I noticed it the first time I read through the Gospels. Jesus repeatedly acknowledged man’s hunger and thirst, promising they would be satisfied. I understand now what I didn’t then: that He spoke out of the depths of His human experience. A man who lived in a body with appetites, who possessed a soul that needed to be satisfied.

As a human being on this earth, Jesus had to live by faith like the rest of us. He had to lean upon the Holy Spirit for everything, even connection to the Father. When He taught about the Spirit being a comforter and helper, He spoke from personal experience.

Jesus knew hunger and thirst, in body, soul and spirit.

He discovered what we must: how to lean upon the Spirit to satisfy those places. He learned firsthand how powerfully the Spirit could meet and satisfy every need. That is why He came to speak of the Spirit as a fountain, and a stream of water. Jesus spoke of the Spirit in this manner because He experienced the Spirit just as He described:

Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. (John 4:13-14 NIV)

Similarly, Christ assured His disciples that His followers would always be satisfied.

Then Jesus declared, I am the Bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. (John 6:35 NIV).

Of course, hunger and thirst are both expressions of the same thing: a need for something to make you okay, at peace, whole, and well. And it does not matter whether the meeting of that need is attributed to Jesus or the Spirit, for they are indivisible. All our access to the Spirit comes through our covenant relationship to Jesus.

The word “life” in these and most New Testament verses is the Greek word zoe. Strong’s Greek Dictionary defines zoe as “the absolute fullness of life” which belongs to God. Zoe refers to a vitality that goes well beyond merely existing, living and breathing. Zoe is the life only God can give. It is the life He longs for us to have.

Frankly, it’s hard to believe.

The promise that we’ll never have to endure prolonged thirst or hunger again is so startling that we are almost afraid to believe it, lest we be disappointed in Christ. Yet this promise is repeated often in the Old and New Testaments, well beyond God’s own requirement that “a matter must be established in the mouth of two or three witnesses.” The sheer repetition of it in the history books, poetry, psalms, and the prophets, and on into the teaching of Jesus, is compelling begs belief.

Officially, I dare you to believe.

Jesus, I believe, is promising it all. He said it too many ways. You will never lack for sustenance for your body, or clothing, or any other necessity of life on earth. It is profoundly more than this, however. The life Christ promises you offers to satisfy your soul and heal you of all emotional and spiritual neediness. To satisfy your thirst to be loved well; to be treated righteously, and when you’re not, to satisfy your craving for justice.

God is offering you an inward life experience of contentment and peace, regardless of your outward circumstances. He didn’t promise you a never-ending rose garden, yet amazingly, promises you what a rose garden offers: flourishing life, beauty, fragrance, and a respite from the world.

A cautionary tale about trying to satisfy your own self.

This sounds so wonderful and so…. unattainable. Those who cannot find the faith to believe in it and trust God to bring it on, inevitably act on their own behalf. Every time you do that, you are Lucy pulling the football away from Charlie Brown.

God does not want you to construct your own fountain. He made this clear when He complained through Jeremiah: My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water. (Jeremiah 2:13 NIV).

Jesus echoed this same complaint against the religious leaders of His day when he said, You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life. (John 5:39-40 NIV)

Christians often wear themselves out trying to give themselves life and satisfy their yawning needs. The promise of such is often implied in the offer to impart religious formulas by well-meaning teachers and ministries. Such pursuits may offer merely a do-it-yourself kit to build your own cistern. There are programs that can be excellent aids to emotional and spiritual growth, but none can ever substitute for going to the Fountain of Living Water and the Bread of Life.

None of your efforts will work because God won’t let that happen.

That is because He’s after much more than the satisfaction of your soul. He wants your soul and spirit intertwined with His in a wholly dependent way, so that His feast of life is always right on your table.

Put yourself in God’s shoes: He holds out every means of satisfying the souls of His children, but must watch them live frustrated, needy lives. The problem isn’t just your inadequacy; it is that God is opposing you, and you’ll never prevail against Him. He isn’t likely to support anything less than you reaching for Him in all your neediness.

David was deeply satisfied in knowing the Lord.

David knew how to drink and eat of the Lord. His life and writings reveal a soul who knew and understood God through the help of the Holy Spirit’s help. David suffered numerous soul-starving, spirit-wounding experiences: danger, betrayal, hatred, rejection, long-suffering (waiting years for God’s promises to be fulfilled).

Yet without benefit of Bible, church programs or the internet, David experienced such a satisfying relationship with God that he uttered ecstatically:

I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands. My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you. (Psalm 63:2-5 NIV).

How do you drink from God’s fountain of life?

Jesus made the answer utterly plain: your fountain of life comes in the Person of the Holy Spirit — the same source that satisfied David:

Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “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.” 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 yet been glorified. (John 7:37-39 NIV).

Today, for you who believe and belong to Christ, the Spirit HAS been given, no longer reserved for a few special characters in Bible history. My purpose through Spirit Life is to teach you how to live by that stream of living water, how to drink and eat of the Lord once you have received His indwelling Spirit.

