Wells of Living Water

Ezekiel 47: 3-5 says,

And when the man went out to the east with a line in his hand, he measured one thousand cubits, and he brought me through the waters; the water came up to my ankles. Again he measured one thousand and brought me through the waters; the waters came up to my knees. Again he measured one thousand and brought me through; the water came up to my waist. Again he measured one thousand, and it was a river that I could not cross; for the water was too deep, water in which one must swim, a river that could not be crossed. NKJV

From the time we confess Jesus as our Lord and savior, the Lord takes us through a process intended for us to learn the ways of His kingdom and gain knowledge of Him. This process is activated so that out of our bellies may flow rivers of living water that will reflect Christ in us. As this occurs and we are fully prepared, then we will be ready to be vessels that dispense healing, deliverance, and salvation to those who thirst for a touch of God in their lives through us.

The thousand cubits speak of the different levels God brings His people in the knowledge of Him and of His ways. For this we are required to pursue His presence by the reading of His word, worship, and prayer. Doing this is necessary for us to understand and heed His call for our lives, and for the prospering of our souls that will help us live with purpose. The Scripture says that the waters were: first ankle-deep, then they reached to the knees, and then to the waist until they rose high enough to become a river to swim in for it could not be passed over or through. This means that depending on the depth of the river, ankle-deep or many feet deep, it is decided how much life can be sustained by these waters. This illustration is intended to explain that the more time we spend seeking God and reading His word, so we can obtain knowledge of Him and of the principles and laws of His kingdom, the more we can have access to the abundant life Jesus came to give us. Also, our wells can increase the flow of living water within us that cause us to prosper in all things. So in order to maintain a steadily increasing flow of living water in our wells, there are three important keys to remember:

1.            We must spend time seeking His presence entering His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise (Psalm 100:4). This opens the way for the Lord to draw near to us by His Spirit of Truth to reveal Himself to us. When we read His word, He also reveals to us the image and likeness of Him He wants us to display when we reach our destinies. In addition, as He presents to us His plan and purpose for our lives, He also cleanses us by removing the dross and the dirt that has kept us from responding to Him with obedience. This way, our wells will have pure water that will reflect Him to others.

 Ezekiel 36:24-29 states,

For I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statues, and you will keep My judgments and do them. Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; you shall be My people, and I will be your God. I will deliver you from all your uncleannesses. I will call for the grain to multiply it, and bring no famine upon you.

This passage also shows that whenever there is not enough word in us to sustain the abundant life Jesus came to give us, there is instead famine in many if not all areas of our lives.

2.            We must guard our well when God presents to us His plan and purpose for our lives. For this we need to learn to keep those promises hidden in incubation like a baby is hidden in a mother’s womb. The reason for that is so it can grow and form according to God’s plan without danger of unnecessary attacks forged against us to abort our destinies. Not until we know God has sent people to help us develop in our calls, should we reveal it to others. In Luke 1:24 we see that when John the Baptist was in Elizabeth’s womb, she hid her pregnancy for five months. This verse exemplifies our need to spend time in intimacy with God, for this helps us get more acquainted with our calls. The result will be then, that we will display a Christ-like character intended to draw others to the living water He has put in our wells. One example of exposing our calls at the wrong time comes from Joseph whose brothers responded to his immaturity of revealing his dreams to them too early by trying to kill him, but instead sold him to a slave driver that took Joseph to Egypt.

One important discipline to heed in order to accomplish this is—to learn to speak when we are spoken through. The Scripture says that we should all desire to prophecy (1 Corinthians 14:1), but not everything we see or hear needs to be shared. God entrusts us with certain information for us to pray and stand in the gap between Him and the person or situation we are called to intercede for. This is also another way for us to cover and protect each other while the flow of water in our wells is growing with the knowledge of His word, of Him, and of His ways. The more our discernment increases, the more we need to get on our knees to intercede for others. If God has not specifically told us to talk about the things seen to the person and much less others, it is indicative that we are being chosen as vessels of reconciliation and not as vessels of slander or gossip, especially if we do it for the sake of recognition.

