On the eighth and final day of the Feast of Tabernacles, at the apex of the celebration, Jesus spoke some of the most beautiful and moving words of his ministry. They’re found in John 7:37 and 38.
He captured the attention of the crowd and then issued a thrilling invitation. He offered to quench the heart-thirst of anyone who would place their faith in him. Then he went on to say that after relieving their spiritual longing, he would release a torrent of what he called living water from their once-parched souls.
Verse 39 clarifies that Jesus was describing the ministry of the Holy Spirit through whom he would both satisfy our deepest yearning and overflow us with rivers of his life-giving power.
Although we can’t know for certain, it seems most likely that this happened at the point in the day’s ceremonies when a priest brought water from Jerusalem’s Pool of Siloam and poured it out on the altar. Siloam is the endpoint of an aqueduct that carries water into the city from beneath the temple mount, and as such, symbolizes the spiritual refreshing that flows from God.
So, the Lord’s choice of this occasion and location were not accidental, and neither was the time of day. This would’ve happened during the morning sacrifice – the third hour or nine o’clock in the morning. And this is exactly the same time the Holy Spirit would be poured out upon the first church on the Day of Pentecost following his resurrection (Acts 2:1-4, 15).
As usual, Jesus was speaking volumes here in these few and magnificent words. But at the heart of it, he was describing the work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers as being two-fold. There’s a pouring in and a pouring out. Belief in Jesus initiates an inflow of the living water of the Spirit that regenerates us and an outflow of that same stream that – according to Jesus in Acts 1:8 – enables us to live out his plans for us in this world.
The Lord clearly meant for us to experience both. And yet it often seems that presentations of the gospel focus on the inflow that causes rebirth but neglect the outflow that unleashes Christ’s power in and through us. As certainly as we need to be born again by the Spirit, we need to be baptized in or empowered by him as well.
Thank God! Jesus has invited us to have it all. So, if you have expressed your faith in him and taken a deep drink from the wells of salvation (Isaiah 12:3) but sense there’s more, you’re right, there is. But the more you’re waiting for is already yours. Just pause right now and welcome the Holy Spirit to unleash the living water you’ve already received as a river he wants to pour through your life to a thirsty world.