"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?"
There are times when I am left to wonder what GOD is telling (or maybe Teaching is a better word) me. Sometimes it seems HE has to "slow things down" so that I can spiritually comprehend.
The "woman at the well" was having one of those moments. She was drawing water from the well. When I want water, I just go to a faucet and turn a valve and produce water! But, she had to lower a cistern (or similar vessel) into a well and pull it up and fill her vessel.
JESUS asked for water and the woman asked HIM why HE wanted water from her, a Samaritan? She eventually got around to telling JESUS she was not married. HE replied that HE knew that she was not married and proceeded to reveal her past to her. But, HE was not concerned as much with her physical past as HE was concerned with her current spiritual needs!
Then she says what I consider a very telling sentence! "SIR, I PERCEIVE THAT YOU ARE A PROPHET". The lady KNEW that she was talking to a man who was unlike others, but she didn't know "THE CHRIST"!
JESUS told her "GOD IS SPIRIT", and then "I WHO SPEAK TO YOU AM HE." JESUS is more concerned with our spirit because our spirit is what is eternal. Later in Chapter 4, the Bible records that many Samaritan's believed on JESUS because of the encounter at the well! Had JESUS been more concerned with helping ease the woman's issue of getting water from the well, her eternal needs would have not been met.
Our physical needs tend to draw most of our attention until we "grow" more mature. Our spiritual needs tend to become more noticeable as we mature spiritually. I pray my attention to the "spiritual needs" of me and those around me and THEY WILL NOTICE A DIFFERENCE in me for HIS GLORY! I pray that I will minister to their physical needs AND then their spiritual needs.
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