Morning Dew

Key Passage: John 4:1-42

Key text: Jonh 4:4 – “He needed to go through Samaria.”

Certain functions in life require special attention. If you are to choose a spouse, you need to be quite deliberate in your process of making that choice. Also, when it it time to choose an area to live in, again many factors come into consideration. So also is the act of winning souls. It takes wisdom and skill to win people to the Lord and many have approached this process without due consideration for the task at hand.

In today’s message, we see that Jesus had to pass through Samaria. In my understanding he was compelled by the Holy Spirit to go through Samaria. The Jews don’t mix with the Samaritans and would do all to avoid going through Samaria, but Jesus was deliberate in His quest to win this woman to His Kingdom.

He went and waited by the well at noon. This was strategic. he positioned Himself where he knew the woman would come to. Why 12 noon and why at the well. This woman was a pariah in town. She had a bad reputation, so she would not come to the well when everyone came there, so she would not be ridiculed. 12 noon would be very hot in the middle east, so no one left the house at that time to draw water from the well. This is wisdom in action by the Lord.

When the woman got there, Jesus did not immediately blurt out the gospel. he asked her a most natural question. Can I please have some water? The lady was a bit puzzled seeing Jesus was a Jew. She had an idea of the customs and knew that it was not culturally right for a Jew to drink from a Samaritan, and even worse a Samaritan woman. But Jesus was crossing boundaries to meet this woman. He then told her that if she only knew the gift of God, she would ask Him and He would give her living water. The woman tried to dodge the issue, by stating that Jesus had nothing to draw water with and how come he can give living water? 

Eventually after some theological discussion, Jesus asked her to go and call her husband and come to Him. The woman said she had no husband. Jesus affirmed her answer and told her she had had five husbands and the one she was with was not her husband. She was surprised and thought Jesus was a prophet, and she proceeded to ask some more theological questions. Jesus then revealed Himself as the messiah, and immediately the woman left her pot and went into the village, telling everyone that she had met Jesus and could he be the Messiah?

The point of this whole dialogue, is the care and skill Jesus deployed to winning this woman. He was sensitive, tactical and very wise. he did not chase her away by calling her a sinner who would rot in hell. He instead, came to her level, discussed with her and then helped her to reach the conclusion of Jesus being the Messiah. 

If we are to win souls, we must be exceedingly wise. The fisherman or hunter must have the right bait and he must cast his hook in the right waters. Soul winning is a wisdom function and always think about your strategy for winning souls to the Lord. God will give you wisdom, if you ask Him.

Let us pray: Father God I thank you for the wisdom to win souls. Lord, please help me to be sensitive, careful and wise in soul winning in Jesus name I pray. Amen.