4 Tips for Digging Revival Wells

I believe God is saying we can go to the wells of our spiritual forefathers and dig again to find new streams of revival bubbling forth.

I am not speaking of re-digging a well to return to the traditions of the past or to rediscover old methods or cherished doctrine. Rather I am talking of coming alive again with the waters of the Holy Spirit that were found in the wells of our spiritual ancestors!

I am convinced that such a thing has happened in Pensacola, Florida. Six years before this revival well began to flow again, God spoke to Renée DeLoriea in a Kansas airport, telling her of the revival that would come, which would be a rebirth of a previous well:

People were looking at me strangely, but I knew the force backing me into that wall was the power of God. I had been walking down the corridor, minding my own business, when an incredible force pushed me backward… My muscles fell limp like spaghetti, and when I finally hit the wall, I felt almost weightless. I tried to brace myself by leaning on the wall for support, but again the same powerful force began pushing me sideways to the floor. I thought, Oh great, I bet those people are really looking now. As I was pushed farther and farther to the floor, God spoke to my spirit in an almost audible voice, clearly saying, “Azusa Street: Pensacola, Florida. Azusa Street: Pensacola, Florida.”

That day in January 1989, I knew that God was going to send a revival to Pensacola, Florida. I realized even then that this revival would somehow touch the world just as the Azusa Street Revival in Los Angeles had changed the course of Church history in the early 1900’s.(1)

In a smaller way, God also had reopened a revival well at Mott Auditorium, the home of Harvest Rock Church, where I used to be based in Pasadena, California. On January 1, 1995, while many folks were enjoying the famous Rose Parade held annually in Pasadena on New Year’s Day, more than 2,000 believers from all around Los Angeles gathered in Mott Auditorium on short notice to hear John Arnott from the Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship—another renewed well of revival—speak.

The sense of the Lord’s presence was tangible, and the shouting and groaning of the saints resounded through the great hall. Many people shook violently and fell to the ground as the Lord came in power. Lives were being transformed and nobody wanted to go home. (The meetings went way beyond midnight.) Some people were saved; others were instantly healed. One lady, Joy Rittenhouse, had suffered six years from severe back pain. During worship that night, she began repeating, “I renounce bitterness. I renounce bitterness.” Then it happened. The back pain just disappeared and the precious woman was healed of both inner and outer suffering. On the ministry floor afterward, an unseen power struck her backward, without anyone praying for her. Then a great joy rolled up from within her and she began to laugh uncontrollably. God was turning her mourning into joy. It was Jubilee!(2)

This same kind of story can be told by hundreds, if not thousands, who have come to Mott Auditorium and have been personally touched and refreshed by the Lord. Since that New Year’s Day when the Holy Spirit’s power and presence began to reside in Mott Auditorium and to flow in a demonstrative way, thousands from all over the world have come there to drink of the Holy Spirit. Three years after the initial outpouring of God’s Spirit, we were still holding protracted meetings, and a whole new fellowship of churches, called Harvest International Ministries, had been birthed. Many times when the presence of God came, the sweet rose fragrance of Jesus could be smelled throughout the auditorium. Oh, the beauty of Jesus, the glory of His presence! I believe that Frank Bartleman’s wells were being opened again there.

The beauty of Jesus and the presence and power of the Holy Spirit are evident in a demonstrative way wherever God opens a well of revival. There is a “glory” that rests on both the place and the people. Those who come, drink deeply.

Yet not all revival wells flow in the same way. Toronto, Canada, for example, is a well of refreshing. Pensacola, on the other hand, is a well of salvation. Despite this variation in the way revival wells flow, a consistent series of results accompany the opening of every well.

1) Water of Refreshment

First, a revival well provides water that refreshes and revives dying people who are spiritually thirsty. When Hagar fled into the desert of Beersheba, she cried out to God for water to give to her son Ishmael, who was all but dead. God mercifully responded by opening her eyes so that she could see a well of fresh water (see Gen. 21:14-20). That drink in the desert saved her life and the life of her son. How many thousands, or millions, are dying in our cities—just looking for a well of revival?

