Power Walk Ministries

Guest (Male): Welcome to this broadcast of Power Walk. We're so glad to have you join us today as we continue with the series titled "The Samaritan Woman." Through this conversation in scripture, Dr. Paul Cannings takes us to the topic of thirst and how it's easy for us to fill our lives with anything to quench our thirst in different areas of our lives.

Yet we see from the life of the Samaritan woman, her thirst in the area of relationships and the consequences she faced in the community. Today, Dr. Cannings brings us the message titled "The Thirst" and Jesus's response to the present condition that this lady found herself in. Here's Dr. Cannings now.

Dr. Paul Cannings: If there's anything I know about life, it's that life can create a thirst for peace, a thirst for wisdom, a thirst for strength, a thirst for self-control, a thirst for knowledge, a thirst to find endurance in difficult times in life. Life has a way, because we're in this desert before heaven called Earth, of creating those thirsts in our lives.

Christ understands that because he's saying to us the fruit of the Spirit takes care of that thirst. It gives us peace that could surpass understanding. It gives us strength for endurance. Paul says, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

Thirst has a way when medical issues come up and there is financial pressure from it. There are unanswered questions. You prayed for healing and he hasn't healed. The situation just keeps persisting. Distress at not knowing what the ultimate situation is going to be can lead to thirst.

That's why looking at this woman in John Chapter 4, the Samaritan woman, her life created thirst. Her life led from one marriage to the next. Her life led to the fact that she no longer trusts the whole institution of marriage, so she now has a live-in boyfriend. Her life, even though she comes to Jacob's Mountain to worship, even though she would come and have this conversation with Christ, she thirsts.

Christ understood that, that's why he had to go to Samaria. He had to meet with this woman because her heart was open for the message. He meets her on a human level to take her to a godly experience. Jesus Christ so sees the heart of this woman, so sees the need of this woman that wants God, that comes to Mount Gerizim, that comes to Jacob's Mountain, knows the history of Jacob's Mountain, knows the history of what took place in the Old Testament.

She's well-informed. She understands who she is as a Samaritan woman, what that means as a Samaritan woman, how her life has been affected. She's willing to tell the truth about her life. She's open about it. She's not hiding anything. She's just in a situation where the Jews scorn her.

He engages her in a conversation. He keeps pressing in the conversation because he sees her need. It's not about where your life is right now. It's about where it can go. Many times we focus so much on our past we can't get to the present. When we finally get to the present, sometimes the past becomes our future.

The past is the past. Jesus Christ can forgive you of your sins as far as the east is from the west. The issue is, could you forgive yourself because now you're focused on what he needs you to do today? That's how you forgive yourself. This woman can move past the past and she can believe in the present, and it erases the past and gives her a great future.

When Jesus comes to this meeting and he is engaging your life, confess the sin of the past so we get into the present and focus on what he is calling for you to do in the present. This is what he's telling her in Verse 10. He says three things in Verse 10 that are critical to how this proceeds from this point forward because now he is bringing her to the message.

She is focused on the problems of culture and racism. She's focused on the fact that he needs water. You have a need for water because there's no rope around your waist. You don't have a bucket, and this thing is 138 feet deep, so there's no way you're going to get anything. I'm the one with the equipment. You have nothing. That's what she's focused on—our present-day need.

But Jesus Christ is focused on her present and her future. That's what I love about Christ. When we come to him, it's a whole beautiful fresh meet every time. That's why his mercies and grace are new every morning. Great is his faithfulness. You would see in Lamentations, a place of just defeat and horrible situations, he still would say that. Jeremiah would tell us, "Great is his faithfulness."

Look at what happens here in Verse 10. Jesus answered and said to her, "If thou knewest the gift." He didn't say "a gift," he said "the gift." We talked about this yesterday. The gift, as we go into Chapter 7:37-39, is the Holy Spirit. It's the gift. You see the Holy Spirit the same way in Chapter 6 who would cleanse your thirst.

John will bring this all up in Chapter 14:16 when the gift will be in us forever, and he will guide us into truth. Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. He came to give us life and life abundantly because he came—what kind of man is this—to lay down his life for a friend. Abundant life, Chapter 10. This friend, Chapter 15.

