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John 7:37-39

³⁷On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. ³⁸Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." ³⁹By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.

The Feast of Tabernacles was the most popular feast of the Jews. They built makeshift shelters all around Jerusalem in which they lived during that week. Each day the High Priest would go to the pool of Siloam and bring back a pitcher of water to the altar. The people sang the Hallel Psalms accompanied by the Levitical choir and flutes. They marched around the altar holding palm branches extended over it. At certain points in the psalms, they stopped to wave the branches and give shouts of praise. The priest poured out the water as a drink offering, reminding them of God's provision of water in the wilderness. It was also a prayer for rain for their crops. On the last day of the feast, they marched around the altar seven times, a reminder of the march around Jericho.

It was probably after this dramatic conclusion of the ceremony, as the shouts of praise died down, that Jesus' voice rang out. "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." It must have stopped everyone in his tracks. Jesus was saying that the physical water was good thing to be thankful for, but He was bringing the spiritual water for thirsty souls. After His ascension He would be pouring out living water, the Holy Spirit, to all who would come to Him.

The Spirit of God indwelling us is the great ideological difference from all other religious ideas. Some religions had blood atonement. Some had a Savior whose words were supposedly a revelation from God. Christianity is unique in that this God claimed to indwell them with His presence. The indwelling presence of the Living God is the only way to slake great thirst in the heart of man.

Consider: Has your thirst been quenched with His presence?