God did not create us merely to know about Him. He created us to know Him—to walk with Him, enjoy His presence, hear His voice, and live in fellowship with Him.
We see this from the beginning of Scripture. In Genesis, God created Adam and Eve in His image and placed them in the garden. Even after their encounter with the serpent and their fall into sin, they recognized the sound of the Lord coming in the garden in the cool of the day. They knew His voice because they were accustomed to His presence. God’s original purpose for humanity included communion with Him.
Communion is not an optional addition to the Christian life. We sometimes treat Bible study as essential while fellowship with God is something we pursue only if we have time left over. The Word of God is our foundation, and we must never neglect it. Yet we need both the Word and the Spirit. The Holy Spirit uses the Word to form us into the image of Christ, and our communion with Him propels us into everything God has called us to do.
The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
At the baptism of Jesus, all three Persons of the Trinity were present and active. Matthew 3:13–17 tells us that Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized. John initially resisted, saying he needed to be baptized by Jesus. But Jesus replied, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”
When Jesus came up out of the water, the heavens opened. The Spirit of God descended like a dove and rested upon Him. The Father spoke from heaven: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
The Father affirmed the Son before Jesus performed a single miracle or healing. The Son was fulfilling all righteousness. The Holy Spirit descended as a gentle dove and remained upon Him. Through Jesus, we know the Father’s love; through the Holy Spirit, we receive fellowship with God and with God’s people.
There is no fellowship with the Holy Spirit apart from a life surrendered to Jesus. It begins with faith in Christ. When we give our lives to Jesus, the Holy Spirit baptizes us into the body of Christ and comes to dwell within us (1 Corinthians 12:13).
Every genuinely born-again believer has the Spirit of God. There may be subsequent fillings, powerful encounters, gifts, manifestations, and experiences like those recorded in Acts, but we should never look down on another believer because that person has not had the same experiences we have had.
Nor should we imagine that the Holy Spirit abandons us whenever we stumble or whenever His manifest activity seems to ebb. In the Old Testament, there were moments when sin caused the glory to depart—Ichabod, “the glory has departed.”
But Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would abide with us forever. The Spirit may be grieved, and we may fail to recognize or cooperate with His activity, yet He has not deserted those who belong to Christ.
Our resurrection rests on the certainty of Christ’s resurrection. Jesus was made alive by the Spirit’s power, and we are reborn, transformed, and made alive in Christ by that same Spirit (Romans 8:11).
As a young Christian, I was trying to understand the Christian life and the mystery of the Trinity when the Lord gave me a striking dream. I saw an ornate cross, something like a fourth-century cross, and throughout the dream I heard the words repeated: “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” It was almost like a doxology.
I woke the next morning riveted. I knew what it meant to believe in Jesus and to be born again, but I realized I needed to understand more about the Holy Spirit. That dream stirred a desire in me to seek God more deeply, to be filled with the Spirit, to encounter His power, and to learn what it means to live in the Spirit’s fullness.
The Trinity remains a mystery beyond our comprehension, yet from the earliest Christian teaching and creeds, the Church has confessed the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—and these three are one.
If Anyone Thirsts
God is seeking loyal friends: people who will walk uprightly with Him, believe His Word, hunger and thirst for the Holy Spirit, and passionately desire to know Him more deeply. Our life in God is communion with Him.
Living in Arizona gives us a vivid picture of thirst. After working in the yard in 107- or 108-degree heat, I may go through three bottles of water and some electrolytes. When you are parched, you do not casually wonder whether water might be nice. You reach for the bottle and drink because your whole body is crying out for it.
Imagine being that thirsty for the presence of the living God. The psalmist declared, “My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God” (Psalm 84:2). What if the Church in America and around the world hungered for God as desperately as a person crossing the desert longs for water?
If I sent you on a ten-mile desert hike with only one bottle of water, that would be dangerously inadequate. By two miles, the bottle might be empty, with eight miles still to go. Desperation would set in. But what if we did not wait for tragedy to make us desperate? What if we wanted God simply because we loved Him?