2) Communal Wells

Second, revival wells are communal in nature. All are free to come and receive of the well’s refreshing. This is part of the beauty of revival. Believers from every race and denomination come together and stand side by side at the same pool. Maintaining this communal nature requires a soft spirit of all who would drink the well’s refreshing waters.

When Ché Ahn and I went to Toronto in October of 1994, we found ourselves face to face with brothers from the denomination we had just left. In fact, you just might find yourself worshiping with the person who split your church fellowship six months before! At this point, each seeker must choose whether to bless his or her brothers and sisters in the Lord or to dispute them at the well.

Disputes at the well are nothing new. When Isaac became so wealthy that he threatened the surrounding Philistines, they forced him out and his servants had to dig new wells. So Isaac’s men dug two new wells, which the shepherds of Gerar claimed, again forcing Isaac to move on. Isaac named the first abandoned well Esek, which means “quarreling.” He named the second Sitnah, which means “accusation.” Only after they dug the third well were Isaac, his family, and his servants left in peace. This well Isaac named Rehoboth, meaning “open place” or “room for all” (see Gen. 26:20-22).

When strife and bickering over the use of a well erupts, be it a physical well or a spiritual one, the entire community suffers. Everyone misses the blessing it might provide. Then what was meant to be a place of refreshing for all people (like the disputed wells Isaac was forced to leave) becomes a perpetual reminder of ugly disagreements and soul-wrenching disputes. History confirms that all attempts to control a well in the Spirit always end up stopping the flow. Bitterness, selfish ambition, fear, resentment, pride, deception…whatever the source of the conflict or division, dissension has always resulted in the loss of the water both sides were trying to safeguard. Then the glory of revival is forgotten and only the memory of the differences and divisions remains. We must not forget that the water found at revival wells is given by God for the refreshing and blessing of all!

3) Transferrable Water

Third, the water from a true revival well is transferable. That is, it can be taken home, thereby impacting many people who may not have the opportunity to go to the well and get a drink. The water from Toronto and Pensacola, for example, has touched the lives of multitudes of people who have never traveled to either city. There is a tangible presence of God that goes with it that can be shared with others.

Ché Ahn and I intentionally went to the Anaheim Vineyard Conference in 1994, where a well was flowing, so that we could receive some of the fresh water. We received the blessing of the Spirit. Soon afterward, we planted Harvest Rock Church, and that same power and blessing began to fall on our people. It was definitely transferable!

4) Life Around the Well

Fourth, wonderful ministries that bless thousands of people begin to form around a revival well. Bible schools and training centers are established, ministries to the poor are released, and missionary vision explodes. When I lived in Pasadena, four other churches merged with us to form Harvest Rock Church. Anointed men—and my treasured friends, Rick Wright, Karl Malouff, Jim Johnston, and Carlos Quintero—all laid down their senior pastor positions for the greater vision. From this one church blended from five congregations, we started a school of ministry for church planters and missionaries and a food bank for ministry to the poor. We also supported an international ministry that sent out apostolic men to train and encourage the more than 180 related churches that had already joined our Harvest International Ministries network. All this began because one well broke open! I believe this happens because wells, by their very nature, tap into a hidden source of water that provides continual refreshing. Revival wells, in particular, sustain a fresh relationship with the Lord that empowers those who drink from it.

Dig Wells—Not Cisterns!

The temptation that confronts all who find refreshing at revival wells is to stop relying on the Lord and to start depending on themselves. In a heartbroken cry, the Lord rebuked Israel for this sin: “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water” (Jer. 2:13). This lament starts with the Lord’s fond memory of Israel: “I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved me” (Jer. 2:2).

Forsaking the Lord and digging our own cisterns is losing the freshness of our early affection for the Lord and finding other things to satisfy us. It is doing the very thing that Paul warned the Galatians against: “After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?” (Gal. 3:3)

Cisterns, by their very nature, cannot supply the fresh, living (flowing) water found in natural springs or wells. This is true because wells are supplied by fresh underground water, whereas cisterns are but small reservoirs dug in the ground to collect and store rainwater. Water is channeled into the cisterns by drains from roofs, courtyards, streets, and in some places, open areas of land. Therefore, debris and filth collect in the tank along with the water. This sediment eventually settles to the bottom of the reservoir, oftentimes polluting the water.

