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Exploring Life in John – The Need of the Immoral – Life’s Satisfying (2)

LIFE MEETING THE NEED OF MAN’S EVERY CASE

The Need Of The Immoral –

Life’s Satisfying (2)

Verses:

John 4:15-34  

15The woman said to Him, Sir, give me this water so that I will not thirst nor come here to draw.

16 He said to her, Go, call your husband and come here.

17 The woman answered and said, I do not have a husband. Jesus said to her, You have well said, I do not have a husband,

18 For you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband; this you have said truly.

19 The woman said to Him, Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet.

20 Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, yet you say that in Jerusalem is the place where men must worship.

21 Jesus said to her, Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.

22 You worship that which you do not know; we worship that which we know, for salvation is of the Jews.

23 But an hour is coming, and it is now, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truthfulness, for the Father also seeks such to worship Him.

24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truthfulness.

25 The woman said to Him, I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when He comes, He will declare all things to us.

26 Jesus said to her, I, who speak to you, am He.

27 And at this His disciples came, and they marveled that He was speaking with a woman; yet no one said, What are You seeking? or, Why are You speaking with her?

28 Then the woman left her waterpot and went away into the city, and said to the people,

29 Come, see a man who told me all that I have done. Is this not the Christ?

30 They went out of the city and came to Him.

31 In the meantime, the disciples urged Him, saying, Rabbi, eat.

32 But He said to them, I have food to eat that you do not know about.

33 The disciples therefore said to one another, Has anyone brought Him anything to eat?

34 Jesus said to them, My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work.

Ministry Excerpts:

THE WAY TO TAKE THE LIVING WATER

In John 4:15-26 we see the way to take the living water. The living water is good, but if we do not have a way to take it, it means nothing to us. What good is it to have something marvelous and excellent in the heavens if we cannot reach it? But here we find the living water and the way to take it.

The Sinner Asked for the Living Water

The Samaritan woman was attracted and asked the Lord for the living water. “The woman said to Him, Sir, give me this water so I will not thirst, nor come here to draw” (4:15). The Lord was a good preacher. He seemed to say, “If you knew who I am and if you knew God’s gift, and if you knew the living water that I give, you would certainly ask for it.” The woman asked for it immediately. In our foolish talk with people, the more we talk, the more we keep them away. But the Lord Jesus spoke very briefly and the woman was attracted and asked for the living water.

To Repent of and Confess Her Sins—“Husbands”

When the woman asked the Lord for the water, He did not rebuke her, telling her to repent and make a thorough confession of her sins. No, the Lord spoke softly and gently, saying, “Go, call your husband and come here” (4:16). The Lord seemed to be saying, “I want your husband. You ask Me for the living water, and I ask you for your husband. Let us trade. You trade your husband for the living water.” This word was intended to touch her conscience with her immoral history that she might repent of her sins. “The woman answered and said, I don’t have a husband. Jesus said to her, You have well said, I don’t have a husband; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband; this you said truly.” Did the woman lie or tell the truth? It was a truth, yet it was a lie. She told a lie by speaking the truth. It was a truthful lie. This is the deceptive nature of fallen man. However, the Lord was gentle with her and did not rebuke her. He even appreciated her, saying, “You have well said, I don’t have a husband; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband; this you said truly” (4:17-18). The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet.” The Lord’s words frightened her. She seemed to say, “Isn’t this man a Jew? He has never lived in our town. How did he get to know my background? Who told him that I had five husbands and that the one I have now is not my husband?” This is the way to have a gospel talk. Do not talk vainly to people, but touch their conscience, not in the way of rebuking them, but in the way of unveiling them. By the Lord’s gracious and wise words that woman’s conscience was touched. The proper way to minister the gospel is to touch people’s conscience.

What do her husbands signify? They signify anything that is other than Christ. Anything outside of Christ may become sinful. If we depend upon anyone or anything other than Christ, that may be quite sinful. The husbands of the Samaritan woman became the history of her whole sinful life. As we have seen, the Lord touched her sinful history in a very wise way. He did not condemn her sinfulness as a sinner or legally make her repent and confess her sins practically as some evangelists would. Since the Lord knows everything, He simply touched her conscience by asking her to bring her husband. By this way, the Lord helped her to confess her sins and repent.

To Contact God the Spirit

Listen to the Lord’s words about the matter of worship. “Jesus said to her, Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem shall you worship the Father. You worship that which you do not know; we worship that which we know; for salvation is of the Jews. But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and reality; for the Father seeks such to worship Him. God is Spirit; and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and reality” (4:21-24). This word was given to instruct her regarding the need for exercising her spirit to contact God the Spirit. To contact God the Spirit with her spirit is to drink the living water, and to drink the living water is to render real worship to God.