Many of us feel as though we cannot start the morning without coffee. We instinctively reach for the cup—or the phone. What if we desired Jesus and the presence of God even more than that coffee, that news feed, or whatever waits on the screen?
Jesus issued precisely this invitation in John 7:37–39:
“On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.”
Jesus spoke these words in Jerusalem during the Feast of Tabernacles. The feast commemorated Israel’s exodus from Egypt and God’s faithful care throughout forty years of wilderness wandering. It also looked forward to the promised Messianic kingdom.
During the feast, Jewish families lived in temporary booths made of branches, remembering God’s providential care in the wilderness (Leviticus 23:33–44). Carolyn and I once had the opportunity to visit Jerusalem during this season, when temporary booths are still built on rooftops and around homes.
After the Feast of Trumpets and the solemn Day of Atonement, Tabernacles was a joyful season. Large candlesticks illuminated the temple area, reminding the people of the pillar of fire that had led Israel through the wilderness. Each day, priests carried a golden pitcher to the Pool of Siloam, drew water, brought it to the temple, and poured it on the altar as an offering to God.
As they did, the people sang Isaiah 12:3: “Therefore with joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.” The ceremony recalled the water God brought forth from the rock in Exodus 17:1–7.
Against that backdrop, Jesus stood and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.” Imagine His voice reverberating through the crowd. He declared that the symbol pointed to Him. The water from the rock, the wells of salvation, and the promised river of God all find their fulfillment in Christ and in the Spirit He gives.
Rivers from the Rock
Living water flows first and foremost from God. Jesus is the Rock from whom the river of God flows. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 10:4 that Israel
“All drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.”
Ezekiel 47 presents a vision of water flowing from the temple, deepening from a trickle into a river that could not be crossed and bringing life wherever it went. Revelation 22 depicts the river of the water of life flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb. Yet under the new covenant, God’s temple is also His people. His Spirit now dwells in us.
“Living water” means running water. In a desert, people know that a dry riverbed cannot sustain a town, whereas flowing water gives life. God intends for you and me to become channels of His life to others. The Holy Spirit is that living water within us.
This is not reserved for a few “super saints.” There are no super saints—only ordinary men and women who say yes to God. The new birth has not only made us right with God through the blood of Christ, forgiving our sins past, present, and future; it has also made us dwelling places of the Holy Spirit. He grows His fruit and Christlike character in us and allows the presence and power of God to flow through us.
I loved hearing testimonies from our food-box ministry this week. Team members served people and distributed food, but something more was happening: people began praying for one another. You do not need a seminary degree, decades of church experience, or five different models for praying for the sick to ask someone, “May I pray for you?” You have a river of life within you.
Sometimes that river seems dammed up. When flowing water is blocked, it can turn stagnant. We do not “use or lose” the Holy Spirit—He does not abandon us—but the more we step out in faith, pray for people, share the gospel, serve the poor, help the needy, and minister to the sick, the more natural it becomes to cooperate with His flow.
The Lord has also called us to joy: “With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.” When your cup of joy feels empty, return to the Source. Spend time in His presence, open His Word, and let the Holy Spirit fill you again.
Communion in the Darkest Hour
David’s life offers us a vivid picture of returning to the Source. He was anointed to become Israel’s king, had defeated Goliath, and had heard the people sing, “Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands.”
The Spirit of God was upon him, yet while fleeing Saul, David sank to such a low point that he pretended to be insane before a Philistine king. He scratched at the gate and let saliva run down his beard until the king sent him away, saying he had enough madmen already (1 Samuel 21:10–15).
This was David—the warrior, the worshiper, and the future king—forced to feign madness to save his life. Afterward, he went into the wilderness and wrote Psalm 34. In verse 6, he declared, “This poor man cried out, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.”
Sometimes our deepest places of despair become our deepest places of communion. God did not answer David as he expected, and the Philistine city did not become his refuge. God had another plan. Yet David came to know that the Lord had heard his cry and delivered him from his fears.