How often has the Church sought to hollow out a little tank outside the back door, wanting to store up every drop of rain that might fall her way? How often have we resorted to religious control as we’ve tried to contain what little life there is in our churches, frantically plastering away at every crack in our façade, as the owner of a cistern might plaster the cracks in the rock to prevent the water from escaping? Like the manna that was to be eaten fresh every day except on the Sabbath (see Exod. 16:14-36), the refreshing water of the Spirit must be received fresh and new each day.

The Process of Digging

I have learned that if water is to last more than a few brief weeks, we cannot be satisfied to stop digging when we’re wading in ankle deep water. We must dig to depths that provide a steady, life-sustaining flow. This has required much perseverance because digging after we found water was not easy. In fact, the deeper we dug, the harder it became. Let me share with you a few insights we have gained about how to dig a well of revival and what happens while you are digging.

1) You’ll Get Thirsty

First, you’ll probably be thirsty while you are digging. To dig or re-dig a well is hard work. You may feel that your efforts are feeble (and ours have been!), but no rock can withstand a constant tapping or hammering on the same spot without cracking. Keep on praying! God, in His mercy, gives an intense spiritual thirst during this season that keeps you desperate for His presence. It is this thirst that keeps you digging.

2) Hold on to Revelation

Second, the Lord will give you a prophetic surge every now and then to encourage you. This may be in the form of words, dreams, or divine appointments or coincidences. Hold on to these revelations dearly, for they will propel you when you see no water!

3) Expect Resistence

Third, expect demonic resistance and push through discouragement and dryness. Very often the enemy tries to hinder access to life-giving wells. Even as intercessors have contended and continue to contend for the spiritual “gates,” so you must fight for your spiritual wells of refreshing. Gather a company of committed prayer warriors who are not intimidated by the enemy. They must be people like the mighty men of David’s band, who braved great danger to satisfy David’s desire for a drink from the well at Bethlehem when he was separated from it by Philistine forces:

So the three mighty men broke through the Philistine lines, drew water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem and carried it back to David. …Such were the exploits of the three mighty men (2 Samuel 23:16-17).

4) Learn to Worship

Fourth, learn to worship. As you get closer to water, worship becomes a major emphasis. It is worship and praise that opens the fountains in the desert, and water from the rock: “Spring up, O well; sing ye unto it” (Num. 21:17 KJV).

Fifth, don’t give up once you’ve hit water. Many people make the mistake of backing off when God finally releases His refreshing Spirit. This is precisely the time to press forward for greater victory. When John Arnott, the pastor of Airport Christian Fellowship in Toronto, saw the moving of the Holy Spirit during those first few meetings with Randy Clark, he was not content to have just some good meetings. He wanted more, so he asked Randy to stay on longer. He held protracted meetings. This strategy of holding protracted meetings is the first counsel that Wes Campbell gave to us when the Spirit began to move in Mott Auditorium. It is counsel that you, too, must heed if you would open and sustain the flow of the Holy Spirit from the wells beneath your feet.

Many ancient wells descended to great depths. (Jacob’s well is still 75 feet deep, having been at least twice that deep at one time.) This was necessary because shallow wells often ran dry in the heat of summer. The same is true for wells of revival. Satan will try many things to prevent you from digging deep wells. Should this fail, he’ll send opposition your way or he’ll try to provoke you into putting limits on what God’s Spirit may do and how He may do it. When you do strike water—make sure to stay in it!

This may sound obvious, but many churches miss the full blessing by backing off after a few meetings in the power of renewal and revival. They go back to church “the way it was” and figure that the evident outpouring of God’s Spirit was a passing thing. Keep praying and inviting the Holy Spirit. Contend for your inheritance!

