“For I will pour water on the thirsty land and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your descendants and my blessing on your offspring.” (Isaiah 44:3)
“He poured out his Spirit on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior.” (Titus 3:6)
Once again, I’m sitting at my desk, looking out the window, kicking myself for not grabbing my laptop, and heading outside to write as I bask in the sun. But now, it’s too late. Over the last few minutes, the skies have started to cloud over.
Oh well, it’s a typical summer’s day in southwest Florida.
I love the weather here in Naples. Some days, the skies remain a deep-sea blue from dawn til dusk. On other days, the skies start blue, but then the clouds billow up. Sometimes, the clouds merge, darken, and drop immense columns of rain as the winds push the behemoth storm across the landscape.
At other times, enormous thunderheads form to the east over the Everglades, flatten out into anvils and float west toward the gulf, thunder and lightning hammering and flashing like a berserk blacksmith wildly pounding away.
Ask anyone who lives here. It’s impressive.
Rarely do we get a day where the clouds lay across the sky like a flat grey blanket. That’s one thing I do not miss about living in Minnesota. Those flat-iron clouds would hang around for days. While the persistent cloud blanket could happen at any time of the year, November was notorious for the unwelcome harbinger of winter and the subsequent depression brought on by seasonal affective disorder. (S.A.D.).
I remember one year when there was no sun throughout the entire month. Every. Single. Day. The only thing that saved my sanity was working as a rose cutter in an enormous greenhouse. The horticulturist would turn on the bright ceiling lights to help the roses grow and bloom in time for pre-Christmas and pre-Valentine’s Day. Since the greenhouse was kept at eighty degrees, it was like living in the tropics for eight hours daily.
But then my shift was over, and it was time to drag my feet from tropical glory into the cold and under the sad, grey blanket for the drive home.
I’m totally solar-powered.
While the clouds fight the sun for dominance today, I think back to last week. Global winds had swept up sand particles from the Sahara Desert in northern Africa, and the jet stream quickly pushed the sandy airmass across the Atlantic. When the sands arrived over Florida, the air vapor stuck to the particles, creating that all-too-familiar (and certainly not welcome) Minnesota cloud cover. Once again, I could feel it press down on my emotions, leaving me subdued and a bit gloomy.
But then it happened. The rain started. A mild sprinkle at first. Then, a steady rain. Finally, a colossal downpour that rinsed the sand particles from the air. By evening, the air was fresh, and the clouds dissipated.
Are you ready for a big revelation?
It only rains when there are clouds.
Brilliant, huh?
But as I watched the rain and subsequent cloud dispersal, I thought of the Lord’s great love and grace for us.
In Bible terms, rain is known as living water. Living water is water that moves. To qualify as “living,” water must have an inflow and an outflow. Thus, moving.
Living water is healthy water because it moves. Dead water can be unhealthy because it doesn’t. Living water can never be made impure because it carries away all impurities. Dead water holds and concentrates impurities. Living water refreshes. Dead water taints. Flowing living water promotes life. Stagnant, dead water promotes death. Living water restores the thirsty soul. Dead water doesn’t because who wants to drink stinking, slimy, bacteria-filled soup?
Living water is often associated with God. When Jesus returns to start His Messianic reign, “On that day living water will flow out from Jerusalem, half of it toward the eastern sea (the Dead Sea) and the other half toward the western sea (the Mediterranean Sea), in summer and winter alike.” (Zechariah 14:8, italics author).
During the messianic kingdom, God’s supernatural river of living water pouring forth from the Temple in Jerusalem’s center will affect the Dead Sea profoundly. “Then he brought me back to the entrance of the temple and there was water flowing from under the threshold of the temple toward the east, for the temple faced east… He (Ezekiel’s angelic messenger) said to me, “This water flows out to the eastern region (the Judean Wilderness) and goes down to the Arabah (the Jordan Valley). When it enters the sea (the Dead Sea), the sea of foul water, the water of the sea becomes fresh. Every kind of living creature that swarms will live wherever the river flows, and there will be a huge number of fish because this water goes there. Since the water will become fresh, there will be life everywhere the river goes.” (Ezekiel 47:1, 8-9, italics author).
The Bible reveals more about the living water/God link by describing God as the source of living water. “Lord, the hope of Israel, all who abandon you will be put to shame. All who turn away from me will be written in the dirt, for they have abandoned the Lord, the fountain of living water.” (Jeremiah 17:13).