And while we’re here, let’s clarify something. The idea of eating and drinking of someone is a Hebrew metaphor for intimate covenant connection. The imagery of eating and drinking the covenant partner’s flesh and blood as a symbol of being one with them, was a common part of covenant rituals. This idea is the basis for communion as celebrated by Christians. Jesus instituted this practice so Christians would remember, celebrate and take strength from their union with Christ. To eat and drink of another is a phrase that marvelously summarizes the mystery and beauty of being one, sharing life, and enhancing each other’s life unto fulfillment.

Why does God care so much about satisfying you?

You mean, besides the fact that He crazy loves you?

The answer is quite simple: a hungry soul is a vulnerable soul. An easy prey for the person or thing that would actually rob you of life instead of build it.

An unsatisfied soul is exposed to myriad dangers as it reaches for something to make it feel okay: wrong relationships, addictions, perverted lifestyles, dead-end careers. The honest man who goes hungry long enough may even become a thief to get a piece of bread.

Being saved doesn’t automatically keep you from these dangers, but being satisfied by the Spirit of Christ does.

That is why the enemy of God and His children works overtime to tempt you and your human flesh with everything else BUT God. And why he lies to you, trying to hide the truth. The devil can’t get to God, so he tries to hurt God by hurting His children.

Only one who is free of need can be safe from people and things that seek to possess and rule his soul. It is easy to find some neediness of body, soul or spirit at the root of all man’s problems.

Jesus’ message is simple: Come to me; I can satisfy your soul.

His offer is real. I know because I tested Jesus on this one.

For instance, I learned how God can even satisfy physical cravings, when He helped me overcome an 18-year addiction to cigarettes. I had given up, and felt hopeless to ever free myself of the need to smoke. For addicts like me it was more than a physical craving; cigarettes had become a comforting companion when I was bored or hungry or nervous or celebrating.

The first five years I knew the Lord, He didn’t bother me about quitting. He didn’t lecture or nag or rebuke me. But one day that all changed when He asked me to start paying attention to why I reached for each cigarette. So I did. That’s when I realized how much I leaned on them emotionally, as one would a friend.

The Lord then quietly, lovingly said to me,

I want to be the one you lean on instead of those cigarettes. Please reach for me from now on, and let me satisfy your need.

God did the one thing I couldn’t resist: He made it personal. Of course, I knew all along I was defiling my body (the temple of the Lord), and that hadn’t convicted me enough to quit. I knew it would eventually destroy my health. I’d seen the pictures of nicotine destroyed lungs, yet those hadn’t scared me enough. Finally, I knew it was wrong for a Christian to be mastered by anything but Him.

But where the Lord led me was more powerful than convictions over right and wrong. His desire to satisfy me with Himself reached past every argument and slayed them beyond repair. I was undone by His love and grace. God had earned the right to be my everything, but He still had to fight for it. That He fought for me somehow boosted my faith that He could and would fill the needs I always sought to satisfy my way. I loved Him for it, for the fight for me, and for the promise.

As a result, I purposed to lay the cigarettes down, for love of my God.

I wanted give the Lord the place He not only deserved, but the place He clearly hoped to possess in my life. In the process I had to, by turns, offer all my longings — of body, soul and spirit — to His Spirit. I refused to satisfy myself. In moments intense craving, I offered my hunger to God to satisfy. I literally confessed how much I wanted that cigarette. I held out my hands to Him and said, “Lord, my flesh is weak, and you promised to satisfy my need for this. Please come and do that now.”

He did. Every time the intense craving came, I prayed, and waited for God to help me. I was determined to let God have His chance to show me that He could keep His promise.

I didn’t dwell on the thought that I could never smoke again; that had always sunk me in the past, and caused me to grieve and reach for a cigarette. This time, I held only God one craving at a time. The first few days, I cried often, as one does with fresh grief. But I would pass through each time, and be all right. God’s help, His meeting my need, wasn’t a big flashy thing. It was a quiet, steady strength and peace that simply made me feel — no longer needy. Satisfied, just as I was. I passed through a series of serious little storms and each time, came to a place of rest.

As my head hit the pillow one night a couple of weeks later, I realized I hadn’t thought of smoking once that day. It stunned me. I had lost hope that I would ever know such a day. I knew then I was free! Just writing these words, now all these years later, makes me weep for joy.

I learned in that season, and every season since, that what Scripture says about God’s ability to satisfy His human creation is wonderfully true. I discovered the Lord will step into any opportunity to give life to His child, to set him free from temptation by satisfying him deeply.

And more to the point: to set YOU free by satisfying YOU deeply.

You will experience God’s zoe life only as you learn to turn to the Spirit for a drink, expecting to have your neediness sated and your soul brought to rest.

Spirit life is living with a fountain that really satisfies, and going often for a long drink.