Genesis 26:1-2 Now there was a famine in the land, besides the former famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Gerar to Abimelech king of the Philistines. And the LORD appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; dwell in the land of which I shall tell you.
Genesis 26:12 And Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in the same year a hundredfold. The LORD blessed him, Gen 26:13 and the man became rich, and gained more and more until he became very wealthy.
Genesis 26:19 But when Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and found there a well of spring water,
As we’ve been speaking a word of revival across the United States, a primary purpose is to re-dig the wells for a great harvest in the midst of such darkness. While many would say “there is no revival coming”, we simply refer to Matthew 13:24-30 which describes a two-fold harvest. First, the WHEAT is ripening for harvest, while second, TARES are growing up along with it.
Even as we see evil and chaos and spiritual darkness rising up, God is also preparing the greatest harvest the world has ever seen as the end of this age draws near; and this is verified by simple mathematics. In the late 1800s the population of the world finally reached one billion people. By the 1930s, a second billion was added. As the multiplication became exponential in the 20th century, up to today, we are now nearly eight billion people in the world. And a remnant, or fraction of eight billion who will come to faith, will eclipse every remnant of every single generation before us! It’s simple math.
So our first meeting on this journey was in Florida, which was discovered on Palm Sunday, March 20, 1513, by Ponce DeLeon and so named by the explorer to commemorate the triumphal entry of the Lord. (Pasqua Florida, or “Flowering Easter”). So, it was a fitting place to begin re-digging the spiritual wells of the nation, which despite what revisionist historians suggest, was established to spread the gospel and to be a “city on a hill.”
The spiritual foundations of America, in their various locations throughout the colonies established by faithful pioneering Christians, over the years have been eroded, and their “wells” have been stopped up … and blocked. Part of our assignment for this season is simply to re-dig the wells.
In Issac’s time, a famine in the land became so severe that he considered going to Egypt. But the Lord intervened and said to him, “Stay here in the midst of the famine, and believe my Word,” … and when he did so, Isaac was blessed 100-fold in the midst of a famine.
According to God’s word, we’re expecting to see Him move powerfully as His glory rises up even in the darkness.
Isaiah 60:1-3 Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the LORD will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you. And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.
The glory of the Lord will shine, through our faith, our repentance, our obedience; and re-digging our own wells, each individually, allowing God to search us and know us, removing the obstacles in our lives that prevent the wellsprings of living water to flow, the harvest will be great!
Be blessed today, you’re alive for a purpose … to be part of the greatest harvest the world has ever known. In the midst of manifold troubles and problems, be part of the solution. Millions are now perplexed, afflicted, and terrified, and their only comfort, their most needed provision is to drink from the wells of salvation. Dig with us, in prayer and every spiritual work, for the sake of this massive generation. Our God will have a HARVEST!
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[worthy_plugins_devotion_single_body]When I was in school, it seemed they ran a “fire drill” at least once a year. A long, loud, kind of scary bell would sound and we knew it was either a real fire, or, more likely, just another drill. We were formed into lines, ushered down the halls, and out the doors we went. Of course, the point was practice….so we would be prepared for a real fire.
The children of Israel are facing yet another test, this one, even more severe than hunger– dehydration – which, unabated, quickly leads to a miserable death. Yet, now, every day they are also seeing the miracles of God, who is feeding them regularly with manna, and surrounding them by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. Once again, they fail the test, even in the midst of their daily witness of miracles. So even though the test is more severe, the evidence for trust is that much greater.
Is there something about miracles that makes them forgettable? Or is the problem with us? After journeying for a season the children of Israel were faced with hunger — another test. This time, naturally faced with starvation, they murmured against the Lord, AGAIN! You’d think they might begin to put it together that God truly wanted them to trust Him. Apparently not yet. The dire circumstances attacked their mass cerebral cortex (memory) and once again they went into attack mode, bitterly complaining in unbelief. The Ten Plagues, the pillar of fire, the Red Sea walk, the Egyptian chariot soup, none of these connected to the present hunger pangs. Nature trumped super-nature, and sadly, God Himself.
The Apostle Paul’s discourse in 1 Corinthians 10 recalls the great miracles God performed for the children of Israel during the time of the Exodus. Delivered from Egypt and Pharaoh’s slavery, they were dismayed to discover his maniacal rage pursuing them anew, driving them into a deadly corner and imminent destruction. Humanly speaking, their terror and panic was understandable. With their eyes they could only see the wrath of Egypt succeeding at last to utterly destroy them. In that state of mind, how might they have remembered the consecutive miracles God had wrought against Egypt which had brought them to this very place?
When Ruth pledged her alligence to Naomi and to the God of Israel, it wasn’t based on, “What ifs?” or circumstances. It was a faith rooted in her devotion to Naomi and God even to the point of death!
This season of the Resurrection also occurs during a significant Old Testament feast day, the feast of “Firstfruits” (Hebrew, “bikoreem”). When Yeshua (Jesus) rose from the dead he was the firstfruit of the resurrection. On that day the keys of Hell and Death were obtained by our Lord. The apostle Paul connected the resurrection with the feast of Firstfruits in his letter to the congregation at Corinith. “But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.”
There is a long standing tradition of cleaning one’s house in the springtime – hence the term “spring cleaning”. One source for this tradition is certainly the Jewish Passover (Pesach). Each spring as the holiday approaches observant householders in Israel and around the world perform a meticulous cleaning of their homes, especially to be sure there is no leaven in the house before Pesach begins. Leaven, in scripture, is often a metaphor for sin and impurity; and this season of the year is often a time for emphasizing “spiritual housecleaning”.