FINDING THE FOUNTAIN
I have spent the last 2 years in a place of dryness, in the fog of not knowing where God is, of not being of His presence.
I finally got to the place of wandering and dryness where I could not hear Him at all.
This was not a call to be in the wilderness, this was getting out of His presence and ending up in the wilderness. There is a big difference.
How did I get there?
I let the cares of the world overwhelm me. Work especially.
It states out one day you are too tired to spend time in the Word, then before you realize it, it has been a week or two and you are so far out of His presence you don’t recognize where you are.
As believers, this is a sinful place for us.
James 4:17: 17. Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.
- New American Standard
James 4:17 Therefore, to one who knows {the} right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.
Staying in God’s presence is the good and right thing to do. For us not to do it , it is a sin and we need to ask forgiveness.
For me , it was several things.
Thinking I could handle the stress alone. How many of you here are guilty of the same thing.
The stress of family, family issues, church issues, job issues.
Health issues, money issues.
For just about everyone, we try to solve it first and then if we get in deeper, We then and then only, once we can not see a way out, start crying out to God.
Even if He has pulled us out before.
Even though we have seen Him save and deliver us, we still end up in the pit .
Psalms 91
- He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
- I will say of the Lord, "He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust.''
- Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler And from the perilous pestilence.
- He shall cover you with His feathers, And under His wings you shall take refuge; His truth shall be your shield and buckler.
- You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, Nor of the arrow that flies by day,
- Nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, Nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday.
- A thousand may fall at your side, And ten thousand at your right hand; But it shall not come near you.
- Only with your eyes shall you look, And see the reward of the wicked.
- Because you have made the Lord, who is my refuge, Even the Most High, your habitation,
- No evil shall befall you, Nor shall any plague come near your dwelling;
- For He shall give His angels charge over you, To keep you in all your ways.
- They shall bear you up in their hands, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.
- You shall tread upon the lion and the cobra, The young lion and the serpent you shall trample under foot.
- Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him on high, because he has known My name.
- He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him.
- With long life I will satisfy him, And show him My salvation.
I teach out of this scripture a lot, it is one of my favorites.
All of these things is what God promises us if we abide in His presence.
Abide means just that, abide, live there.
But we have to decide that WE ARE GOING TO ABIDE IN HIS PRESENCE.
It is a willful choice.
Many things can happen to lead us to not abiding in His presence . I am not going to list them all today. But if you are going through a dry spell, If you feel you are walking around in a dark fog, not able to see.. then let me just say I have just come out of this pit and I know , believe me I know what you are going through.
It is something I never want to experience again.
We live in the knowledge of not experiencing God’s presence from the time we are born. (Jesus and Garden of Gethsemane and on cross.) anguish.
Not being fully in His presence is anguish for us, but sometimes we are so deep in we don’t know how to get back.
Once we are born again we should begin to experience his presence. And we should be taught as we grown how to get fully in His presence and stay there.
But most of it is something we have to do on our own, we have to read our Bible, we have to pray and seek His presence. We have to meditate on His word.
Psalms 86: 7. In the day of my trouble I will call upon You, For You will answer me.
Jeremiah 33:3. `Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.'
If you notice all these are actions, things we have to do to get into his presence and stay there.
Hosea 5:15: 15. I will return again to My place till they acknowledge their offense. Then they will seek My face; in their affliction they will diligently seek Me.''
Once we allow ourselves to get out of His presence , we have to acknowledge that we have sinned , we have to acknowledge our offense, then we can begin to come back.
Jeremiah 29 12-14: 12. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. 14. I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back from your captivity; I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive.
What do we find in His presence?
Psalms 16: 11. You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
Show the video of raining in one spot.
I saw this one day and the Holy Spirit spoke to my heart and said,
This is what it is like “abiding in the shadow of the almighty.”
It is a pipeline open for you, directly to/from heaven.
God pours out his blessing on you .
God is referred to as the fountain of living water.
Jeremiah 2:13 : 13. "For My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn themselves cisterns broken cisterns that can hold no water.
Jeremiah 17: 13. O Lord, the hope of Israel, all who forsake You shall be ashamed. "Those who depart from Me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living waters.''
When you allow yourself to be drawn or wander away from His presence, you get out of the flow of the pipeline.
It is often a little by little process, until eventually you are out in the dryness.
As hard as it is to hear, for believers we are in sin, in this place of dryness, because we forsook the daily fellowship of out Lord, and ended up with broken cisterns, or vessels that cannot hold any water we get..we leak everywhere and remain damp or dry.
When instead we need to be soaked , standing directly under this flow of blessing, this fountain of living water. This is what abiding in His presence, is , staying so saturated of the Lord Jesus, so saturated of the presence of the living God, so saturated and full of the Holy Spirit that we drip God’s goodness , we leak God’s presence wherever we go.
The first step back is acknowledging we are out of His presence.
Sometimes we aren’t even aware of that.
Then we have to ask forgiveness for being there, seek His wisdom on how we Got there and start clawing our way back. But you have to seek forgiveness.
Believe me it is a fight back, You can locate where you are, turn around and start heading back in the right direction, but it is a fight and the devil does not want you to figure it out and begin to find answers.
Let me stress again. You are not in a spirit called wilderness. You are in a place of dryness that resulted from getting out of His presence. The Wonderful thing about God is He uses any experience to teach us.
I think the most important step is asking forgiveness, because too many times we don’t realize or want to acknowledge that we have sinned and fallen out of His presence.
I know this was hard for me. To realize that I had opened doors that did not need to be opened, so that I eventually became bone dry and desperate.
I know one thing, I am running for this water sprout as hard and fast as I can. I plan on getting there and staying. That is not only what I want , it is what I need.
Being without the fountain of living waters, washing and soaking me daily is death.
If you are cut off from water or the living vine, you die, it is as simple as that.
But getting back in His presence, standing under this direct pipeline of living water,
Blessings is life and life eternal. It is a daily refreshing. It is hourly refreshing , it is
Minute by minute refreshing.