DRINKING FROM A BROKEN CISTERN?

What is a cistern? 
A cistern is a reservoir that holds water, that can be consumed in times of dryness.  A cistern is a place where rain water is collected and channeled to a cistern for the times of drought.  In Israel, it did not rain regularly, sometimes for months at a time.  The water supply in the cistern was what sustained the people during the drought.  A typical cistern was mostly or completely underground with a roof to prevent evaporation.  Many times it was a natural ROCK cavity or man-made with cement or plaster, creating a holding area.  The cistern could not have any cracks of broken cement or plaster areas, as this would allow the water to  seep out and be lost.  The people of Jeremiah`s time were having problems because the cisterns that they dug for themselves were broken and the water was lost in a spiritual sense.
It says Jeremiah 2:13,
"For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, The fountain of living waters, To hew for themselves cisterns, Broken cisterns That can hold no water.

Yeshua(even pre-incarnate Messiah) was/is the ROCK where the water was/is held.  In Hebrews it states that Yeshua was the ROCK that followed the Israelites in the desert and the Rock from which the water flowed when they had NO water.  It was the ROCK that Moses hit and water gushed out of.  (Wow, do you think Moses symbolically hit Yeshua in disobedience, and was included in the reason Moses was prevented from entering the Promised Land?)  In Yeshua, the water will not drain out and will always be available if we keep our priority in Him. If we create idols(other priorities above Yeshua), that is called a cistern that we hew/form for ourselves.  Of course it will not hold living water as it is human-made and will leak out.
Yeshua said to the woman at the well, “I will give you living water so that you will never thirst.”
Here is the account from John 4;
10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
 11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
 13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
Interesting historical Fact.  This very well in Sychar or Shechem was the Well that Jacob dug when he needed fresh, pure water.  God does nothing by chance. There were 20 other springs,  around this area, but they were not good water.  So Jacob dug this very well for fresh, pure water.  This was also the place Sychar or Shechem where Jacob had made his family and business partners bury their idols under the oak trees.  It was at this very place earlier in history where a reconsecration and recommitment had been made to follow the One true God and Father.
So today; do we have 20 other springs gushing around us with water that is not the Living water?  What idols am I bowing down to?  What are we worshiping? Are we consecrated and committed, (at the well with living water or the cistern that is not broken),  to the ONE(Yeshua) who gives Living Water so that we will never thirst? Are we drinking daily of His fountain so we will not be thirsty?  He says also, “all my fountains are in you.”  Jeremiah 17:13 that disaster has come upon the land because they forsook the Lord, the Fountain of Living waters.
Just as in Jacob`s life, there may be many springs that are gushing around you, but they do not taste so good.  Please, do not settle for these springs that taste bad, but dig deep till you find the ONE spring of LIVING WATER so that you will never thirst.  Are you dry because you have been satisfied with water that is just OK? So the desire for water just is not there?  Ask Yeshua now to restore the desire for Living Water.

Jeremiah 17
8For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters that spreads out its roots by the river; and it shall not see and fear when heat comes; but its leaf shall be green. It shall not be anxious and full of care in the year of drought, nor shall it cease yielding fruit.

ASK FOR WISDOM

What is it that you lack today, whether it be physical healing, spiritual revelation, or financial provision.  The action on our part is ASK GOD.  He is the Father who gives, when we ask, without judgment of what we ask.
James 1:5 says,
But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.

Now it is true that if we ask for our own selfish desires, that we may not get an answer until we surrender our desires to what is according to the Father`s will for our life.
James 4:3 says,
You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.

It is also true that the Lord longs to give us the desires of our hearts.  But those desires have to be according to God`s will and surrendered, even if they are good.
     Then, there are the choices that we have not made in life.  Choices that will take us out of what we think of as normal and going on to that new thing in our lives.  We may wonder why we are doing the same thing that our grandparents and parents did. 
God says to you, “behold I will do a new thing, now it will spring forth, will you not be aware of it?  I will even make a roadway in the wilderness.  Rivers in the  desert, I will do something new.”   If this is you, choose to step out in faith  today.  Make a conscious choice to step out of what is normal in your family line, to something NEW.  God made you to be an individual, he made you to fulfill a specific plan in His Master plan.  If you do not know what that plan or purpose is today, ask.  He will give you wisdom, and will reveal that plan to you.  It is His promise to you.

Jeremiah 29:11-13 says,
'For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.
 'Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.
 'You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.



But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy.

YOM KIPPUR`S MESSAGE

 Messiah was AFFLICTED for us, so we would NOT have to be afflicted. RIGHTEOUSNESS and HOLINESS, HAS been FULLY MET in MESSIAH. Hallelujah!!!!
Have you ever read this beautiful scripture that reports how the Messiah would come and ATONE for the Jew and then equally for the Gentile (all people).


