A Land Flowing with Broken Water Mains

by Joel Bates

​Spiritual warfare hits in surprising ways.  For us this season, it’s been with water...water so common, so powerful, so precious.  For the folks who live in a hurricane alley, they understand the brutal, devastating power behind this force of nature.  Conversely, water rights to those living in the southwestern United States are more valuable than oil.  It is as old as time, too much of it will kill you and a person can only survive about three days without it—water.  So, when Discovery Ministries had its third consecutive water main break in the span of two months, I realized it was more than just bad luck.  It was battle.  

Satan comes to kill, steal, and destroy, and from what I was experiencing, we could add dehydrate to the list.  We discovered the first leak near an RV campsite with water simply bubbling up and slowly pooling like a small artesian well.  The source of the leak lay in a water main deep beneath the earth’s surface.  We would have to dig through the rocky soil, expose the pipe, and make the repairs.  No, it was not an emergency, but really inconvenient.  

Just a couple weeks later, a group staying in the lodge reported silt in the water supply—definitely a problem requiring immediate action.  After a cursory check on filters, we determined the cause—another break in a water main.  This time, the stakes were higher because we were hosting camp guests and would have to relocate them until we could fix the water line, a repair that I knew would be costly.  In desperation, I called a plumber and left a message on his phone to come quickly.  Weighing the options, I knelt in prayer over the loss of clean drinking water.  That’s when I heard God say, “I’ve got this!”  It felt difficult to let it go, but by the end of the day I didn’t really have any other options.  

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The next day I woke early and headed for the camp, prepared to work hard until I’d solved the problem.  To my surprise, there, already in the parking area, was an excavator idling behind a truck and trailer. 
I approached the driver. “Hey, what’s going on?”  I asked. 
“The plumber asked me to meet him here early, so here I am.  Where’s the broken water main?” 
Two significant things you need to know about this area make this occurrence a marvel.  First, around here in this rural county of backwoods Missouri nothing ever happens quickly.  Secondly, even if cell phones are getting a signal in these hills, which is only about half the time, communicating one’s problem and need to the tradesman is often challenging, at best.  As I directed the worker to the site, I realized God had fulfilled His words, “I’ve got this.” It truly felt like a miracle.  The workmen were on the job, and soon pure, clear water was flowing for all to enjoy.

​Just a few weeks later, as a crew graded our washed-out camp road after an overabundance of rainfall, they unexpectedly hit a water main.  This time it severed the life source to our administration building, its second story apartments, and the staff house.  This time, our whole staff felt the loss.  

​We soon received the bad news when the plumber examined the damage.  The very old, severed water pipes were rusty and irreparable, so this would be no simple fix.  We would have to dig and re-run hundreds of feet of water lines, costing the camp thousands of dollars that we didn’t have.  Again, we hit our knees, and the Lord said, “Trust me.”  That same day a friend of the ministry randomly wired money to our bank account.  You are probably already ahead of me.  It was a sum that nearly totaled the cost of the waterline repairs.  
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I believe Satan’s battle tactic has been to shut off our water supply, but the faithfulness of Jesus defends and makes it overflow.  That’s a theme present throughout the Bible, especially in Christ’s bold interactions with people.  There was the time in Samaria when Jesus sat next to a well and asked a woman for a drink.  She was appalled that He, a man and a Jew, would ask her for a drink.  Jesus pulled back the curtain on His deity to reveal, “If you knew who I really am you would be asking Me for a drink, and it would be that of Living Water” (John 4:10 my paraphrasing).  

​Later in John’s gospel, we read Jesus’ teaching in the temple of Jerusalem: “On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink’” (John 7:37).  Then in the book of Revelation, John records, “And He said to me, ‘It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment’” (Rev 21:6).  Reading on, Revelation 22 tells us that this living water originated from the very throne of God.  From these passages, we see that the water is living, the water is for everyone who thirsts and the water is free from the very heart of God. 

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​If the unquenchable water source is Jesus Himself, then it’s no surprise that Satan would launch a battle against this front, against our getting something so pure, so sweet, so soul quenching as the Living Water of God.  But, like the confused and abused Samaritan woman who wanted to drink but didn’t know how, like the crowds listening to Jesus make his temple proclamation but were so subjected by the harsh, burdensome legalism of the religious leaders that they feared to drink, and like those described in Revelation who were invited to simply come and drink priceless, everlasting water for free, we ask, “How do we drink?”

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It occurs to me that I find the way to drink by standing firm against Satan’s tactics.  In his attempts to sabotage our water supply, we hit our knees and went to Jesus.  It was there that Christ quenched our thirst in simple ways, saying, “I’ve got this!” and “Trust in Me.” It was there that He opened our eyes to see His miraculous provisioning.  In fighting for the faith to believe that He would supply our physical need for water, we found the supply of Living Water that had not run dry.  

“…the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”  
​Revelation 7:17 (ESV)