11.25.24 ~ Clogged Up

Good Morning!

Thanksgiving holiday is just a few days away. Hanukkah is just a month away and 2025 will be here before you know it and with each celebration comes the hope of the best days to come.

This morning I want to encourage you to undo what has been done by retelling an often neglected truth about Isaac and his father's wells that were stopped up with dust/afar from the enemy while connecting it to Jacob's wrestling match and the serpent's diet (was that a runon sentence? :-).

Since the time of mankind expulsion from the garden, the serpent has been feeding on the dust/afar of the earth as his caloric RDA (recommended daily allowance); the same substance man is made from (Gen. 2:7; Gen. 3:14). The Apostle Peter warns us to maintain a sober mind because our adversary, the devil, is AS a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour (1 Pet. 5:8).  

Without the Spirit of God, God's breath moving through us, we are nothing more than dust/afar. But when God breathes His breath/ruach into each of us we become a living soul/nephesh (Gen. 2:7). When we give up our last breath our bodies will return to the dust/afar from where we were formed (Gen. 3:19). Without God's breath working in us we are no more than the 'walking dead', which is compared to a life that has faith, but no works (James 2:26).

Scripture reveals to us that wells are likened to the Word of God, the source of salvation (Num. 21:16-18; Isa. 12:3) and from this well we get the living water that refreshes, cleanses and produces the elements for life to thrive. A well without water is called a pit, which is modern man's doctrine without truth; without the living water (Jer. 2:13; 14:3). A well that is stopped up with dust/afar is a life-giving source that has been hindered by man-made elements without the Spirit of God (Gen. 26:15-32).

What stops up our wells? Man made devices (events, doctrines, social movements, etc.) that are strategically deposited into our lives from the enemy.

What can we do about those clogged up wells? We can do as Isaac did and redig them until there is no contention (Gen. 26:22). But that means we will have to wrestle with the lifeless dust that has infiltrated our lives and shut down our productivity.

When Jacob wrestled with the Angel of the Lord (Gen. 32:24) he struggled during the darkest time of a 24 hour period, all night. Ironically, this wrestling match gives us the picture of two men wrestling in the dirt. It's as the cartoon character Pogo famously said, we have found the enemy and he is us.

We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but we wrestle against spiritual forces and those forces are working overtime to devour our dust particles (Eph. 6:10-12). Jacob’s wrestling encounter is a face-off with who he really is. He is taken back to the very nature of his being, to the way God made him. Jacob is the name he has made for himself, the name he has constructed out of the basic dust of his life. But in his isolation, during the dark night he discovers that his formation of the basic clay from which he came is not sufficient any more.

His wrestling match became a model for our new resolutions. The old dust has to be reformed into a new human being (2 Cor. 5:17; Rom. 12:2). The well has to be dug out so the living water can flow the way it was originally designed.

As we head into the winter months and the close of 2024, we should ask 'has our personal well of salvation become clogged up'? Have we been watering the land with the water deep inside our lives? Have we become lifeless dust particles that are nothing more than food supply for the enemy? Has the water in our well dried up completely and now we are nothing more than a pit? Many questions!

The world system is doing everything it can to fill in your wells! Will this be the year that we say no to the past and yes to redigging the lifeless dust/afar exposing the life giving source? There is a wrestling match waiting for all of us. It will be an individual struggle with God and ourselves. But when the dark night of the soul has been completed, the lifeless dust of our lives will be invigorated again by the living water.

God knows that we are but dust (Gen. 18:27; Psa. 103:14). He will restore the dry land once again (Isa. 35:1-7; 41:17,18; Jer. 31:8,9; Psa. 104:10-13; etc.). In 2025, let's all covenant together to be a part of the prophetic promise!

Shalom

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