Here is the message;

Isaiah 53

 ¹WHO HAS believed (trusted in, relied upon, and clung to) our message [of that which was revealed to us]? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been disclosed?    ²For [the Servant of God] grew up before Him like a tender plant, and like a root out of dry ground; He has no form or comeliness [royal, kingly pomp], that we should look at Him, and no beauty that we should desire Him.
    ³He was despised and rejected and forsaken by men, a Man of sorrows and pains, and acquainted with grief and sickness; and like One from Whom men hide their faces He was despised, and we did not appreciate His worth or have any esteem for Him.
    ⁴Surely He has borne our griefs (sicknesses, weaknesses, and distresses) and carried our sorrows and pains [of punishment], yet we [ignorantly] considered Him stricken, smitten, and afflicted by God [as if with leprosy].
    ⁵But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our guilt and iniquities; the chastisement [needful to obtain] peace and well-being for us was upon Him, and with the stripes [that wounded] Him we are healed and made whole.
    ⁶All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord has made to light upon Him the guilt and iniquity of us all.
    ⁷He was oppressed, [yet when] He was afflicted, He was submissive and opened not His mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth.
    ⁸By oppression and judgment He was taken away; and as for His generation, who among them considered that He was cut off out of the land of the living [stricken to His death] for the transgression of my [Isaiah's] people, to whom the stroke was due?
    ⁹And they assigned Him a grave with the wicked, and with a rich man in His death, although He had done no violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth.
    ¹⁰Yet it was the will of the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief and made Him sick. When You and He make His life an offering for sin [and He has risen from the dead, in time to come], He shall see His [spiritual] offspring, He shall prolong His days, and the will and pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.
    ¹¹He shall see [the fruit] of the travail of His soul and be satisfied; by His knowledge of Himself [which He possesses and imparts to others] shall My [uncompromisingly] righteous One, My Servant, justify many and make many righteous (upright and in right standing with God), for He shall bear their iniquities and their guilt [with the consequences, says the Lord].
    ¹²Therefore will I divide Him a portion with the great [kings and rulers], and He shall divide the spoil with the mighty, because He poured out His life unto death, and [He let Himself] be regarded as a criminal and be numbered with the transgressors; yet He bore [and took away] the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors (the rebellious).

Messiah says, you are qualified because I (atoned), did the Work. No man was ALLOWED to work when Yeshua was on the tree dying. That is why the darkness covered the earth for 6 hours (6 represents the # for man). In those days they did not have electricity, when it was dark it was dark, and you could not do anything. This then is what/how we are qualified. Trust in the UNMERITED Favor of Messiah today.   It is not with long flowery prayers - it is relationship.

THE GOOD SHEPHERD

Yeshua says In John 10, “I AM the good shepherd.”  My sheep know my voice and to the voice of a stranger my sheep will not  listen.  When I (Yeshua) call, my sheep will gather into the sheepfold where they will be safe and warm and provision is abundant.  The sheepfold can be likened  to a Fortress (a tower), that all who run to it are safe. 
The enemy tries to make holes in the wall of the fortress/sheepfold of Yeshua.  Sometimes even breaking down parts of the wall.  We as people of LIFE are to be there ready for just such an occurrence.  We are to stand for LIFE, stand in the GAP that has been broken down and help repair the wall.  We are to be acting as agents of Redemption.  Doing the same as Yeshua does to help rebuild what ever has been torn apart in people`s lives.  Yeshua also says that whoever does not gather, SCATTERS.  We are to be doing the work that Yeshua did.  This is helping people to enter the safety of the sheepfold, not turning them away.

Yeshua`s first public sermon was Isaiah 61.  Verse 4, speaks of the Spirit rebuilding or repairing the ancient ruins and bringing restoration to our lives.  Even restoring the places that have been devastated for generations. 
Here is the passage;
They will rebuild the ancient ruins
   and restore the places long devastated;
they will renew the ruined cities
   that have been devastated for generations. 

Maybe you can think of sins in your family that your Grandpa or Grandma did and then your Mom or Dad did and now you are doing the same thing.  It could be attitude, an action or a reaction that you do not seem to have control over in your life.  You could even think that this thing is a thorn in your side.  I am hear to tell you that it is not something you have to live with for the rest of your life.  No, it can be repaired and restored by the blood of Yeshua.  This is the meaning of Redemption.  You were bought, the price is the BLOOD of the Lamb that was paid for you. 
If you think you have a thorn in your side today,  ask Yeshua to remove it by His blood.  A thorn is something that when it is not pulled out will cause infection and an oozing at the sight.  It may never truly heal do to the continued irritation.  This term is often used when we just cannot get victory in a certain area of our lives.  We do NOT need to have a thorn in our side.  God`s desire is that we walk free of all things that encumber us.  Whom the Son sets free is free indeed.  It is for the SAKE of freedom that you have been set free.

Today, I intercede for all who read these words that your lives would be free of thorns, and sins that may easily encumber you.  That you walk in freedom today because the Lamb of God(YESHUA)paid the price for you.  That you will stand in the gap and be a builder of the wall, and not one who tears down, in Yeshua`s Name.