Opening the Old Wells

Praise the Lord everybody. Amen. God is so good and well what an honor to be here with you today. I spent 10 years as a pastor and so I know what it is to carry the responsibility of leading a local church and to protect a local church and so I counted a high honor to have the invitation to be here today and to be entrusted to bring the word of the Lord to this house from this pulpit. So I want you to know I give your pastor a high honor today and thank him for this kind invitation. He was actually he was extraordinarily kind to me. We had another date scheduled and I had to reach out and see if we could rearrange it based upon some other calendar issues and he was so kind to do that and in fact he and I just met for the first time in March. We were

on a trip to Israel together and had not met prior to that and this is what I learned in in quick form about your pastor. He may he may seem gentle. He exudes great kindness but there's great strength beneath the surface and I just I'd encourage you today don't don't ever make the mistake of of thinking that kindness is softness. That's a gentleness in dealing with people but there's great strength there and I honor him for his role in the kingdom for his leadership in this local church. Why don't you put your hands together and appreciate the shepherd and his family. Of course we've got a fellow Canadian up here on the platform with me so I'm feeling a little bit more at home today. I now live in Terrojo, Indiana but was born and raised spent most of my life on the east coast of Canada

but by the grace of God I was delivered. We're glad about that. Well God is good. Amen. The uh I gotta be honest with you. I came here knowing nothing about you. I didn't know anything about Jewett Ohio. I didn't know anything about Harrison Hills Church. He could have pulled me into a city of a quarter million people. I'd had no idea. I knew nothing and uh yesterday morning we got a new puppy about a month ago and yesterday morning he malfunctioned at 4 30 in the morning. He's supposed to sleep till like 6 or 6 30 but at about 4 30 he decided it was time to wake up and so I got him some food and made a pot of coffee and just was sitting in my chair talking to the Lord and preparation for this day and as I entered into prayer I just began to feel

I would describe it to you as richness in the spirit. It felt to me now I'll be honest with you when I was coming to Harrison Hills Church he didn't tell me anything. I didn't know if I was coming to a church of 500 people. I didn't know if I was coming to a church in a store front that he started in a city or if it was a village in the back hills of Ohio I had no idea because I began to pray I could just feel what I would describe as a richness in the spirit. It was like to me now I'm emphasizing this you understand this that I knew nothing of this church the history but it's a richness that I would describe to places that have great heritage and so last night as we sat down at the dinner table and began to share stories of how we

entered into ministry and the path that God had taken our families and he began to talk to me about how the Lord brought them here and the history of this church as I just listened to him talk I thought well Lord you were obviously directing my thoughts and prayer the other day and now I'll be honest with you I have heard of of the Rose family as most people probably have through harvest time radio that really was before my time but I did hear of it but I wouldn't have had any idea that they were from Jewett Ohio I would have had no idea that they were from Harrison Hills Church and so as he started to share some of these stories with me last evening I just thought well Lord look at that that's that's the richness that's the heritage and then these are all just

what I call subtle confirmations of how the Lord leads and directs and confirms what he's speaking to us and so then this morning I'm sitting in the chair and there in the evangelist quarters and that recliner just rocking and drinking a coffee and talking to the Lord I look over and on the little table to the left there's a couple books and the one on the top it's a history of the united Pentecostal church in the state of Ohio I thought well that looks interesting so I pick it up now there's probably a hundred something pages in the book I didn't go to the table of contents I just flipped it open thought well just see what's in the book now you call a chance if you want but out of all the pages in that book it opened up to the page with the little picture in the biography of brother Hugh Rose I thought well lord that's kind of

interesting so I started reading that biography you get about halfway down and talked about how he received the Holy Ghost he was I think it said nine years old talked about somewhere in his late teen years one summer how he and a friend went evangelizing in New Brunswick Canada I thought well lord that's where I was born and raised see these are all just subtle things subtle confirmations that I tell you today to let you know I think we're in the will of God being here together right now I think we're in the will of God and now I don't I don't seek for the will of God based upon a story at a dinner table I don't look for the will of God by chance on a page of a book that happens to be by a chair that I'm sitting in but all of these

things become subtle confirmations to how the Lord is leading and directing us already and I just I'm so so thankful to be here with you today I do come to you I believe I have a word from the Lord certainly I think we'll find application in the Scriptures today for us personally but I believe I have a word for this local church body Genesis chapter 26 and we'll read verses number 18 and 19 of Genesis 26 verses 18 and 19 the Bible says in Isaac dig again the wells of water which they had digged in the days of Abraham his father for the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham and he being Isaac he called the names after the names by which his father had called them verse 19 says Isaac's servants digged in the valley and found there a well of springing water amen I want to preach to you today for a few minutes on

on this title opening the old wells opening the old wells so you can see now how all of this history and these little subtle confirmations bear significance to me because of how the Lord began to deal with me the other day so I want to preach the opening the old wells one more time would you lift your hands and let's pray together lift up your voice and let's God to speak to us and to have his way Lord Jesus I thank you today for this great church I thank you what you're doing in the lives of these people in this local congregation father I pray now that you would give us ears to hear what the spirit would speak to the church I pray that there would be a demonstration of your spirit and power I pray you administer to lives and the families I pray Lord that you would resurrect promises today I pray that

you would have your way your kingdom would come your will would be done and we ask this in the name of Jesus Christ because it is the only name that saves it is the only name that heals in Jesus name we pray amen I would I would echo what was said earlier in the service and I would encourage you to be here on Tuesday evening pastor Harpal is actually my pastor and that's the church that we base out of in Terre Haute Indiana and I assure you that you will be greatly blessed by being here Tuesday evening there are few men in all of my travels and I don't just say this because he's my pastor but there really are few men who operate with such excellence and such diversity of giftings he can preach he can teach he can build people he can lead

