Water is vital to our bodies…the very sustenance that we need to survive. As a human being we can survive 3 days without drinking water, and after that 3 days our body will begin to shut down.

Now we have all known thirst at some point in our lives…that feeling of NEEDING a drink of water, craving and desiring something that our body needs to survive, maybe even feeling a bit desperate if that water is not easily accessible. In those moments, we could take a glass of water and pour it over our bodies, and this would do nothing for that thirst. We could sit next to a body of water, and still our thirst would prevail. We could even immerse ourselves in the water, covering every inch of our body, remaining there for hours, days, weeks. And this would still do nothing to appease the thirst we have…would do nothing to sustain our bodies. Proximity does not altar the reality of our thirst. We must take the water inside of our bodies…we must drink deeply and fill ourselves so that we give our bodies what they truly need.

Imagine the disciples…having walked with Jesus…spent time with Him…talked and laughed and likely cried with Him. This is a tangible relationship…here He is, right next to them. Now imagine being told that Jesus would soon be leaving, but that this is a GOOD thing. Because once He leaves, another will come. And that we are better off with this other. Better off?! What could be better than walking beside Jesus…having the Truth right next to you daily?

Much like our water, the very value of the Truth amplifies when we take that Truth inside of us. Being close to it is one thing, being filled with it is another. God’s forms of operating within our lives became so intimate in this moment…from the God in the clouds, atop the mountain – to the God walking beside us as men and women in Jesus…to the God dwelling WITHIN us in the Holy Spirit. How profound is this gift…how profound is this intimacy…how profound is THIS sustenance.

John 14:16-17
I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; 17 that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.