Wednesday May 9, 2012

If you are spiritually dry, spend the day  talking to God and asking Him to refresh you through the presence of the Holy Spirit

 

Matthew 17:1-4. John 7:

Read Deuteronomy 16:13-17

 

Can you picture seven days of feasting and rejoicing and praising and celebrating? For the typical Aussie male, that would mean a week of drinking, intoxication and partying, partying hard at that. But for Israel, the children of God it was a week of holy celebrations. It was a week filled with joy, the joy of the Lord and a week of being in His glorious presence.

 

During this harvest festival, Israel was to live in hand made booths or tents to remind them that God had delivered them from Egypt and that Israel had wandered in the desert for 40 years, effectively living in tents.

 

This harvest feast looked forward to the time that Messiah would reign and would bring the nations into the Kingdom of God. Zechariah 14:16-19 pictured such a time when the nations would come to Israel and celebrate the feast of Booths.

Jesus also made great claims during the Feast of Booths/Tabernacles. On the last day of the feast, after the 70 bulls had been sacrificed Jesus made a great claim.  To understand His claim, we need to remember that on each day of this feast a priest would go to the pool of Siloam with a golden pitcher and fill it with water. A crowd of palm branch waving pilgrims would be marching behind praising God with chants of “Hosanna!” The priest would walk once around the altar and then pouring it out he would pray that God would provide what only He alone could provide. On the 7th day he would walk around the altar 7 times before praying and pouring out the water.

 

What did this outpouring symbolise? Read Isaiah 44:3, Ezekiel 39:29 and Zechariah 12:10.

 

Now picture Jesus at this feast. It’s the last day of the feast and by far the greatest day. The priest has marched around the altar seven times and has prayed, pouring out the water from the golden pitcher. The crowd is in somewhat of a frenzy, waving palm branches and crying out to Messiah to save them (Hosanna! Hosanna!).  There Jesus stands up and cries out, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him."

 

Jesus was not only claiming to be Messiah and the one who fulfils God’s promise of pouring out of the Holy Spirit but He was also making you and I a promise. Are you spiritually dry? Are you weighed down with sin and temptation? Are you marching through a desert wilderness? Are you feeling the weight of the world upon your shoulders? Do you need refreshment from the Lord.  You can go to Jesus and drink. Streams of living water will well up abundantly from within you. You will be refreshed. You will be nourished. You will be quenched of your thirst. Jesus is there for you 24/7 to quench your thirst, to provide you with grace and mercy, to give you all that you need in your time of need.

 

Prayer:

¥ Pray for the work of Shiloh Church ministries. Pray that they would continue to see people coming to Christ in faith and that they would be able to disciple all the new believers. Pray that we would be able to support them financially, prayerfully, and trough practical and material help.

¥ Pray that we would see our church grow as individuals share their faith and speak of Jesus in their relationships with non believers. Pray that God’s Spirit would be powerfully at work in us and through us in the lives of non believers.