organizationally he's just tremendously gifted in God is using him powerfully to help leaders and churches in this hour and so I promise you you're going to be blessed on Tuesday evening amen opening the old wells amen the story of Genesis chapter number 26 we find this story of Isaac the Bible would tell us that there was a famine that comes to the land and it distinguishes this it says beside the first famine that was in the days of Abraham in Genesis chapter 12 100 years prior Isaac's father Abraham had endured a very similar reality a famine had come to the land and people had done what you would expect them to do if there's a famine farming is not going to be very fertile the land would be overcome with ideas of hopelessness and despair and so it would make sense it would seem the logical thing to do

in the midst of a famine to pack up your stuff and go and look for a more fertile field go and look for another place where perhaps the opportunity was greater and this is what had happened 100 years prior in the life of Isaac's father Abraham when the famine struck the land they gathered their belongings and they made off for a new place but the bible distinguishes that famine from this famine I would tell you today that God will test every generation uniquely He will not let us simply live in the reality of what was done before us now we'll certainly inherit some blessings and there are things we'll receive but the fact is God had to test Isaac the same way that he had tested Abraham and now here Isaac finds himself in this famine and the bible said the Lord appeared unto him and told him go not down into Egypt but dwell in the land which I shall

tell thee of this is significant today because God tells him to do what nobody else is doing this is not a land that's fertile it's barren by way of the famine and everybody has on the phone with you hall everybody's looking for moving companies and everybody's on the internet looking for jobs in another place and trying to get out of town and trying to find a place that they perceive to be of greater opportunity than where they are but the word of the Lord comes to Isaac and said Isaac I know everybody else might be leaving and I know everybody else judges the famine the end of this story but Isaac this is what I've got to tell you you can't leave now I can imagine in his carnal mind this is a little bit hard to receive and he's trying to make sense of this because it doesn't look like there's a lot of opportunity here but this is

the fact is God didn't need him looking for opportunity God simply needed him to be obedient God didn't need him moving about looking for a land of greater opportunity he needed him to be obedient to the voice of God and what God said to him was Isaac I need you to stay where you are and so in the very next verse this is what he says if you'll just sojourn in the lamb if you'll make yourself at home here if you'll walk through this land if you'll work this land Isaac I will be with you I will bless you and for unto thee and thy seed I will give all these countries and I will perform the oath which I swear unto Abraham thy father now I want you to see this today because he didn't tell Isaac I will be with your stuff but he did say I will be with you and the fact is when that famine starts sweeping through the lamb

as famines do it's going to affect the stuff in his life what he's telling him is Isaac there may be elements of your life that are inconvenienced or that become displeasurable by what's happening around you but just hear me out Isaac if you'll stay where I tell you to stay and if you'll do what I tell you to do if you'll be obedient to me I can assure you of this fact Isaac I will be with you and so it causes us to consider this question today is God enough when we look at our lives and we survey who we are and what we have and all the things that we aspire to we have to ask ourselves this question today is God really enough is God enough for me to be happy is God enough for me to be content is God and God alone enough for me to live with joy is is God enough and here

this is where I have come to learn some of the ways of our American thinking that are so contrary to the kingdom having traveled to many nations around the world some developed and some not I can tell you that the American church has bought into the idea that the abundance of stuff or the abundance of earthly blessings is somehow indicative or reveals the presence of God now I'll tell you sometimes that's true but it's not an absolute to say that is an absolute would be to imply this that on the contrary that the lack of the abundance of blessings would indicate an absence of the presence of God and I tell you today I've stood on dusty fields in the African sun where we gathered under trees and tattered and torn canvases where the glory of God was poured out and people were filled with the Holy Ghost and where miracles those people didn't have anything

nothing some of them came in their bare feet they they some of them have never handled money they've never held paper cash they've they've never held coins they still live on an old system of trading and bartering and they bring chickens and crops and that that's how they live they don't have stuff like we have they don't have an abundance of blessing like we have but does that imply that there's an absence of God there no not at all but somewhere we've become mistaken and we've started to judge that stuff or blessing in the material sense reveals the presence of God and this is the idea that the scripture is speaking to today he's letting Isaac know Isaac you have to understand this the famine might mess with your stuff but that doesn't mean that I'm not with you and it doesn't mean I'm not working and so now Isaac is forced to choose

which perspective he'll live with does he live with this prophetic perspective formed by the word of God given to him by the word of God or does he live by a perspective that's formed by the famine does he live by a perspective of defeat and decline based on what's happening in the land that he lives in or does he hold on to this word from God because of this I'm certain today if God told the man to stay in the land it's because he had a purpose and a plan for that land stay there sojourn there know this Isaac if you'll stay there I will be with you the first time in the Bible you ever find that God appeared to a man was in the life of Isaac's father Abraham in Genesis 12 when he called him out of the Ur of the Caldees when he finally

gets to the place that God was leading him to the scripture would say and the Lord appeared to Abram it's the first time you find it in your Bible and so the principle is this when God gets the right man in the right place or the right land you have the right recipe for God to start revealing himself so just as God had done to Isaac's father Abram now he's trying to do in his life but he's got to test him just like he tested the last generation and just like he proved his faithfulness in the last generation now he's got to test this generation and he'll prove himself in this generation just like he did that generation then he tells him in verse five of this chapter he makes a statement because Abraham obeyed and so he causes for a moment Isaac to turn his attention back and to reflect on the history from which he's come Isaac you're only

where you are today because your father obeyed you're only where you are Isaac because of what your daddy did but from this moment forward you can't let your future be contained in the reality of what was done this moment demands something of you it's not enough yes you've got to honor your father yes you've got to be thankful for your father yes you're only here because of the heritage and the history that was given to you but Isaac this moment demands something of you it's not enough to just look back we've got to consider now Isaac what is required of you in this moment so the bible would tell us it seems like a sudden turn of the narrative but it's an important thing for us to see here today the bible would tell us that as they move into the valley of Gerard that the men of this place begin to ask questions of him and his wife

