Don’t Get Spiritual Dehydrated

Fresh Manna© by Pastor Tim Burt
http://readfreshmanna.blogspot.com/

Isa 44:3-4 “For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants. They will spring up like grass in a meadow, like poplar trees by flowing streams.”

One summer day a couple of years ago I was working on my annual back yard landscaping and gardening project. Once I get going on a project I tend to be a little focused. I usually work straight through till the project is done. This was an absolutely beautiful sunny and warm day – the kind of day you pray for weather wise. I started early in the morning and was still working at 6:30 that night when I began to notice that I didn’t feel right. I hadn’t stopped to eat or drink anything all day. That’s not too bright and I do know better. When I started to feel strange I noticed my mouth was extremely dry and I was feeling a little disoriented. I knew immediately that I was suffering from dehydration.

The average water content of the human body is 40-70% of body weight. It needs water to function in all the ways God intends it to. Dehydration is the process of excessive loss of water from the body that can happen for a number of reasons. It was something I always had to watch out for when I did long distance running. Most long distance runners carry water with them to help prevent this from happening. I’ve heard medical professionals say that the average person doesn’t understand dehydration, nor recognize the signs or how to work toward preventing it. In the natural, it is easy to eat something that disagrees with your body. When that happens, it can lead to vomiting and diarrhea which can easily cause dehydration.

Have you ever experienced spiritual dehydration? When all we do is listen to people talk about worldly things, read worldly magazines, participate in worldly events, listen to worldly music and watch worldly movies and television, spiritual diarrhea and dehydration are going to be a fact of your life. You will soon become “dry” toward God and begin to feel far from Him.

Spiritually, too many people let themselves get dehydrated far too often. Is this something we should change? Well look at it this way. Continuing and frequent dehydration would cause serious health issues. So, what do you think? God loves us and isn’t trying to make our relationship with Him difficult. We make it difficult! We let our life become filled with everything but Him. When I begin to get dehydrated I usually work hard to put water and fluids back in my system. Within a half a day to a day I am feeling much better.

The Word of God is often referred to as water – washing water and refreshing water – all the things to us spiritually that water is able to do for us naturally. When we pray and ask God to speak to us through His Word, the Holy Spirit begins to illuminate truth, understanding, and revelation to our heart. As this happens, the Word of God refreshes us, washes us, and just keeps us from getting disoriented to the world’s and Satan’s way of thinking. It keeps our heart and mind refreshed and on track thinking God’s thoughts.

We read of water and refreshing in John 4:10 & John 7:38 say, “Jesus answered and said unto her, If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that said to you, Give me to drink; you would have asked of Him, and He would have given you living water…. He that believes on me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.” We also read how the Word of God cleanses in Ephesians 5:25-27. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That He might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.”

The promise of God’s Word from today’s Fresh Manna is this: “For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground.” When God is saying this He is talking about refreshing our spirit through His Holy Spirit with His Word. God is looking for ways to speak into your lives. The Bible, church, Christian people and printed articles, the media, and more are all ways that God tries to get to your life and refresh you. When you pray for God to refresh you, you should raise your expectation and open your eyes. He is faithful and that refreshing will soon come!

What God promised to do for us spiritually always resulted in natural blessing WHEN the people of God took heed to it and sought Him for the promise. When they would pray and ask God to water their hearts, He would send prophets or those that knew Him and they would be refreshed with the promises and love of God’s Word. Soon they would feel cleansed of their sins, they’d turn from their sinful ways, and they would be back to being His children in spirit and truth. They’d then find their land refreshed from rain and find the desert places they lived in with streams of water running through. Blessings would begin to overtake them once again. And as the rest of today’s verse says, “… I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants. They will spring up like grass in a meadow, like poplar trees by flowing streams.” God’s Word would make its way to their children and their children would grow up refreshed in God and blessed.

Water is the “have-to” for our bodies to survive and be blessed. So is the cleansing and refreshing of God’s Word ministering to our spirits. When we’ve let ourselves become spiritually dehydrated, then we must make a change by obeying Acts 3:19. “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.”

His Love,
Pastor Tim Burt
http://readfreshmanna.blogspot.com/