Wanting The Water
Introduction
On November 14th, of last year, Georgia governor Sonny Purdue stood on the steps of the state capitol and led a public prayer service asking God to send rain to parched Peach state, which at the time was suffering under the worst drought in many years.
In spite of criticism from those who would prefer that America operate apart from Divine help, Purdue said regarding the drought, “The only solution is rain, and the only place we get that is from a higher power.”
After some twenty months of drought, the governor stood before a large gathering, and prayed, saying, “God we need you. We need rain.” His prayer continued, “We do believe in miracles. We do believe that you are the miracle Creator.”
Much to the chagrin of skeptics and scoffers alike, within 24 hours of the prayer for rain, the dry forecast changed, and showers fell in Atlanta, and across much of the state.
While we are truly grateful to God for hearing our unworthy prayers, and intervening with rain, the reality is that there is another drought that is affecting not only our state, but our entire nation.
The drought I am referring to is not a physical drought, but rather a spiritual one. The spiritual condition in most of our churches, and consequently most of our country could be described as desperately dry.
For the most part, our gatherings and our efforts lack the power of God. We are going through the motions, but the anointing, enabling power of the Holy Spirit is largely missing.
Like the physical drought that plagued our state for nearly two years, the only hope for our churches is the reviving showers of God. Unless He intervenes with Holy Ghost revival, our churches will continue to wither away in our parched condition.
In Isaiah 44:3, we find a promise that is fitting for our day. Through His prophet, the Lord spoke and said, “…I will pour water on him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground…”
As I have meditated upon this promise, there are three truths that have become real to my heart. There are three things that God wants to do in our midst. I want you to notice them with me. Notice first of all:
I. The Blessing God Wants To Extend
Baptistries are empty, and increasingly our buildings are as well. As one generation of believers slowly passes on, the ranks are not being renewed.
Worship services are so often efforts in futility, as little if anything of true spiritual value is accomplished. God’s people come in and leave with no challenge, no change, and no charge to keep.
For the most part, we are spiritually dry. We have more money, more programs, more technology, and more talent than any generation previous to ours, and yet, the power of God is missing from our midst, and we are trying to conduct His work without His help.
What is so sad about our present condition is that it does not have to be this way. God has promised to meet His people at the point of their need. He is willing to bless us, and to send the spiritual showers that we need.
He says in our text in verse three, “I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground…” Notice with me a couple of things we see in this verse that God wants to do for His people. Notice first of all that He wants to do:
A. A Work Of Refreshing
The Lord promised that He would “pour water on Him that is thirsty…” This is a simple and yet very instructive illustration.
If you have ever been truly thirsty, and then had that thirst abated by a cool, glass of water, then you understand the imagery here in this text.
A lack of water produces dryness, and weakness. Without water, our bodies cannot function properly. We break down without the life-giving properties of water.
Yet, when water is introduced into a dry and thirsty body, there is a refreshing. Muscles are hydrated, and vital organs begin to function again at full capacity. Water brings life.
Right now, God wants to refresh His church. He wants to send the water of presence and power to His feeble and faltering people.
He wants to rekindle our worship, reenergize our witness, and refocus our hearts upon Him. He wants to spiritually refresh His people!
We don’t have to carry on in our dry, weakened, ineffective condition. We don’t have to continue the motions of religion without the blessings of reality!
God says, “I will pour water upon him that is thirsty…” He wants to do a work of refreshing among us. Notice also further, that God not only wants to do a work of refreshing, but also, He wants to do:
B. A Work Of Removing
Look again at verse three. God says, “I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground…”
We don’t often think of a flood in a positive light. Yet there are some positive things that a flood can do. A flood can wash away certain things.
When the ground is parched and dry, as described in our text, a flood serves to wash away that top layer of dust and dry soil that sits on the ground.
A flood upon a dry ground removes all the dead grass, and dead plants that sit just on the surface of the soil. A flood removes certain things.
In much the same way, God wants to do a work of removing in the midst of His church. The Lord Jesus wants to wash away the complacency and apathy that now grip much of His Church.
Now doubt He wants to remove the worldliness and carnality that is rampant among His people. Surely, He wants to remove the dry, dead, religious formality that makes up much of the worship in our day!
Can you argue that there are certainly some things that God wants to remove from our church? There is a work He longs to do among us.