Can you say with confidence that God heard you in your darkest hour? Communion with the Spirit means knowing you can run into God’s arms. Trials, sorrow, pain, and hardship are not merely possibilities; sooner or later, they enter every life.
In those moments, we can seek the face of God and say, “I will remain here until Your peace—Your shalom—fills me. Do whatever You need to do in me.” Sometimes God is accomplishing something far deeper than we can understand, yet He will never leave us or forsake us, not even for a moment.
I had one of those moments last week. I went up the mountain to pray and said, “God, I have to hear from You.” After twenty-five years as the senior pastor and leader of a church, I have had many such moments when I cry out to God, “Which way, Lord? What season are we in? What is happening?”
There on the mountain, the Holy Spirit reminded me of David at the Philistine gate and recalled the words I had memorized: “This poor man cried out, and the Lord heard him.” I began to pray them for myself: “Lord, this poor man is crying out to You right now.” That living word became God’s invitation to communion in my own moment of need.
Poured Out at Pentecost
Jesus’ promise in John 7:37–39 points directly to Pentecost. Fifty days after the crucifixion and ten days after Jesus’ ascension, following forty days of resurrection appearances, the disciples gathered in the upper room. The Holy Spirit was poured out, and Peter explained what was happening by quoting Joel 2:28–32.
Acts 2:17–18 records his words:
“And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams. And on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days; and they shall prophesy.”
Peter then affirmed in Acts 2:32–33 that the outpouring fulfilled the Father’s promise:
“This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses. Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear.”
The Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son; the three are one.
At the Feast of Tabernacles, priests poured water on the altar to symbolize water from the Rock. At Pentecost, God Himself poured forth the water from the Rock—the river of His presence and the river of the Holy Spirit.
As Smith Wigglesworth said, “At Pentecost, God came with a blast from heaven, but God has not exhausted His blasts.”
The Holy Spirit did not stop moving when Acts 2 ended. The river of life still flows and is within every believer. We learn to stir up what God has placed within us by spending time in His presence and by praying in the Spirit. Paul said, “I will pray with the spirit, and I will also pray with the understanding” (1 Corinthians 14:15).
The Hebrew verb naba, associated with prophecy, conveys the sense of inspired utterance, a bubbling up from within. As we yield to the Spirit, a prophetic flow can emerge—an inner bubbling up of prayer, praise, wisdom, or words that strengthen others.
Yet the Spirit and the Word must never be separated. Personal impressions or prophetic words must not contradict Scripture. Without the Spirit, we can dry up; without the grounding of the Word, we can blow up. We need the life of the Spirit and the truth of the Word together.
We should not fear the Holy Spirit’s activity, but neither should we abandon discernment. Pastors sometimes hesitate to make room for the Spirit because spiritual wildfire can become disorderly. The answer is not to extinguish the fire but to tend it wisely: keep out what is false or fleshly while welcoming the genuine work of God.
The Church can become anemic when it does not know how to commune with the Spirit. If Sister Mary Lou calls with a stage-four breast cancer diagnosis, she needs more than a cursory “We’ll pray for you.” We need believers who will gather around with compassion and faith, believing that God still moves in power and asking Him for healing. The same Spirit who moved in Acts is with us today.
Another Helper, Just Like Jesus
Before going to the cross, Jesus prepared His disciples for the Spirit’s coming in John 14:15–18. He promised another Helper who would abide with them forever—the Spirit of truth who would dwell in them—and assured them, “I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.”
The Spirit is God’s guarantee or down payment on all that believers will one day receive in full. We live in the tension of the kingdom that is already present but not yet complete.
The Spirit now gives us a foretaste of the glorious new heaven and new earth to come. He also bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God and therefore heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ (Romans 8:16–17).
The Holy Spirit fulfills Jesus’ promise of another Comforter. He is our friend and Helper in times of need. When we are overwhelmed by despair, family problems, financial pressure, sickness, or an unsolvable decision, we can cry out, “Holy Spirit, I need Your comfort. Show me how to pray. Give me heaven’s strategy for this situation.”
