Worship From a Well
Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour. A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” ( For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.” Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.” Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you seek?” or, “Why are you talking with her?” So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?”
John 4:6-29 ESV https://my.bible.com/bible/59/JHN.4.6-29
I was watching a worship video by Chandler Moore and he was talking about worship, through the above passage. He showed three important stages of worship (identity, logic and healing), and God began to talk with me so I will be adding to those three point and my the rest is what I was hearing from God.
Identity – How do you perspeve yourself?
Jesus began to talk with the woman at the well, “The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” ( For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)“. She look down on who she was and that Jesus was of a higher class than her. So she was unable to engage (worship) with him because of her perspective. We can not come before our God thinking we are so lowly that He would not even talk with us. God loves us so much that he gave everything even his Son to restore our relationship with Him. We are to come humbly before him but with boldness, like a child running to their father, it does not matter who is in the room but that the child just wants to be with daddy.
God is not the tyrant of the universe just waiting for you to come close enough to lash out at you. God is not like some earthly parents who do not know how to respect or love their children and end up abusing them. God is not the absent parent that left the family. God is not like the workaholic parent that is at the office more than with his children.
Your low perspective of yourself comes from all the negative things you have done or have been done to you. You have embraced this false identity, like the woman at the well did. God does not see you the way others treat you or call you. God sees you as one of his children and loves you like no other. God wants to spend time with us, He is always there for us no matter how big or small the issue is, He loves us and will never do anything to abuse us. God is truly a GOOD FATHER.
Logic – Stop try to figure it out
Jesus told her that he could give her living water, The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? This woman was looking at everything logically, as we do in worship we don’t understand all that happens in God’s presence. We all have thoughts like God would not what me because of… If God knew what I did last night he would not accept me. How can God forgive me for… So we end up disqualifying ourselves even before we get to Him and his presence. Why do we think we can logically outthink God and know all his thoughts.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
Isaiah 55:8-9 ESV
Now that we have stopped thinking of ourselves and stopped trying to figure out God’s way, we can truly be in God’s presence.
Awareness of Healing
Jesus began to show this woman one area in her life that needs to have to be healed when he asked about her husband. So she was trying to deflect by saying The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” which was correct but she did not want to be reminded of her improprieties. When in worship or in God’s presence we begin to hear things that we are ashamed of and think that the devil is trying to distract us from God. God might be talking to us and He desires to heal your brokenness.
We need to quickly decide if this is truly God or a distraction from Satan. One good way is to judge is how does this makes you feel. If you quickly began to justify or feel heavy of heart, this could be God. Ask Him to begin to heal or restore this area. If you began to think on this area with fondness or your own desire that it is Satan trying to pull you from God’s presence.
If God is speaking, continues to stay in His presence as this woman did, she allowed Jesus to continue to show her this one area of her life, to where she told everyone that ‘Jesus told me all that I ever did.’ There were probably more areas but God will typically work on one area at a time.
Engage with God
Jesus told her that she had many failed relationships and one that she is in right now was not right, but that she spoke the truth. The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet...”. She was acknowledging his divine nature and the power that he was displaying.
When God is touching an area in our lives we need to embrace the power of God and engage with it. This woman engaged by asking questions about how to worship the true God. Because of her lifestyle was not able to worship with the Samaritans and not being Israelite was not able to worship in Jerusalm either. Jesus shared that the place you worship is not as important but “the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
We will Encounter God
The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.” As the woman at the well did, we need to look pass our incorrect identities, let down our logic, be aware of what God is healing and engage with God in worship. Jesus was encounter this woman this whole time, but now she was encountering God as a healer, restorer, redeemer, and loving Father, and there was nothing that anyone could tell her contrayer to that.
Proclaim – Share God
She was so over whelmed by His love that she could not stop talking about God to anyone that would listen. So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” She left her water jar for she had partaken of the Living Water and will not thirst again. She ended up sharing with everyone on the town and they came out to see Jesus for their self. After hearing him the no longer believe because of what the woman said, they all believe because of Jesus words.
If we are able to encounter God at this level all the time and decided to allow God to expose areas in our lives. Once God does and we chose to engage and encounter God in the misted of it, we will have such a power testimony that people will believe because of what we have said until they encounter God for themselves.