Wells of Salvation
September 1, 2015
Wells of Salvation
Isaiah 12
AND IN that day you will say, I will give thanks to You, O Lord; for though You were angry with me, Your anger has turned away, and You comfort me.
2Behold, God, my salvation! I will trust and not be afraid, for the Lord God is my strength and song; yes, He has become my salvation.
3Therefore with joy will you draw water from the wells of salvation.
4And in that day you will say, Give thanks to the Lord, call upon His name and by means of His name [in solemn entreaty]; declare and make known His deeds among the peoples of the earth, proclaim that His name is exalted!
5Sing praises to the Lord, for He has done excellent things [gloriously]; let this be made known to all the earth.
6Cry aloud and shout joyfully, you women and inhabitants of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.
Isn’t it wonderful to have a well of salvation to draw the water of life from? Every day we must go to this well, for from it we draw the life, the direction, the strength and refreshment we need. As we drink deep of the Spirit of Life we are refreshed, filled with joy and thanksgiving. It is at this well we find the anger of the Lord turned away from us and instead we find forgiveness, redemption, healing and hope. As we drink from this well we realize that all things are possible, because the life we drink from is not our own and it knows no limitations, short of our faith to believe and God’s wisdom in how He responds. Faith becomes our bucket by which we draw out this water of life and we find its increase in our sharing it with others. It is with great joy that we draw this water, because we drink from the fountain of eternal life.
The Spanish explorer, Ponce de Leon spent his life in pursuit of the fountain of youth. It was in front of him all of the time and he wouldn’t even have had to leave home to find it. He pursued the vanity of the flesh and no matter what we do with the flesh or how we operate on it, it is a corruptible commodity and will pass away. What we can discover and drink from is a well that is so much richer, deeper and more lasting than any fountain of youth or means we may seek to preserve this natural life. As we drink from the well of God’s eternal Word and abide in the Spirit of His life, we have great reason for rejoicing and praise. Our greatest joy can be in sharing this life with others that they also may know the great joy associated with this well.
Jesus told the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4:10-15 about this living water and this well of salvation. “10Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” 11″Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?”
13Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14but 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.” 15The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”” He is that well of salvation, that eternal source of life, hope and joy. He is our strength, our portion, our deliverer and our very present help in time of need.
Every day that I come to write I take a drink and ask to able to share some aspect of this water with others so that they also might be strengthened, encouraged, refreshed and partakers in this life. The Lord spoke to the woman at the well that in drinking from this you will never thirst for another. As we drink of Him we become His well spring. Out of God’s people is the issues of life as we share with others what we ourselves have found and rejoice in.
Take your bucket of faith and continue to draw and drink deep from this well, but then share the joy of the well of salvation with others that they also may know this great joy and likewise become partakers of so great a salvation. You will be amazed at what God can bring up out of your life as you drink of Him and depend upon Him to be your source and well spring of life.
Blessings,
#kent
Where’s Your Appetite?
April 30, 2015
John 4:8
(His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
Where’s Your Appetite?
The Lord dropped this scripture into my heart today, because He is asking you and me, where is your appetite? What are you foremost concerned about feeding and taking care of, your natural or your spiritual man? Hunger is a good motivator; it will motivate us to go and do what is necessary to get fed. It is what motivates us to work and pursue the things that meet our natural needs. Now that isn’t a bad thing, but as kingdom people Father is wanting our appetites to change. He wants to put in us the appetite of doing the will of the Father and to focus on what is feeding and nourishing the inner man, not just the outer.
John 4 deals with Jesus’ encounter with the woman at the well. He begins telling her about a water where she will never thirst again. He reveals to her that He is the source of that living water. The natural water she can drink, but she will continue to thirst, but the living water is a perpetual life stream that can be a continual well spring inside of us of truth and life.
The disciples return as Jesus is finishing His conversation with this Samaritan woman. Verse 27-38 explains the scene. ” Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”
28Then, leaving her water jar (Her container for the natural water) , the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29“Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” 30They came out of the town and made their way toward him.
31Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.”
32But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”
33Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?”
