The old saying “You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink” is also true of the unwillingness of many people to receive the life-giving message of the Gospel. “With joy we [believers] draw water from the wells of salvation” (Isaiah 12:3) but what’s the point in drawing the water when most people aren’t thirsty?
Maybe that’s why Jesus said, “Let whoever is thirsty come to me and drink” (John 7:37). Mostly it’s those who are dissatisfied with their lives who respond to the invitation—the rest are just not just thirsty enough. But I think this may be about to change.
In ancient times the well was a deep hole in the ground fed by an underground spring. In spiritual terms it’s a believer of some depth who has the supply of the Spirit. Then it was a matter of being thirsty enough to draw water with a rope and a bucket; now it’s a matter of thirsty people drawing the life that’s within believers who are filled with the Spirit.
Warning his disciples of the hostility they would face when witnessing against governors and kings for his name’s sake, Jesus said, “But when they deliver you up, take no thought as to what or how you shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what you shall speak, for it is not you that speak but the Spirit of your Father which speaks in you.” (Matthew 10:20) This indicates that the apostles had only to open their mouths—the Spirit of their heavenly Father would do the rest. Mark records Jesus as saying much the same.
“But when they shall lead you, and deliver you up, take no thought beforehand what you shall speak, neither premeditate, but speak whatever shall be given you in that hour: for it is not you that speak, but the Holy Spirit.” (Mark 13:11)
Luke puts it this way: “And when they bring you into the synagogues, and magistrates, and authorities, take no thought how or what thing you shall answer, or what you shall say. For the Holy Spirit shall teach you in the same hour what you ought to say.” (Luke 12:11-12) Luke 21:15 says pretty much the same: “For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your opponents shall not be able to speak against or resist.”
The apostles’ testimony would be effective because of their reliance on the indwelling Spirit of God rather than on their own wisdom or eloquence. They would do the speaking, but their words would be inspired by the Spirit. Their audience would not be receptive congregations of Spirit-filled Christians but angry gatherings of religious leaders bent on stamping out the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
There would be no difficulty in drawing crowds—the difficulty would be in surviving the angry crowds they drew. My point, though, is that it would be the Spirit of God within the apostles that would supply answers to the questions asked by hostile authorities. The Spirit would draw the water of life from Spirit-filled believers.
It would not only be angry questions that would draw on the Spirit within them, but also the physical needs of very desperate people. The woman who touched the hem of Christ’s garment iset a point of contact for the release of her faith by saying, “If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole.” (Matthew 9:21) Her touch of faith drew the power of the Spirit from Jesus, who had no forewarning of her act or knowledge of who she was. He asked, “Who touched me?” His disciples, who were caught with him in the crush of the crowd, answered,
“Master, the crowd throngs you and presses you—and you ask, ‘Who touched me?’” Jesus said, “Somebody has touched me, for I perceive that power has gone out of me.” That power went into the woman, who “felt in her body that she was healed”. (Mark 5:25-34)
Something like that can happen in the crush of a crowd almost anywhere in the Developing World, where desperate people with no access to money or medicine press in with urgency and desperation.
What will it take for this to happen in the Western World? I think it may already have begun. The collapse of trusted financial institutions and the multi-billion-dollar bail-outs of manufacturers might be just the beginning. No sane person wants another Great Depression, but if one does come, a frantic world will not know where to turn. If desperate people can no longer draw from banks and other institutions—where will they draw from?
They will draw from wells of salvation that never run dry. From Christians in whom is an endless supply of the Spirit of God. The twelve wells of Elim supplied water to seventy palm trees (which symbolized the twelve tribes of Israel and the seventy nations of the earth listed in Genesis, chapter 11). If the apostles were wells of life from which answers to any question could be drawn—are not we also? Is not the Spirit of Christ in us an endless supply of healing miracles?
Not all Christians have gifts of healing, but all can lay hands on the sick and see them recover. (Mark 16:18) We need no expect no more feeling in regard to healing than did those who stood before magistrates and kings and trusted the Spirit of God to put words in their mouths their antagonists were unable to resist. (Acts 6:10)
We are the wells, and the Spirit of God is the water that springs up from within us and flows out from us. (John 4:34 & 7:37) Those who are desperate for forgiveness and healing will soon throng our churches and press in on us as for answers they cannot find anywhere else!
The question is not whether we’re ready for this—we could no more be ready for the move that’s coming than we were for the recent deluge that flooded our state, filling the dams, and ending the drought. The question is whether we believe that each and every one of us is a well—not only of witness but also of power—that the needy can draw from—one that is constantly replenished.
We need to stop thinking about what we will say or do when the time comes. If you think about it, you’ll miss it. The reason Jesus could walk on water is that it never occurred to him that he couldn’t. Christ in you is the answer to everything!