Genesis 29:3 explains that when all the flocks were gathered by the well, the shepherds would roll the stone away from the well’s mouth to water the sheep. Then they would return the stone to the mouth of the well. In other words, only when God tells us to speak we are to do it; after that we must continue to seek Him in prayer and the word, and any other strategy He may ask us to do to incubate the promised destiny in our wombs. It is also essential to not run ahead of God’s timing, nor outside of His ways and the path of the Cross He chose for us to walk with faithful endurance until we reach our destiny.

3.            We must dig up the obstructions the enemy has put in the wells of previous generations, so we can rescue them and make room for the blessings God has prepared for our generation and the next ones to come. This way the next generations can be enabled to dig the wells that will cause them to enjoy abundant life. In Genesis 26:15 Isaac reopened the wells that had been dug in the time of his father Abraham which the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham died and he gave them the same names his father had given them. Doing this did not go without contentions and warfare from the herdsmen of the Philistines. But in our generations, with the leading of the Holy Spirit, we can take back the things that had been stolen from us and from previous generations that did not know how, or could not endure the battles to keep guard of their wells.

Furthermore, Genesis 26:19-21 says that Isaac found wells of running water after his servants dug in the valley two different times, but the herdsmen of Gerar fought them over those wells too. Finally, in verse 22 it says, “And he moved from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it. So he called its name Rehoboth, because he said, “For now the LORD has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.”We can see then how the battles fought in previous generations and the securing of the wells, can have a great impact in the generations to come as shown in John 4: 12-15,

“Are you greater than our father Jacob who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock? Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.”

Once the Samaritan woman tasted of the water that Jesus gave to her by acknowledging He was Christ- the Messiah, she was then brought to the understanding that a true worshiper is one who worships the Father in Spirit (guided by the Holy Spirit) and in Truth (The truth of Who He is with purity and free from demonic influence) for this is the hour in which God the Father, who is a Spirit, seeks such to worship Him (John 4: 23-24). This caused a reaction from her that God intends to bring out of all of us once we become true worshipers that hold His word and worship to Him in our wells.

Verses 28-30 say,

“The woman then left her water pot, went her way into the city, and said to the men, “Come, see a man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” Then they went out of the city and came to Him.” As shown in this passage, others will be drawn to Christ through us and become part of our legacy that will have wells of leaving water deep enough to sustain the abundant life Christ died for us to have through our relationship with Him. This will cause us to prosper and multiply in everything we set our hands to do because we are doing it with knowledge, and understanding of Him and of His ways, and of His purpose for our lives. As we go back to Ezekiel 47, we see this evidence in verses 9-10 which say,

 “And it shall be that every living thing that moves, wherever the rivers go, will live. There will be a great multitude of fish, because these waters go there; for they will be healed, and everything will live wherever the river goes. It shall be that fishermen will stand by it from En Gedi to En Eglaim; they will be places for spreading their nets. Their fish will be of the same kind as the fish of the Great Sea, exceedingly many.”

It takes faithfulness, steadfast endurance, a heart that worships God, a heart for our spiritual parents, and for each other to serve, cover in prayer, and help each other grow the depth of the water in our wells necessary to sustain abundant life. As we continue to endure in the path He has laid for us to walk individually and corporately, we can support one another and the ministry of our spiritual parents to be all God has called us to be in Him. For this we need to prepare ourselves in our personal time of intimacy with the Lord, with worship, prayer, fasting, and the reading of His word, so that when we come to fellowship with others, we are ready to serve them and serve our home church and its leaders; thus being empowered to take others to where we have been with the Lord.

