Finding God’s Presence ~ How to Satisfy the Excessive Thirst of a Nation

Only the Lord can quench excessive thirst … only Him.

My lips smacked together from the dryness of excessive thirst. I had worked in the yard all afternoon beneath a blazing summer sun complete with tropical air hovering over our mountain. Rivulets of sweat drenched me, adding to my thirst and need for water.

I came into the cool of the house, filled my glass with ice cubes and cold water, and gulped it down! The first glass made me want more — one glass was not enough. I quickly filled my glass again and practically inhaled the liquid refreshment. What joy as the cold water coursed through my lips and satisfied a voracious thirst.

Have you ever felt thirst like that? It can be overwhelming and the need for water becomes instinctive.

I wonder if those without the Lord are growing in their thirst, their need for His Living Water?

Amos 8:11 reads, “‘Behold, the days are coming,’ says the Lord God, ‘that I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord.'”

I realize this is actually a prophetic warning of a day coming where there would be a lack of the Word of God — specifically the messages delivered by the prophets of old. Messages of assurance and guidance. All would be silent.

But as I read this passage recently, the Lord quickened to me an image of the soul of man void of the Spirit of God. Desolate. Hopeless. Wrought with fear. Distraught in light of current events such as earthquakes, fires, hurricanes, mass shootings, events of terrorism. These events are unsettling for me — a strong woman of faith! I can only imagine the condition of the hearts and minds of those who do not know the Lord.

Church, we have a responsibility.

I believe the Lord was showing me an urgency.

People are not thirsting for bread or water. They are thirsting for the Word of God that we alone can bring them. Perhaps they don’t recognize their own thirst — can’t quite put their finger on their restlessness, their emptiness, but we know that within every person is a God-shaped void that He alone can fill. Their longing for peace and security can only be satisfied through Jesus Christ.

We are His ambassadors.

On the same morning I read the scripture from Amos shown above, and the Lord gave me the vision of the parched soul of someone who doesn’t know Him, I read this in Frances J. Roberts classic, Come Away My Beloved:

“At any moment an appetite long dormant may be aroused, and the longer it has been dormant, the more voracious it will be. Give My Word — My Word alone will whet the appetite. Give them a drink. The water will awaken new thirst. You will say, ‘How will I be able to satisfy so great a demand?’ These are the days of the moving of My Spirit; will you resist if I wish to make you My aqueduct?”

I had to ask myself that question, “Will I resist if the Lord wants to make me an aqueduct — a vessel poured out with the life-giving water of His Word? Poured out with intention and purpose, not just by happenstance?

Those are hard questions, but I believe this is God’s heart for us — His children — for such a time as this.

Will you heed His call? I am surely going to try.

The Lord would say to us, “It’s not by might, nor by power, but My Spirit, saith the Lord” (Zechariah 4:6).