Isaiah 58:11 And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.
One of the great marvels of the Roman Empire was the invention of the aqueduct system to provide water over vast distances. It was an absolutely ingenious method which made use of gravity, with stone arches to support the water channels. An aqueduct was built in 109 AD which carried water to the city of Segovia for eighteen hundred years. For nearly sixty generations this aqueduct provided cool water from the mountains above. But fairly recently, it was beginning to collapse.
A well-intentioned citizen, observing the ancient structure, remarked, “This aqueduct is so great a marvel that it ought to be preserved for our children, as a museum piece. We shall relieve it of its centuries-long labor.” So the city decided to construct a modern water system with iron pipes to carry the water, intending to give the aqueduct a long-deserved rest. What they failed to realize, of course, was that attempting to preserve the aqueduct by stopping the flow of water through it, assured its rapid disintegration! As the sun beat down on the now dry mortar and stone, the centuries old structure quickly began to fall apart. Amazingly, nearly two millenia of service would not accomplish the destructive work of less than a century of idleness!
This story ought to really encourage us in Kingdom work…since, continuing to allow Yeshua’s living water to flow through us, we are constantly renewed and preserved, rather than drying up with idleness and atrophy. So…with so much work to be done, let us do it with the life-giving stream: the ever-renewing vitality of Yeshua’s living water!
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[worthy_plugins_devotion_single_body]Make no mistake—the spirit of antisemitism is very much alive today. Yet this isn’t a new struggle. It is an ancient spiritual war that has been ongoing for thousands of years. As people worldwide celebrate Purim, recalling the Jewish people’s deliverance from Haman’s evil schemes that took place in the ancient Kingdom of Persia (Iran), we are reminded of a deeper reality: a spiritual conflict between heavenly powers and demonic principalities.
The Festival of Purim, which we celebrate on the 14th of Adar—the last month in the Biblical calendar—begins this Thursday evening and continues through Friday evening this year. Although Purim isn’t one of the moedim, or appointed festivals named in the Torah, it arose in the 4th century BC and has been cherished ever since.
In the Book of Kings, when King Solomon began his reign, God asked him, “What shall I give you?” He replied, “I am a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in” (1 Kings 3:7). Such a phrase seems curious, yet it holds deep significance. It is echoed throughout Scripture, revealing a principle that intimacy with God leads to victory!
When Yeshua (Jesus) went into the synagogue in Nazareth and was handed the scroll of Isaiah to read [Luke 4:18], He opened it to the passage we know of as Isaiah 61, a powerful Messianic proclamation filled with hope and promise and fresh with the joyful good news of His arrival. After reading the passage He immediately declared that it was fulfilled in the hearing of those present. The first response was amazement and wonder that the carpenter’s son was so gracious a communicator. But this did not last, as Yeshua immediately challenged his audience with a prophetic expectation…that they would reject Him, which they immediately did…nevertheless…
F.B. Meyer once said, “The education of our faith is incomplete [till] we learn that God’s providence works through loss…that there’s a ministry to us through the failure and fading of things. The dwindling brook where Elijah sat is a picture of our lives.
Most people reading this passage tend to focus in on the fruit that is produced. Okay…But a closer look will reveal that the Lord is really focusing on the tree. The fruit merely demonstrates the quality of the tree. We have all encountered this: there are trees whose fruit is healthy and delicious, and there are trees whose fruit is scarcely edible, or even useless.
One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on in every person. He said, “My son, the battle is between two ‘wolves’. One is evil — it is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego. The other is good…