In typology, the worship of God should be (1) in the place chosen by God to set His habitation there (Deut. 12:5, 11, 13-14, 18), and (2) with the offerings (Lev. 1—6). The place chosen by God for His habitation typifies the human spirit, where God’s habitation is today—Ephesians 2:22, “an habitation of God through the spirit” (KJV), should read “a dwelling place of God in spirit.” The offerings typify Christ; Christ is the fulfillment and reality of all the offerings with which the people worshipped God. Hence, when the Lord instructed her to worship God the Spirit in spirit and reality, it meant she should contact God the Spirit in her spirit instead of in a specific place, and through Christ, instead of with the offerings, for now, since Christ the reality has come (vv. 25-26), all the shadows and types are over. The Lord Jesus told the Samaritan woman that God is Spirit, that worshipping God means to contact Him, and that contacting Him is not a matter of place, but a matter of the human spirit.

When He said, “An hour is coming and now is,” it meant that the age had changed. In the past, according to the Law of Moses, God ordained that His people worship Him at a specific place where He would establish His habitation with His name (Deut. 12:5). All of God’s worshippers had to go to that unique place. That was a type. Now the age has been changed, and the type is fulfilled. Typically speaking, the place of worship should not be a place any longer; it must be the human spirit, where God is going to set up His habitation with His name. Where is the unique place for God’s people to worship Him today? It is our human spirit. According to Ephesians 2:22, God’s habitation is in our spirit.

To Believe That Jesus Is the Christ That She May Have Life Eternal

Now we come to the last aspect of the way to take the living water—believing that Jesus is the Christ. When the Samaritan woman heard the Lord’s answer to her question about worship, she still tried to turn away to another subject saying, “I know that Messiah is coming, He who is called Christ; when He comes, He will declare all things to us” (4:25). She seemed to be saying, “You are telling me so many things, but we are waiting for the Messiah to come. When He comes, He will manifest everything.” What an excuse! Then the Lord answered her, “I who speak to you am He” (4:26). By this word, Jesus led her to believe that He is the Christ in order that she might have eternal life (20:31). We see from verse 29 that she believed. Although the Samaritan woman tried every way to escape the Lord, He, in His wisdom, caught her. Never try to escape the hand of the Lord. The Samaritan woman was convinced, believed in Him, and received the living water. There was a great change in her life. She was such an immoral person, but was still under the influence of religious tradition, taking care of yes or no, here or there, this way or that way. She was absolutely in a death situation. However, the Lord touched her and turned her from death to life. Undoubtedly, she was under the tree of knowledge, but the Lord turned her to the tree of life. He changed her death into life eternal.

The Sinner Believed, Was Satisfied, Left Her Preoccupation, and Testified

After the woman heard that the Lord Jesus was the Christ who was coming, she believed. There was a great change in her life. She left her waterpot, went into the city, and gave a living testimony to the people. This testimony brought in a marvelous harvest (4:28-42).

The picture in John 4 also shows us that after the woman contacted Christ, she gave up everything. She left both the well and the waterpot. She left everything and went into the city to tell the people about Christ, which means that once she contacted Christ, she gave up everything in order to have only Christ as her satisfaction. When she told the people in the city, “Is this not the Christ?” she recognized that He was the Christ. In the eyes of God, she had Christ already and was bringing Christ to her people. What a testimony! It is only when we contact Christ, recognize Christ, and receive Christ that we can be satisfied. Then spontaneously we shall give up everything that is other than Christ.

(Life-study of John, msg. 12) 

 

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Verse Memorization-Fall24-Wk6

Week 6

John 4:23 – But an hour is coming, and it is now, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truthfulness, for the Father also seeks such to worship Him.

John 4:24 – God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truthfulness.

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Our Human Spirit – The Breath of Life

Our-Human-Spirit-The-Breath-of-Life

The human spirit is mysterious. Various people have characterized it in their own special way. What would you say about the human spirit?

Our first topic deals with where our human spirit comes from. By taking a close look at the creation of man in Genesis, we not only see the fact of where our spirit comes from, but we can see how God Himself is so closely related to the human spirit.

Then, before going too deep into our study of the human spirit, we recognize that the Bible makes a clear distinction between the human spirit and the soul.

Download the full Bible Study in your preferred format:

The Breath of Life –  PDF

The Breath of Life – PowerPoint Slides

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Morning Revival Exercises – Pray Reading the Word

Morning-Revival-Pray-Reading-the-Word

Verses for Today

2 Corinthians 3:17 And the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

John 4:24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truthfulness.

