Is Your Cistern Broken?

• Is your spiritual life broken?
• Does your life feel empty?
• Have you walked away from God and heeding to His voice?

If your answer is yes to these questions, then this is definitely for you. So keep reading!

Jeremiah 2:13 states: For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water. (KJV)

The prophet Jeremiah spoke about the backsliding of Israel. They had turned away from God in so many ways but here God through the prophet highlighted two evils that they had committed:

1. They forsook the fountain of living waters (which is God) and
2. They created or carved out their own cisterns, that could not hold water

Let’s examine the first evil or wrong which the Israelites commited.

No. 1 – They Have Forsaken Me (God) the Fountain of Living Waters

The word says: “they have forsaken me”. The Strong’s Concordance defines the word “forsaken” as:

to leave, loose, forsake

1. (Qal) to leave
   1. to depart from, leave behind, leave, let alone

   2. to leave, abandon, forsake, neglect, apostatise

   3. to let loose, set free, let go, free

Source: https://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/Lexicon/Lexicon.cfm?strongs=H5800&t=KJV

In other words, Jeremiah, the mouthpiece of God, was saying that Israel left God; they departed from God. They Left him behind. They left him out of their lives on many occasions and did their own thing.

Are you guilty or not heeding the voice of God and doing your own thing?

How can this be applied to us today?

Very often we forsake God in one way or the other. Sometimes we leave Him out of our decision, we neglect and abandon our first love. We take our eyes off of Him and when we do that all trouble breaks loose. We know this because every time the Israelites forsook God and took their eyes off of Him in complaining and ungratefulness, something went wrong and they suffered the consequences.

How many times have you fallen or paid the price for not heeding God’s voice? 

How many times have letting go and not letting go caused you to be in a broken spot?

How many times have you taken things into your own hands and allowed situations to get the best of you when your eyes should have been fixed on the Ultimate One who fights on our behalf?

 

Remember: The Holy Spirit is a fountain of Living water.

The word of God makes reference  to God as the Fountain of Living Waters as follows:

O LORD, the hope of Israel, all that forsake thee shall be ashamed, and they that depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living waters. (Jeremiah 17:13)

Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. (John 4:10)

He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (John 7:38)

Water denotes life. God is the fountain of life and anytime we reject that life, we move into a broken place.

He is the fountain that will never run dry and if we refuse to drink from the that fountain, again we lack the nourishment that we need and automatically open the doors to a dry and barren dehydrated state which causes us to become broken.

How many of us take our eyes of God whether consciously or unconsciously? 

It calls for us keeping our eyes fixed on God.

How many of us have loosed God’s plans for our lives created on our own plans? I surely have, some time or the other.

In the end, we create broken lives that can’t hold anything. Lives that can’t be used of God because we can hold the spirit and anointing that God wants to pout into us. Our lives become broken.

This then moves us into the second evil committed by the Israelites

No. 2 – They Hewed Them Out Broken Cisterns, that can Hold No Water

The cistern is a vessel and similarly the word of God refers to us as vessels. And as vessels we are supposed to hold the living water. We are supposed to be carriers of God’s spirit; the Holy Spirit.

Once we start leaving out God of our decisions and lives, we create holes in our lives. Once we start leaving out the direction of the Holy Spirit we weaken our vessels and soon after they become broken. No one causes this, but our disobedience.

When we stop allowing the fountain of living water to be poured into us, holes are created in us as vessels of God. We create holes in our spirit and become broken in areas that affect us on so many different levels; our spiritual lives, ministries, and divine purposes are affected. We are then unable to operate in the perfect and acceptable will of God because we have chosen to create broken lives without Him.

The great thing is that whatever holes exist in your cistern today, God can fix. He will smash it and create a whole new cistern but putting us back on the potter’s wheel.

It’s time for us to go down to the potter’s house and be made whole so that the river of living water can fill us and flow from us when we open our mouths.

Are you in a broken state today?

Look back! How did you get to this state?

Did you take your eyes off God?

Don’t be dismayed. Go to God in prayer and repent. Invite the Living Water to fill you again. Allow Him to mold you into the beautiful cistern that He wants you to be. This will call for surrender and total dependence on Him in everything you do, so that no holes can be created again, which will cause you to divert from the will of God for your life.

God wants us restored to our whole states so that He can pour His Spirit; the living water into us and use us.

If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work. (2 Timothy 2:21 KJV)

This scripture is basically summing up the solution to removing the brokenness from our cisterns.

There are some “backslidings” and things we need to purge ourselves from so that God can hold us again into the beautiful vessel of honor that He can use.

