Manmade systems are beginning to fail. Only what God has ordained can survive the effects of fear when life enters a critical stage and manmade systems can no longer sustain life. This applies to cities, nations, and the Church. 

Two large reservoirs in the western United States, Lake Mead, and Lake Powell, have dried up so radically they are at risk of reaching what is called “dead pool” status. Dead pools become so low that water stops flowing out of a reservoir failing to supply water for people to drink and crops to be irrigated. That condition also disables the hydroelectric dams that provide power for millions of people who live in the southwestern U.S.

In the American West, it has been so dry for the last 20 years that the condition is no longer being referred to as a drought. It is being classified as aridification describing a new dry normal with no end in sight. 

What is taking place in the American West is a metaphor for what is happening within the Church. Our abundance and popularity in the past allowed us to construct systems of faith that were not sustainable under the pressure and demands of the last two years. What is not able to sustain Kingdom life is drying up. No longer can we assume what we used of a manmade nature to create life and community will be able to support a living and vibrant faith in the future. A migration of people to watered places is occurring.

When manmade systems run dry, a fountain of never-ending refreshment is always available to us in Jesus. It takes a spiritual drought to reveal our need for Him in a new and deeper way that our previous confidence did not realize.

Jesus is using this challenging season to take us back to our original source of life, a pure and simple devotion to the Lord. That devotion will never leave us dry and without hope. Around His presence, we can build communities of faith so moist and alive with the presence of God that we will become an oasis of refuge when manmade systems continue to fail, and fear sweeps across the land.