For those who missed the experience at The Well, and for those who came and would like to be reminded, excerpts from the message based on the story of Jesus' encounter with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well. John 4:3-30
We aren’t sure of this woman’s situation completely, but what we know is our God sees the most vulnerable and seeks them out. Notice how Jesus responds to this woman. He tells her basically, I know you. I see you. And He stays there. Because this is where Jesus abides. This woman is at the bottom of her society and Jesus goes through Samaria in His perfect timing to meet her. To sit with her. And it changes her.
This story is so powerful. Women would go to the wells to fill something. A jar, a cistern, a vessel. In her daily rhythm, Jesus gives this reminder of the time she was filled by His presence.
I caught myself thinking how I wished I was that woman, sitting in His presence, being fully known and fully loved…. but, I am. Because of Jesus, I can be filled with His presence in my daily rhythms too!
But what does that even mean? Being filled is a very “churchy” term that can also be over complicated.
[So] let’s go back to the story in verse 14:
“Whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst again. Indeed the water I will give them will become a spring of water, welling up to eternal life.” I love that He says spring of water. It implies active and moving water. That means there is a river running through you, through your deepest sorrow, your deepest pain, on your mountain tops.
Ephesian 1:13 says:
“And you also are included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit”
Living water means that when you have a relationship with Jesus, it’s not a once for all encounter or experience. It’s a spring of water welling up, bubbling up, active and alive. When you encounter Jesus, the Living Word, and you believe and receive Him, you will “be filled” by the Spirit and truth.
The living water is active and moving - all we have to do is receive it.
The Greek word “to be filled” - Pleroo (play-ro) - is used eighty-seven times in the New Testament. Pleroo is a passive, perfect, and present word…
Pleroo has three definitions
Pressure, or being pushed by: Think of a sailboat. I don’t know if you have ever been on a sailboat. What’s the worst thing that can happen with a sailboat? The absence of wind. The role of the sails is not to make the wind, but to open and allow the wind to guide and direct. In the same way, a Christ-following life should be moved and guided about by the Spirit. We just have to raise our sails to catch the wind to be pushed by, led by, and guided.
Permeated: This is the most common way we think of being filled. Like a glass filled all the way to the top. To be filled by, to be permeated by the Spirit means we let the Spirit of God bleed into every aspect of our lives. We don’t just keep Him in a cozy corner until Sunday arrives. We don’t turn Him off on Saturday mornings for game day. We let the Spirit take up every nook and cranny of our lives so there is no room for anything else.
Propelled or controlled by: Before I lose you because I just said “controlled by,” listen in to what I mean. Paul in Galatian 5 says, “Walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh” He is saying walk in surrender to the Spirit. What it means to be led by the Spirit or to be filled by the Spirit is I am allowing the Spirit of God to control me. I am walking in dependence and surrender to God, moment by moment, because I have sat in Your presence and I know Your way is better. I don’t want to gratify my earthly sinful desires anymore, but I can’t do it without you. I surrender to you, Lord.
The Samaritan woman’s story doesn’t stop after she sits in the presence of Jesus. She opens her sails, allows Him to permeate her heart and then can’t contain it, and is propelled to go tell anyone in the community that considers her an outcast. She runs back to her Samaritan town and “pours out” His spirit. To me, this is such a simple, yet perfect example, of evangelism. She just tells her story. Her personal testimony. “He told me everything I ever did.” Everything - my shortcomings, my failures, my mistakes - and He sat with me. He has seen me in my darkness and He has loved me. "Come and see!”
Here is where I can’t stop picturing this jar that she has carried her whole life - every time she was married then divorced, or felt forsaken, or felt like she wasn’t enough - every crack that made her feel broken. The Lord said, “Come and be filled. I will fill you and the cracks. Oh, I can use those for my glory, to pour out.” Because here is the power of God. It’s not you that you are filling yourself with, so it’s not you that is being poured out. His Spirit will flow through every aspect of your life and those cracks that you thought were too broken for God, He is going to use to pour into other people. Cracks where more of His Spirit can pour out of you. Into your family. Into another woman who thought she was also alone in her imperfections.
There are times you feel that your jar is empty, that you have nothing to pour out or give, when you are in a season where you feel so weak. It is then when you lean over to pour out, that His living water will flow. Because it’s not you, and it has nothing to do with you, but EVERYTHING to do with Jesus.
Father, Thank You that You are boundary-breaking, that Your Spirit is alive and active, that You desire all of us and that it has nothing to do with us, Lord, and everything to do with You.
I've already written the comment below. but using the Greek to explain the three ways the Spirit works was so excellent a picture of when can and will happen when we let the Spirit use us in our everyday lives.
This is powerful and beautifully put with thoughts I've never heard used before. I've always loved that he used this broken woman to when an entire town to the same grace and love that the woman found. we are cracked and that's when His Spirit can seep through and pour out those cracks to other empty vessels or jars. So well done!!!