The Holy Spirit teaches, leads, strengthens, and empowers us to proclaim and demonstrate the gospel of the kingdom. Jesus is the Rock, the Source; the Holy Spirit is the River who never runs dry, grows weary, quits, or ceases to flow.
When we are exhausted and ready to give up, we can pray, “Spirit of God, breathe on me. Ruach of heaven, breathe on me. I need Your strength.”
Perhaps a son or daughter has wandered, and every hard or gentle approach has failed. Perhaps the family has refinanced everything and is still two months behind. Perhaps the doctors have delivered a grim report after every treatment has been exhausted. In each case, we can ask, “Holy Spirit, reveal the Father’s heart. Give us a strategy—even a strategy for how to pray.”
In John 14:16, “another” translates the Greek word allos, meaning “one besides” or “another of the same kind.” Jesus was promising One in addition to Himself, just like Himself—One who would do in Jesus’ physical absence what Jesus would do if He were bodily present. The Spirit’s ministry continues Jesus’ works and teaching.
If the resurrected and glorified Jesus walked through the doors of a church and invited everyone in need to come to Him, people would rush forward. Yet the Holy Spirit is already present, representing Jesus. We may not feel goosebumps or witness anything dramatic, but we can still say, “Holy Spirit, I need Your touch today.”
The word “Helper” is paraklētos, from para, “beside,” and kaleō, “to call.” It denotes one called to another’s side—an intercessor, comforter, helper, advocate, and counselor. In nonbiblical literature, it could describe an attorney who appeared in court on someone else’s behalf.
The Holy Spirit comes alongside us. He reveals the Father and the Son, leads us into truth, guides and directs us, strengthens us, comforts us, intercedes for us, and helps us understand the Word. Historical background and sound commentaries have their place, but we must also lean on the Author of Scripture for illumination.
The Holy Spirit wants to envelop us in His presence. He truly cares and desires to be our closest friend. The Christian life is meant to be an ongoing fellowship with Him, both individually and corporately. Most of us want to live a victorious Christian life, but without daily communion with the Holy Spirit, that goal is impossible. Communion with Him is the launching pad for supernatural power and consistency.
A Person, Not Merely a Power
Jesus said in John 16:7 (CEB), “I assure you that it is better for you that I go away. If I don’t go away, the Companion won’t come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.”
The greatest gift Jesus gave humanity was Himself, and the greatest gift God gave the Church was the Holy Spirit.
Genuine fellowship with the Holy Spirit begins with knowing Him as a Person, not merely as a power. Jesus never called the Spirit an “it.”
In John 16:13 CEB, He said,
“However, when the Spirit of Truth comes, he will guide you in all truth. He won’t speak on his own, but will say whatever he hears and will proclaim to you what is to come.”
The Greek word for Spirit, pneuma, is grammatically neuter and would ordinarily take the pronoun “it.” Yet Jesus affirmed the Spirit’s personhood by using “he.”
The Holy Spirit has a unique personality. He is full of love, peace, joy, and truth. He thinks, hears, speaks, feels, and wills. Our careless words and actions can grieve Him. Because He is a Person, we can build a relationship with Him, listen to His voice, and yield to His leading and power.
Learning to Recognize His Presence
A pastor friend in Florida once said he would not leave his house for the day until he had spent time with God and sensed the Holy Spirit’s presence. That is a worthy pattern. Before turning on a podcast or the radio, before being absorbed in the phone, and even while grabbing coffee on the way to work, make room for Him. We are always tuning in to something; we must learn to tune our hearts to the Holy Spirit.
We do not have to feel goosebumps or any other physical sensation. Yet we can learn to make our whole being attentive, like an antenna, to the Spirit’s presence and movement. At times, I sense His presence; it’s as though the hair on my body were standing on end. When He wants to heal, the palms of my hands sometimes grow hot. These sensations are not our foundation, nor are they the same for everyone. Over time, we can learn how the Spirit makes His activity known to us.
