I AM THIRSTY
Jeremiah 2
“For my people have done two evil things:
They have abandoned me—
the fountain of living water.
And they have dug for themselves cracked cisterns
that can hold no water at all!
In this prophetic indictment of the people of God, though they had done hundreds and hundreds of evil things, God accuses them of having done just two evil things, which could be summed up even further to just one thing: taking their God-created thirst to illegitimate and insufficient places.
This is what we find that the Israelites are doing in their journey through the wilderness as we read through chapters 16 and 17 of Exodus. They know God’s promises, they have seen His power but here they are doubting His ability to provide. In a sense, they have capitulated to the very essence of their “thirst” by believing the lie that “God isn’t enough”. So much so that the text tells us that they are now “tormented by thirst” (Exodus.17:3)
And this isn’t just something that happened. This is something that still happens. Everyday.
To you.
And to me.
The enemy is still in the business of using our wilderness, desperate situations and desires and twisting them to where we become tormented by our thirsts. We are often:
- Tormented by our past.
- Tormented by our guilt and shame.
- Tormented by our addictions.
- Tormented by our demons.
And the enemy is tormenting us till we get to the place where we ask questions like:
“why can I not get that thought, that relationship, that moment out of my mind?”
Or:
“why do I anxiously keep checking my social media feeds for likes, views and comments? Why do relentlessly keep going over my bank balances, driving past his or her house, going to that same internet site, spending that money I don’t have, keep lashing out at my kids.”
As the Apostle Paul writes to the Corinthian church;
“I do what I don’t want to do!”
Another way to put it is, “I’m tormented by my thirst!”
FINDING TRIUMPH IN OUR THIRSTS
Thirsts taken to the wrong place will leave us feeling dry, burnt out and weary. They promise much but deliver little. But even more than that, thirsts uncontrolled are the doorway for the demonic.
This is what Jesus says about this in Luke’s Gospel:
When an evil spirit leaves a person, it goes into the wilderness, searching for rest. But when it finds none, it says, ‘I will return to the person I came from.’ (Luke 11:24)
The word “wilderness” in the text above is the Greek word “eresmos” which can mean “wilderness, desert, dry space, arid place, or waterless place.”
The simple truth is that the enemy is searching for dry spaces within our lives. Or more clearly put, demonic strongholds are established in our lives when we stop the flow of God’s river in our life.
You and I were not meant for dry, weary and burnt-out living! But how then do we combat this?
1. RECOGNIZE YOUR THIRST
The well-known text from Isaiah gives us the strategy to overcome this demonic thirst torment:
“When the enemy comes in, like a flood the spirit of the lord will raise up a standard against him” (Isaiah.59:19)
The Aramaic word at play here is the word “Nuwe” which means “to make flee”. Our job in partnering with the Lord to see demonic strongholds loosening their grip on our lives is to flood those areas of our lives with the presence of God. The areas of our being that have natural, legitimate and even God-given “thirsts” must be consistently taken to the only true source of satisfaction. Maybe you are
- single and desperate for a relationship
- sick and desperate for healing
- depressed and desperate for some joy
- lonely and desperate to be noticed
- in pain and desperate for some relief
- angry and desperate for justice
- frustrated and desperate for freedom
These thirsts are not wrong in themselves, but they can only be satisfied by one source!
2. REORIENTATE YOUR THIRST
The Psalmist penned the ultimate re-orientation of our thirsts from the very driest of wilderness experiences:
Psalm 63
A psalm of David, regarding a time when David was in the wilderness of Judah.
1 O God, you are my God;
I earnestly search for you.
My soul thirsts for you;
my whole body longs for you
in this parched and weary land
where there is no water.
Our responsibility is to start developing a taste for the superior pleasure of God’s presence in the wilderness spaces of our lives. We can become so seduced by the cheap and unfulfilling thirst quenchers that we forget the sweetness of the real deal!
3. RESPOND TO YOUR THIRST
“Jesus knew that his mission was now finished, and to fulfil Scripture he said, “I am thirsty.”
A jar of sour wine was sitting there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put it on a hyssop branch, and held it up to his lips. When Jesus had tasted it, he said, “It is finished!” Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.” (John.19:28-30)
On the cross, Jesus drank the fullness of the wrath of God on our behalf, and as he drank the sour wine and vinegar from his position on the cross, he drank of the generational curse of the Israelites’ disobedience and lack of trust in the wilderness that sour wine symbolized.
Every curse was broken, and every stronghold was undone by Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross!
And as he died, he poured himself out for the healing of the nations.
Psalm.22:14 prophetically said of this act, “I am poured out like water”
Our thirsts can never be satisfied by any other illegitimate source. No matter how dry, weary or burnt-out our wilderness seasons may appear, Jesus still stands as the only true place of ultimate satisfaction.
Jesus is the living water that never runs dry.
Jesus is Jacob’s well.
Jesus is the river that makes glad the city of our God.
Jesus is the water in the wilderness.
Jesus is the spring in the valley.
Jesus is the water from the rock.
Those who drink the water Jesus gives will never thirst again!
I am thirsty!
I am thirsty for the real thing, not just the religious thing. I am thirsty for the deep things of God, not just the shallowness of men. I am thirsty for going through miracles upon miracles, not just going through the motions. I am thirsty for the approval of my Heavenly Father, not for the empty applause here on earth. I am thirsty for Jesus.
If this too is the cry of your heart, today recognize where your thirsts have gone awry, reorientate them towards Christ and daily respond afresh to drinking deep of Christ.
For the Holy Spirit doesn’t fill that which is empty, He fills those who are thirsty!
Blog written by Gabe Phillips who is one of the pastors in our Life Changers story