Ephesians 6:17 And receive the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which Spirit is the word of God,

Ephesians 6:18 By means of all prayer and petition, praying at every time in spirit and watching unto this in all perseverance and petition concerning all the saints,

John 6:63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.

Fellowship

The goal of morning revival is to get revived and we can get revived by touching the Lord. Because 2 Corinthians 3:17 tells us that the Lord is the Spirit, we know that we have to use our own human spirit to contact Him. Our human spirit corresponds to the Lord as the Spirit. The Lord Jesus even instructs us in John 4:24 to use our human spirit to contact Him!

Did you know you had a human spirit? This is a spiritual organ deep inside you. When you call on the name of the Lord you are exercising your spirit. When you tell Him you love Him you are exercising your spirit. Essentially, whenever you turn your being to the Lord and direct your heart and your speaking to Him, you are exercising your spirit. Reading only with our eyes and our mind, like we do for school, is not enough for us to touch the living Christ who is the Spirit today. What we need is to pray to contact our dear Lord Jesus all the time, even while reading His word.

Here are some examples. If you reply to the Word of God with an “Amen Lord,” that is to contact the Lord. If you begin to read a verse with, “Oh, Lord Jesus,” and then read the verse, then this is also an excellent way to contact the Lord, that is, to touch the Lord through prayer as you read. 

There is not one way to pray-read. Ephesians 6:18 shows us that we should receive the Word by means of all prayer. This means all kinds of prayer. When pray-reading, you can be calling on the Lord, confessing, or petitioning the Lord. All prayer is good. In fact, using John 6:63 as an example, you can say to the Lord, “Lord, It is the Spirit who gives Life; Lord, You are the Spirit and You give life. Lord, give life to me!”

Those who have tried pray-reading have discovered that it is one of the quickest ways to get out of our selfishness and into the enjoyment of God. God has put His very thoughts into the Bible. By praying and reading the Bible, His selfless, loving, and pure thoughts get into us and can even become our thoughts. This is a part of sanctification. By pray-reading, we are being sanctified! Moreover, John 6:63 tells us that the Spirit gives life. Therefore, whenever we pray-read, we not only receive God’s thoughts, but even His life.

Do practice contacting the Lord while reading His word. If there are several verses that you read, pick one and linger there, praying with the words from that verse, and contacting the Lord Jesus. This is an excellent way to be revived morning by morning. 

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About the Believers – The Tripartite Man

1 Thessalonians 5:23 And the God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is living and operative and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit and of joints and marrow, and able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

Luke 1:46-47 And Mary said, My soul magnifies the Lord, 47 And my spirit has exulted in God my Savior.

Proverbs 20:27 The spirit of man is the lamp of Jehovah, / Searching all the innermost parts of the inner being.

John 4:24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truthfulness.

John 5:39-40 You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is these that testify concerning Me. 40 Yet you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.

Fellowship to help us know Christ and pursue Him

The quotation below comes from the book, God’s Plan of Redemption, by Mary E. McDonough

The terms “inner man” and “outer man,” or their equivalents, are employed in modern psychology, but the psychology of the Bible is more analytical inasmuch as it indicates a subdivision of the invisible part of man, thus teaching us that man is not dichotomous but is a trichotomous being. We find this plainly taught in 1 Thessalonians 5:23 and indicated in Hebrews 4:12 and Luke 1:46-47.

This tripartite being may be illustrated by a third piece of cardboard containing three circles. Within the inner circle print the word “spirit.” Within the second circle (surrounding the first) place the word “soul,” and within the outer circle the word “body.” (See Figure)

With the spirit we know God and our relation to Him and our relation morally to every created object. With our soul powers—the intellect, sensibilities (affections, emotions) and will—we are able to deal with the intuitions of the spirit, the claims of these various soul faculties and the record of the bodily senses.

“The spirit of man,” not the soul, is said to be “the candle of the Lord” (Prov. 20:27). Caution the class in reference to a careless use of these terms. Do not say “soul” when “spirit” is meant and vice versa. Avoid the phrase “body, soul and spirit,” as it inverts the Divine order of arrangement. In a normal condition the powers of the spirit control the powers of soul and body.