In the spring of 2008, I was praying about organizing a major conference in Tucson and inviting a prophet and other leaders. I sat in my home office chair and asked whether I should proceed and how to do so. Suddenly, I felt the weight of God’s presence—not an oppressive heaviness, but a wonderful awareness of His presence. His presence grew stronger, and He began speaking to me about the gathering.
Two hours later, the prophet called me. He did not know I had been considering an invitation. He simply said, “The Lord has put it on my heart that we need to come to Tucson. Tucson is a very significant city.”
God confirmed outwardly what the Spirit had impressed on me in prayer. We can learn to linger in His presence, listen, and follow His direction.
Surrender Is the Path to Destiny
God’s invitation to surrender is our path to destiny. Our destiny depends on continued surrender to His will. We die to self daily—not to earn His love, but to make room for His life to be expressed through us.
Kathryn Kuhlman captured this truth when she said, “It’s not your prayers, it’s not your ability, but it’s your surrender.”
I remember prayer meetings in Melbourne before the 1995 outpouring of the Holy Spirit. God’s people gathered with hunger, humility, and persistence. That season reinforced a pattern throughout Scripture and Church history: hunger, humility, and prayer prepare the way for God’s manifest presence and power. We cannot manufacture an outpouring, but we can surrender, seek, and make ourselves available.
We need more than a passing encounter. We need to commune with the Spirit throughout the day. Paul’s instruction to “pray without ceasing” describes a life continually open to God—listening, responding, worshiping, and carrying an awareness of His presence into everyday responsibilities.
This communion does not make us less grounded in Scripture; it brings the Word to life. The Holy Spirit rests upon passages, brings truth to remembrance, applies it to present circumstances, and reveals the Father’s heart. The Word gives our experience boundaries and truth; the Spirit breathes life into the Word and empowers us to obey it.
Come and Drink
Jesus likened the Holy Spirit to water because water is essential to life. We cannot live without water, and we cannot live the Christian life as God intended without the Holy Spirit. If you are thirsty for yourself, your family, your church, or your city, He wants to fill you and become your closest Friend.
Isaiah 44:3 gives us His promise:
“For I will pour water on him who is thirsty, and floods on the dry ground; I will pour My Spirit on your descendants, and My blessing on your offspring.”
Begin today by developing a daily walk with the Greater One within. Let Him become all He desires to be in your life—your source of wisdom, power, comfort, and strength. Make space for Him. Be quiet before Him. Worship or listen to instrumental music if it helps settle your attention. Pray in the Spirit. Open the Scriptures and ask Him to speak. Invite His presence, then listen.
If you feel crushed by life, far from God, or too busy to hear Him, tell Him honestly. Hold out your hands as a simple sign of surrender, then pray, “Lord, I am struggling. I am hurting. I need answers. Hear my cry.” Let David’s prayer become yours: “This poor man cried out, and the Lord heard him.”
If you are young in the faith and have never asked anyone to pray with you for the baptism and empowerment of the Holy Spirit, seek out mature believers who can stand with you. Everyone who belongs to Jesus already has the Holy Spirit, but it is right to cry out, “I want more. I want the power of heaven to rest upon me and flow through me. Let the river of God bubble up and break out.”
We need this river not merely for ourselves but for a world that desperately needs Jesus. We ask for souls to be saved, the Spirit to be poured out on every Bible-believing church in our region, the fire of heaven to fall, and thousands to come to Christ. We ask for believers to be filled and sent like flames, carrying the message of Christ, faith for healing, and confidence in the miraculous.
Holy Spirit, gentle Dove, come and rest upon Your people. Breathe upon us. Let rivers of living water bubble up within us. Deepen our hunger for Jesus, Your presence, and Your Word. Teach us to encounter You without ceasing.
Holy Spirit, thank You for being my Friend, Helper, and Partner, and for taking responsibility for me. I need Your friendship and partnership. Forgive me for neglecting fellowship with You.
From this day forward, I choose to commune with You and consult You before I decide or take a step. Come now and fill me afresh. Let me know the joy of Your fellowship. Let Your river flow through me, bringing life to others. In Jesus’ name, amen.