and I know it seems an unusual thing this is what Isaac says we're gonna tell them you're my sister I know it's crazy we're going somewhere you see he's become fearful he's got this lie running through his head that says this Isaac if they find out she's your wife they're gonna kill you so they can take her and so he comes up with this idea that if I just tell them you're my sister then they'll let me live it may not prevent them from taking you now here's my problem with this today is that goes against everything that a man is supposed to do now I know the scripture hadn't yet been written but the principle was still true that he should love her to the point he's willing to lay down his life for her the problem was fear started manipulating his mind fear started changing the way he was thinking fear started changing the way he was acting

now what you'll think about this with me for a minute if you're gonna convince all those people that this woman that you love and you've lived with all these years who's really your wife you're gonna convince them that she's your sister you're gonna have to change your behavior around her I know you were I know you're used to walking through the store and holding her hand I know you're used to sitting across from the dinner table and staring into her eyes and walking through the park and kissing her down by the waterfront I know that's what you're used to but now if you're gonna live under the influence of this lie and you're gonna convince all these people she's not really your wife she's only your sister now that fear has forced you to withhold the intimacy that's necessary for relationship I know we talk about this stuff

for God has not given us a spirit of fear but you've got to understand how fear works fear is not some spooky thing that shows up at the end of your bed fear is this subtle lie that keeps you from entering into intimacy with God and now that we had this little thing called COVID in the world the past couple years now it's unfortunate that the american government and the world health organization is behind the ball because just this week they decided to officially announce it's not a health crisis anymore just this week thank you for that I've been really troubled about now I know most of us have moved on from that but I could take us back a couple years three years ago when all that first started and it was more than just a little science it was more than just a little this but there was a fear that swept the world and what did that fear do

that fear gave people to make adjustments in their life that proved to be detrimental I just I don't know about gathering I don't know about being around people and all of a sudden they bought into these ideas that that justified their absence from church and I'm just gonna watch on home yeah I know that's what you said you were gonna do but the fact is you ain't touched your Bible in three years you ain't been to church in three years you ain't talked in tongues in three years you know why because that spirit of fear deceived you into a behavior that caused you to withhold the intimacy that you need to have a relationship with God well I'm just gonna I'm just gonna watch at home pastor until all this all this goes away until all no that's what you said you were gonna do but what happened in the process of withholding

the intimacy that's necessary for relationship you lost the relationship altogether I'm preaching churches all around the country you get talking to pastors talking to leaders well yeah we we've never really recovered and hey but but you know and I hear this statement everywhere I go but you know what financially we never really suffered yeah you know why because in the kingdom the economy is not tied to the earth and God was trying to show us something if you live by my law and you walk in my precepts it doesn't matter if 50 people disappear it doesn't matter if 100 people disappear he said I can open the windows of heaven and pastors ever this what they're saying well all right we we've never recovered those 50 we never recovered those 20 they they said they were gonna watch online but they've never been back they they used to come three three out of four

Sundays now maybe they just come one out of four Sundays you know why because they bought into a lie that the spirit of fear put in their mind that caused them to withhold the behavior that's necessary to have intimacy with God you're supposed to be in a marriage but you start just treating him like a sibling I've got three brothers I can promise you they don't get the same access that my wife gets the way I talk to my brothers is not the way I talk to my wife and so what's happened we've got a casualness that's moved through the body that's come by a spirit of fear when we're not reverencing God we're not walking in intimacy with God because we've lost that we just treat him like a brother treat him like a sister but even in Isaac's failure even his mistake he he comes to the realization that God was faithful to me even still because when

Abimelech finds out that he's been lying the whole time he comes to him and says why did you lie to us why did you treat us this way Abimelech says you realize what you could have done to us if we would have taken your wife unto ourselves we would have committed sin God could have judged us we could have been penalized all because of how you lied to us now Isaac comes to this realization that even in my failure God was still faithful to me that's why Paul wrote we being faithless God he's still faithful even when I'm struggling God is still strong and he comes to this realization that my circumstance doesn't change God's character it may not be easy it may not it may not be pleasurable God may be pressed on every side but my circumstance doesn't change who he is and so now the Bible tells us

see these are all the details we miss when we just rush through the narrative the Bible tells us Isaac sowed in that same year in that land wait a minute what would possess a man to plant precious seed and ground that's not fertile oh see that's the problem you've adopted a perspective formed by your circumstance and not by the prophetic reality if God told you to stay there then it doesn't matter if there's been rain or not it doesn't matter if the ground's been dry or not if God told you to stay there then there's something fertile in the atmosphere and I can see it now there Isaac is he's out there in the heat of the day and he's he's he's he's hoeing that dry ground and he's taking that precious seed that everybody else is carrying to some other city and some other valley and some other

country and he's putting it in that field and I can see everybody else looking at him like Isaac I don't know what you think you're doing but it hasn't rained here in months they're in a farmer in this county who's had a crop in months what are you doing wasting that seed what do you think's going to happen this grounds dry Isaac this grounds barren yeah it's only barren by the perspective you have the ground's not barren it's your perspective that's barren and what Isaac had stepped into was a prophetic reality not governed by the limitations and the logic of man in the realities of that earth you see he's had a shift of perspective he's had a change of mentality because if God said stay he can't just stay in body he has to be invested in his mind and his will I know God said stay so I'm just going to stay

but every night when I get home I'm going to be on google looking for a job in another city looking for a house in another state no you can't do that Isaac if I told you to stay here then you've got to be invested here you've got to believe in this you don't go around looking for another opportunity Isaac that's not what I need from you I need obedience to what I've told you well see God I've got I've got a wife I've got kids yeah I know you do you've got a responsibility to provide I know you do in fact if you don't provide for them you're worse than an infidel so what does that responsibility do it drives him to work well I know everybody else says it's not right for harvest but that's the problem they had the wrong filter but he had

