The Power of Retention

UV 2082/10000 The Power of Retention
For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring:
Isaiah 44 v 3

A person without the touch of God in his life is like dry and parched ground. We can visualise a famine-affected land that breaks up into millions of pieces of cracked top soil, each crack aching for a drop of water. But when we manifest a thirst for the truth, a thirst for the Word, a longing for a relationship with the Lord, He promises to pour in the water of His love, truth, mercy and grace. The soil of our souls will soak in the water and get connected, the parts with each other and the whole with the Lord, our Creator and Redeemer in Christ. The soul like the soil will come alive again and new life in the form of seed, saplings, crops, flowery plants and fruit trees will spring up from the soul as from the wet soil. We may have everything in life and yet feel dry without the Lord in our lives. We do not have thirst because there is water. Rather, there is water as we have thirst. Our deepest need for God and a Saviour is met in Christ. His words of truth are the water of eternal life which when we drink daily and often will lead us never to thirst again. Like water has multiple uses: it quenches thirst, it cleans, it refreshes, it regenerates, it renews, it irrigates, it softens, the Word regenerates, cleanses, refreshes, softens our hearts and renews us.

Our tongues and our throats always need to be moist and wet. If these are dry, it would be highly uncomfortable and we would be longing for water. Water is one of our most basic needs and we need it all the time. As we are using up the water all the time, we need to keep taking a refill. Similarly, we need to take a refill of the Word in order to renew ourselves in the Lord. The Lord pours His Spirit upon us, into us and ours. The Spirit like a river refreshes us and turns into streams or tributaries of life –giving or inspirational water. The Spirit inspires in us faith, hope and love. In accordance with our obedience and abiding in the Spirit, He turns it into a flood of divine wisdom, guidance, gifts, anointing and triune blessings on spirit, mind and body. The blessings do not stop with us but carries into our generations.
Mere intention to read or hear the Word is not enough. We need retention. Just as water needs to percolate and enter the deeper parts of the soil, the Word needs to be retained so that it percolates to the different parts and deeper as well as deepest parts of our souls. In different soils, the ground water is reached at different depths. Water finds its own level in soul. There is no stopping it till it hits the bedrock. So also the springs of our well being run deep. Mere surface scratching or superficial attention will not do. The Spirit has to do a deep and lasting work with the Word in our lives. Then and then only will the dry and parched soul gets transformed into a soil that throws up a hundred fold or a thousand fold of crops and fruit. The dry land will be lifted up like a hill and all around there will be blessings in abundance. There will be showers of blessings and at times, even a flood. The dry land will be turned into a pool, the wilderness into a stream, the desert into an oasis. We will have the early spring rain at the time of sowing as well as the latter rain at the time of harvest. The Lord to whom both the field, the seed, the crop, the water and the harvest belong will oversee our growing to fruition. The mountains will drop down the new vine of new life and the pastures will flow with milk and honey.

Prateep V Philip