I remember reading a story once about a man that was warned by the authorities that a flood was coming, and he needed to evacuate his house. The man refused, telling the police that he would just wait, and trust God to save Him. The waters began to rise, and when they were over the front porch, someone waded up to door, and ask the man to go with them in their four-wheel-drive vehicle to safety. The man refused, again saying that God would save him. Later, when the waters were over the first level of his house, a boat came to rescue him, but the man again stayed put, stating that God would save him. Finally, when the waters had reached the gutters on the roof of the home, and helicopter came by to save the man, now perched on his roof. Again, the man refused, saying that God would still save Him. Finally, the waters overcame the man, and when he got to heaven, he asked the Lord, “Why didn’t you come save me?” To which the Lord replied, “I tried! I sent you a truck, a boat, and a helicopter! What more do you want me to do?”
Right now, the church is in danger. Yet, it is not because our Lord will not help us. He is willing to extend His blessing to us.
Notice another truth we draw from this verse. Notice not only the blessing God wants to extend, but notice also secondly:
II. The Burden God Wants To Establish
Look again at our text. The Lord says, “…I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground…”
What we have in verse three is not only a promise, it is a challenge. God is giving His people not only an assurance, but an incentive.
God wants to create a thirst in us, and reveal to us our own condition. Notice with me a couple of things about this burden God wants to establish. Notice first of all that God wants to:
A. Revive Our Desire For Him
The promise of verse three is for “him that is thirsty.” Those that do not want the water are not going to get it.
Desire precedes deliverance. Prayer precedes the provision. Want comes before the water. The Lord desires to see a desire in us.
The Lord Jesus said in Matthew 5:6, “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.”
Do you realize that one of things God wants to do in your life is to increase your craving for Him! He wants you to want Him! He looks for a longing in your heart!
If you have been married for very long, then you know that the romance, passion, and desire can wane with time. We get used to each other, and we begin to take each other for granted.
A couple once got into an argument, and the wife complained of how things had changed. She said, “When we used to ride together in the car, we would sit so close that you couldn’t fit a paper in between us.” The husband’s answer was, “Well, I’ve been driving, and I’m not the one who moved.”
Today, one of the things God wants to do in our hearts is to rekindle our passion and pursuit of Him. He wants to awaken our spiritual thirst.
He wants to hear us say with David, “As the [deer] panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.”
Notice another aspect of the burden that God wants to establish in us. Notice not only that He wants to revive our desire for Him, but notice also further that He wants to:
B. Reveal Our Desperation For Him
Look again at verse three. The Lord says, “…I will pour water on Him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground.”
Notice that it is dry ground that receives the floods. The word translated “dry ground” always speaks of a place without any water on it. There is a total lack of moisture.
These dry lands aren’t in need of sunshine. They don’t need a new crop planted upon them. They don’t simply need to be turned and tilled. They need rain, and they need it desperately.
As the church, so often we will try everything but what we need the most. We will try new programs, in hopes that they will fix the dryness of our condition.
If new programs don’t work, we will try new preachers, hoping they can fix what the last one could not. When the new programs and the new preacher don’t meet the need, we will try new procedures. We will just change how and what we do. We will sing new songs. We will wear new clothes. We will exchange the sermon for a play, and choir for a dance team, and perhaps that will fill the void.
Something is missing, we just aren’t sure exactly what it is, nor what will fix it.
Yet God promises that He will send floods to those dry grounds that know exactly what they are lacking. God wants us to know how desperately we need Him.
Our ministries, our methods, and our message are not the problem! Those would all blossom to life again if the floods of God’s reviving Spirit would just fall on us!
Notice one more truth we glean from this text. Notice not only the blessings God wants to extend, and the burden God wants to establish, but notice also thirdly and finally:
III. The Barrier God Wants To Eliminate
In verse three, God says that He will, “…pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground…” God’s will is always in concert with His desires, and therefore we know that if God is willing to do this for His people, than this is something He desires to do as well.
If God wants to send this revival shower upon His people, what is keeping Him from doing it? If it is God’s will to refresh and revive us, why is it not happening?
I believe there is a barrier to His blessings that exists in our lives. That barrier is something that will have to be removed if we are ever going to see the showers of blessings that we need!
What is this barrier? I believe it consist of two things. First of all there is:
A. The Barrier Of Our Indifference
The Lord says that He will pour water on him that is thirsty, and therein lies the main reason why the blessed water of revival does not come – we are not thirsty.
Like the church of the Laodiceans in Revelation three, we are “…rich, an increased with goods, and have need of nothing…”
Our seats are comfortable, our salvation is convenient, and our souls are content. We don’t want any more of God than we presently have.