this promise from God his filter was different he could see different and well everybody else says it's a burned over field there's no harvest here God's not doing anything here he says no I've got this word from God God told me to stay and if God told me to stay here that means God's still invested here and if I'm going to live here I've got to start acting like somebody that plans on staying here so I know nobody else is sowing seed I know nobody else is building farms but that's what I've come here to do I'm going to show my seed and the Bible said in the same year he reaped a hundred fold see how quickly it changes you say well how in the world how how do you reap a hundred fold harvest when there's a famine I'll tell you how because it's

not a harvest that's governed by the conditions of this earth it's governed by the prophetic reality God had declared he didn't need somebody's opinion and he didn't need them looking for another opportunity he needed somebody's obedience to be invested in the place God told him to be now let me I think you get the application let me tell you what I've really come here to preach about because I know there's heritage here I know there's history here I didn't know about heroes and harp arose till last night but I know what God started talking to me about at five o'clock in the morning the other day when he let me feel the richness of the spirit and God started speaking to me from the scripture and so I've just come here to tell you today I don't care how many people have disappeared I don't care how much the economy's been up and down I don't care how many people

have moved out God is not done and I thank God I thank God for every investment the rose family made we're only here because Abraham obeyed we're only here because the rose family obeyed I thank God for every person that's ever sacrificed in every given but the very fact God said stay here his evidence to me he's not done working here but Isaac there's got to be a shift of mentality you can't just live in what was done in the past and you can't surrender to the circumstance and the famine at the present moment if I told you to stay here you not you just can't be here in body you've got to be here in mind you have to have a change of mentality and start living as one who plans on staying you know the whole time this has happened the Philistines are in the

territory but there's no issue until the people of God start growing and as soon as the blessing of the Lord starts moving upon God's people through the work and the prophecy that's resting on the life of Isaac the king comes in and says you know what you are mightier than we whoo this is profound to me now because they've cohabitated in the land the whole time and the enemy has no issue until the people of God start making forward steps to a little blessing starts working in their life to a little growth starts happening in their life and about the time God starts working and there's a little growth happening in their life and in their family in their church and in their area about the time there's a little growth now the enemy starts talking now he starts pushing them out I would tell you today the adversary has no

issue with passive people with passive churches with passive saints I've been in conversation with people back when I pastored in different places as I've traveled and it's oh the devil's really fighting you know devil's not fighting you you're not doing enough for the devil to fight you your flesh is fighting you oh I'm just battling it no you're not battling on every side I tell you the devil doesn't waste his time with people who live passively they had been there cohabitating the whole time but the enemy doesn't start pushing them out the enemy doesn't start speaking until he realizes there's forward momentum working through the life of Isaac there's progressiveness there's fresh life there's vision there's something how in about that time the enemy starts working but the problem doesn't really matter because he's learned his lesson he didn't give in to the perspective the famine put on everybody else so he's not going to surrender

his future to this problem either he's got this prophetic filter he sees what they don't see he hears what they don't hear so he's not going to respond the way they want him to respond because this is what he realizes when God told me to stay that was God promising me he's investing himself in this place you want to unlocks prophetic realities this is why a lot of churches don't move into the spirit because we become passive we we we don't we we don't treat God with the reverence and the intimacy he needs to be treated with we're just passive we're just casual we just kind of treat God like a brother hey bro you know man it's so good to see you no no i know it's good to see you but but we're talking about God here you've got to come with a little sense of awe a little reverence there's got to be a

little humility of heart and attitude in mind it's this passiveness that robs us of prophetic realities but you know what gives birth to prophetic realities it's the very opposite of passiveness it's when you're moved by great burden and it's when you're willing to make great sacrifice don't have to ask me just ask Hannah she is driven by an overwhelming despair and burden that her womb is bearing she can't live with the reality that she's got a husband she can't give a child to and that burden drives her into the house of God and that burden drives her into the presence of God and she's so overcome by that burden that she's weeping and she's crying out to God she's in such deep travail that when the priest looks at her he thinks she's drunk the word of the Lord finally comes to her and tells her don't you worry God's going to open

your womb and you're going to be with child and you know what she does with that child when she weaned him she brings him back to the house of the Lord that the promise was conceived in and the child that she had so desperately wanted the child that she was driven by burden and received by burned the child that she had prayed for and wept for you know what she does she gives them back to God talk about a sacrifice the most precious thing in her life I I mean any mother loves her boy but this is no ordinary boy this is a boy born by the hand of God born by the burden I mean this is a miracle child this is a sacred child this is an act of God and she gives it back to him and because of that God raised that boy Samuel up to be one of the

greatest prophets his people had ever known you know what gave birth to that prophetic calling it was a mother that was driven by burden it was a mother that lived a life of sacrifice and I'll tell you why we've got a lot of apostolic churches I know they talk in tongues and I know they baptize in Jesus name but here's the reality there's no forward momentum there's no vision they're stagnant they're dying and they're struggling and you know why it's because they've settled into passivity they've become passive towards the things of God they've surrendered that prophetic perspective that God gave them to help them endure the they they gave it up when in reality even though there's a famine even though the economy's been up and down even though we've been pressed on every side God said I gave you a perspective that would cause you to live

under the crushing weight of that burden that would call you to sacrifice when it didn't make sense when it would call you to sacrifice and I know sometimes it would hurt I know sometimes it would be unpleasant but there's a prophetic reality that is born of burden and sacrifice that comes no other way I know I can I got stories when I'm preaching about I went to a city to start a church my wife and I and another couple four of us in a city of a half million people we didn't have we didn't have two two twenty dollar bills to run together we had nothing it was the four of us there was no building there was no name there was no bank account and you know what we were doing we were walking around twelve and fourteen million dollar buildings in that city because I really believe when God said he gave us that city

