WELLS OF LIVING WATER

WELLS OF LIVING WATER

I’ve been going to the same eye doctor for over twenty years to get my glasses. But since my insurance changed, I needed to venture out and find a new doctor. The familiar places we go to meet our needs remind me of the water wells in the Bible. And the usual place where I got my glasses was a well that just dried up. In Genesis, we learn God’s answer to Isaac when his well dried up, and we can learn much from Isaac’s experience.

 

Genesis 25:11 tells us Isaac 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). That was the beginning of his next journey.

 

When famine hit Isaac, he knew he had to move. He trusted God to lead him to a new well for himself and his family. When his father, Abraham, faced a famine, he went to Egypt, so Isaac thought to do the same. Sometimes in life, we move too fast into following what others have done instead of stopping a minute to find out God’s will for us. God specifically told Isaac: “Go NOT down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of” (Gen. 26:2).

 

Isaac had a significant need, but his journey with God differed from Abraham’s.

 

God told Isaac to go to where the Philistines were, in Gerar, which was North, in the opposite direction from Egypt, which was South. So 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, a social one. The people around him were not favorably responding to him anymore, and spiritually he felt it was time for him to move on. But he knew he would need to find a well with enough continuing water supply to support the people and animals who relied on him. So 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.’”  So Isaac had to keep moving.

 

This part of the story is so unique and pertinent. Isaac found living water, but others said it was theirs. He called the well “Esek,” a word that means “contention.” It just wouldn’t work for him and his entourage to live in a place of strife, so once again, he had to move on. He found a place to dig another well, and again, it wasn’t good for him. Then he dug another well, and the Philistines finally let him be. That well was good for the time being, but the journey continued. Eventually, Isaac left the wells he dug in the land of the Philistines, and he went East to Beersheba and dug a new well, where he stayed and prospered.

 

When we know that a specific well in our lives has dried up, we need to be willing to keep moving until we find something that truly resonates with our Spirit, something that we know is spiritually right for us. We check it out with God and test it. Then if it doesn’t resonate with us, and if it’s not giving us the living water we need, we have to be willing to move on as Isaac did.

 

Since my eye doctor “well” of 25 years dried up, it turned out that my insurance broker, who is also a Christian and a good friend, told me of her eye doctor. So I made an appointment, and an amazing thing happened. The new doctor had some equipment that was more accurate than the old doctor’s equipment. The old doctor told me I was in desperate need of cataract surgery. But with the new equipment of the new doctor, I found out that I didn’t need the surgery at all and all I needed was new glasses! Praise God!

 

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.

 

Jesus told the woman at the well, in John 4:14: “But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” The well of water that we always have in us is the gift of the Holy Spirit, who gives us the ability to communicate with our Lord and follow Him in the paths He sets before us.

 

Love, Carolyn

 

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OUR AUTHORITY AS LOVE WARRIORS

 LOVE SOLDIERS

How powerful are we in striking down strategies, curses, and attacks on God’s people? The Lord gave me a new name for people like us who love His people so much that we are willing to go to battle to protect them. We are LOVE SOLDIERS – strong with true love toward His people and strong in our authority to battle and win against those who would hurt them.

 

When there is a full moon, many Luciferian groups, witches’ covens, and other devilish groups gather together to cast spells, chant curses and utilize astral projection to cause hurt to God’s people. Even though we know God is the one who created the beauty in the earth and skies, the devil counterfeits God’s majesty and uses what is beautiful to inspire events that curse God and those who believe in Him.

 

I learned about the Illuminati, Deep State, and Cabal (they have many names) back in the 70s and just figured they’d always be around. But that doesn’t have to be true. No place in the Bible tells us Satan’s strongholds on the earth are everlasting. The Bible shows us that the opposite is true. What happened in Babel? God destroyed the unity of Nimrod’s Cabal. The Hebrew word used to describe what God did is “puwts” and is translated: “to dash in pieces, literally or figuratively (especially to disperse):—break (dash, shake) in (to) pieces, cast (abroad).”

.

And throughout history, we’ve seen kings and kingdoms rise and fall. Family lines disappear entirely, like the Amalekites in the Old Testament. Egypt, in Old Testament times, was the greatest power on earth. Where is it now? Just because an entity has been around for many years doesn’t mean it can’t fall apart. After all, powerful groups are made up of mortal men who are subject to sicknesses, financial devastations, relationship disasters, and all the other ailments other human beings experience. Even the greatest of devil spirits can’t even keep a person alive forever.

 

God loves everyone and abundantly pardons anyone who repents, but when people purposefully get together to strategize against and curse God’s people, love soldiers need to take action. God gives us a strategy in Genesis 11.

 

Nimrod made himself an enemy of God by organizing a plot to overtake God’s authority.

 

“And the Lord said, ‘Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language, and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.’

 

“So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build [stopped building] the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth” (Gen. 11:5-9). The original Hebrew word for “scatter” is the word “puwts,” which I described above, meaning to dash to pieces, shatter and cast abroad.

