Many people complain about growing old. The mythological "fountain of youth" is a thought that people discuss frequently as they grow older. Why do we complain about growing old? For most people, it's because they no longer perform as they did when they were younger.  There are new aches and pains, we don't recover from colds or injuries as quickly, and the list may go on and on. We become "thirsty" for something more as we grow older. Men hit the age of 40, and begin their mid-life crisis realizing their accomplishments have not filled their inner desire for that "more". 

Jesus said, "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." The disciple John, who recorded this, tells us just what Jesus meant when he made this statement. "By 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 been glorified."  God understands that men want more, we are driven to want more purpose. He wants us to be filled with a sense of purpose. Beyond that desire to be filled with purpose he wants us to "ooze" purpose. He wants to place the purpose and give the drive to that purpose by immersing us in his Spirit after we have asked for His forgiveness of our sin and receive the redemption that is the new birth we experience at that time. He says that streams of living water flow from us.

The living water, being the Holy Spirit, gives us life beyond the aches and pains. The beyond is the overflow that allows those that have experienced the new birth to then reach out and help others also experience the new birth and subsequent baptism in the Holy Spirit. As more and more people experience this new birth and subsequent baptism in the Holy Spirit, we watch that stream of living water flow through us and others and our faith in God is strengthened and Jesus is glorified.

The full immersion in His Spirit empowers us to be bold. Luke writes about this boldness  as he writes about Peter's experience, "Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: “Rulers and elders of the people! If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a man who was lame and are being asked how he was healed, then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. Peter gives credit, not to himself, but instead to the power that comes with the name of Jesus because of the importance to realize that the power comes by the name of Jesus. Nobody likes a person that takes credit for something when the credit is owed to someone else. So, we who are baptized in the Holy Spirit must credit our source or benefactor. Our credit to our benefactor is of course done because we give credit where credit is due, but also because we have a deep love for the One that allows us to be a part of His giving of living water.

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