A person may not even know that they are experiencing chronic dehydration. Many have been with it for so long that it seems normal. Surely no one would like to be in this state, however I fear that we, as God’s children, live with spiritual chronic dehydration.

Chronic dehydration of the spirit is an immense danger, because it causes us to become complacent in our walk with God. We believe we’re doing fine, however we are slowly killing ourselves or causing side effects that impede spiritual progress. We are unable to act on the prompting of the spirit, and we get comfortable because things have always been this way and always will be. Eventually we cannot imagine what it’s like to have a more satisfying life — a life of spiritual hydration.

I have been attempting to get to the point where, instead of being so desensitized to my lack of spiritual hydration, I will recognize it and quench the thirst that I have In God. I want to live at a deeper level, to get out of the place I thought was normal. I want to dive into the deeper levels of spiritual renewal and depth that I’ve never known.

At times I have been thoroughly convinced that I’ve “arrived” at the level God planned for me in the spirit, but then God has opened up my eyes to see how parched I really am for Him.

This week there was a fresh opportunity to experience this. At our church, the young men have decided to gather on Saturday nights and pray. We had reached a point where we were praying and things were happening, but we were not to the point God was beckoning us to.

We could have been satisfied with where we were at. It was even an exceptional place to be for our age group. However, God gave us the grace to identify what I would classify as our spiritual dehydration. So we decided to push for that Liberty in the spirit, to bring ourselves to the threshold of the Holy of Holies. On a cold spring night, we allowed God to bring us into His very presence.

As we stepped into God’s presence on the other side of that veil, we were greeted by a presence so beautiful that I find it hard to put into words. We became lost in His presence and renewed by His blood. That’s what happens when we decide to go deeper and be willing to follow God into the unprecedented places He wants to bring us to.

I thought the same way until God began to show me something in deep inside myself. He showed me something that was hidden until I took the time to recognize it: I was desperate. I was getting to that point in my life where everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. But I realize now it was for my own good. God was bringing me somewhere so that I could realize that my strength depended on Him, not on my own strength.

Psalm 63 says it this way: “My soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is.” What I was doing was not healthy for my soul. My soul was crying out in desperation to God because — let’s face it — the world we live in doesn’t give us what our souls want. Simply living doesn’t fulfill that longing and desperation we feel.

Just like not drinking water is incredibly bad for our physical health, if we don’t go to God every day to get his refreshing, we are dehydrating our spirit. My soul was crying to be filled, to be quenched. I felt such a desperation that I didn’t know what to do, but He was there, just like he always is.

If we want to go anywhere in our lives, we first have to learn that we need to be desperate for God, and let him be the one to quench our souls. Filler won’t do — it’s just going to continually dehydrate us and distract from what our souls really want. We need to be like the psalmist, desperate, longing, and thirsty for the real thing.

Are you desperate for spiritual fulfillment? More importantly, do you know where to find it? Perhaps you can share a time when your spirit’s thirst for life and truth was quenched. Join the discussion in the article comments.