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Sir, Give Me This Water
Episode #214
With Martha Kilpatrick and hosted by John Enslow
Special guest: Carole Nelson
(Carole) In the devotion, Spurgeon says, “Proclamation is made most freely, that every thirsty one is welcome. No other distinction is made but that of thirst.” And this is what just grabbed me. “Whether it be the thirst of avarice, ambition, pleasure, knowledge or rest, he who suffers from it is invited.” I went, oh my God, that’s me! That’s me! Oh, I am so aware of how I don’t thirst for Him. How my, my need is to thirst for Him, and I thirst for so many other things. And I read this, and it jumped off the page, and I got so excited.
(M) You qualify.
(Carole) I qualified; I qualified! Oh ‘my-gosh’. “The thirst may be bad in itself, and be a sign of, no sign of grace, but rather a mark of inordinate sin longing to be gratified with deeper draughts of lust. But it is not goodness in the creature which brings him the invitation, the Lord sends it freely and without respect of persons.” Oh, hallelujah! (Carole is laughing)
(M) So that was our, our great word from the Lord on the last day of 2010. And it’s so wonderful, but it took me back to the woman at the well, because what Jesus addressed was thirst. “If any man thirst let him come and drink of this well, and he’ll never thirst again. Rather, he’ll be full of the water himself, from within.” And so the reason He could reveal Himself to her was that she was honest, though sinful, about her thirst, hunger and thirst. She was searching for something, and I’m going to tell in about three more podcasts what she was really after. (Martha laughs) Oh, it was… We all rejoiced over it, because what did he say about Isaiah? “Come to the waters, all who are thirsty.”
(J) You know I got the… When she told me that, I brought that up, was that I was in the whole Ezekiel 14, that we were in, and Ezekiel 14:4 I believe it is, in the NASB I think that says it. But it says, “In keeping with their idolatry.” And what that said to me was, is that He will capture our hearts. The further… Can you…
(M) The verse you’ve always liked is in the first part of it. You’ve had this for years. You’ve had this revelation for years. It’s 14:4, “Everyone of the house of Israel who sets up his idols in his heart, and puts before him what causes him to stumble, I will answer him according to the multitude of his idols, that I may seize the house of Israel by their heart, because they are all estranged from me by their idols.”
(J) And, and one version, I don’t know, what version is this?
(M) This is New King James.
(J) Well in, I think it’s NASB it says, “in keeping with their great idolatry”, and when you read the whole context of it, it’s basically saying, ok, I know that you’re a whorish people, you know? I know that’s who you are innately, is whorish. And what I saw was what Spurgeon said is, and in connection, they just tie together, that in keeping with your great idolatry, I will capture your heart. I will, I will see where your direction of your heart is, but I will come through your idolatry and capture your heart through that. Because He knows where our heart is, and He knows where our passion is, and He knows that there’s a hunger there, He knows that He has to go, in mercy, go in through that idolatry and come through that, to get our hearts, because that’s the direction our heart is in. Does that make sense?
(M) Yes, our idols represent our hunger and thirst.
(J) Absolutely.
(M) That’s what you’re saying.
(Carole) But the invitation was, there was only one qualification, thirst. He didn’t say what to… He didn’t say thirsty for, He didn’t even say thirsty for Me, He said those who are thirsty, come to Me.
(M) Well, here’s the scripture, Isaiah 55, “Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the water. And you, who have no money, come and eat. Come buy wine and milk without money, and without cost. Why do you spend money on what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and delight yourself in abundance.” That’s what Spurgeon was referring to. Spurgeon is the great lover. He is, oh, goodness… Art Katz used to say Spurgeon could write on any verse of the Bible and make it into the love of God. But you’re right, John, the idols represent, I see it, our hunger. And her idolatry represented her enormous hunger and thirst for righteousness.
(J) Hmhmm, hmhmm.
(M) Her thirst for sin was a thirst for righteousness, and a thirst for God, and He knew it. That enormous thirst, alive in her, and truthful in her, she was well aware of her heart. “I have no husband.” The test was, will you tell Me the truth. And when she told Him the truth, then He could reveal Himself as the fountain that she was seeking. And that’s why she was satisfied, and He was satisfied. He drank of the Father, and she drank of the Spirit.
(J) Because you know every single woman in that community and in that village, was looking at her like, ‘oh, there’s that trashy woman that goes around with every man’.
(M) Probably so.
(J) But He revealed it to her; not because of her trashiness, but because she brought basically her trashiness, yeah here, I am trashy.
(M) She brought her thirst.
(J) And brought her thirst.
(M) It’s so amazing!
(J) It’s totally amazing.
(M) It fits Spurgeon’s insight; it fits the scripture, come, you who have nothing, just come and drink. Come to Me, and I will give you rest to your soul, and eat My flesh and drink My blood, and so He gave her the gospel. He gave her the entire shift of worship from a ‘house’ to ‘within’; the temple is within. We are the temple, and we worship within, so there is no ‘place’, there’s only living temples. What profound things He said to her, eternal. And the first time He said it to anyone, He said it to a woman representing who the Bride is. She, as we all are, complete sinners.
(J) And if you go to that scripture, “I come to the sick.” I don’t come to the healthy, I come to the sick; the sick need the doctor.
(M) And reveal it to the babes. What are babes? Full of hunger for everything. (Everyone laughs) So to be… You know I saw, when you are not hungry, that’s when you die. Or when you are killing yourself and despising your hunger. So hunger is always for God, it doesn’t matter what avenue it takes, it’s hunger for God. And as you see… Oh, there’s our, John’s rooster. (Rooster is crowing outside) He lives around the house with the cats; it’s amazing. Ok, this is what He said to her, “Jesus said, all who drink of this water will be thirsty again. Whoever drinks of the water of Life that I will give him, shall never, no never be thirsty anymore. But the water that I give him shall become a spring welling up, flowing, bubbling continually within him, unto, into, for eternal Life. And the woman said, “sir, give me this water.” She was thirsty; she was ready. “So that I may never get thirsty or have to come continually all the way here to draw.” And this is when He tested her, “Go call your husband, and come back.” And she said, “I have no husband.” And He said, “You have spoken truly.” “You’ve had five husbands, the man you’re now living with is not your husband, in this you have spoken truly.” Twice He said, you have told the truth. That’s all God wants is for us to tell the truth to ourselves, to Him, and pretty much to each other. It’s just that. “Sir, I see You’re a prophet.” And then He goes on and tells her about worship. This story is the proof that Jesus will seek out the ones who are hungry and thirsty. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” The whole picture; it’s a whole picture; all the pieces together show us who God’s after, the thirsty and the hungry. And He had to go… If I remember what I’ve read correctly, He was going from Jerusalem to Galilee, and He said I must, I must go to Samaria. It was not on the path. He went to Jacob’s well, which Jacob is… And that’s where they were; they were at Jacob’s well that Jacob dug in ancient ancestry. And Jacob stands for common, deceitful, wicked, wandering humanity, and human strength to bless yourself. So the next, the next podcast is going to be on the human strength we use to satisfy the thirst.