 

First, we learn from this passage that there is power in agreement, but that ‘agreement’ can be broken. When people agree, “nothing will be restrained from them.” God confused their language both physically and otherwise. They no longer spoke the same natural language, resulting in the inability to agree on anything. Nimrod’s plan was foiled.

 

In James 3:16, God gives us a truth we can use as a prayer tool to break up the plans of anti-Christ groups or individuals who come against us in our righteous adventures with God. “For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.” We can pray that the spirit of Babel, envy, and strife be rampant in the anti-Christ group or an individual. God says these two spirits bring confusion and every evil work. In Genesis, the group not only had to stop their big plan but were scattered. We also use this word to refer to an individual being “scatter-brained.”

 

Jesus said: “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand” (Matt. 12:25).

 

We see another great Old Testament example of how a group of three kings and their armies came against God’s people and were taken down by strife and division within their group: It’s found in 2 Chronicles 20.

 

“It came to pass after this also, that the children of Moab, and the children of Ammon, and with them other beside the Ammonites, came against Jehoshaphat to battle.

 

“And Judah gathered themselves together, to ask help of the Lord:

 

“And when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab, and mount Seir, which were come against Judah; and they were smitten.

 

“For the children of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of mount Seir, utterly to slay and destroy them: and when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, every one helped to destroy another.

 

“And when Judah came toward the watch tower in the wilderness, they looked unto the multitude, and, behold, they were dead bodies fallen to the earth, and none escaped” (2 Chron. 20:1,4,22-24).

 

There are many other passages we can pray against an enemy of God’s children. Psalm 7:15-16 is among them: “He made a pit, and digged it, and is fallen into the ditch which he made. His mischief shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate [head].”

 

Another couple of passages that David used are in Psalm 69:23 and Psalm 37:14-15:

 

“Let their eyes be darkened, that they see not; and make their loins continually to shake.”

 

“The wicked have drawn out the sword, and have bent their bow, to cast down the poor and needly, and to slay such as be of upright conversation. Their sword shall enter into their own heart, and their bows shall be broken.”

 

I know this stuff is a bit heavy, but love soldiers need to know what to do when the enemies come against the innocents.

 

We never forget that when people turn away from God, He still loves them and wants them to return to Him. That’s why we continue to pray for everyone we can. God’s word to them (and us when we mess up) is: “Repent and live!” (Ez. 18:32). That’s our first prayer and hope for the evildoers. But some will not repent and instead continue their evil deeds, so I give you God’s written weapons to put into your personal arsenal for when you need them.

 

God says of His love warriors: “Thou art my battle axe and weapons of war: for with thee will I break in pieces the nations, and with thee will I destroy kingdoms” (Jer. 51:20). That is, first of all, spiritual kingdoms.

 

Let’s keep love at the forefront of our minds and be ready to go to battle for the body of Christ whenever God says GO.

 

Love, Carolyn

 

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BEING A HERO

BEING A HERO

I have been watching a few horse races lately, and God has been using them to teach me amazing Biblical truths. He urged me to look at an article I wrote in 2018 on the subject. Enjoy 😊

 

The following is a quote from the New York Post on June 9, 2018:

“Jockey Mike Smith and the beautiful horse Justify take the Triple Crown trophy. ’He’s [referring to Justify] sent from heaven,’ an emotional Smith said as he gazed up to those heavens, so humbled and so blessed and giving thanks to his Lord and Savior as he soaked up the love from the New York racing crowd he has forever embraced. The old jockey and the champion horse raced in complete harmony together. ‘He listens to me,’ Smith said. When Smith wanted Justify to relax, he relaxed. When Smith asked him to go, he went. ‘He was perfection today, he really was,’ Smith said. Smith was so at ease he took a nap before the biggest race of his life.” 

 

We can learn many lessons from this remarkable story of a hero jockey and a hero horse. One is that Mike Smith, the jockey, was so confident before the race he could take a nap. He was a true Christian hero. Why? Like every real hero, he’d done the work, pushed himself to go the extra mile, and left the rest to God.

 

Mike Smith, at 52, is the oldest jockey to win the Triple Crown. Age didn’t matter to him. It didn’t matter to Steve Cauthen either, who was only 18 when he won the Triple Crown in 1978. Heroes come in all ages, sizes, sexes, nationalities, and personalities.

 

If we look at the heroes in the Bible: David, Joshua, Caleb, Gideon, Esther, Mary, Timothy, and all the rest—they all have the same characteristics. They did the work and accepted the challenge to go the extra mile for God.

 

David was a great shepherd before he was a giant killer. Gideon was good at caring for his family before becoming a magnificent warrior and saving his family and his people from their enemies. Esther was a humble, obedient wife before she rescued an entire nation. We all have hero genes and capabilities to excel for the Lord.

 

Solomon was the wisest man ever. He put it very succinctly: “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.”

