“A locked up garden is my sister, my bride; a locked up spring, a sealed fountain.” (Songs of Solomon 4:12, HNV)
In John 4:13-14 Jesus meets the Samaritan woman at the well. He presents her with this amazing revelation: “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” Later, in John 7:37-39, on the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles, Jesus stood and called out, saying: “‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive …”
After baptism with water, baptism with the Holy Spirit follows – it occurs by the laying on of hands (Acts 8:17). The laying on of hands carries over the Holy Spirit, but it can also carry over other spirits – thus be very sure about who lays hands on you. Laying on of hands also occurs, for example, to receive gifts of the spririt (1 Tim 4:14); when people are sent out on a mission (Acts 13:3); for general blessing (Matt 19:15); and also for healing (Acts 9:12). The doctrine of the laying on of hands is one of the foundational doctrines of the new covenant (Heb 6:2).
Many Christians have not received baptism with the Holy Spirit through the laying on of hands after their baptism with water. If this doesn’t happen, then you remain a closed up fountain – the Living Waters cannot flow from within you. Instead, says Jer 2:13, a religiosity comes about: “For My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn themselves cisterns – broken cisterns that can hold no water.” Broken cisterns are symbolic here of religious activities without the Holy Spirit.
When Jesus, in answer to the Pharisees’ determined claim to stone to death the woman caught in adultery, simply wrote with His finger on the ground (John 8:6 & 8), He fulfilled Jer 17:13: “… those who depart from Me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living waters”. This was clear cut commentary on religious activities without living water.
- Sela: Be sure that you have received the Holy Spirit through the laying on of hands.
- Read: Gen 30; Ps 20; Matt 1
- Memorise: Matt 1:23
