Have you heard of “dry spells” in your Christian walk? To me a “dry spell” is not the same as a
“valley experience.”
A VALLEY EXPERIENCE is something in our “earthly” lives that we’re walking
through. Maybe we’re praying and God doesn’t answer the way we wish He would.
WE FEEL we’re in a valley! Or maybe our “valley” could be:
A lost job,
Getting something we DIDN’T want,
Not getting something we wanted,
Prolonged sadness over a hurt relationship,
The death of a loved one, etc.
It could go on and on and sometimes it does! I see it as relating
to events in our lives. We can go through a crisis and still ride above it
spiritually, that’s when we truly experience God’s “peace that passes all
understanding.” We know when we’re in
our valley because we don’t seem to be approaching the summit yet!
A DRY SPELL, however, is your “spiritual”
valley experience. Everything can be going great and we still can be in a DRY
place spiritually. So I ask this question today—
ARE YOU DRY OR . . . ARE YOU WET WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT?
There are many symbols for the Holy Spirit in scripture:
“On the last day, that
great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, ‘If anyone thirsts,
let him come to Me and drink. He who
believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart [belly] will flow rivers of living water.’ 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.” (John
7:37-39)
“but whoever drinks of
the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall
give him will become in him a fountain
of water springing up into everlasting life.” ( John 4:14)
As believers, the Holy Spirit dwells in us and out of our
hearts will flow “rivers of living water,” which is the Holy Spirit.
Jesus is speaking . . . “And
I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper [Comforter], that
He may abide with you forever—the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot
receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.”
(John 14:16-17)
Other scriptures concerning the indwelling of the Holy
Spirit are Romans 8:9-11 and 2 Timothy 1:14.
Jesus is speaking . . . “I
still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of Truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth;
for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak;
and He will tell you things to come.” (John 16:12-13)
“Now we have received,
not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know
the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also
speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.”
(1 Cor 2:12-13)
Dick Iverson writes, “If we think of the Holy Spirit as an
abstract or impersonal influence or power, we are robbing a Divine Person of
the worship, love, and recognition due Him. The Spirit is as ‘living water’ or
‘life-producing’ water, which must be continually bubbling up or flowing, not as
a stagnant marsh or reservoir in our lives.”
Visualize a stagnant marsh—blue-green algae, scum, flies and
mosquitoes, ugh! Now visualize a
reservoir—beautiful, blue, clean, but going nowhere, not flowing into anything as
we should be . . . flowing into each other’s lives, watering one another
through the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
WATER cleanses and washes away dirt and impurities, it
satisfies our thirst, it waters the ground producing food to sustain our lives,
for without water we will die. Without the Holy Spirit we will also die—spiritually.
Why does the Holy Spirit desire to water us? "But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness when we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life." (Titus 3;4-7)
WASHING: to
bathe, cleansing from sin.
REGENERATION: recovery,
renovation, a new birth, to beget again.
RENEWING: a
renovation that makes a person different than the past, renew qualitatively (quality).
We can always turn a deaf ear
when the Holy Spirit begins to “wash” us. We can dam up our water supply! When
we do that, though, we have quenched the Holy Spirit and put our foot on the
path to a dry place. That’s where I found myself recently. I was a dry sponge
in a dry place! I know because I recognize what it’s like to be wet and I wasn’t wet! I knew I was in trouble when
I started down that path because I’ve been on it before and sometimes it can be
pretty long and pretty dry!
This time, however, I began to
pray every morning, “Lord, water me with Your Holy Spirit! TODAY!” Just one day
at a time! Praise God He began but I also had to cooperate. I had to present
myself to the Lord and to pray and surrender my heart of stone to receive a
heart of flesh. (Ezek 36:26, Isaiah 44:3) Now we’ve seen by scripture that the
Holy Spirit dwells in us (Jn 14:16-17) and then He flows out of us like rivers
of living water (Jn 7:38). As a sponge, we can soak up all that He has OR we
can go to a desert place and die—spiritually. John 15:4 says “ABIDE IN ME AND I
IN YOU.”
Have you ever met a “dry” Christian? They are walking around
breathing but they’re dying of thirst inside. The Spirit of the living God is
not watering them or washing them or cleansing them or renewing them. It’s like
they’ve dammed up their energy source. We probably ALL have found ourselves in
a dry place at sometime or other. We may know the Word but do we enter into the
wonderful blessings of the Holy Spirit’s watering and washing and teaching?
When we find ourselves in a dry place, satan lies to us and
tells us we’re NOT DRY or he tries to point us to every other answer except
returning to our FIRST LOVE, Jesus Christ and the washing of the Holy Spirit.
“Oh, you don’t need to get into the Word of God”...or...
“You’re so tired, you don’t need to go to church/Bible study
today” ...or...
“You don’t need fellowship w/other believers” …etc...
and he will talk you into shutting yourself off from
fellowship.
“For what man knows
the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no
one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the
world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have
been freely given to us by God.” (1 Cor 2:11-12)
“And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on ALL flesh;
your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams,
your young men shall see visions. And also on My menservants and on My
maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days.” (Joel 2:28)
Jesus is speaking...“Behold, I send the Promise [of
the Holy Spirit] of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem
until you are endued with power
from on high.” (Luke 24:49)
“But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you...” (Acts
1:8)
Do you feel that you have power? The teaching of and
learning from the Holy Spirit is a day by day process. He desires to show us
the deep things of God BUT we must take ourselves to “school” and learn! That
means getting in the Word daily; surrendering to the Holy Spirit’s teaching.
A wonderful by-product of the Holy Spirit is the fruit that
He produces in our lives: LOVE, JOY, PEACE, PATIENCE, KINDNESS, GOODNESS,
FAITHFULNESS, GENTLENESS, and SELF-CONTROL!
If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. (Gal. 5:22-25)
I’d like to ask you again,
ARE YOU DRY or ARE YOU WET?
ARE YOU HAPPY WHERE YOU ARE WITH GOD?
ARE YOU EXPERIENCING A PROGRESSIVE WALK WITH THE LORD?
DO YOU WANT TO BE WATERED, REJUVENATED, RENEWED BY THE HOLY
SPIRIT?
DO YOU WANT TO GO INTO DEEPER WATER
AND EXPERIENCE THE DEEP THINGS OF GOD?
Then ask of God and He will freely give you all things...
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