Faith is an action! If you and I want to continually hear from the Lord, we will have to do something about what we have heard in the Spirit. Even so, when we hear the Lord speak to us through dreams and visions, we must learn to cooperate with the Holy Spirit to learn from them and see them come true. This is what I experienced last night as he prayed about re-digging our ancestors’ wells.
Hebrews 11:6
6 But without faith it is impossible to please him; because it is necessary that he who approaches God believes that he exists, and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.
As I began to pray very slowly and purposefully in the Spirit. I began to see myself digging a well that had been plugged.
Genesis 26:15, 18
15 For all the wells that his father’s servants had dug in the days of his father Abraham, the Philistines had stopped up and filled with earth.
18 And Isaac again dug the wells of water which they had dug in the days of Abraham his father; because the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham; and he called his names after the names his father had called them.
I tell you this: I never imagined what I was about to discover when I began in the Spirit to re-dig the wells of our ancestors. When the Lord gives us a task, we rarely realize how difficult, daunting, and disappointing it will be. Every journey the Lord sends us on will be a journey of self-discovery with an emphasis on discovering the “me” in all of us and I mean no in a good way. For example, when the Lord told Abraham to go to the land He had prepared for him, Abraham found many disappointing things about himself and those traveling with him. Didn’t he fail her wife and lie about her relationship with her? He was not instructed to leave his family and go to the land that the Lord indicated to him? Instead, he took his niece Lot with him and it turned out that there were many struggles and problems as a result of not fully obeying the Lord. Once again, when the Lord shows us something or assigns us to do something, we usually see the beautiful end of that assignment, but rarely do we understand everything that will happen in the process. Didn’t he just say to Moses: “He takes the children of Israel to the Promised Land”? Moses had no idea of the rebellion, complaints, and criticism that he would experience on this journey. He never imagined that he would lose his temper and hit the rock that represented the Lord Jesus Christ and be barred from entering the Promised Land.
Even so, hearing the Lord say, “If you dig the spiritual wells of your ancestors again, you will release their power, anointing, and reforms on the earth.” We immediately got excited and threw ourselves headlong into the task. In fact, that is what we should be doing and are doing. However, if we stopped to think about what these pits have been filled with, we would probably start this task with a little more caution and care.
Let me ask you this: “If you were the devil and you wanted the great power of past generations to stop and never flow again, what would you use to bury that passion, vision, anointing, and gifts?” Well, whatever you called it, that’s what you and I will find as we seek to re-dig the spirit wells of our ancestors. Yes, and darling, we’ll find so much more than we ever dreamed would be there. So put on your coveralls, your work gloves, grab your shovels and picks, and arm yourself with plenty of air freshener because we’re going to need it all.
Imagine with me now that we are so excited to open up the spiritual wells of those the Lord used to bring reform to the world. We know that, at the bottom of the well, we are entering the life-giving truth that will bring about worldwide revival! How excited we are and look how fervently we want to throw ourselves into the task with all our energy. However, when we enter the pit with our shovels and picks, we are horrified by what we have gotten ourselves into. This pit that has the potential to change the world is filled to the brim with a laden mixture of black stench that has all the deeds of the flesh united with the pride of life. As we plunge our shovel into ourselves, we find the entire mass moving and sticking not only to the shovel but to every part of our body as well. What seemed like a simple and practical approach to re-dig our ancestors’ wells has instantly become an impossible task. We know that the water at the bottom of this well is so valuable that it is worth any price to obtain it. On the other hand, we also know that it will be impossible to get the garbage out of this pit with the tools we have. Oh dear, don’t be discouraged, for it is always the Lord’s way to reveal that the ways of the Spirit are impossible to understand with the natural man.
Have you ever read or heard these words:
Matthew 12:26
26 And if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself; How then shall his kingdom stand?
Do you see what I’m trying to say? The pit is filled with every work of the flesh and is held together with the very root of all sin “pride.” Therefore, the first task is not to re-dig the well, but rather to have carnal thoughts, ideas, and ways purged from our own lives. I have found that usually the first thing that comes up when the Lord shows us something is an emotion that is almost always based on pride. We see ourselves as someone great and someone who will be looked up to by others for what we have accomplished. We imagine how great this work will be and how much we will be able to do “for the Lord.” It seems so spiritual, but at the bottom of it all is the evil of “pride.” I know this is hard for us to swallow. It hurts our pride, doesn’t it?
Take heart my friend, the Lord has always taken what the enemy has done for evil and turned it for good. That is his way and his model. Every work we begin for the Lord will uncover the hidden pride that is hidden in our hearts and must be dealt with first. The truth that, “We cannot cast out pride because of the pride that is living in us,” must come home as an unchangeable law before all else.
Zechariah 4:6-7
6 Then he answered and spoke to me, saying: This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel, saying: Not with army, nor with strength, but with my spirit, says the Lord of hosts.
7 Who are you, oh great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become a plain: and he will take out the cornerstone of it with acclamations, crying: Grace, grace to her.
You see, the very fact that we become discouraged, disillusioned, and defeated is evidence that the carnal man and his companion, “pride,” are living very strongly in our hearts. It is further proof that we are focusing on our abilities, skills and gifts instead of the power of the Holy Spirit. We need to see discouragement and disappointment differently. We need to thank the Lord for revealing these emotions and mental attitudes for the wicked pride that they are! Instead, we often feed them self-pity and a false introspection that leads to a kind of paralysis.
When a man is bitten by a poisonous snake, his nerves and tissues are deeply affected. Even so, when “pride” is in our lives, we are on a constant roller coaster of false strength and power, and deadly discouragement and depression. We have been bitten by the deadly viper Satan with the poison of pride from him. In fact, pain is an indication that something is wrong and needs to be addressed. The pain of discouragement and depression are signs of a hidden pride that is doing his deadly work. We should rejoice when the Lord reveals them in our lives.
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