Wells of Revival

“Sir, you have nothing to draw the water with, and the well is deep.” John 4:11

Monday night the Holy Spirit invaded our zoom group with a word about this verse and I’m still pondering it in my heart days later. The word was about people being lowered as baskets into the wells of revival – you can watch the recording if you’re interested in hearing more. Then on Tuesday night it surfaced again during prayer before class and I’ve attached the photo of that part of it with this article. But the Lord was and still is speaking about this timely message.

The story of the woman at the well is a favorite for every lady I know who spends time in the Word of God. And I’ve heard many messages preached about her and how Jesus used a word of wisdom to reach an entire gentile town. But something interesting occurred to me when I savored the word this week and then opened my Bible to confirm what I believed the Holy Spirt was pressing upon… which is the truth that one conversation with Jesus has the transformative power to take our statements of unbelief and turn us into the very thing we tell Jesus He cannot do. In those holy dialogues, we become the very thing we’re afraid Jesus might be in our lives. And in those metamorphosis moments, He shows us that He is in us to accomplish wild dreams of His heart that Heaven might become our reality when fear and rejection loses its grip on our lives.

Before Jesus confronts the Samaritan woman about living water, we read that He was on His way out of the Judean countryside, because the Pharisees were after Him about baptizing more people than John the Baptist. This issue of water is a strong undercurrent in the book of John and such a divine display of the Holy Spirit when you let it wash over you. So, He left one place because of baptismal waters and entered another place because of revival waters….and in both places He came to quench the thirst of every heart. When He asks the woman for a drink and she tells Him that there’s nothing for Him to use to draw Himself water from this deep well, she doesn’t realize that the words flowing between them are slowly lowering her into the well before Him. As they go back and forth about His offer of living water, she turns into the vessel He will use to pour out the depths of revelation and worship and testimony. You can almost hear the tension cracking on the rope that carries the bucket into the deep unknown and invisible water below them. And you can’t mistake the sound of freedom that splashes up and out when she declares from the river within that He is the man who told her everything she’s ever done!

I love that Jesus is never going to back down and let go when we speak to Him in fear and unbelief. His compassion and mercy is far too great to allow our limited understanding of who He is to get in the way of what He is trying to do in our lives. So if we can see that we are the vessels He wants to fill with His living water of revival, I pray we respond to this invitation with open and willing hearts. I pray we meet Him beside every uncertainty we face and ask Him to make us the pathway that brings Him the most glory through it. And as the rope begins to lower us, I pray we know well the hands that hold it and we trust the One who can bring revival from hidden places only He can restore and use to bring countless souls into His Kingdom.