Israel and the Heart

Today I would like to take a look at two offers of Jesus, and two different kinds of responses that he got from those he offered to. First let me say that we can and will either touch the heart of God with the way that we approach him, or we can flat turn him off. Let's look at a woman who touched the heart of Jesus with a simple response to an offer he made to her for something better for her life. "There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink. (For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.) Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water? Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life" (Jn. 4:7-14). Here Jesus is talking with a woman of Samaria, which Samaritans were despised by the Jews for religious reasons; and he makes her an offer of a lifetime, to drink of 'living water' that would quench the thirst that earthly water cannot quench. The woman didn't have a clue of what he was talking about, but she knew it sounded good, and she knew that what she felt in his words and voice was very good. So without really knowing what he was offering, only that it was much better than what she had ever known, what was her response? "The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw" (Jn. 4:15). Right there! That response of simple faith and willingness to receive was enough to open up a conduit of the holy Ghost in Jesus to pour out more goodness onto this unsuspecting woman.

Jesus went on to tell this woman the secrets of her heart and her life, and after a small religious discussion she went and told the whole town about him, and brought them back to hear him for themselves (Jn. 4:16-30). The scripture says that many of the Samaritans believed on Jesus because of the word of the woman, and because they had heard him for themselves (Jn. 4:39-42). But it was all because of the way that woman responded to Jesus when he offered her the greatest gift that this world has ever known. An entire town of people who weren't even on his course at all, ended up believing on the Son of God. Not bad, considering that Jesus was not sent to the Samaritans, and that he also commanded the apostles to not go to any village of the Samaritans, but only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Mat. 10:5; Mat. 15:24). Now I would like to look at another group of people who were of the number of those whom Jesus was sent to, which is to say the house of Israel. "Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things. And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him. As he spake these words, many believed on him" (Jn. 8:28-30). Note that the scripture says that these Jews to whom Jesus was speaking "believed on him." So he went on directly to make a very powerful offer to these, like he did the woman at the well of Samaria: "Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (Jn. 8:31,32). Make no mistake, this offer of setting these people free was the exact same offer that Jesus made to the woman of Samaria, just in different words. In both cases he was offering what he came to make a way to give, that being the true remission of sins by the baptism for the inner man that he would die and revive, to be able to administer from heaven (Mk. 1:8; Acts 1:4,5; Acts 2:4; I Cor. 12:13). So let's look at the response of these people to this magnificent offer from God's only begotten Son who came specifically for their sake: "They answered him, We be Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?" (Jn. 8:33).

Unlike the Samaritan woman, who didn't have a clue as to what Jesus was saying, and who didn't act like she knew what he was talking about; these people immediately became defensive, assuming they knew what he was talking about, when in fact they knew nothing more than the woman in Samaria. That response of pride and defiance opened up a different conduit of the Spirit in Jesus, and brought a much different response from him: "Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever. If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. I know that ye are Abraham's seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you. I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father." Continuing in their defensive mode of defiance, they responded to this sharp rebuke of Jesus likewise: "They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham. But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham... Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not... Then answered the Jews, and said unto him, Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil?" (Jn. 8:34-40,44,45,48). So the response that these Jews gave to Jesus for his offer of eternal life, was one that closed the door on them from being able to obtain that offer. Not only so, but it turned people whom the scriptures says were believers, into unbelievers and children of the devil in short order. So much so that they ended up accusing the very Son of God, who was and is pure deity, of being possessed by a devil. That is very, very dangerous grounds to be on, to say the least; and Jesus made that clear in another place (Mat. 12:22-32). So our response to something that God is doing, or trying to do in our lives, in a single moment can have enormous impact on our lives, whether for good or for bad.

I remember many years ago when I was very young in Christ, I was in a service one night where a miracle evangelist was ministering; and at the end of the service he said that the presence of the Lord was with him at that moment to grant the desire of anyone's heart in a miraculous way, if they would come forward and be prayed for. I had been sitting in the service that night thinking earnestly about a particular spiritual thing that I very much needed, and I said to myself, "That's it!" I knew the man was real from listening to him preach, and I knew I was going to get it. So my place in the line got up to him, and he asked what I wanted, and I told him. Then he began to pray over me and to prophesy a certain thing, and I was thinking in my mind, "That's not really what I was asking for exactly." He caught that and said to me, "That's what you wanted isn't it?" I had about half a second to decide whether to say, "Well, not exactly;" or to just go with what was flowing. So I immediately said, "Yes sir, that's what I want!" So what took place there in that moment was that a very powerful spiritual gift was imparted to me, which began to operate probably several weeks later in a powerful way; and continues to flourish to this day. Also this particular gift was actually the answer to what I asked for, though I didn't completely understand that when the man of God began prophesying. But the point is that if I had told him in that moment when he asked if that is what I wanted, that it wasn't exactly what I asked for, it would have broken the flow of the Spirit and that gift would not have been imparted to me. That would have changed the entire course of my life and would have even prevented the ministry that the Lord put me in years ago. In fact, looking back on it, had I not reacted to that offer from the Lord the way I did, and had leaned on my own understanding and balked, I may have ended up in oblivion at some point, not even continuing in Christ. That is how important that this gift was and has been to my life in the Lord, and to the lives of many, many other people in Christ as well. So when it's all said and done, the moral of all of these stories is simply, "God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble" (I Pet. 1:5). One moment in time can indeed change the course of history itself, depending on how someone reacts and responds to something that God is offering them. The Lord and his marvelous Gospel just continues to amaze me more and more. God bless.