Another important thing to make note of is to not fall into temptation to do things apart from God’s direction and timing as well as the input of our leaders because this will open doors to unnecessary attacks of the enemy that could result in the aborting of our destinies. The battles we fight can be overcome in a place where there is one heart and one accord among us. Also, in this place we can implement the tools and strategies God has given each of us because we have taken the time to hear His heart for us and  for others around us to bring great victories. This is a fundamental way to love the Lord with all our heart, soul and mind and our neighbors as ourselves. To Him alone be all the Glory.□

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God's Living Trust

 Matthew 25:13-30

13 “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming. 14 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. 15 And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey. 16 Then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and made another five talents. 17 And likewise he who had received two gained two more also. 18 But he who had received one went and dug in the ground, and hid his lord’s money. 19 After a long time the lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them. 20 “So he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, ‘Lord, you delivered to me five talents; look, I have gained five more talents besides them.’ 21 His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’ 

22 He also who had received two talents came and said, ‘Lord, you delivered to me two talents; look, I have gained two more talents besides them.’ 23 His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’ 24 “Then he who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 25 And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours.’ 26 “But his lord answered and said to him, ‘You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed. 27 So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest. 28 Therefore take the talent from him, and give it to him who has ten talents. 29 ‘For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. 30 And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of  teeth.’”NKJV

God is a Living God. Jesus died on the Cross, but He rose again. This gives Him the right to draw Revocable Living Trusts when it comes to handing out His promises to us. This means that they are conditional to our obedience to Him, to His word, and commands for us. A living trust can be revocable because the person that writes it can change or terminate it. 

It is called living trust because this person is still living, and it is called trust because it is a legal arrangement and the grantor of this trust appoints a manager. However, if the appointed person continues to fall short of his or her expectations, the grantor can then decide to entrust His assets and investments to be managed by another because He knows how costly it could be to allow mismanagement to continue.

God is the exact same way with us. Luke 12:48 says, For everyone to whom much is given, of him shall much be required; and of him to whom men entrust much, they will require and demand all the more.  AMP

In God’s economy, there are more multiplications than additions, so when he looks at the fruit of what He has entrusted to us, He looks for the multiplication, the profit, the turnover, the yield, the increase, or earnings. In other words, He invests in us so that His image and likeness of His Son can be revealed through us to others in the fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) and in the works he has called us to do as we go to replenish the earth, multiply it and subdue it.

For this, He takes us to a process that leads us to our destinies in Him where our yielding to Him continually helps us increase in fruitful works which are the result of our relationship with Him. This way, we live doing as the Father does and saying as the Father says.

But whenever He does not see the good fruit of the character of Christ in the person He has invested in after periods of pruning and testing, guiding, and leading. Then He is left with having to take from the unfruitful person and give to another who has been faithful and yielded to His process to do His will and follow His ways no matter what they had to go through to multiply and increase what was given to them.

Luke 13:6-7 says, “6And He told them this parable: A certain man had a fig tree, planted in his vineyard, and he came looking for fruit on it, but did not find [any]. 7So he said to the vinedresser, See here! For these three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree and I find none. Cut it down! Why should it continue also to use up the ground [to deplete the soil, intercept the sun, and take up room]?” AMP

That is why Jesus cursed the fig tree. It looked good and full of fruit from a distance, but looking up close there was no fruit. That is because the tree had signs of a rotten root and Jesus knew that its withering was imminent. Therefore, just like the above Scripture states, why should that tree be allowed to take up space that should be left for a another that will bear the necessary type of fruit because the soil was not the problem, the tree was. So at His word the tree withered up at once (Matthew 21:19).

Matthew 3:10 also says, “And already the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” AMP

This word is an admonishment to stop and take a look at the type of fruit we are bearing. Is God being glorified in us and through us or are we worth going again through the fire of testing so the wickedness and evil ways in us that we have refused to let go off can be removed so we can be aligned with His plan and purpose for us. He wants to use us effectively to advance His Kingdom and what we must reflect is the ways of God, not the ways of the world. By going to the necessary pruning, we will be able to yield better quality fruit.

This is an important time for believers, so let's take heed to God's call to watch our ways and our fruit. To Him alone be the glory. ∎ 

Overthrowing the Jezebel Spirit 1

Esther 1:20-22

²⁰ So when the king’s decree is made and proclaimed throughout all his kingdom, extensive as it is, all wives will give honor to their husbands, high and low.

²¹ This advice pleased the king and the princes, and the king did what Memucan proposed.