The wells that Frank Bartleman and others dug were wells of deep devotion. They were wells from which living water flowed through a fresh, vital relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. In time, however, those wells of refreshing became stopped up by stones of contention, division, and institutionalism. Those who had drunk deeply from their waters began to rely more on cisterns, which are the idolatry and religious activity that characterize much of the Church today.

In biblical times, old cisterns were often used as prisons. At least two prophets, Joseph and Jeremiah, were imprisoned in them! Dead bodies were also thrown into these unused pits (see Gen. 37:22-24; Jer. 38:6; 41:7). This sounds a lot like what Jesus condemned the Pharisees for:

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean (Matthew 23:27).

If we want to see sustained “watering holes” open across our land, we must keep digging, not build storage tanks! Religious cisterns, like physical cisterns, cannot provide fresh water. Although the building of religious cisterns may appear to be an attempt to preserve the move of God we are enjoying, in truth such efforts result only in the neglect of the very wells from which the refreshing waters flow. Then those places that were once sources of life become places of death instead.

An article in the Los Angeles Times illustrates this principle all too well. The article told the story of a five-year-old boy in Buenos Aires, Argentina, who fell down a 59-foot well shaft while he was out walking with his mother. The well, located in the middle of a grassy field, had been dug four years earlier; but it had been neglected and had become overgrown with weeds. Hidden as it was by the weeds, it became a death trap for this young child. Only when she heard his shout did the mother realize that her son, who had been walking behind her, had fallen into the abandoned well. Rescuers had to dig a parallel tunnel so that they could reach the trapped child. After spending more than 33 hours in the well, the child was pulled out, but doctors were unable to revive him.

What struck me about this story was the young boy’s name—Cristian.(3) His story broke my heart when I read it. The well that had been dug to be a source of blessing and refreshing ended up being a trap of death.

Many revival wells have suffered this fate. They have become places of death where the life-giving water that once bubbled up to revive and nourish all who drank it now flows silently, unnoticed and untapped. These are the wells that you and I are called to clear out and reopen.

It’s time to reclaim the lost promises and unfulfilled potential of the many revival wells that have been dug throughout the history of the Church. God is seeking to restore our rightful inheritance. So before you begin digging a new well, try to reopen an old well by researching and reclaiming the history of revival in your area. Discover what “springs of water welling up to eternal life” (see John 4:14) are part of the heritage of your family and of the congregation and denomination into which the Lord has planted you. As John Dawson writes:

Do not despise your roots. Every Israelite had a tribe. There were no independent Jews. Sectarian attitudes are wrong, but denominations are biblical. God sets us in families in His kingdom. If you do not know your inheritance, how can you enter into it? How can you rejoice in it?(4)

Many denominations were birthed in revival! It’s time that we rediscover the ancient inheritances upon which the Church has been founded. It’s time to clear out the original wells of revival that have been polluted by division and the traditions of man. This is the season when sons and daughters can repossess the wells that their fathers and mothers fought to dig. May we by our repentance, forgiveness, and prayer, restore the effervescent flow of the Holy Spirit that has long been stopped up and forgotten. May we reclaim and rename the revival wells that now only recall disputes and disagreement, and instead honor the memory of those who originally established these historic sources of life-giving water.

The glory of God that bubbled up and spilled over in days past will again arise to refresh God’s people and to bless them with a presence and power of God’s Spirit that many have only read about and longed for. Then the life-giving wells dug by Frank Bartleman and other saints throughout the ages will flow freely, testifying to the faithfulness and covenant-keeping nature of God. Men and women will again wear the mantles of saints who fasted, prayed, and tarried until the glory of God came down. There’s a well beneath your feet. Dig it, lest you die!

Notes

1. Renée DeLoriea, Portal in Pensacola (Shippensburg, PA: Revival Press, 1997), 15-16.

2.. Story used with permission.

3. Los Angeles Times, March 20, 1998.

4. John Dawson, Taking Our Cities for God: How to Break Spiritual Strongholds (Lake Mary, FL: Creation House, 1989), 94.