Broken Cisterns or Springs of Living Water?

Those who are following the uncharted way in this season are going to begin to step into greater and greater levels of the River of God. God is going to surprise you with His refreshing, reviving, revitalizing Presence.

By faith, many have followed Him through the narrow place of this tumultuous time. You have not been able to see what is ahead, but you have stayed the course, anchored to the heart of your Beloved. Be encouraged as He is a REWARDER of those who diligently seek Him. There are going to be unexpected outbreaks of His Living Water, gushers and geysers that release the lavishness of His goodness. Standing under the waterfalls of this merciful outpouring, you will experience deep cleansing of all that has sought to dirty you in the battle.

BROKEN CISTERNS

There are others who have shrunk back and resorted to man's best wisdom in this time. They have become like broken cisterns. They are sometimes like those in Jeremiah 2:13, "They have forsaken me, the spring of living water. They have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water."

The water in these cisterns is not free-flowing like the springs. The cisterns are a holding place for that which has already been poured out. In Bible times the cisterns were a useful means of collecting rainwater, but that water was never meant to be saved for a long time. It must be used quickly, or it will stagnate. This collected water won't sustain or satisfy for very long. The life and grace may have once been there, but it will quickly evaporate along with the sustenance. In a similar way, the old systems or methods we have relied upon are going to begin to stagnate as God is doing a new thing. We cannot continue to hold onto the old and at the same time embrace the new thing God is doing.

NEW PROVISION FOR NEW ASSIGNMENTS

In Joshua 4, the Israelites had crossed the Jordan River taking their first steps toward the Promised Land. After all the men were circumcised, they celebrated Passover together on the plains of Jericho. The very next day they ate some of the produce of the land. The manna that had sustained them for years on their wandering journey stopped the day after they ate this food from the land. God was essentially saying to them that the provision that had sustained them in the past would no longer be adequate to sustain them in the new land. God had new provision for their new assignment.

We are in a similar situation as we have stepped into a new era with God. The things that may have sustained us in the former seasons will not always suffice for the new things God is wanting to do in and through us. We need Divine upgrades in the sustenance we receive from Him. Even as the Israelites wandered in the wilderness, they found that the manna must be harvested new every day. It would literally rot if they tried to save it for another day. Manna is often used as a picture of revelation or the word of God to us. I hear God underlining in this season that we must rely on His words to us, that intimate communication that highlights to us that we are His unique and beloved sons and daughters. Jesus Himself emphasized in Matt. 4:4, "Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God."

The above verse has been mentioned to me again and again by the Spirit of God in this season. We must be TOTALLY RELIANT AND ABANDONED to His voice and His voice alone.

"Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it." Rev. 2:17

God is rewarding those who diligently seek Him and wait upon His word. He has riches and hidden revelation to be discovered and feasted upon. Intimate encounters and upgrades in identity and intimacy are available for those who press in to overcome. Your faith will be richly rewarded!

SPRINGS OF LIVING WATER

Jesus talked in John 4:13-14 about a water that would allow us to never thirst again:

"Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

Jesus was talking with the Samaritan woman at a well. He met her in the heat of the day when thirst would have been foremost in her thinking. And yet, He offered her something that promised to satisfy in a way that she had never experienced.

God is having conversations at His well of Living Water with many right now. He is coming for the thirsty right now and He is offering the drink of Himself that truly satisfies. This water is obtained by FAITH. This water defies natural laws and cannot be tamed or contained. This water comes on His terms and not ours.

After the Samaritan woman's encounter with the LIVING WATER , she actually left her water jar and ran to tell those in her village about the ONE who she had met. She forgot her natural thirst because she had found something that truly fulfilled her deepest longings.

The modern day Church has to become a free-flowing conduit of the Living Water to be effective in releasing the Kingdom of God to the world around us. For too long, the Church has often been like a cistern that holds onto the water instead of a conduit for the Spring of Living Water. We've tried to duplicate the water, package it, and even market it, failing to realize the supernatural quality of this water that would increase and multiply exponentially only as it is given away.

PRAYER OF REPENTANCE:

Father, we repent of sometimes being a people who have dug our own cisterns instead of being conduits of your Springs of Living Water. Open our eyes to see the supernatural quality of the Living Water that you said would flow from within us. (Jn. 7:38) Forgive us for creating methods and systems that act as counterfeits, not allowing us to experience the intimate partaking of your hidden manna and daily sustenance. Fill us to overflowing, Father, with your refreshing Springs of Living Water.