“Bring women to the well. They will meet with Jesus and receive His Living Water.” This is what the Lord laid on my heart about my purpose.
John 4 is where you will find the passage. It is a well known passage about a woman who encounters Jesus and leaves changed.
Verse 9: The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?”
The Samaritan woman thought she had nothing to offer Jesus (she was unclean according to their culture). The “religious” idea that you have to be “good” to come to church. You have to be a certain “way” before you come to Jesus. Your life has to get “better” first before you become a Christian. The lie that I am not good enough, smart enough, old/young enough, popular enough….Jesus allows us to approach Him just like we are. He will do the changing in us!
Jesus explains to her what He’s offering. She replies in v. 15, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” She wants the water that quenches thirst, but she believes she only needs to go to Him once and then she can go back to her usual life. Yes, you come to Jesus to receive salvation once, but when you encounter Jesus, there’s no going back to life as you knew it before!
Jesus and the woman discuss her sins. Sometimes we need to discuss our sins with Jesus! We discuss so we can release them and be free from the sins that hold us back. He doesn’t condemn her. He doesn’t shame her. He just discusses with her. Coming face to face with Jesus brings our sins to the surface. Sometimes we don’t realize our sins. But God is kind to reveal them in His timing and He is full of grace and mercy so that we don’t stay in our sins. We break free from them.
She then changes the subject, which is interesting. As she’s getting deep into conversation about her sin, she detours. Verse 20: “Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place we must worship is in Jerusalem.” Jesus replies, “A time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem…Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.” I believe this Samaritan woman believes a lie. The “religious” lie that church and worship are set a certain way and it can’t be done any other way. She sees religion as LAWS. She isn’t seeing Jesus – who is THE TRUTH, THE WAY, AND THE LIFE – outside of “church”. She isn’t seeing Him outside the law. She has put Him in a box that fits her stereotype. He let’s her know, in a round about way, her view on the religious law is going to change. Her eyes will be opened and her stereotype of how she THINKS things SHOULD be, is going to change. Sometimes when we just follow a law or a set way of doing something, we miss the meaning. We miss the heart change that God wants us to have. We miss the presence of being in God and His love being poured out on us.
Verse 25: The woman said, “I know the Messiah is coming. When He comes, He will explain everything to us.” She knows the Christ is coming but she doesn’t recognize Him right in front of her. She doesn’t KNOW Him.
The disciples return and they are surprised to see what Jesus is doing. A question to leave right here and ponder. Why are we surprised to see Jesus working?
Jesus told her He was the Messiah and allowed her eyes to be open to her encounter with Him. Oh, the moment we realize we are new! When we realize all that Jesus did and all of Who He is! She leaves her water jug and goes back to tell everyone about her encounter with The Messiah!
Let’s hone in on that water jug for a minute. She carried the weight of the water jug but left without it. The burden she carried of being unclean, tarnished, sinful, useless, the lies the enemy threw at her…. What’s in your jug? What do you need to carry to Jesus so He can replace it with Living Water? What do you need to discuss with Jesus so that you can share Him with others?
In verses 34-38, Jesus turns from Living Water to satisfying your hunger. The Snickers bar of this passage! There is no competition in doing the Lord’s work. The sower and the reaper experience joy together. Unity among believers. Working together for the Lord.
The Samaritan woman shared her testimony and many came to meet Jesus. They hosted His presence! They invited Him, met with Him, and experienced Him. We seek His face, allow Him to do a work in us and we become new. We walk with Him and we are forever changed. Our walk allows us to bring others to the well.
The well is only part of the amazing grace God pours out for us. By the end of the Book of John, we learn the Cross is ultimately the place of sacrifice. The place of eternal life and life changing release of our sins. But this encounter at the well is such a sweet time with Jesus. Her eyes were opened to the truth, the way, and THE LIFE. She shared her testimony and brought others to the well to experience Living Water. So now, she KNOWS Him and she has experienced Him. We need both. Knowledge of His Word and Who He is, and experience which builds our relationship with Him. Then we will know His voice and we will have seen His hand in our testimony. Sharing the testimony with others brings salvation. Revelation 12:10-11 says, “now have come the salvation and power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.”
Revelation 7:17, “For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
Revelation 21:5-6, “He who was seated on the throne said, I am making all things new! Then he said, Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true. He said to me, It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life.”
Isaiah 55:1, “Come, all who are thirsty, come to the waters.”
Lord, thank you for giving us Living Water so that we will never be thirsty for Life! You allow us to come boldly to the throne room so that we can meet with you and be transformed. Father, you know my sins and I pray you search my heart and make me pure as I come to you and confess. Make the sins no longer tempting. Wash me with your Water. Let me see you as I approach. Don’t let my eyes be blinded by religion or the walls of a box that I have built. Let your truth penetrate my mind, heart, and soul. Let others see you working in my life so that they will want the Living Water that satisfies like only You can. Let me speak of my testimony, which will bring glory and honor to your name. Let all that I do bring others into your presence at the well. Thank you Lord! Amen!!
waitinsilence 