 

There you have it. We only have one chance to do this life, so let’s not be lazy. Let’s get our HERO on! First Corinthians 10:31 gives us excellent instruction: “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” And Matthew 5:41 is also good advice for heroes: “And whoever will compel thee to go one mile, go with him two.” So instead of doing just enough, we can excel at doing the extra, not for the praise of people, but for our God and His son Jesus our Lord.

 

God is always with us; we can excel if we’re willing to give it a little extra effort. The rewards in Heaven are more extraordinary than anything we can ever imagine.

 

One final note on the race yesterday:

 

The horse, Justify, was magnificent. As I watched it run, the stretch and power of his muscles brought tears to my eyes; it was so beautiful.

 

The Lord led me to the following blurb, where the horse’s owner talked about how Justify got his name.

 

“’Single-word monikers are often ‘strong’ and ‘stallion kind of names,’ said Elliott Walden, WinStar’s president and CEO. From his farm, they’re often rooted in Christian terms, too. That intersection resulted in Justify.

Walden said that the name comes from the New Testament book of Romans, which ‘talks about being justified by faith.’” (Horse Racing Nation June 10, 2018).

 

 

Have a hero’s week!

 

Love, Carolyn

 

LIFE LESSONS TO EMPOWER OUR SOULS:

TREAT YOURSELF TO MORE GREAT STORIES

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FOLLOW THE CLUES TO 'THE EYE OF THE BODY'

 FOLLOW THE CLUES TO ‘THE EYE OF THE BODY’

In a mystery movie, the screenwriter cleverly drops clues along the way. But it’s when we watch more of the story we flesh out the clues, and the whole story comes together to make sense—mystery solved.  The Bible is like that. When reading the gospel of Matthew, I found several passages along the way that were like those clues in a movie, and I didn’t fully understand their meaning. When that happens, I go to a Concordance to start to flesh out what God is really saying. A Concordance gives me a fuller definition of the original language before men translated it into English. Here’s an example with Matthew 6:22-24.

 

^22 “The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.

 

²³ But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!

 

²⁴ No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”

 

The first word I looked up was “light” in verse 22. In the original language, it is a portable candle, one that can be lit, or it can go out. The next word I looked at was “eye.” Here it is used metaphorically for ethical qualities.

 

The candle guiding us is our moral or ethical standards guiding our whole body. The “body” consists of our physical body, soul, and spirit. What we do with our body, soul, and spirit is maneuvered by our moral standards.

 

In the second part of verse 22, what does it mean, “if thine eye be single “? The word single is defined as “simple, clear, in which there is nothing complicated or confused; without folds (not double-minded).” Jesus says that if our eyes (ethical qualities) are clear and not cluttered, our “whole body will be full of light.”

 

To be full of light, we need to be sure we’re not contaminating Bible standards with standards from other sources.

 

Granted, a person needs to understand what the Bible actually says and not just blindly believe what we’ve “always” been taught. Asking questions is perfectly okay with our God, and plenty of verses document that.

 

The first part of Matthew 6:23 goes on to say: “But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness.” The word “eye” is, again ethical quality. The word “evil” is “the Evil one,” so this is saying that if a person’s moral conduct is inspired, motivated, or manipulated by the evil one, the intent is “wicked, actively bad, actively causing sorrow or pain.” The person is fully involved in “bringing toil, hardships, annoyances, and trouble.”

 

When a person’s moral codes are deranged, the whole self will be full of darkness. “Full of darkness” is translated from one word that means covered in darkness, like a tent. Things are opaque; vision is blinded. Actions are shady and shadowy. There is “ignorance respecting divine things and human duties.” People whose moral standards begin to deteriorate become prey to the Evil one’s ethics, or lack thereof. They become “persons in whom darkness becomes visible and holds sway.”

 

And the last part of verse 23 says: “If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!” The word “light” in this part of the verse means the light of God. If that gets compromised, the darkness gets “great,” which means great in number, magnitude, and degree.

 

God has the antidote to going to the dark side. In the next verse, Matthew 6:24: “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”

 

The word “hate” doesn’t mean what we think it does. In this verse, it’s a relative preference. It means a person prefers one over another. He or she cares about serving the interests of one rather than the other, for whatever reason. A straightforward analysis would be if a person has two jobs, two bosses, and both want the person to work on the same Saturday. The worker can’t do both, so he or she analyses the pros and cons and picks one.

 

When Jesus says: “He will hold to the one, and despise the other,” it means he’ll “hold fast to, cleave to” one and not really think much of the other. To “despise” means to” think less of, disdain, to look down on.”

 

We can’t be disciples (disciplined ones) of the Lord and get all the benefits of God if we play in the devil’s sandbox. The consequences of yielding to the devil's ways just aren’t worth it.

 

Let’s come to the feet of our merciful God and learn what it means to truly surrender all to Him.

 

Love, Carolyn

 

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