Final advice:

• Repent for anytime you have pushes away God
• Welcome God to mold you and make you whole again
• Welcome the Holy Spirit to fill you again
• Stay focused on the will of God for your life
• Keep your eyes on God
• Don’t allow situations to overcome you
• Don’t take anything into your hans. Let God remain in control guiding you an filling you with His spirit that you will make the right decisions and remain whole in Him

Honor YOUR FATHER and YOUR MOTHER

 

THE WORD OF THE LORD TO YOU TODAY: Honor Your Mother & Your Father

My Daughter, My Son…God Says: Honor YOUR FATHER and YOUR MOTHER

Scripture tells us:

Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee. Exodus 20:12

God didn’t say to deny them nor hate them for their shortcomings. He simply says…Honor your father and your mother. He doesn’t leave it there. He states that there is a positive result for doing this: that your days may be long upon the land.

 

WHAT DOES “TO HONOR” MEAN?

Dictionary.com defines the word honor as:

1. high respect, as for worth, merit, or rank: to be held in honor.
2. To show courteous regard

So what is God saying to us today?

God is calling us to exercise high respect and show continuous courteous regard to our parents no matter what they have done or said.

Now this is not only mentioned in the book of Exodus as one of the commandments given unto Moses, but it is repeated in Exodus.

Honour thy father and thy mother, as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee; that thy days may be prolonged, and that it may go well with thee, in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. (Exodus 5:16)

 

THIS IS THE FIRST COMMANDMENT WITH A PROMISE ATTACHED

 The Apostle Paul says:

1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.

2 Honour thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise;

3 That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.

(Epehsians 6:1-3)

Paul was very clear to inform the church that this is a first commandment with promise. In other words, Paul was very clear in telling God’s people that it is God’s promise to give us long life on this earth. If we respect our parents, all will be well with us and we will have long life here on the earth, until God takes us home.

From Paul’s words one could conclude that dishonoring your father and your mother will lead to a shortened life span. The onus is therefore on us to walk fully in this promise of God but doing our part. It’s all up to us. We have long life in our hands by the way we respond to our parents.

Moses wrote: Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee. Exodus 20:12

God has allotted specific days for us to be here on earth, His question to you today is: Will you yourself cause them to be shortened? …….

Let that question sink in for a while……

Whatever your father or mother has done or not done, said or not said has nothing to do with the fact that above all things we are called to honor.

What will your response be today?

Interesting enough we may saying at this point: You can say all you want, you just don’t know how much he or she hurt or hurts me and I just can’t be nice to him or her.

Ok. That is quite understandable. After all, you alone know the hurt and torment that you have been through. But take a minute to look at Jesus. He was, is and always will be the ultimate example.

His father put Him on the cross for us. He loves us so much that let Jesus become sin for us and suffer for us that we might have a savior. Jesus could have disrespected His father and called on legions of angels to destroy those who were crucifying. Instead He did it and said not my will my thine will be done. He was obedient to God because of the promise in the end, which is for us to have everlasting life.

Similarly God is calling us to be obedient to Him and His word (which is to obey and honor our parents) so that our days would be long in the land which the Lord thy God has given to us.

 

THE ORIGINAL MEANING OF THE WORD “HONOR” IN HEBREW:

In some case, you can never get the full understanding of what God is saying without going back to the original language in which the Bible was written.

You will notice that I spoke a lot of being obedient and respectful, but let us take a look at the original meaning of the Hebrew word for “honor”. The Old Testament was originally written in hebrew and the original translation for the word “honor” is “kabad”. Here is what the Strongs Concordance says:

Kabad or kabed {kaw-bade’}; a primitive root; to be heavy, i.e. in a bad sense (burdensome, severe, dull) or in a good sense (numerous, rich, honorable; causatively, to make weighty (in the same two senses):–abounding with, more grievously afflict, boast, be chargeable, X be dim, glorify, be (make) glorious (things), glory, (very) great, be grievous, harden, be (make) heavy, be heavier, lay heavily, (bring to, come to, do, get, be had in) honour (self), (be) honourable (man), lade, X more be laid, make self many, nobles, prevail, promote (to honour), be rich, be (go) sore, stop.

Above all else, the words that stood out to me were “make weighty”, “abounding with” and “prevail”. There is another way that God wants us to see the act of respecting our father and mother.

Let’s take a look at these words that stood for me:

Make weighty – In other words, make your father and your mother become your responsibility.

I don’t believe at all that God is asking us to do the impossible, but as I sought Him for deeper interpretation He brought me to parents in their older years. This has nothing to do with physical size. This is simply telling us that we are called to allow our parents to rest on us and allow their burdens to become our burdens, as they get old. In other words, God commands us to take care of them and take responsibility for them as they reach the age where they are not able to do the things that they could not do before. God says this is all in the process of honoring. Even before they get to this stage, we are called to honor them by being there for them. It is like allowing them to lean on us. As you allow them to lean on you, you will feel their weight but God says He has given you the strength to do it and to be a blessing to them in their old age. As they lean on you, you will feel the weight but see it as an act of gratitude to God for using your father and your mother to bring you into this world.

Abounding with/Prevailing – You are called to abound with or prevail with your father and your mother. This can be seen as simply being there in whatever way possible or needed at the time; whether physically, emotionally, spiritually, financially, socially etc.

