Digging for Revival (continued)
by Gene Easley
When the wells are stopped up, people begin to look to other sources to quench their thirst. Their lives become spiritually desolate. They become despondent and unconcerned about their souls. They become disinterested in the things of God. They begin to forsake the house of God. So, what do we do? We scramble to find quick answers. We look toward new programs. We seek better entertainment. We compromise the Gospel. And the thirsty soul sits there dying without any help.
May God bring us back to our knees! Our futile efforts will only result in failure. Without the water of life, death will surely reign in our midst.
As Isaac redug those wells, he met with strong opposition. It always happens. Nothing in God's kingdom will come without a fight. But without the free flow of His Spirit, our lives will become polluted and stagnate! We must be willing to pay the price.
The prophet Habakkuk called for revival in his day. He cried, "O LORD, revive thy work" (Habakkuk 3:2). There has to be someone who sees how desperate the situation really is, or the church will continue to decay and die a disgraceful death.
A truly thirsty person wants one thing--a drink. Entertainment holds no interest for him. How many are in attendance means nothing. How great the talent displayed is of no value. All he wants is a drink. May God open our eyes so that someone will cry out for a fresh move of God's Spirit!
I cannot wait for others to dig my well for me. I must start digging for myself. Too many Christians, dying of thirst, wonder why someone doesn't do something. If someone would just dig the well, they would gladly drink. But those are not the ones who will see revival. Those who hunger and thirst after righteousness--they are the ones who shall be filled.
It's necessary to dig until all of the rubbish of our religiosity is removed. Dig until self promotion is uprooted and cast aside. Until we aren't thinking about what little group we belong to. But our eyes are focused on the One who redeemed us on the cross, and we just want to draw near to Him.
Jeremiah spoke of the two evils that Israel committed (Jeremiah 2:13). First, they forsook the Lord, the fountain of living waters. Then, they built cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns at that. They stopped the flow of the living water that had given them life and health and joy. Their love for God and His ways began wavering. The enticement of the world brought barricades that kept God out. The church which drinks at the living fountain wants God more than anything else. Man-made cisterns have no appeal to genuine spiritual thirst.
But, obviously, even those who reject the flow of His Spirit will be drinking from some source. They will do all they can to keep their cisterns full, but to no avail. The cisterns are broken, and their souls will remain thirsty.
The enemy has stopped up many wells that once ran over with blessing. Now, only the rubbish of the world remains to be seen. May God help us to recognize the difference between that which the enemy has put in our way and that which God has provided for us in abundance. May we begin again to long for the Living Water! May our thirst become so great that we will prostrate ourselves before God until He meets our needs!
Will we sit by the stopped up wells and allow our souls to die of thirst, or will we begin to dig? How deep we dig will depend on how thirsty we are for the real thing. May we dig until revival comes!
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