I really believe that I didn't care what the economy looked like I didn't care what was happening oh I had a word from God and I had to choose do I act in obedience to that word from God or do I surrender my faith to the perspective that circumstance puts on me it didn't happen the way I thought it was going to happen it didn't quite unfold the way I thought it would in the moment but you know what happened about five six years after we rolled into that city we did get our building it was a 1.7 million dollar building you know what we paid for it not a thing God gave it to us because two years prior a man prophesied us in a hotel conference room with 30 people sitting in the room he said God is about to give you a

million dollar building that you did not build and you will not pay for so you know what we started doing we started calling churches in our city we had it all figured out okay God we're going to start renting from one of these churches and they're going to go out their people are going to die they're going to disappear and they're just going to give us the building had all figured out there have been churches all over united churches methodist churches all over America that are being given to but they're not just being given to passive people they're being given to churches that are growing I've got a friend in San Diego was given a multi million dollar building from some ordinox christian church they were renting from them on sunday afternoons when the pastor came and said you know what I'm ready to retire but I see the growth

in your church I see what's happening in your church we'd like to give you this building she knew what they did he's the pastor of the UPC church and he got voted in as the pastor of the denominal church too and then he transferred the ownership of the building to the UPC church you know why they gave it to him and not joey down the street because they saw the progressiveness in that body they weren't bound by a passivity towards the things of the spirit and that man stood in that hotel conference room to some 30 or 40 people that were in our church and said God's gonna do this and I was trying to put a little feet on my face I was trying to show God I believe what you said I don't know how you're gonna do it I don't know when you're

gonna do it but I believe what you said in a May of 2016 we sat in a lawyer's office and signed that paper and became owners of that one point seven dollar million one point seven million dollar building 225 seat sanctuary kitchen offices classrooms but you know what got us there burden sacrifice didn't make sense but I'm telling you there's things born of the spirit when you operate by those principles so now he's got this little change of perspective when he realizes even though I had messed up even though I'd done it wrong God was faithful to me and so the Bible tells us where we open our text he goes out into the valley of Gerard eyes it comes to this realization he says hey I remember something 100 years ago my dad went through a famine just like this but my daddy had some servants that dug some wells

in this valley so here Isaac is standing in the same place his father was on the same water source his father had tapped into and the midst of his own famine and what does he need he needs water and he realizes the same water that sustained my father is right here the problem was the Bible says the Philistines had filled those wells with earth after the death of Abraham see that this is the most vulnerable time in the life of every believer in the life of every church transition especially generational transition they knew they couldn't do it when Abraham was alive but about that time they're putting Abraham's body in the grave that Philistine army shows up and you know what they do they start filling those wells with earth they fill it in with dirt and all of a sudden access to that water is no more and now 100 years later Isaac is standing in the same place in the midst of

his own trial and this is what he knows somewhere in this valley there were wells what's the first thing you've got to do Isaac the first thing you have to do is discover where they were and once you locate them you're gonna have to do the hard work of redigging them it's not enough just to discover it you're gonna have to get your shovels and you're gonna have to start digging now i want you to consider this reality what what's the difference between a well and a hole the fact that god put water there when did god put that water there when he created the world you can go out there my friend and if there's no water source right there you can dig all day long you can dig all day today and next week and next month and next year you can get your shovel you can call in the

excavator you can dig and dig and dig and dig but if there's not a water source there all you're gonna have is a hole but the fact is when god laid the foundations of the world in his sovereign wisdom he had chosen i'm gonna put a water source right here you know why because there's gonna come a day when my servant Abraham's gonna need water in a dry land and if he's willing to do the work i'm gonna give him provision there's gonna come a day when my servant Isaac's gonna find himself in a famine but if he's willing to do the work if he'll be driven by burden if he's willing to sacrifice if he'll get out there in the heat of the day with his prophetic perspective and he'll dig out that well you know what he's gonna find the bible says he

finds running water it wasn't a mud puddle it wasn't a little trickle there was a life source there was a curry i can you imagine the feeling that would have come over that man when that shovel broke through clay and he realized it's not just a little puddle but there's a stream there's a spring running here now you know why you're sitting in this building today you know why you're here today because a few decades ago god sent a man with a prophetic perspective it didn't matter that there wasn't a great population it didn't matter what was happening no you know why he came you know why he did what he did because he had a prophetic perspective he'd been born here in the flesh but the fact was he had a vision from god he possessed something in the spirit you know what god had showed him this is what god had showed him god said hey

brother rose i know you can't see with your natural eye but in the spirit when i created the worlds i put a spring in the earth in this place called harrison hills and i know it might not look like new york city it might not look like san diego it might not be texas or arizona but i put a little spring in the spirit here and if you'll go and discover it and if you'll go and dig it this is what i can do but the fact is god requires every generation to be tested in every person to prove himself in the sight of god and transition comes and we up and down and battles come famines come and then now here we are in 2023 and we find ourselves living in the reality of what was given to us by those who invested so much before us but i'm commissioned

of the holy ghost today to come here and to preach to you it's not enough just to say we're here because somebody else obey there's something god demands of us in this moment here's the fact the same thing that brother harper rose here the same thing these men had tapped into the same thing they discovered is available to every single one of us but the fact is we've got to discover it for ourselves and we've got to dig it for ourselves so here's how we do this we discover it in the word and we dig it in the spirit see you can't dig it in the spirit if it's not in the word you can try concepts and ideas and you can give me all your little opinions but if they're not rooted in the scripture honey they don't mean nothing and they won't accomplish anything but if you can take me to the text if you can show me in the book

where i can discover the truth you take me to the scripture and you find the principles of fasting and you find the principles of prayer and intercession and travail you find these things about the gifts of the spirit and the power of god you discover it in the word but then you've actually got to dig it out in the spirit you you've actually got to put in the in the hard work of praying and fasting and witnessing and teaching bible studies and praying for miracles and seeing the power of god flow you've got to discover it in that book but once you find the principle then you've got to take that principle you've got to take that shovel and in the spirit you've already you you've got to start doing it because somewhere in the spirit in this area i'll tell you what there is there's running water there's a source put there by god to be

