In summertime, during my years working on dairy farms, I would crank up the engine of an old tractor on the bank of a river to pump water into irrigation channels that ran through the fields. Before doing that, I had to prime the pump with a bucketful of water—otherwise a vacuum of air in the pump’s intake would prevent it from drawing water. The powerful tractor could not pump water up and onto the property until its pump was first primed. The huge amount of water needed to fill the channels and flood the fields was dependent on just one bucket of water.
It’s always sad to see Christians whose ministry blessed so many so much lying idle—while those who need them are drying up spiritually by the day. It’s as though they assumed that their proximity to the River of Life would enable God’s power to flow through them whenever a need arose.
But a vacuum between spiritual supply and human need—however small—prevents the flow of God’s blessing from reaching those who are dry and need reviving. But it’s not as though the vacuum that exists in the heart of many Christians today is hard to get rid of—it just needs to be filled so that they are primed and ready.
“And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to yourselves in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; giving thanks always for all things to God the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Ephesians 5:18-20)
No Christian’s heart should be allowed to become a spiritual vacuum. Strong’s Concordance defines the ancient Greek verb translated “filled” as: “to make full, to fill to the full; to fill to the top: so that nothing shall be wanting; fill to full measure; fill to the brim.” This is not a comparison with drunkenness but a contrast to it . We are to be filled continually with the Spirit of God.
How long is it since you sang a psalm, a hymn, or a spiritual song? If you haven’t stayed “filled with the Spirit” a vacuum may have developed. If so, you need to ‘prime the pump’ to restart the flow! Our physical heart is a pump that never stops—when it does, we die—yet we allow our spiritual heart—our love for God and our zeal for His work—to stop and then wonder why we can’t get it started. We need to prime it with thanksgiving, prayer and praise!
Speaking in the spiritual gift of “tongues”—a language you never learned—is another way to ‘prime your pump’. It builds you up spiritually, allows your spirit to sing and to pray, and offers blessing and thanksgiving to God. (1 Corinthians 14:4, 14, 16)
I can tell you from experience that crank-starting an old tractor in the hope that its power will pull water through a vacuum is an exercise in futility! Trying to crank-start your spirituality with a creed or a mantra is equally futile! The heart must “bubble up with a good thing” (Psalm 45:1)
What good thing makes your heart bubble up? The memory of when Jesus saved you? When you first knew for sure that your sins were forgiven? Remembering your experience of being identified with Jesus when “buried with him” in water baptism? The joy you felt when filled with the power of the Holy Spirit? The moment the Spirit of God fell on everyone during a meeting—unexpectedly? The gratitude you felt in your heart for God when he healed your body? The memory of the “first love” you had for Jesus, and how you wanted to share what he had done for you with everyone?
Such things keep you ‘primed’’ so that God’s power can draw fresh water from the River of Life, and flow through you to dry believers and dry churches that have longed for renewal and revival. Praise God for the free flow of the Water of Life through you into dry and thirsty lives!