God Still Speaks

Here we find the secret of "how not to stumble around in life". Jesus said, "I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won't be stumbling through the darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life." The secret is learning how to follow Jesus. As we follow Him and the light, it will lead us to life. "Life" is 'zoe' in the greek that means, "life as God has it". Can you imagine what Gods life is like? Thats the life that Jesus desires for us to have. John 10:10 says "I have come that you might have life, and life abundantly". Where is this light? Psalm says, thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. As we follow the Word the Word will lead us through the dark places in life and lead us to the kind of life that God enjoys. Proverbs says that Gods word is life unto those that find it and health to all their flesh. Jesus said, the words that I speak are spirit and life. Lets allow God to help us not to be stumbling around in life. He wants to give us feet like hinds feet that can navigate high places without falling.

What a tremendous passage! This really reveals to us the Fathers heart. Religion can be merciless in its dealings with people, God is merciful! Religion requires people to earn the right to be blessed by God, our father blesses us by grace (unearned favor). Religions hard heart is looking to condemn, Jesus looks to forgive. Jesus showed this woman the fathers heart. The law demanded death, Jesus chose to give her life. Romans says that its the goodness of God that leads us to repentance. Ephesians says that we are saved by grace, not of works lest any man should boast. We all have been found in the shoes of this lady, we all are guilty of sin, we all have messed up royally, and those of us who are wise have applied God's grace to our lives. We need to always remember to offer the same grace to others. Yes, discipline is sometimes needed and when disciplined is coated with love its recieved much easier. What would the world be like if we excercized this kind of lifestyle? If we were to model Gods love on a daily basis? The possibilities are unimaginable. Think about it!

In John 4, Jesus talking with the woman at the well said that the water that he gives is like a well of water that springs up to everlasting life. Here He says that out of mans belly will flow rivers of living water. There are two distinct experiences for man who wants what God has to offer. When a man repents and confesses Jesus as His savior, he is born again. This born again experience brings love, peace and joy and is likened to a well of water that bubbles up unto everlasting life. Here in John 7, Jesus says that there is a river flowing from the belly of man. This experience is the baptism of the Holy Spirit. In John 20, Jesus breathed upon his disciples and said "recieve the Holy Spirit", this is when the disciples were born again. In Acts 2, we see that they were filled with the Spirit and spoke in others tongues. Two experiences for the believer. In Acts 19, Paul asked some disciples if they had recieved the Holy Spirit since they believed? Here we see two experiences, the born again experience the second, the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said if any man is thirsty let him come to me and drink. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is available for those who want more and are thirsty for Him. Acts 1:8 says that you will recieve power when the Holy Spirit comes to the beleiver. This power is available for you, just ask your heavenly father to give you this gift. You just might be surprized at what He does for you!

In verse 13, it says that no one had the courage to speak positively about Him in public. The people were afraid of the opinions of the religous leaders. How true is this today. People are afraid to speak about Jesus today. He is not a very popular subject. People get offended when Jesus comes into the conversation. But we are told in Acts 1:8 that we are to be witnesses to everyone about Jesus. Yes the Word of God offends, but knowing it brings freedom. Jesus said "you shall know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

Its interesting to see that Jesus didn't go around teaching His own opinions, rather he spoke about the will of His father. If people today would do the same thing, leave their own opinions out of the discussion and just stick with the will of God on the subject. God's word is His will. Man's opinions will never stand the test to Gods word. It doesn't matter what mans experiences are, what matters is that Gods word will stand forever. Jesus said, "heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away."

They accuse Jesus of being "demon possessed"! Isn't it ironic that people today say that Christians who walk in the supernatural today are also demonized? How many times have you heard that speaking in tongues is of the devil? I guess then Mary, Jesus's mother had a demon as well as Peter, John, Paul and all of the other apostols. The Word has the answer to all of these issues, lets allow the Word to be our standard and leave mans opinions out of it.

Sometimes following Christ means that family won't understand and accept your new vocation. Jesus' own brothers scoffed at him, ridiculed him, poked fun at him because of His desire to do the will of His father. Jesus didn't spend much time arguing with is family. Sometimes we have to let the ignorant remain ignorant. I'm sure that Jesus continued to love his family, but he wasn't going to allow family pressure and family opinion keep him from fulfilling his purpose in life. To be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. We cannot allow family to keep us from obeying and doing the will of God.