access for us to sustain the trying seasons and to thrive in the face of adversity there's running water not knowing the u p c we we have a shift right now happening in our organization we're all of our attention for the past several years probably for the past 10 15 years we've turned all our attention to cities and i get it i get it that's where most of the population is and we've got to reach the world so i get it but you know what built the u p c place is just like this because we didn't have two nickels to rub together we couldn't afford to send anybody to new york city we couldn't afford to send nobody to boston we couldn't get into los angeles we we couldn't we had no money we're too poor we're penny costals it was places just like this that made our

movement what it is now you just hear me because i'm telling you where god's turning his attention to is back to places just like this i got a friend in south dakota mark brown mark's dug a great church out in water town south dakota they had a miracle building given to them several years ago they've got a congregation pushing about 100 now they've crossed over 100 a couple times but i don't know if they consistently break 100 i'll tell you something about mark brown mark brown is a man of sacrifice he lives under a heavy burden now when you invest your life and you sacrifice and you live on the verge of of breakdown and god finally gives you that that that stable congregation you think well that's about the time you settle in you get comfortable this is what i work for no because god turned mark's eyes

to the next town and so now he's in the process of starting two and three more churches in other towns one of the first little towns he goes into just like this just a few hundred people he's there at some county office signing papers to rent a a meeting room at the town hall to host a bible study he gets talking to a lady the lady says oh what's this for he said well i'm actually teaching bible studies in this town he didn't even tell them that he was starting a church at the point he says i'm just here teaching bible studies long story short that woman said there's someone i need you to meet he pulls out her phone calls another man this man's the head of a board of some i don't know if it was a methodist church or united church anglican church they end up walking through this building he's never won a soul in the city never

baptized nobody but he just turned his eyes toward the next town that god was speaking to him about why wouldn't you settle down in water town where the church is stable and you got a good building and your your salary can be paid because he lives under a burden he's got a perspective that others don't have so he walked in that city and the man gave him that building he didn't buy it the man gave it to him it's see two or three hundred people kitchens classrooms offices he said but there's no tithe payers there there's no givers there yeah but if god can find somebody to walk in obedience in the midst of the famine he'll show you i have resources that are tied to your human hands and so mark's preaching for a friend of mine down in texas a couple years ago after this had happened and he's telling the story about this building and i mean it's an old

building hey old building i mean thank god for the building but my friend i need to work and he's telling the testimony of what god did he just took a step towards the next town and god opened up this miraculous door god extended this hand of provision he's telling the story well there's a contractor in this church in the dad a suburb of dallas texas who comes to his pastor after church and said pastor i'd like to take my crew to south dakota and we're going to renovate that building for him debt-free and so you know what that man did on his own dime he took all his supplies and all his workers from dallas texas to some middle and nowhere south dakota and they renovated that entire building inside and out debt-free mark brown didn't pay a penny for you know what mark brown did mark brown said i'm going to live

under a burden mark brown said i've got this church and i could settle right here but the thing which you gave me god i'm gonna give it back you know what i'm preaching to you today about opening old wells because there's some old wells in the spirit in this town and in this church but i let me be playing with you right now they've been filled in in the midst of a lot of transition in the up and downs of economy and the famines of life those old wells have been filled in but i'm telling you what i know from god they're still running water there and if you'll dig the well if you'll pray the prayer if you'll fast if you'll do it you're going to discover the same thing that built this still works would you lift up your hands to the lord right now come on

lift up your hands lift up your voice what causes some of you people that have been here for a few decades to still be here when the economy's been up and down and other people have left town looking for another opportunity you know what kept you here it's because you had a sense of what god put here what what what what would cause a man to bring his family here with little little town little villas with just a few hundred people in the hills of Ohio when he's when he's been part of churches that have hundreds of people and great staff and all this you know what would do it a burden a perspective that's not formed by a population formed by an economy but that's formed by the spirit and i'm telling you as rich as the history is as rich as that heritage is what god requires of you in this moment is to commit yourself to the process

of not only redigging those wells but when he had redugged them you know what the bible says he called them by the same name as father Abraham had called them that means if it was built on prayer and fasting it is and keep building it on prayer and fasting if it was built on jesus name baptism and the oneness of god then you call it what it is and keep preaching it and keep building it if it was built on the holiness and separation from the world if it was built on the power of call it what it is and keep building your voice and pray when you know not what you ought to pray paul said the spirit itself make an intercession with groanings which cannot be uttered that's the holy ghost that's that running water jesus said this spakey of the spirit that they which believe on him should receive running water of the holy ghost flow

come on we're redigging a whale right now we're digging out the dirt we're pulling out the wrong ideas we're pulling out the wrong perspectives god's not forsaken you god's not changed his mind he's got a purpose for your life he's got a purpose for this church when he built these hills a few thousand years ago he built them with destiny promise in this soil i am a shaka let me have your attention the bible says that he redugged the wells of his father abraham he didn't stop there once he redugged the wells his father had dug he started digging his own wells and you know that because there were four wells he dug that he named himself so he dug the wells his father had dug and he called them by the same name as father had called them but he realized the same way god tested my father in a famine he tested me in the same

way my daddy dug his own wells which i'm thankful for because that's what brought me to where i am right now he realized i've got to dig my own wells this is why many churches become stag them and fall into despair and decline because people only want to drink from wells that somebody else dug and they don't want to dig no wells themselves and i come to tell you in the holy ghost today what god's got to say to this church is it's time for you to dig your own well i thank god for the wells of our elders and i thank god every now and then i can go back into that rich history and heritage and i can draw from those wells i can hear those stories i can mention their name i live in the strength of that testimony i'm only here because abraham

obeyed i thank god for those wells but if i'm gonna keep moving forward i'm gonna have to dig some of my own wells and so i tell you today though we are going to reopen those old wells we've also got to dig some new ones i thank god i thank god for how old elder rose was a man of fasting your pastor told me some stories last i thank god but i want him to who's going to fast in harrison hills in 2023 prayers now who's going to reach the lost now who's going to do it now if you do it you know what you're going to discover there's running water because when god laid the foundations of the world he said i'm going to put something special in harrison hills i'm going to put a little sense of destiny in jewin ohio ah but what he needs is the people who break free of passivity and start living with the burden

