’s water content is 60%. While sodas, teas, coffee, other liquids are tasty and good, they are not a replacement for water. You would think after 88 years I would’ve learned this. It is recommended that 125 ounces of water should be drunk daily by men, and 91 ounces for women. For me that means around 12 glasses of 8 ounces. Seems challenging but necessary. God created our body and knows what we need for our best health.
While every day we need to replenish the water into our body, we also have a spiritual life that also needs living water. Jesus, at the well with the woman, told her “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, give me a drink, you would’ve asked him, and he would have given you living water” (John 4.10). She was thinking about physical water since she was sent there by the village to bring water back from the well. Jesus used this opportunity to show her and us that we need more than physical water.
He then shares the eternal benefits of this living water. “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (Vs. 13). Jesus was speaking of eternal truth. John goes on to explain, as recorded in chapter 7, the source of this living water. ‘On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified” (vss. 37-39).
Jesus extended the offer to “anyone” in verse 37 and “whoever” in verse 38. The requirement for salvation is faith in Christ. The result of salvation would be the gift of the Holy Spirit likened unto “rivers of living water”. Jesus repeats the promise of the Spirit to his disciples in John 16: 7-15. The Spirit is always involved in salvation (Jn. 3:5-8). This leads us to the following conclusion. The Spirit gives life. Just as water refreshes and revitalizes a thirsty person, so the Spirit gives life to the believer, enabling God to produce fruit in his or her life. And the Spirit is active, as opposed to a still, standing, or stagnant water. He is an artesian well, a spring of water welling up to eternal life. (Jn. 4:14). He is a flowing river of water in John 7:38.
As God promised in Joel 2:28-32 those who are in Christ will never thirst again, because we have been given the living water, the Holy Spirit. In Him, no more dehydration and visits to the emergency room. Hallelujah!