34“My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. 35Do you not say, ‘Four months more and then the harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. 36Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. 37Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. 38I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”
The Lord is moving us into a time where our appetite and our food will be like that of Jesus. Food and natural sustenance will be secondary to our heart to do Fathers will and impart life bread and water to those who are perishing. Matthew 5:6 says, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” Father wants to put in us a new hunger and new passion that even overrides our physical needs.
The apostle Paul shared in that kind of hunger and appetite. He often paid the price in his body for what he gave out for others. In 2 Corinthians 11:23-31 he shares a little discourse of some of what he suffered for the causes of Christ. ” Are they servants of Christ? (I am out of my mind to talk like this.) I am more. I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. 24Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. 25Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, 26I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers. 27I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. 28Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. 29Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn?
30If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. 31The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, who is to be praised forever, knows that I am not lying.”
Discipleship comes with a price and we have our time of growing up, but then we must do what 1 John 2:5-6 tells us, “But if anyone obeys his word, God’s love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: 6Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.” So the Holy Spirit is asking us today, “Where’s your appetite?”
Blessing,
#kent
Spiritual Water
December 26, 2013
John 4:13-14
Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14but 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.”
Spiritual Water
The setting here is Jesus sitting at Jacob’s well and speaking to this natural woman of Samaria. Jesus speaks a parable or metaphor that takes her natural needs and transcends them to a spiritual plane. Here He is taking the essential need that we all have for water, which is a basic compound of life and showing us through this woman that He has something to give us where we will never thirst again. This woman, like most of us, being naturally minded is still trying to comprehend this truth with the natural mind. It becomes obvious that Jesus isn’t speaking about giving her some magical natural fluid where she will never experience natural thirst again, but He wants to give her the spiritual water of His life where she will experience having all that she ever needs and will see that all of her needs are met in Him. Jesus makes this obvious when He tells her to go and bring her husband. She responds in John 4:17, “I have no husband,” she replied.” Jesus then says, “”You are right when you say you have no husband. 18The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.” Like this woman, many of us go through life searching for the thing, that person, that experience or whatever it is that will fulfill us. We are looking for what will give us our sense of purpose and being. We can keep drinking from the natural wells of this world, but we will always thirst again. Jesus is trying to communicate to this woman that I am the water that you need. When you drink of Me you are drinking of the eternal water that flows out of the throne of God. In Me you can be satisfied and fulfilled. What begins as a drink will become in you a spring of water welling up to eternal life.
Many of us have found this truth and have drank of this living water. Some of us neglect and take for granted the dynamic power and life that is in what we have drank. We become complacent and again turn our attentions to natural things. This is a time that we want to be drinking deeply of Him. We are His springs of living water that are coming forth throughout the earth. We are His wells of life giving water that can refresh others with this living water. Every day opportunities present themselves to share life. Are we seizing those moments and offering the living water to those that are thirsting and searching? We are His springs, but we mustn’t allow ourselves to be a spring shut up and a fountain sealed. With love and compassion let us give those a drink who are thirsting. Let us share with them the living water, so that they may never thirst again.
Living Water (Prophetic Word)
March 19, 2013
Jeremiah 14:3
The nobles send their servants for water; they go to the cisterns but find no water.
They return with their jars unfilled; dismayed and despairing, they cover their heads.
Living Water
This is what the Lord says in this day and this hour. Out of your bellies shall flow forth streams of living water so that they that are thirsty may drink. My messengers are already upon the road and the cross-roads of life. They are in the intersections of decisions of life and death. I have sent forth the clouds of mercy and grace filled with the rain of my presence in this hour.
Come and fill your jars that you may return with living water. If any man thirst let him come to Me and I will give Him this water to drink that he may never thirst again after the waters that dry up and evaporate. My spring and My well flow continually to them who bath in its rivers and soak in its baths. My Word is the well-spring of life and it is what must saturate your being. If you thirst, it is because you do not drink of its life, for it is the sustenance of life.
Come with your jars and your earthen vessels that you may take it to the noble of this world; those who will receive of you all that I have poured into you. It is only those who reject my living water that will thirst, dry up and become like the cracking ground. They scorned the cup in the day it was offered and now they languish for thirst and yet deny it.
My life and My invitation is to all that will come and drink of My well. Come, drink and live.
Blessings,
kent