that prophecy puts on you live with the perspective that the prophecy gave you and close a coal mine they could take my job but they can't take my prophecy they can raise a taxes they can make it hard but they can't take my prophecy it was given to me by god i know it seems so uncertain in the natural world but i tell you in the spirit it's as real right now as it ever was you just got to get the flesh and the you got to get the dirt out of the well you got to break through to the sound of that running water masalma said it like this he said with joy shall you draw water from the wells of salvation i'm telling you this is the kind of church i grew up in i'm preaching law of them in my years i'm

preaching some bigger churches too but i'm telling you there's a stagnation in a decline that a lot of our rural churches have lived through and the problem is is we have allowed it to suffocate the atmosphere of joy from our lives in our congregations and if you don't have joy you don't have a bucket to get the water because he said with joy shall you draw water you can come out of despair and doom and gloom and yeah but you ain't never going to get the water you need because joy is your bucket and i come to prophesy to this house right now i feel a a prophetic function on me right now to tell you god wants to restore the abundance of joy to your life in this church and if you'll start drawing water from a well that god put here when he

built this god built this town it wasn't a mayor it wasn't some city counselor county commissioner god formed these hills at the foundation of the world and when you let joy start doing what joy was meant to do i promise you the attitude of this house could form the attitude of this county joy well how do you lose your joy you lose your joy when you go through a couple famines you lose your joy when you get to the well one day and you realize the filistines filled it in and so then for a season you got to get back under that burden and you got to get back into that sacrifice and you got to do the hard things of have digging out those wells and digging some wells of your own but when you break through to that running water friend there should be a

joy that floods your soul and that joy is your bucket to draw water from those wells stand together with me you see there comes a point when you have a change of perspective and you start acting like somebody who's determined to prosper where god has placed you i said quit looking at everywhere around you i told you to stay and if you're going to stay you'll have to get out on those fields that seem barren and dry you're going to start planting seed a hundred fold harvest comes in the same year you know why because he was learning the ground is not really under the rule of the famine it's under the rule of the prophecy it just needed somebody to have the right perspective start living with the right attitude and the right action for that prophecy to come to pass i'm telling you god has strategically designed plans for this house in this area and if we just

take off the wrong lands and put on that perspective that's formed by what god says and how god works then we too can reap a great harvest in the same year and then there comes this point when the enemy says you know what you need to leave because you are mightier than we see up until that point i think they had believed the lie that they weren't greater than their circumstance they weren't greater than their adversary but now even their enemy has come to the conclusion that this forward momentum this progressive action this work of god in your life is evident and you're greater than we are you know why the enemy confessed it because he realized that isaac already understood it the enemy only echoes the perspective you live by and sometimes that perspective is not even true that is a stronghold paul used that word

imaginations you know what imagination is is something that's not real but you live as if it is and when isaac bought into the lie that his future had been forfeited into the hands of a famine his enemy could just keep whispering that in his ear until fear robbed him of the intimacy he needed to survive but when he realized that god wasn't done and god was still working and the prophecy was still intact when he realized that when he changed his attitude when he changed his actions his enemy had no choice but to say the truth that he had already come to realize but when the enemy confessed the truth it freed him to move into an area of progressiveness and effectiveness he had never been in there were a few squabbles here and there a little opposition here and there but he didn't stop working he kept digging well after well after well

until the fourth well that he digs is literally called the well of the sevenfold oath and it meant it's a space to be fruitful because he had dug wells in seasons of adversity and he had dug wells in the midst of conflict with that philistine army and he had dug wells in atmospheres that were that were tough and that were full of opposition but he wouldn't stop digging because he had a perspective formed by that prophetic reality and he kept digging he kept digging and he kept digging and that forward progressive motion caused him to come to a place where the promises of god put space in his life go read it go read the four wells study the names of the four wells the first ones are esic and sitna it means strife and contention but he didn't surrender in the midst of strife he didn't turn over at the hand of

contention he just kept digging until god gave him space to be fruitful but too many people give up in the fight they surrender their joy in the midst of their adversity and they lose their access to the water god put there to sustain them so i tell you today thank god for the history thank god for the heritage thank god for every well that was dug and extended fast and all night prayer meetings thank god for every well that was put in this church and through this valley with revivals and services and breakthroughs thank god but now it's 2023 and now a lot of those people are gone but you're here and you share in the same call and the same responsibility so i tell you today you have got to come under that same burden you have got to enter into that same sacrifice and you have got to dig the wells and when you do you're going to discover the same

thing that some other people discovered a long time ago and the same resource that started saving people in these hills a few decades ago and the same resource of god that built this building and built that building and the same resource of god that's been here all along it's going to keep working so yes there's an element of restoration isaac you need to read dug read dig what your daddy did but it's not just a work of restoration isaac i need you to embrace the future i need you to dig your own wells i need you to get your own promises i need you to have your own burden i need you to get your own vision that's what i need would you lift your hands one more time lift up your voice here's what i'd like us to do i i'm not sure what your custom is but if

you'll permit me the liberty today if you believe what i'm preaching to you if you believe in the future of this house and what the lord has planned for you then you you have to be like guys that can have a change of mentality where you say you know what i'm not looking opportunity elsewhere i'm going to fix my eyes on this field where god told me to stay i'm going to start planting seed i'm going to start digging wells here's what i'd like you to do if you would i'd like you just step out of your seat and make your way to this altar you say why preacher because this is this is your demonstration of faith this is you telling god i'm committing right now to a change of perspective doesn't matter what the newspaper says it doesn't matter what the economy looks like god i see what you see and i hear what you're saying oh jesus i'm going to press

right in there's some in the aisle press right in i'll tell you the eyes of the lord are on this house there's a richness in the spirit here we don't just have to live in the richness of our history we can look into the future by way of the spirit you know that scripture we like to preach it at funerals i have not seen ear have not heard what has entered into the heart of man what god have prepared would you read the next verse what's paul say he says but god hath revealed them to us by his spirit what he's saying is there's things you get access to when you get in the spirit god shows you things in the spirit that your natural eye can't see god tells you things in the spirit that your natural ear can't hear but you've got to get in the spirit well i could god

