Flourishing in the Desert

FROM THE PREFACE
Water hydrates. Water is essential for life. Water is necessary for health and wellness.
For over forty years, Moses led the Israelites through the wilderness. During that time, he faced constant grumbling and complaints from hundreds of thousands (possibly over a million, according to some estimates) of Hebrews due to a lack of water.1 As their leader, how did Moses get water for all these people? We read that through God’s provision, water was given supernaturally, pouring out of a rock of all things. Water from the rock. Enough for all the people. So much, in fact, that there was enough water for all their livestock as well.
There is a spiritual correlation to this. The Apostle Paul recognized it when he wrote referring to the Israelites, that in the wilderness they “all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; the rock was Christ.” (1 Corinthians 10:4) From Paul’s view, the rock was Jesus and the water that flowed from the Rock was the Spirit.
In both Psalm 63:1 and 42:1, we encounter David’s experience in the wilderness. The dry and thirsty land he described mirrored his own spiritual condition at that time. Dry. Exhausted. Dehydrated. How does he rectify this situation? He recognizes God as his God. He seeks and watches for God, and he thirsts and yearns for God. Then the divine physician, the rock, brings the remedy. He comes and pours out the lifegiving living water. Now to survive and thrive, David must drink!
As the people of God, we must ask, how essential is the water of the Spirit for our lives and the life of the local and global Church? Can a church become spiritually dehydrated? Could it be said that some churches have, in a sense, ceased to live because of a lack of taking in the water of God? Is the water of life so evident and abundant that the Water even flows through your church to those around it? To put it another way, are we merely hydrating for survival, or in contrast, are we spiritually hydrating to flourish and bear fruit to the glory of God?
God has provided a remedy, the cure for our spiritual dehydration and that of the Church. He brings and gives the living water, the water of life, the Holy Spirit! God says this:
For I will pour water on the thirsty… I will pour out my Spirit.
(Isaiah 44:3)
You there! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters… (Isaiah 55:1)
If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. The one who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, “From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.” (John 7:37-39)
And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires, take the water of life without cost. (Revelation 22:17)

Many churches in America are suffering, and some are slowly dying from dehydration, spiritual dehydration.
I write this book to shed light on how the Spirit, the living water, hydrates and brings life and wellness to the Church, to those in the pews as well as those in the pulpit. The focus of this book is on the activity of the Holy Spirit as essential for the life of the individual believer and the Church for growth, transformation, ministry, and leadership. My passion is to see the Church whole—hydrated by the Spirit—with every member functioning as God intended, spiritually formed and spiritually led, loving God and loving one another as the image of Christ here on earth.
It is time for the people of God to seek God, to ask Him to hydrate the Church with the living water of the Spirit, to bring life and restore it to health and wellness. It is time for those of the Church to drink deeply from the well of the water of life and flourish!