Digging Again the Wells of Living Waters
Artesian well near Solon Springs, Wisconsin.
When we travel to countries like India or Nepal, we often run into people who accept never heard a clear presentation of the Gospel. I dearest that ministry—reaching into the hearts and minds of the unsaved with the glorious Gospel of Christ.
When it comes to ministering in the U.s.a. or the United Kingdom, the mission is slightly different. It is nigh re-awakening the conscience of a people whose hearts take grown hardened towards the bulletin of the Savior'southward dearest. However, the tools of ministry wherever we become are much the aforementioned—the Gospel message of the cross and resurrection and the power of the Holy Spirit. In order to run across modify anywhere, there must exist conviction of sin, repentance, and a release of the grace of God.
There have been smashing moves of God in the US and Europe, and I believe we will see them again. But for this to happen, we must cooperate with the Holy Spirit in our preaching, in our praying, and in the fashion we live. We demand revival—but revival only comes as nosotros yield ourselves to the Lord and build upon the foundations which are laid out for u.s.a. in the Give-and-take of God.
Every great motion of God in the past brought a restoration of truth. They brought along a reality to eyes which had been blinded by the god of this world. When men and women have sought the Lord with all their hearts, they have establish Him. Today is no unlike. We tin can find the Lord and receive a restoration of truth and an invasion of His presence that will inundation the state with His celebrity.
An Old Testament story illustrates this point:
"And Isaac digged again the wells of water, which they had digged in the days of Abraham his father; for the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham: and he called their names after the names by which his father had called them." Genesis 26:eighteen, KJV.
Issac re-dug the wells that his male parent had dug. These were wells that were needed to sustain life and to prosper the flocks. But the Philistines had filled them in and the water no longer flowed. As well today, the Philistines of compromise, false worship, imitation doctrine, pride, selfishness, religious tradition and humanistic thinking have plugged upwardly the wells. Equally the Scripture says, "… and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the LORD, nor even so the works which he had done for Israel." Judges ii:10, KJV.
There are people living on the earth today who have never seen a move of God. They reside in nations which were once shaken past the power of God, but today all they run across is an empty shell of religion. There must come some other great enkindling—non piddling pockets of revival—merely a sweeping move of the high tide of God in the land. We need to re-dig the wells of revival, so that the life of God may one time once more flow like rivers of living h2o.
Issac chosen the names of the wells after the names his father had called them. Here's some wells which our spiritual fathers dug which are of vital importance today:
1. The Authority of the Bible
"All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for didactics in righteousness:" ii Timothy 3:sixteen, KJV.
This actually is the foundation of everything that God is doing on the earth. It also is Satan's chief target. He is always is trying to undermine God's Give-and-take, both in society and in our individual lives. His diabolical words to Eve in the garden all the same resound in the earth today, "Hath God said?"
John Wycliffe (1320-1384) of England came to regard the scriptures as the only reliable guide to the truth about God, and maintained that all Christians should rely on the Bible rather than on the teachings of popes and clerics. He and his associates translated the Bible into the mutual vernacular and the move he started is regarded as the forerunner of the reformation. Wycliffe died of natural causes, but after his death he was declared a heretic. His corpse was exhumed and burned and the ashes were thrown into the River Swift in England.
ii. Justification by Organized religion
"Therefore being justified by religion, we take peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:" Romans 5:1, KJV.
This is the doctrine that inverse the globe—that God declares a sinner righteous through grace and by faith in Jesus Christ. In that location are others that preached justification by faith before him, only the Protestant Reformation is counted from the time that Martin Luther (1483-1586) nailed his 95 thesis on the door of All Saints Church in Wittenburg, Germany 500 years ago.
3. The Call to Holiness
"Just equally he which hath chosen you lot is holy, and then be ye holy in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, Exist ye holy; for I am holy." 1 Peter ane:15, xvi, KJV.
For all that is great about the doctrine of justification by faith, for some it became a license to sin, the idea being, that since God forgives all I have done wrong or will always do wrong, I can live to please my flesh, and still take a free ticket to sky. The ministry building of John Wesley (1703-1791) and others brought some much needed correction and residuum in this area, calling men and women to a life of full consecration to God.
four. Evangelism
"And he said unto them, Go ye into all the globe, and preach the gospel to every creature." Marker 16:15, KJV.
With the telephone call to righteousness by faith and consecration to God, a fire for evangelism began to be ignited in Jesus' Church. George Whitefield (1714-1770) of Gloucester, England, a contemporary of Wesley, adopted the method of open up-air evangelism. With a booming vocalisation and no amplification, he would trumpet the message of "Ye Must Be Built-in Again," and call men and women to repentance. 30,000 people came to faith in Jesus in colonial America through his preaching. Although he was a believer in predestination, his zeal for souls seemed otherwise, and he left of keen legacy for soul winners of every historic period to follow.
v. Earth Missions
"And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the stop come." Matthew 24:14, KJV.
Even though the Gospel fires burned brightly in Britain and America through the likes of Wesley and Whitefield, very lilliputian was being done to reach the untold masses in Africa and Asia. 1 minister was reported to say, "When God pleases to convert the heathen, he volition do it without your aid and mine." Of course, such an attitude is totally unscriptural, equally was pointed out past William Carey (1761-1834) in His sermon to Baptist ministers at Nottingham, England in 1792. His message shook the Church from self-approbation and marks the outset of the modern missionary movement, which has literally inverse the face of Christianity throughout the world.
six. The Baptism of the Holy Spirit
"Simply ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." Acts 1:8, KJV.
This well was re-dug in the early 1900s. We encounter the baptism (immersion) of the Holy Spirit greatly emphasized in the Welsh Revival (1904-1905), through the ministry of Charles Parham beginning in 1901, and perhaps virtually prominently in the Azuza Street Revival in Los Angeles, California get-go in 1906. This movement has fueled the fires of revival and given much-needed power to believers around the world who have truly been powerful witnesses for Jesus. We must accept the ability of God to reach this generation.
7. Divine Healing
"And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the give-and-take with signs following. Amen." Mark 16:20, KJV.
This is a well that has flowed throughout the history of Christianity, but with particular prominence after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit through the ministry of people like Smith Wigglesworth (1859-1947), Oral Roberts and others during the healing revival in the late 40s and 50s, and later through Kathryn Kulhman.
I believe it all. I believe the whole Give-and-take of God. I believe we can accept what the early Church building had … what the revivalists and reformers had … and more. But we volition demand to fence for it, even as nosotros exhorted to "…earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints." (Jude one:3) We volition need to re-dig these wells and go on them open … in our churches and in our ain personal lives.
The men and women of these by moves of God paid a price to reopen these wells, just as Jesus Himself paid a great price to open all the benefits of the divine life to us. Every bit we live in the light of God's Give-and-take, we besides volition see revivals similar the days of old, and multitudes flooding into the Kingdom of God.
Let's get digging and flowing in the fresh waters which God provides as we stay true to His unchangeable Word. Amen.
Source: https://shanklinministries.org/seven-wells-revival/
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