There is no thirst! No one cries out to God because no one needs Him that badly! No one wrestles and labors in prayer, because we don’t have any needs that we feel are that urgent.
Occasionally, we are moved to some small level of spiritual conviction, but it usually passes not long after we pull out of the parking lot.
The Lord wants to pour His blessing upon us, but He is finding a bear market in most of our churches. There is no demand for His supernatural work.
“Why,” someone asks, “aren’t we seeing God bless as He once did?” “Why are we so different from the early church?”
Is there any doubt that they were thirsty, and we are not? There is the barrier of our indifference, but notice also that God wants to eliminate:
B. The Barrier Of Our Ignorance
In verse three, again, it is the “dry ground” upon which God promises to send the floods. It is land in a barren and desperate condition that God blesses.
The problem in our day is that we don’t know how dry things really are. The ground doesn’t become dry overnight, and likewise, the church has not reached her present condition overnight either.
Perhaps it is because of this gradual digression that we fail to see how bad things really are. Yet, when we stop and assess our present condition in light of what the Word of God says the church of Jesus Christ is to be, it doesn’t take long before we realize that we are miles from meeting the standard.
Yet, for the most part, we are blissfully ignorant of our dry, parched, spiritually emaciated condition. Sure, we sense a need, but we are merely taking an aspirin when we need to be rushed to emergency room.
Again, like the Laodicean church, we are not perfect, but we have some good things going. Yet, Christ said to the Laodiceans, “[thou] knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked…”
One of the reasons things are largely static and dead in the church is that we are ignorant of how bad things truly are.
We gather for our routine services, and our neighbors are perishing without Christ. The next generation is not impressed with our religious games, and the lack of something real in church has sent them searching elsewhere.
We put on our Sunday best, and carry our Bibles, but most of us live lives that are virtually indistinguishable from the lives of the lost around us. We are carnal but claim to know the living Christ!
God wants to wake us from our spiritual slumber, and tear away the barrier of ignorance! We need to hear the Great Physicians diagnosis! We need to see that we are dry ground!
Conclusion
In 1949, the little Scottish Island of Lewis still had her churches, but the religious condition of the people had sunk low. The young people were largely unchurched and unsaved. In the high schools, some of the students had even begun referring to Christianity as “the plague.”
A group of faithful Christians on that Island began to seek God earnestly for a revival. Among that group were two elderly sisters, Peggy and Christine Smith. They were 84 and 82 years old. Peggy was blind and Christine was bent over with arthritis. Their physical condition kept them from attending church, but they turned their little cottage into a place where they met God everyday!
While praying together for the Island of Lewis, God led them to a promise. It was the promise of Isaiah 44:3, “I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground…”
Peggy had a dream in which she saw revival sweep across her homeland. In her dream, the church of her fathers was filled again with young people. She was so moved that she called her minister, and the elders of her church, and told them to begin praying.
For months they prayed, and one night, a group of men were praying in a barn late into the evening. A young deacon rose and read from the 24th Psalm. After reading the text, he turned to the other men and said, “Brethren, it seems to me just so much humbug to be waiting and praying as we are, if we ourselves are not rightly related God.” Then he lifted his hands toward heaven and said, “Oh God, are my hands clean? Is my heart pure?”
With that prayer, he fell down prostrate before the Lord, and the presence of God filled that barn. Is was not long after that night, that the Scottish preacher Duncan Campbell arrived in Lewis to preach a meeting.
On the second night of the meeting, as the people were leaving, the Spirit of God gripped the whole community. Men and women cried out to God for mercy, and God’s people rejoiced in His presence.
In a biography on Duncan Campbell, the author describes the scene in Lewis. He says, “In homes, barns and …sheds, by the roadside or [in the field], men could be found calling upon God and soon the fire spread to other villages…” In the weeks that followed, hundreds of people came to Christ.
Churches were filled, and lives were miraculously changed.
I believe that the promise of Isaiah 44:3, the same promise that gripped the hearts of Peggy and Christine Smith in 1949, is still as true today, almost 60 years later.
What America needs; what Georgia needs; what Dade County needs; what Trenton needs; what White Oak Baptist needs is for God to pour out the waters of revival upon us again!
Are you thirsty? Are you dry? If not, may God show you afresh your need today! May we want the water!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
i http://www.wdef.com/news/governor_sonny_perdue_prays_for_rain_in_georgia/11/2007; accessed 3/29/08