It seems hard for me to understand how people could walk away from Jesus. I see here one reason; to follow Jesus requires committment. It requires eating His flesh and drinking His blood, not literally of course. To eat means to ingest, to partake of, eat something that becomes a part of you. Jesus wants to become one with us. To be united with us. There are people who get offended of the idea of being committed to Jesus and to do His will in their lives. As long as it is convenient for us to walk with Christ we do so, but as soon as serving him requires sacrifice, its a different story. It must of been a blow for Jesus to see some of his disciples turn away. It still must break his heart when his children today do the same. It's easy to follow him when there is no committment required. But as soon as He asks from us our time, money, talents and life it's just as easy for us to walk away. Peter though understood committment, (at least on this day) because when asked if he too were to walk away, He understood that there really is no place to run to, that Jesus has the words of eternal life. If committment is causing you to think twice about walking with Jesus or not, remember the old song that says. "where could I go but to the Lord."

The people followed Jesus to see what he would do for them and what he might give them. When he told them about partaking of Him, they got all offended. The same is going on today, people come to Christ to see what it is that He will do for them. Pay a bill, heal some desease, pull off some last minute miracle, but when He begins to deal with them about how their relationship is with him, they too get offended. To accept Christ is to accept Him whether He ever does anything for us or not. We don't come to Him for what he can do for us, rather for what He as done for us. He has provided eternal life, salvation, healing, deliverance, blessings, prosperity. He wants us to walk with him everyday, to be His friend. A human frienship doesn't last long when one of the two is always asking for something, begging to recieve a blessing here or there. Jesus is generous and desires to bless us, but that blessing comes from relationship with him. The same way that a husband wants to bless his family with material things, so God desires to bless us too. You will find that out of relationship every need will be met. John 15 talks about abiding in Him and His words abiding in us, then we will ask what we will and it will be done.

Have you ever wondered why Jesus only walks on the water when there is wind and a storm? Why dosn't he walk on the water when it is calm? I don't know the answer, but I thought it was a good question. Jesus tells the people that were waiting for him to get some more free food, to not be concerned about perishable things like food, but to spend your energy seeking eternal life. What he is saying here is to get priorities in order, that spiritual things have more eternal value than physical things. We do just the opposite in western christainity. We spend the majority of our time in life on perishable things. Things that have noi eternal value, things that soon waste away and disappear. What a question they ask here, "What does God want us to do?" He answered, "This is what God wants you to do: Believe in the one he has sent." How simple, just beleive. Doesn't get any more dificult than that, just beleive! Act upon what you beleive in, be a doer of the word and not a hearer only.

People followed Jesus because if the healings and miracles He did. If the church today could display God's power like that the buildings would be overflowing with people. Miracles attract the multitudes! Jesus also spent quality time with his disciples. His ministry wasn't just about the multitudes but it wasn't either just about the disciples. Each one is important. We need to make disciples like Jesus did and also have a desire to reach the multitudes with Gods love.

What a great example of how God uses the small things that we give to him and multiplies it beyoind our imagination. That boy who gave his lunch to Jesus had no idea that it would feed the mulitude. Don't get discouraged about the small offerings you give to the Lord, He is able to do great things with it. For the miracle to happen the people had to obey and sit down. If you didn't sit down, you were left out of the miracle. There are people today who miss out on miracles simply because of ego, pride and an attitude problem. The people ate until they were full. Thats Gods will to bless you abundantly until there is no more room for more. The 12 baskets of left overs, what do you think happened to them? Maybe one basket for each disciple to take home? NO! The boy who gave his lunch, took the abundance back to his house. Give and it shall be given to you. Can you imagine the look on his mothers face as he tried to explain to her the miracle? The people were amazed at his works and wanted to make him king, why not? He just fed them, who wouldn't want a king that could give like that and not take away?

19Jesus replied, "I assure you, the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son also does. 20For the Father loves the Son and tells him everything he is doing, and the Son will do far greater things than healing this man.

What is the Father doing today? Have you wondered that? There is a verse that says, I am the Lord and I change not? The Father is still doing the same today that he did when Jesus walked the earth. Hebrews says that Jesus is the exact image of God. You want to see what God is up to, just look at Jesus. The Father still heals! He still delivers! He still saves! He is still a miracle worker. Jesus only did what He saw the father doing. Amazing!

