Open the wells!

January 2007: In prayer I was taken down a stair well. After a few twists and turns going down the stairs I started to hear thundering water – it was almost deafening – I stood at the bottom of the stair well and the waters started to rise very slowly around my ankles. Even now - the Father keeps pointing me to the wells of salvation; wells and underground streams that have been buired, closed up and/or diverted for years - http://deepuntodeep-joy.blogspot.co.uk/2010/04/release-of-love.html ( the Father showed me a while back how old spiritual caves/catabombs have been carved by prayer and worship - under each catacomb (well)? was a subterranean cavern of water waiting to be released.)

So how then do we work with the Father to get these wells open again?

My thoughts are taken back to Hezekiah (2 Chronicles 29 to 31). The results of Hezekiah’s plan to return a nation to worship are as relevant today as they were then and what I love about Hezekiah's journey is that as they rolled out the plan they got things wrong, it was messy and out of time with the established religeous calendar. Now - like then, God responds to the intent of our hearts. As they muddled their way through the plan to get the temple open and establish worship the result was that healing was released to the people and  blessings poured down upon them to such an extent that the entire community benefited from the return to worship. (verse 18 in chapter 31)  Everyone was included.

Some thoughts on Hezekiah's journey that apply today:

1. Open up the temple of God: open our hearts, minds and churches to what God is doing and going to do for believers; as Hezekiah did - literally open the doors and take off the dust covers!
2. Cleansing – chuck out anything that is not needed or things that hinder us living a life focussed on the awesomeness of God – I get the sense that we have to ‘wash the world’ off us - daily!
3. Consecration – accepting that the blood of Jesus has made us a royal priesthood and committing all we have back to God for His use – allowing Him into our lives in a new, sanctified way. What springs to mind is God's holiness and perhaps we need a new understanding of respect.
4. Sacrifice – ties in with consecration – giving to God all that we are and have with a key element of detaching ourselves (heart and mind) from the self centered and self absorbed world we live in - dying to self.
5. Worship – getting back to a lifestyle of worship that includes gratitude, reading scripture, prayer, tithe  - to start to acknowledge His sovereignty and His greatness in everything.  To see Him, not just as our Father – but to look upon Him in AWE and WONDER as creator of the heavens, heavenly hosts - our healer and sanctifier.

The verses that jump out at me are 18 to 20 in chapter 30:  What comes to mind is that even though things were not done according to the ‘law’ – God found it acceptable and healed the people – this speaks to me of Gods abounding GRACE - chosing a lifestyle of worship can, at first seem like hard work - but it is so very worth it.

Apart from the grace of God upon the people – the celebration extended into extra time and became more than was expected.

OTHER RELATED POSTS

• Call to worship (Jubilee Bells)
• Heritage of the wells