We used to always hear when you were traveling to another country, “Don’t drink the water.” That’s just as applicable here as anywhere today. Ask people in Flint, Michigan ~ or in so many other cities. Or just look at our streams, rivers, and oceans. If we started working now, we could make great strides in cleaning up our water, which is our most valuable commodity. But I’m talking about what we purposely put in our water spiritually, not environmentally. And no matter how toxic, we still choose to drink this water that is composed of hatred and division and all that is contrary to the words Christ gave us to live by. It’s polluted ideologies that we have come to accept because they are necessary to erect and maintain a platform built from our most vile beliefs. You’re drinking poison, and it will eventually affect all you think and do. You can no longer nourish others with decency and empathy. Now you are hell bent on seeing a doctrine manifest that only will birth death.
In 2 Kings 23, King Josiah is tearing down all idols and abominations built and worshiped by those that were walking contrary to God. They were ground down, burned, and pulverized into dust and thrown into the Brook Kidron. This was also done by King Asa in 1 Kings 15. The Brook Kidron was a common receptacle for impurities of destroyed idol worship. This brook ran north of Jerusalem and swept past the Temple Mount to areas that would later be named Calvary and Gethsemane. The name “Kidron” means turbid, dusky or gloomy. Appropriate name for a receptacle for impurities. We see many that are influenced by drinking from those waters. You are what you eat. You are what you drink. The effects of drinking from what is today’s equivalent of the Brook Kidron can only bring anger, hate, division, and a gospel based on your own theology, not that given to us by Christ. In 1 & 2 Kings, so many followed those who led them down a dark path. Away from God to their own destruction. Light came to lead us then and today, but men loved darkness rather than light.
There are different streams that lead to the ocean, just as there are different ideas and ideologies that can quench a thirst. But so many are poison filled. They cause a disease of the spirit. Those who drink from these waters that are filled with the dust of man’s idols find themselves forgetting that which is true and right. John 7:38 says, “He who believes in Me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” Those searching for those living waters will find them curiously absent in the teachings of too many speaking and prophesying from today’s pulpits. TV and social media are inundated with the overflow of the visceral bile of those spewing hate filled diatribes and who are swimming in polluted waters. And it’s infectious. It adversely affects your ability to discern good from evil.” The more you drink, the more your throat gets dry. And you wonder why.” (Lyrics by PFR) At this point, you can be led astray by those promising something they can’t deliver or will just cause you to become further separated from the truth. Jesus said in John 4 that you would never thirst again if you drink of the waters He gives you. So why would you befoul yourself with lies and deceit or contention and strife? If you follow after that which is right and pure, help the needy, actually read and try to follow what Christ taught, then you’ll become like that watered garden, and like that spring of water with waters that do not fail, spoken of in Isaiah 58.
Or you can keep drinking from that Brook Kidron after the impurities of evil were thrown into it and follow those who display the effects of drinking that water. Dave Matthews said it perfectly:
“And I’ll live with my justice, and I’ll live with my greedy need.
Or I live with no mercy and I live with my frenzied feeding.
I live with my hatred and I live with the notion,
That I don’t need anyone but me.
Don’t drink the water.” (lyrics by Dave Matthews Band)
I pray you do not follow that which leads to constant turmoil everywhere. Drink the pure water He offers and it will become evident in how you feel and act. It will bring abundant life to all. Be planted by the rivers of water that brings forth true fruit. Do not be deceived. Blessings.
Stand My Watch 