Life-giving Water
by Angela Weir
I enjoy gardening in short bursts – too long bent over and I get stuck these days! – but it has been quite difficult this year with one of the driest Aprils on record. Because of various other commitments I didn’t manage to plant my seeds when I should have done and when I finally got round to it, the soil was dry and dusty. It’s just as well that we’re still able to use plenty of water, otherwise there would have been no point in planting them at all. Thankfully there has recently been some rain, not nearly enough yet, but enough to encourage the plants to grow, and, of course, the weeds.
This made me think how much we need the life-giving water of the Holy Spirit, filling us on a daily basis. In Psalm 1 the writer describes as blessed the man who walks in righteousness, going on to give the image of the thriving tree planted by water from which it draws its strength. We need to be careful, however, that as we experience the refreshing waters of the Holy Spirit we don’t allow any weeds of the enemy to grow in our ‘spiritual garden’. We need to remember that the enemy can give false imitations of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes words of knowledge or prophetic words which appear to be from God, are actually not from Him at all, and the only way we can test them thoroughly is to see if they match up with God’s word in the Bible, and to see the fruit in the life of the person who gives the word.
Jesus tells the woman He meets at Jacob’s well (John 4), that whoever drinks from Him will never thirst again, because He is the living water. And on the final day of the Feast of Tabernacles, Jesus told the crowds: ‘If any man is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink’. (The significance of this is that during the Feast they celebrated the pouring of water at a very dry time of year). We all need the wonderful life-giving Spirit from Jesus on a daily basis, and we also need the gifts of wisdom and discernment to protect us from the wiles of the enemy.
Prayer: Thank You, Father God, that You are so ready to pour out Your life-giving Spirit to fill our emptiness and refresh our dryness. Please keep me alert to the works of the enemy, and help me to discern what is from You and what is not. Please fill me afresh today. In Jesus’ precious name I ask it, Amen.
Angela Weir has been associated with Ellel Ministries from the very beginning, first as an associate member of the ministry team and later as an associate teacher. She trained as an actress before moving to Cumbria, where she taught drama in a girls’ school. She now teaches and ministers at various Ellel Centres.
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