(God’s Plan of Redemption, by Mary E. McDonough, http://marymcdonough.ccws.org/redemption/index.html)

The Recovery Version of the Bible renders 1 Corinthians 2:14-15 with the word “soulish” and we find it most appropriate, especially in its context. “But a soulish man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him and he is not able to know them because they are discerned spiritually. But the spiritual man discerns all things, but he himself is discerned by no one.” (1 Corinthians 2:14-15)

Instead of soulish, many translations of the Bible use “natural”. In any case, The footnote on “soulish” in the Recovery version goes right along with sister McDonough’s admonition that we distinguish between the spirit of man and the soul of man: “A soulish man is a natural man, one who allows his soul (including the mind, the emotion and the will) to dominate his entire being and who lives by his soul, ignoring his spirit, not using his spirit, and even behaving as if he did not have a spirit (Jude 19).”

We need to pursue Christ with an exercised spirit. Calling on the name of the Lord, crying to Him from our deepest part, “Oh, Lord Jesus”, is one way to exercise our spirit. We can also exercise our spirit by praising the Lord. Praising Him with “Praise the Lord!” and “Hallelujah” is to worship the Lord with our spirit. 

If we read the Bible merely with our mind we will be like those who search the scriptures yet are not willing to come to Christ. To exercise the spirit means to contact the Lord Himself. When we come to verses in the Bible we should read and pray, pray and read, always contacting God as we read the scriptures. This is to exercise the spirit. This is why pray-reading is recommended. We don’t advocate pray-reading as a form, but we exhort the believers to continuously contact the Lord in their reading. 

If man does not exercise his spirit, no matter how noble his deeds, no matter how deep his thoughts, no matter how scriptural his words, the transmission of God to that man will be absent. Let us make a strong resolution to be the spiritual men, ones who receive the things of the Spirit of God and discern all things. In our personal time with the Lord and in our corporate pursuit with others, let us come in this way, with an exercised spirit.

 

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About the Believers – The Human Spirit

Zechariah 12:1 The burden of the word of Jehovah concerning Israel. Thus declares Jehovah, who stretches forth the heavens and lays the foundations of the earth and forms the spirit of man within him,

John 3:6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

Ephesians 2:22 In whom you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in spirit.

Ephesians 5:18 And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissoluteness, but be filled in spirit,

Ephesians 6:18 By means of all prayer and petition, praying at every time in spirit and watching unto this in all perseverance and petition concerning all the saints,

Romans 1:9a For God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit in the gospel of His Son

Romans 8:16 The Spirit Himself witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God.

2 Timothy 4:22 The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you.

Fellowship to help us know Christ and pursue Him

God created us with a human spirit for good reason. The human spirit matches God’s Spirit so that God can dispense Himself into us. We know from John 4:24 that God is Spirit, and by all the verses above (and so many more) we also see that we have a human spirit. By it we contact God and receive Him! John 3:6 shows us that the part in our being where we were born again was our human spirit.

A hymn titled “There’s a Life That’s Deeper than our Mind” talks about touching our human spirit. In this hymn there is also a call to the Christ who is in our spirit to come make home in our heart– that is, to spread out from our human spirit to our whole being. (You can see the lyrics to the whole hymn here: https://www.hymnal.net/en/hymn/ns/217 ).

When we touch our spirit—such a thrill!
This is far beyond emotion, mind, and will—
It’s within our hidden part—
Come, make home in all our heart;
Let Your presence flow as rivers deep within.

All the genuine spiritual experiences in our Christian life are experiences in our human spirit.

We may have previously thought that we were only made of an inner part and an outer part, but the Bible reveals a third part, the human spirit. How wonderful it is to discover our human spirit!

We invite you to read this excerpt on the human spirit. It is only a small portion from a series of lessons designed to impart the truth of the Bible to young people.
https://www.ministrysamples.org/excerpts/THE-HUMAN-SPIRIT-2.HTML

 

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The Tree of Life – God’s Purpose in His Creation of Man

Gods-Purpose-In-His-Creation-of-Man

Wednesday, August 30, 2017, 6pm.

And God said, Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of heaven and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth. (Gen 1:26)

How do we see God’s purpose in His creation of man?

Jehovah God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul. And Jehovah God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there He put the man whom He had formed. And out of the ground Jehovah God caused to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, as well as the tree of life in the middle of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. (Gen. 2:7-9)

Describe the scene in Genesis chapter 2.

In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. (John 1:4)

Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me shall by no means hunger, and he who believes into Me shall by no means ever thirst… As the living Father has sent Me and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me. (John 6:35,57)

But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall by no means thirst forever; but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into eternal life… God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truthfulness. (John 4:14, 24)

It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. (John 6:63)

How can you tie these verses in John with the verses in chapter 2 of Genesis?

Further reading: The Tree of Life, chapter 1, published by Living Stream Ministry