 What will be your response today?

  

WHY NOT DISHONOR?

This may be your question today.

Many of you are going through a lot because of what your mother or father did or did not do to or for you. Many of you didn’t have him or her around while growing up but God is saying to you today, just honor your father and your mother.

God is saying I have a great work for you to do. Don’t shorten your days by dishonoring your parents in their old age. Taking care of your parents is a command from God and He is letting you know that it is not going to be without rewards. Your days will be long in the land, which God has given you.

Why honor him or her when he or she has done nothing for me?

Why honor him or her when he or she has not been there for me?

Why honor him or her when all he or she does is talk about me?

Why honor him or her when all he or she did was abuse me?

God knows the pain and the hurt. He knows the anger on the inside of you, but He is telling you today to just let go. Let go and give it to Him because Jesus is the burden bearer. He said his yoke is easy.

1 Peter 5:7 says Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.

Matthew 11: 30 says For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

God wants us healed and on the right track.

God knows that some of you have a “favourite” parent because that one has been the one to carry the load for all the years of your life, but He wants you to honor both of them. If one has gone on to eternity, then still honor the one that is still alive. Still do all in your might to show respect the one who remains because respect will lead you walk in the FULL purpose for which God has created you.

The word says that in the end times, children will be disobedient to parents:

But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people (2 Timothy 3:1-5)

God is calling us to step up our game in these end times. We are called to be obedient to and to respect our parents so that we won’t be cut off early from the land. The promise of God is long life in the land, which He has given to us once we honor, and prevail with our parents. We are not to give up on them because without them we would not be here alive.

Here are some scriptures to help strengthen you in your journey:

Proverbs 20:20 Whoso curseth his father or his mother, his lamp shall be put out in obscure darkness.

Exodus 21:17 And he that curseth his father, or his mother, shall surely be put to death.

Leviticus 20:9 If there is anyone who curses his father or his mother, he shall surely be put to death; he has cursed his father or his mother, his bloodguiltiness is upon him.

Proverbs 30:11 “There are those who curse their fathers and do not bless their mothers;

Deuteronomy 27:16 “Cursed is anyone who dishonors their father or mother.” Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”

Proverbs 30:17 The eye that mocks a father and scorns to obey a mother will be picked out by the ravens of the valley and eaten by the vultures.

Matthew 15:18-20 But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.”

Exodus 21:15 Whoever strikes his father or his mother shall be put to death.

Proverbs 15:20 A wise son brings joy to his father, but a foolish man despises his mother.

HONOR YOUR MOTHER AND YOUR FATHER!

Conceived in Rebellion

Hear the word of the Lord this day: 

Some of us have friends and family members who for some reason are always in trouble. Somehow the enemy has them tied up and no matter how much you pray, things seem to be getting worse. 

The Lord is telling you to take a look back at them from the womb. Some of them have been conceived in rebellion. So their fruit is rebellion against what is right and godly.

This may sound strange, but what is God saying?

God is saying that some mothers rebelled against God even in the circumstances that they allowed in their lives at the moment of conception. And in taking part in rebellious acts (against God), whatever that act might have been, they would have invited the spirit of rebellion in their lives. 

The devil, who cares nothing for us and is the father of rebellion attaches the spirit to the child in the womb. As a result our seed carries the same rebellious spirit which is played out in their behavior. Then we ask ourselves: how did this child turn out this way?

God is saying look back at the conception period and the rebellious circumstances in which the child was conceived or rebellious behavior of the parents in the season of conception.

God gave me this example so that I could better understand what He was saying about being “conceived in rebellion”:

 Consider a teenager who defies everything her/his parents say. They sneak out with that certain person even though the parents do everything to hinder it. They continue to rebel against rules, gets sexually active and becomes pregnant. This whole situation is rebellious, the child is therefore conceived in rebellion.

Deuteronomy 28 shows that such rebellious actions against what is godly opens to doors to curses. Rebellion closes to door to the blessings of God (take a look at Deu 28 to see the negative outcomes of a rebellious spirit). Think about it. What open doors are in your life or the lives of others that would have caused the spirit of rebellion to take authority in your bloodline?

I am not sure who this message is for tonight but God says the curse can be broken. You have prayed alot, cried alot and asked God for change. You may have seen slight change in the right direction but somehow the rebellion against the good and right kicks back in.

The Holy Spirit wants you to go back in time. He says go back to conception and break off the curse of rebellion that entered at conception. Repent for your own rebellious acts or those of others and command every rebellious demon plaguing your generational line, friends etc to go back to the pit of hell from whence it came, in the name of Jesus. 

You have the authority to wash any spirit of rebellion in the blood of Jesus and command it to be destroyed. Jesus did it and we can too. But He says speak to the spirit which entered at the point of conception. There is something being specific with the demonic world that makes the difference in how victorious we are in our fight.

The Holy Spirit is giving new strategy in this season so that you can have the victory you so longed for.

In the name of Jesus.