MY BEST WELLS
There are so many great people preaching the gospel online and elsewhere, we ask ourselves, “What’s best
for me?” Last week I showed you in the Bible how familiar spirits can connect
us to the wrong people. But today I want to show you how it’s the Holy Spirit
that connects us to the right ones. Genesis 25:11 tells us Isaac was settled near Beer-Lahairoi (“the well of
the Living One who sees me”). He raised his sons there and had a good life, but then “there was a famine in the land”
(Gen. 26:1). And that was the beginning of his next journey.
No matter where we are on
our spiritual journey, we all have felt the famine a time or two. It’s when we
feel we lack something necessary for the
abundant life God promises us in the Bible. We feel we don’t know enough about
healing; we don’t have the skills to deliver people from demons; we don’t have the
loving human relationship we seek. We’ve all been there. When famine hit Isaac, he knew he had to move. He
trusted God. He needed to find a new well for his life. One of the keys to
walking by the Spirit is trusting God, and not automatically going where others
have gone.
When Isaac’s father, Abraham,
was in famine, he went to Egypt, so Isaac would have thought to do the same. But
God specifically told Isaac: “Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I
shall tell thee of” (Gen. 26:2).
We have Holy Spirit in us,
and if we are willing to be led by God’s
spirit, rather than our own will, He will show us where to go physically, like
with Isaac, or in these days, in traversing the highways of the internet.
Isaac had a big need, but
his journey with God was different from Abraham’s. When you listen to different
Bible people on the internet, the Holy Spirit within you will resonate with what
certain people are saying, and not resonate with others. We need to take a look
to test it and catch it as quickly as we can, so we don’t waste time with
preachers and teachers that are not part of our path right now.
God told Isaac to go to where
the Philistines were, in Gerar, which was North, the opposite direction from Egypt,
which was South. He went, and he prospered. “Then Isaac sowed in that land, and
received in the same year an hundredfold:
and the Lord blessed him. And the man waxed great, and went forward, and grew
until he became very great: For he had possession of flocks, and possession of herds and great store of husbandry: and the
Philistines envied him: (Gen. 26:12-14).
Isaac prospered in Gerar,
but now he was in another type of famine. The people around him were not favorably responding to him anymore. It became
time for him to move on. He had a big need for water for all his
responsibilities: the people and animals who relied on him. He tried to dig in
the old wells, but “the Philistines had stopped them, and filled them with
earth” (v.15).
Then Isaac found what he
thought was a great well of water. “And Isaac’s servants dug in the valley
and found there a well of springing water” (v. 19). “Springing water” is “living
water.” Verse 20 says: “And the herdmen of Gerar did strive with Isaac’s herdmen, saying, ‘The water is ours.’” Isaac had to keep moving.
This part of the story is so amazing and pertinent. Isaac
found living water, good water, and others said it was theirs. He called the
well, “Esek,” because there was contention there. It wasn’t for him at this
time. So he kept looking. He dug another well, and again, it wasn’t good for
him. Then he dug another well, and the
Philistines finally let him be. It was good for the time being, but the journey
continued. Eventually, Isaac left the
wells he dug for the Philistines, and he went
East to Beersheba and dug a new well, where he stayed and prospered.
When we feel like we are
in any kind of famine or lack in any matter of life, we need to keep moving until we
find something that truly resonates with our Spirit, something that feels totally right. We check it out with God and test it. Then if it doesn’t really resonate in our heart, and if it’s not
giving us the living water we need, we have to be willing to move on.
One of the great things
about the story of Isaac and the Philistines is that after Isaac moved to his well
in Beersheba, the Philistines came to him.
“And Isaac said unto them,
‘Wherefore come ye to me, seeing ye hate me
and have sent me away from you?’ And they said, ‘We saw certainly that the Lord
was with thee: and we said, Let there be now an oath betwixt us.’” (vv. 27-28). And he [Isaac] made then a feast, and they did eat and drink” (v.
30).
Walking by the spirit of God is a marvelous journey.
Let’s be sensitive to where we are on the journey and sensitive to the urging
to move on if need be. Let’s not criticize others on their journey or doubt our
own. Instead of getting mad at others who aren’t on our same journey, let’s let
God play it out and let’s be willing to feast with all the body of Christ in
the end, (or along the journey, any time we can.)
Love, Carolyn
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