Save The Wells

For thousands of Malian women in the northern city of Gao, the day starts in the middle of the night. Women tie on veils, grab jerry cans and walk through the sandy streets in hopes of getting a good spot in line.

they are not waiting for a black friday sale…

tickets to a show…

a vaccination at her local clinic…

to see a doctor…

she is in line waiting for water… Just ask Aminata. She got to the well at dawn, but a long line had already formed. Some women had been waiting since 3 a.m.

Aminata waited. And waited.

The sun came up.

The heat started in.

Soon, women who had arrived before her swished by, balancing the day’s water on their heads.

After five hours of inching forward, she got to the well.

But it was too late. All that was left were the dregs, a grainy, tea-colored slurry. With the well dry, Aminata had two choices:

Rely on the Niger River for water, a chocolate-brown, slow-moving broth that slithers by the edge of town.

Or wait for the slow seep of water back into the well.

Genesis 26:18 (KJV)

18 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.

PRAYER

the trouble with old wells is that we think that the way it provides is the way it has always provided.

We were not there when our forefathers dug the well, we didn't see how full and powerful it was in its prime.

We have grown up spiritually beside a diminished flow. We have made the assumption that this is the normal rate of things.

Jesus has stirred me this week and has reminded me, some of us are depending on wells that have been filled in by the enemy.

Others have been filled in by life…

While there are still some that have been filled in by this world…

I've come today to remind us, Isaac came to the wells of his father and made a simple statement,”THIS WILL NOT DO!”

He looked around and saw the contamination…

He recognized the handiwork of the enemy…

He knew that there was more water there than he was seeing…

The enemy is cunning, He understands humanity, he has been dealing with us for thousands of years.

He knows we are self centered and selfish.

He knows that if the water is totally cut off, we would re-dig the well with out hesitating.

So he will leave it just operational enough that we can find enough water for us, but there is no room or substance for anyone else…

So we sit by a seeping well, it produces just enough that that gets us from sunday to sunday.

We took everything it had las Sunday, when we left it was dry…

Wednesday night we come and inspect a muddy we… (who’s preaching? what songs are they doing?)

Then we return the next Sunday to find there just enough refreshment has seeped in to satisfy our soul…

but not enough to revive another… and we pray “JESUS SAVE THEM!”

Ezekiel 47, the prophet saw a trickle of water flowing from the temple. Im sure he was content to see the provision, But God wanted him to have the full understanding.

As God Gave him the tour, the waters rose around him till it was deep enough to swim in, a river to great to wade across.

I've come to remind you, what you have been experiencing is not all your well will produce…

If your content, God bless you! But I believe there are some here today that is ready to see what Jesus has in available to them.

Some of us have watched as the well produced less and less until we alone can service on it.

We have been praying for Jesus to repair it, we know something isn't like it was in days gone by, but we don’t know what to do, so we sit beside the well like the shepherds at Paddan…

waiting till we have enough help to remove the debris. There were 3 shepherds and Jacob at the well and all the did was talk about moving the stone..

The bible states that it was custom that they would sit by the well and wait till they had enough men arrive that they could move the stone.

But when a certain shepherdess by the name of Rachel arrived, Jacob was so smitten with her that he went to the stone, and by himself moved it to restore the flow of water…

theres a sidebar sermon in that. Jesus is the rock, when we are moved, we can move him!