give our church a 1.7 million dollar building because we got in the spirit you know how it happened we were using a dying congregation it was their building it was a dying congregation that had surrendered to the things i just preached to you this morning and we were using their baptistry it didn't have no water in it it wasn't warm and we showed up to use it that sunday afternoon we had to wait 45 minutes for it to get filled because they weren't baptizing nobody but we showed up there on that sunday afternoon to baptize three people from our little hotel church when the pastor came over and said you know what i think i'm ready to retire and i see what god's doing in your church you know what that means means i see the forward progression and i'm compelled to participate what do you think about taking over this well i feel

pretty good about it actually you know there's old money in these hills and you watch what god starts doing if you do what i'm telling you to do when you start moving forward there'll be people that have not stepped in this foot for decades in fact they probably got the holy ghost back in the 40s or 50s or their their mother or father was baptized by brother rose in this church years ago but it's been a long time since they come but they've watched a declining congregation but you watch when in the late years of their life they see this forward momentum at harrison hills church and they decide you know what i got a few hundred thousand dollars sitting in this bank account i thought i was just going to give my kids but you know what i think that church needs to put a new building over there on that land they just bought you know

you know brother spellman here's a little money for you see there's a measure of provision that's held back by the hand of god because oftentimes we are not moving in the progressive motion or at the pace god has ordained we had 30 35 40 people on a good day meeting in the hotel room 220c sanctuary a big building seemed a little bit beyond us but god moved on the heart of that man because of the forward progression of that church we moved in there may of 16 and when i left helifax in december of 2019 there was 148 people there on our last sunday because we didn't stop moving forward with a building i thank god for the the heritage and the history that enabled us to be where we were but i had god in the spirit and i had seen some things from god

and it wasn't just those wells he had dug that sustained me but i dug my own wells and i heard my own promises from god and i'd seen my own visions from god and that future compelled me to keep moving forward and yeah there were seasons of strife yeah there was contention yeah there was opposition but you know what we did we kept digging wells we kept doing the work and you know what happened god gave us space to be fruitful and what we couldn't do in our first six years of church planning up and down instability god radically blessed our church went from those 40 people in a hotel to 150 people in three years financially i mean we just exploded we had always been givers but in those three years we went from from our you know good tens of thousands to oh give it over a hundred thousand dollars every year so i'm telling you

today a principle god has proved in my life and i tell you today god is not done with your life with this church or these hills would you lift up your hands i want you to lift up your voice and as the as the spirit of the lord begins to move upon you i want you to just surrender you might begin praying in english but as the spirit of the lord the unction of the holy ghost begins to move on you you might begin to pray in the spirit that's that well of running water working through your life that's that well of running water working through this church that's that well of running water working in these hills lord jesus right now upon the authority of the word that you spoke to me for this house in this day i pray that you would resurrect every dormant promise i pray that you would resurrect the life and the vibrancy

of every prophecy you've ever spoken over this local body i pray you would clean our perspective i pray you would wash our mind by the water of your word i pray you would renew vision i pray you would renew strength i pray you would renew faith in the name of the lord jesus baptized this congregation with joy baptized their homes with joy baptized their families with joy i pray for every backslider in these hills i pray you would soften their heart right now turn their eyes to what you're doing in this house turn your eyes to the beauty of the work of god in this local body in the name of jesus christ in the name of jesus christ yes yes yes yes yes yes come on that's it that's it you're digging wells right now this is how we do it this is how we do it by prayer by burden by sacrifice by intercession

fasting bible studies of angelism prayer meetings revival services think based on where we are we think based on where we're going and we know where we're going because our eye has seen in the spirit our ear has heard from the spirit yes yes come on dig a well dig a well dig a well what you need is in that water the joy you're looking for it's in the water the peace you're looking for it's in the water the provision you're looking for it's in the water the miracle it's in the water the stability of life it's in the water the stability of your mind it's in the water tired of being anxious tired of being depressed it's in the water it's in the water come on to it this this thing has worked for generations before you and it's going to work in your generation but you got it you got to dig through you got to get the dirt out of the way

come on there's a richness of word there's a richness of spirit in the atmosphere of this church yes yes yes yes yes i'm gonna have your attention i'm gonna tell you this i'm done i'm gonna turn it back over to your pastor there's two things i feel right now to tell you if you take the principle i have preached to you the perspective you put this into action you live in obedience to this word there's two things i feel god will do for you the same thing he did for isek he'll give him quick harvest in the same year he reaped a hundred fold conditions didn't look right but he was learning the power of god's harvest is not so much in the soil of the earth but in the supernatural seed you're putting in it and the power of that harvest was unlocked when all the potential in that seed was placed in the soil by the man

you know the first thing i would tell you today his god has a quick harvest and the potential of this church there's a lot of churches that have history but somewhere along the way they've lost the richness of word and spirit and it's been preserved in this house and because of that it's ripe for a quick harvest the second thing i would tell you is is what i already said a moment ago i feel friend the holy ghost there's old money that's the hills and god can move upon the heart of a man or a woman of a family to open up their hand to Harrison hills church but you know what's going to cause their hand to be open and their heart to be open it's when they see that you didn't close up shop and leave town when it got hard you kept digging and you kept building and you kept working and while other families went

into decline your family kept moving forward and when other churches went into decline your church kept moving forward and it's the forward progression the forward momentum that's going to cause them to say something like this you know i've always loved this area it's where my grandmother was raised and my daddy was raised i've lived my whole life here and i'd love nothing more than to invest what my family worked for in the place we've called home there's a provision god has reserved but the only way you get it is by that forward progression by digging your own wells and stepping into what god has for you one more time as your pastor comes would you just lift up your hands and if you receive the word of the lord i want you to tell god lord i receive i receive it lord