²² He sent letters to all the royal provinces, to each in its own script and to every people in their own language, saying that every man should rule in his own house and speak there in the language of his own people…AMP

There are examples in the Bible of devoted women who were submitted to God through their honor and devotion to their husbands as the head of their households. I can think of Abigail, said to have been a woman of beauty and of good understanding, and who before she married David, had already shown submission to her first husband, Nabal even though he was considered a fool (1 Samuel 25:3).

There was also Ruth, who forsook her former ways and gods to follow her mother-in-law Naomi and her God (Ruth 1:16) to the land where she met Boaz, a prominent man of God who became her husband, and to whom her devotion and submission as unto God, gave Ruth an important position in the land and as an ancestor of King David (Ruth 2-3).

But there are also examples of women who from the beginning of creation have tried to usurp the position of head of the house from their husbands. This position represents God as the head, but the lack of honor of these women was one in which through their positions of authority, some could have and others did cause an avalanche of disrespect, abuse, rebellion, witchcraft, and an outright violation of divine order and disregard for the righteous judgments of God in the hearts of all those under their influence.

This time I’m thinking first of Eve, who made an executive decision to disobey the command of God to not eat the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil without consulting first with her husband Adam. This resulted in their expulsion from the Garden of Eden. There was also Vashti, who refused to come forth at the command of King Xerxes to be shown as his beautiful queen for all to see. Because her disobedience seemed to have been her habit, this last decision was the catalyst that caused the king to divorce her for he was put in a compromising position in front of all the people in the land high and low. One other example is Jezebel who would not take no for an answer and would murder and steal to get what she wanted for her and her family and led many away from God throughout the kingdom in order to worship her god Baal instead.

These actions were gradually one worse than the other and gave entrance to the spirit of Jezebel in the land. This spirit commands power and authority whether it is appointed or not. It also disregards other positions of authority and threatens when it feels threatened. Submission and honor are the operative opposites of the ways of this spirit—and it is one of the three-part deity of the Antichrist spirit (religion and mammon are the other two parts). Through manipulation, the spirit of Jezebel wants to rule everything in a perverted way and leads all under its influence away from God, communion, and intimacy with Him, and from the ways of His Kingdom. 

Surprisingly, many in the body of Christ are found with different degrees of this influence in their lives which came from generational sins of rebellion and perversion. Under its influence, these people try to manipulate their way through their circumstances and also manipulate the word of God and His timing to get the things they want without fully paying the price required to obtain them. When the spirit of Jezebel is at work in a person, it is to derail them from God’s path and destiny for them. This spirit has also been found causing chaos in the body of Christ to overpower established authority and order and when not detected and dealt with, has caused great damage in the lives of God’s children, in ministries, and families.

Revelation 2:20-23 in The Message version speaks of the character of this spirit and the outrageous things done in the body of Christ when gone undetected. It says,

^20-23 “But why do you let that Jezebel who calls herself a prophet mislead my dear servants into Cross-denying, self-indulging religion? I gave her a chance to change her ways, but she has no intention of giving up a career in the god-business. I’m about to lay her low, along with her partners, as they play their sex-and-religion games. The bastard offspring of their idol-whoring I’ll kill. Then every church will know that appearances don’t impress me. I x-ray every motive and make sure you get what’s coming to you." The Message.

In addition, pride and haughtiness can be found in the Jezebel spirit which leads to the undermining of the admonitions and a lack of respect of those in positions of authority who, according to Romans 13:1 are placed in such positions by God. For this reason, humbling ourselves and not grow weary as we continue to act nobly and do right is important for in due season we shall reap the reward God has promised to us (Galatians 6:9). 

Romans 8:6 admonishes us to live a life led by the Spirit of the Lord which does not gratify the desires of our sinful nature (passed down from other generations and that has not been washed with the water of His Word and burned in His holy and purifying fire). Psalm 51:17 says that the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, and He does not despise a broken and contrite heart when, according to 2 Chronicles 7:14 comes to Him for help with repentance asking for His help to turn from our wicked ways so He can hear our prayers and heal our lands (our lives, families, finances, ministries, businesses, relationships, etc.). To Him alone be all the glory.∎