Not only is our Lord the source of living water, bringing health, healing, refreshment, and life to everything, but He’s the only source of living water. There is no other source. What’s stunning is this supernatural source produces life that impacts all realms, spiritual and material. That’s how powerful and life-giving our God is. His gracious work in us brings cleansing and refreshing and sustains our lives continually as His life saturates us.
When Jesus met the woman at the well, He knew precisely what she needed: an encounter with the Living God Himself. “Jesus answered, ‘If you knew the gift of God, and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would ask him, and he would give you living water.’ ‘Sir,’ said the woman, ‘you don’t even have a bucket, and the well is deep. So where do you get this ‘living water’?... Jesus said, ‘Everyone who drinks from this water will get thirsty again. But whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never get thirsty again. In fact, the water I will give him will become a well of water springing up in him for eternal life.’” (John 4:10-11, 13-14).
Let’s now focus a little closer. We know what metaphorical living water does – it imparts life – and the source of that spiritual living water – our Heavenly Father. So, what is the equivalent of physical living water? Isaiah tells us. “For I will pour water on the thirsty land and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your descendants and my blessing on your offspring.” (Isaiah 44:3).
Do you see the clear parallel? Water and streams = God’s Spirit. Thirsty land and dry ground = God’s people. Living water is one of the Bible’s most vivid descriptions of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit works like physical living water to impart health, purification, refreshment, life, and restoration through His unmatched power.
(I have to laugh right now. As I write, thick clouds have moved in, and the rain has burst forth in torrents, accompanied by thunder and lightning. Nice timing, Lord.)
As our Heavenly Father sends the rain to water the thirsty land and dry ground, He sends the Holy Spirit to drench His people and fill us to the brim with Himself. So much so that the Holy Spirit overflows and splashes those around us, just like Jesus said. “The one who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, will have streams of living water flow from deep within him.” (John 7:38).
If you’re a born-again believer, God is the source of living water, but you are the spring. If you are under Jesus’ rain (reign, get it?) God’s activity will flow in and through you. The Holy Spirit will affect you, but the point is that you will impact the world around you, splashing the world with God’s love and grace.
Let’s go back to last week when I watched the rain leech the Saharan sands from the sky, clearing the air. I admit I was a little “under the weather” mood-wise. I’d been wrestling with some personal family and life concerns, and the cloud cover didn’t help my emotional slump.
When the rain hit, the Lord impressed that thought I shared earlier – It only rains when there are clouds.
Suddenly, I saw the Holy Spirit’s work in a new way.
When circumstances and situations have us down, the Lord’s Living Water, the Holy Spirit, is right there with the clouds. He begins to shower us with His love, presence, comfort, encouragement, wisdom, counsel, assurance, and everything else our thirsty souls need.
What cloud of concern hangs over you today? Family strife? Work stress? Health worries? The state of our nation? Toilet backing up?
When the clouds of life gather over you, remember – it only rains when there are clouds. The Holy Spirit is with you to give you everything you need to thrive when you’re under the weather.
I smile as I write this because I’m suddenly thinking about the title song from the Gene Kelly movie Singin’ in the Rain. Some of you reading this need a lift right now, so click the link and take a break (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swloMVFALXw). Then sing, dance, and splash in the puddles of the Lord’s grace washing down upon you.
Don’t get me wrong. It’s not only in cloudy times that the Holy Spirit ministers to us. When our skies are blue, and all is right with the world, we bask in the Son light, brought to us by the same Holy Spirit.
But when situations block Jesus from my sight, hearing, and awareness, and I feel alone and down, the Holy Spirit flows over me like warm Florida rains and wells up in me. He moves over me as a light mist or a steady sprinkle to wet my dry soul. Sometimes, He hits me like a torrential downpour to flush the garbage from the gutters of my life. How He moves is up to Him because every God-sent Holy Spirit rain shower perfectly matches my circumstances.
Now that the Holy Spirit has soaked this idea into my spirit, every rainstorm reminds me of the Lord’s loving presence and grace, and it’s oh-so-good. I regard all rain as welcome rain. Likewise, all works of the Holy Spirit are welcome works.
Eventually, my cloudy circumstance will pass, but the outpoured water of the Lord’s love, grace, and mercy remains to finish its work of cleansing, refreshing, and restoring. I can bask in the sun once more. Rain or shine, we’re always under the Lord’s care.
Where do you get this Living Water? From Jesus. Just ask.
Then, when your life begins to cloud up, you’ll be singin’ in the rain, too.
Shining the Light of God’s Truth on the Road Ahead
Pastor Jay Christianson
The Truth Barista, Frothy Thoughts