Are You Thirsty?

by John Edwards 

"...Jesus stood and cried, saying, 'If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.

He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.'

(But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)"

- John 7:37-39

Each of us are at some phase in that picture:

Are you thirsty?→believe on JESUS: come to Him, and drink→you shall receive the Holy Spirit→then rivers of living water shall flow out of your belly, as the Scripture has said.

It happened to me.

I was brought up in church - nevertheless there came a point where I felt thirsty to receive eternal life myself.

All of us have been thirsty for eternal life - only some people are so distracted by the things of this present world they haven't realised how thirsty they are.

If you realise you want eternal life more than anything, come to JESUS, and drink.

I came to Jesus at a little after 7:35pm on Sunday 16th December 1979 - He gave me new birth, and I received eternal life. I knew it.

I received peace and forgiveness of sins - I felt assured of eternal life.

It was a free gift. It was wonderful!

The first thing I said to myself was, "I should have done this ages ago!"

Then a few months later, I received the Spirit in a special way.

It was at a Saturday night meeting at Fortitude Valley, in Brisbane.

I felt the Holy Spirit, and God's love, pouring or shining down on me from above, and I began to speak with tongues.

I said to myself, "I think I'm really getting this!"

Straightaway I felt empowered to tell others about JESUS.

The change in me - from the boy who used to sit at the back in church, bored, with my arms folded - to rivers of living water flowing out from me!

A crowd at my State High School listened. Many of my fellow-students started believing in Jesus.

We laid hands on them, and they received the Spirit and spoke with tongues too.

We rode our bikes to school early, and prayed together before class; and started a lunchtime Bible-Study group; then a lunchtime Christian outreach meeting.

All who became believers spent their lunch hours witnessing every day.

We boldly spoke on Assembly.

Young people started coming to church, and got baptised.

One day when I was answering a question from a fellow student, he said to me, "How do you know all this?"

I realised, it was just flowing out from within me!

One teacher said to me, "This is just a flash in the pan".

But all these years later, it's still JESUS living in me, and I still live to see just one more person receive from Jesus the way I did.

It can happen to you.