“Artesian Well” Vs. “Latter Rains”
The other day I “googled” to see if what church conferences, revival meetings, spirit-led group meetings, etc. were being offered this summer. To my dismay, hardly any could be found. I found large churches offering conferences, revival meetings, spirit led meetings, etc., but the day of the outdoor Camp Meetings of the 19th & early 20th centuries, the free lanced Pentecostal Movement birthed at Azusa St. in California, the prayer meetings of the mid 20th century, and the outdoor Jesus Rallies of the 1970’s, as well as all the renewal conferences from the Charismatic Movement of the mid to late 20th century are history. I remember, my late brother in the Lord, Harry Rutt, who was so active in the Mennonite Renewal, realized that the era of the Charismatic movement had passed after so much of his life had been immersed in it. It was difficult for him to fathom, accept, or recover from. God, no longer in a box (look at my last blog), always moves according to His Will, His Way, to His People in their generation! Harry was realizing God was now moving in a different way, but unsure of what that way was.
So I began to ask the Holy Sprit, “How are you moving in the 21st Century? I have been watching, waiting, contemplating God’s movement to the generations younger than myself, so how is He going to move? If you seek the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit for revelation, he WILL reveal Himself to you! Only recently I have begun to see the picture.
We have experienced the birth of Pentecostalism at Azusa St. at the beginning of the 20th century, saw a greater out pouring through the Latter Rains and Charismatic movements in the later parts of the 20th century, and now in the 21st century we are about to experience the “artesian well” phenomena. With the Latter Rains and Charismatic movement, believers expected God to “fall down” on them from above, to see the “heavens open” and experience a “latter rain” of the Holy Spirit to water the Church with Living Water. I see the Holy Spirit working his revival spirit through revelation as an “artesian well” in this century.
I see where revival will come from his everyday, common believers in Jesus Christ, who will allow the Holy Spirit to arise with in them (according to scripture, our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit) as an “artesian well”, overflowing on to a parched and dry culture “thirsting” for the same Living Water Jesus offered the Woman at the Well! When Jesus met the Samaritan Women at the Well, he really did not want her to dig deep into that well to give him regular water, but wanted her to dig deep into herself to expose what was down there. Deep down inside exposed her earlier rough life, going through five husbands and had given up on marriage only to shack it up with a man who was not her husband. Jesus prophetically reveals that deep truth to her, convincing her that she had just been exposed through his prophetic spirit! She accepts him not only as a prophet, but accepts this “Living Water” that he offers and immediately gets a “revelation” of who he is as he exposes Himself to her, the Messiah of the world. He has not yet reveal this truth to his disciples, nor to any other fellow Jew, but to a Samaritan women who just received the spirit of Jesus Christ, Living Water, to reveal the deep dark secrets of her life, then replace it with this Living Water. Immediately her newly birthed “artesian well” of faith rises, overflows as she allows it to flow among her people in her town who invite Jesus to say for an additional two days to experience this “Living Water” themselves, not on her testimony, but allowing Jesus to reveal himself to each of them, so they personally experience him as truth!
I contend that this generation need not to be “slain in the spirit”, falling down under the power of God, nor pray for the heavens to open producing “Latter Rain” of Living Water, to fall on them, but just needs to allow the “Living Water” that is within them, the Holy Spirit, to first expose those deep hidden areas of their lives, then be touched by Jesus, and finally allow His Spirit to arise with in them, allow His Spirit to overflow on others producing revival.
There will be no fanfare, now extravagant show as often was the case in the Charismatic Movement, but will be a slow watering to a parched ground in our culture. That parched ground will become wet. Revivals always look messy, and this revival may just look just as messy as it will look like a patch of mud at first, but deep with in that mud are seeds that have been sown by the Church for years, decades, centuries, and they will then too arise, producing fruit! Revival is only good if it provides fruit. Past revivals have brought division, but this revival will be different, for it will not only produce the fruit of the spirit, but bring unity. Like an “artesian well” it will arise quietly, but effectively.