Lead a Horse to Water…
A gritty old farmer once said, “You can lead a horse to water, but we all know what a wet horse smells like.” That last part was intended to say, “but you can’t make him drink.” Either way, the conclusion to leading a horse to water is not as promising as the intro.
True believers, too, have all been led to water, so to speak. First, God calls them to repentance which is followed by baptism – total immersion in water. That, then, leads to receiving spiritual water. Christ explains it, “On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried 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”” (John 7:37–38). Living water is simply a reference to the Holy Spirit.
We know that physical water flowing down a river is life-giving to all the roots fortunate enough to take it in. Fruit will thereby be developed. The same holds true on the spiritual level with the Holy Spirit. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law” (Galatians 5:22–23). These are the fruits God is looking for in those whom He is leading to water.
A horse led to water might gallop through it, it might drink it, or it might refuse it altogether. The point being, it must choose what it is going to do with the precious thing it has been led to. The same holds true for believers. The Apostle Paul wrote, “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” (Galatians 5:25) If we are to bear the fruits of the Spirit, we cannot just revel in the concept of having access to it through Christ’s precious sacrifice for us. We must drink it so that we can develop good fruit – we must take it up through our spiritual roots.
God’s people need to be reminded of these simple truths from time to time. “Therefore, I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:6–7). We must remember to stir up God’s gift in order to ensure our concluding fruits are commensurate to the water we have first been led to.
You can learn a lot from a horse.
Marshall Stiver