Jesus heals again! In chapter 4, He healed the officials son and now he heals a lame man that had been sick for 38 years. It says that Jesus saw him and that he knew that he had been there for a long time. Jesus see's and knows what we are going through, his eyes are open to our situation and He knows and feels our hurt and pain. What a question he asks, "Would you like to get well?" We too find excuses not to be healed but the man obeyed Jesus and stood up and began to walk. And for being obeient he immediately got rebuked by the religous leaders. Religion will not rejoice when a miracle happens, it makes sure that every rule is not broken. We cannot keep God in a religous box, He will do things contrary to our rules and tradition. There is a good word here, Jesus told the man to stop sinning so that a worse thing will not come upon him. Something for everyone to think about.

It is in the DNA of Jesus to heal the sick. In Acts 10:38, every where He went He healed all who were oppressed by the devil. The man (dad) beleived when Jesus said, "Go back home, your son will live." Faith in the Words of Jesus caused the boy to be healed. The man beleived! It just takes simple faith and trust in Gods word to receive the healing that we need. Sick people are all around us. New hospitals are being built everywhere. Jesus is the healer of sick people. We need to do as this man did and beleive what Jesus says, He is the Word of God! As a result of this boy being healed, the entire family beleived in Jesus. Lets expect miracles to happen today in peoples lives so that they too can beleive in the greatness of God.

The villagers believed in Jesus because of what the woman had said. We cannot underestimate the power of testifying of what Jesus has done in our lives. Sharing a personal account of what God has done in us can help others to beleive also in him. After they heard Jesus speak for a couple of days, they beleived in Him. They said "Now we believe because we have heard him ourselves, not just because of what you told us." Everyone needs to hear from Jesus for themselves. Other peoples testimony is good to listen too, but there is nothing like a personal encounter with Jesus and to have him work in our lives one on one.

34Then Jesus explained: "My nourishment comes from doing the will of God, who sent me, and from finishing his work. 35Do you think the work of harvesting will not begin until the summer ends four months from now? Look around you! Vast fields are ripening all around us and are ready now for the harvest. 36The harvesters are paid good wages, and the fruit they harvest is people brought to eternal life. What joy awaits both the planter and the harvester alike! 37You know the saying, `One person plants and someone else harvests.' And it's true. 38I sent you to harvest where you didn't plant; others had already done the work, and you will gather the harvest."

True fulfillment comes from doing and being in Gods will. Jesus was dedicated to doing His fathers will and to accomplish the work that He was sent to do. Each of us can do the same, find out what God's will for our lives is and work untill that job is complete. He then focuses on the harvest. He just finished ministering to the Samaritan woman and through her He reached her village and many beleived. We love to procrastinate when it comes to working in the harvest. Jesus here is telling us not to put winning souls and bringing in the harvest off into the future but to get out hands dirty now reaching out to people. It's the will of God for every Christian to work in the harvest field. To many of us want to be supervisors and stay in the airconditioned church buildings. Harvesters (people that win souls) recieve wages. God pays good! He is not cheap when it comes to paying his people for working in His harvest fields. Again there is no greater joy and fulfillment than to win a person to Christ. Nothing else compares to it. The harvest is ripe and we will reap souls where others have sown. Now is the time to bring in the harvest. I must lay aside every thing that wants to hinder me from winning souls and making disciples for Jesus.

What a great story and example of God's love. I see the humanity of Jesus in that he was walking and became tired and thirsty. Even in this state He took time to minister to a person in need. How often we use the excuse of fatige and lack of energy to go and minister to the needs of the people. Jesus here broke the cultural protical and talked with a gentile woman. He wasn't concerned to be "politically correct" in his ministry. I like that! We see here that the water in the well represents all that the world has to offer and after drinking that you get thirsty again. The living water (salvation) is the only thing that can satisfy the heart of man. Nothing else will. Then we see Jesus operating with the word of knowledge when he says that she has five husbands. This was revealed to Him by the Holy Spirit. This shows us that as we witness God will give us information concerning the needs of the people that we are ministering to. I see also that if we desire to be used by God we must engage with needy people. As we step out in faith God will equip us to effectively meet the needs of the people. She was so excited about have had an encounter with Jesus that she went back to the village and told everybody about him. When Jesus makes a difference in peoples lives, they can't but shout it out to others and spread the good news.