John is tying us into the gift that is provided for us with the very second thing we see in this verse: who it is that saith to thee. I love the way this works out in the Greek. Who it is and will always be that speaks to you. In other words, once you accept the gift, this speaker will keep talking to you. You will find out more information. You will find out how to live it. You will find out how this word comes to life because the Spirit came to illuminate the word of God.

The stuff that you don't understand right now will make sense. But right now, until you have the gift, you're not able to make sense because he came to guide you into truth. You cannot come to the reality of what the word of God means for day-to-day living without the gift. So what you need to do is to get the gift.

He's going to explain that to her later, but you must accept the message. This message never stops speaking once you experience the gift. Sometimes we're all into the gift. I have the gift of the Holy Spirit, so I'm going to be doing this all spirited worship and, yes, I'm speaking in this and doing that. We get all excited about the Spirit and we talk about the Spirit of God more than we talk about God in worship.

Worship is about God through Jesus Christ, and the Spirit is the helper of Christ who gets us to worship God. It's not about the Holy Spirit in worship. We come to worship God. Jesus Christ is the helper of God. The Holy Spirit is the helper of Christ. So when we come to worship, we come to worship God and the helper, the Holy Spirit, using the spiritual gifts, which includes wisdom, which includes the pastor being able to use his gift of pastor-teacher.

It allows us to experience the word so that we could now live in the newness of life because of the word of God. As we live in the newness of life, our mind is being renewed and we're being transformed so we don't conform to the world and we become sanctified so that the Holy Spirit, Romans Chapter 8, now dominates our lives. As a result of this spiritual maturity, we begin to look like Christ.

Paul would say, "I no longer live; it is Christ that lives in me." The word is relevant. It's applicable. We can apply it. We can focus on living this life. As we do that, we glorify God. We magnify him. We let people see God functioning in his excellence every day. That's why he says who it is and always will be that sayeth to thee, "Give me this drink."

This is based on your will. I can't take this from you. I can't just go to you and say, "Hey, give me this." You must give this to me. We surrender our lives to God. It's so hard when we're not willing to stop thinking the way we want to think. That is a fundamental thing in my life: do not lean to your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will—this is how the word actually works out in the Hebrew—he will make your crooked path straight because he is the way, the truth, and the life.

Fundamental to my life is to not use common sense. I only apply myself to figuring out how to live after the word and the concept of what God is saying is clear in my mind. The fundamental problem in this conversation with the Samaritan woman is that she keeps talking about her present problem. It's not making sense to her.

Look at Verse 11 for a minute. The woman said unto him, "Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with. What is this living water you're talking about?" In other words, she's still on this common-sense stuff. The well is too deep. You don't have nothing. What are you talking about? Listen, we cannot arrive at a relationship with God using common sense. You have to drop it.

The only time we can experience our common sense is when we understand the concept. Let me explain. For instance, the Bible doesn't say teach my wife the word, it says wash her. Why would it say wash her, not teach her? Because the only person that's supposed to be into integral parts of a wife's life is her husband. He ends up washing her because he's integrally involved in her life.

So the question now is, how do I do that? I live for Christ so that now when my wife has questions, the Bible would say answer them for her. When my wife is seeking wisdom, pray and help her find a way to figure out the problem. Now I'm trying to figure out the practical implications of how I do that in day-to-day life without violating the concept. That's when I use my common sense.

But before then, it has to find an anchor, a pivot. It has to find the concept by which it is guided and directed because the Bible says if it's not, then I'm following my own reasoning and logic and eventually I will end up having a worldly mindset and I will be more worldly than godly. That's what the scriptures teach.

The conflict in the text is just that: "Give me to drink. Give me to drink." Stop this racial stuff about me being a Jew and a Samaritan and all this stuff. She can't get it because, fundamentally, she's using common sense. "Give me to drink that thou wouldest have asked of him." That's what you would have done. "Give me to drink." You're talking to me, give it to me.

This is a decision you must make. I can't make it for you. I'm asking you for the water. But if you know who I was, you would just say, "Here it is. Do what you need to do." You would surrender your will to me. But because you're so focused on your will, you can't surrender to my will. And because you have not come to the realization yet of who I am, you're not going to.

Fundamental for me as a pastor is, sometimes people don't really know who Christ is. If they know who Christ is, they will surrender. When they know who a doctor is, they get cut open. When they know who this is—my mama—they respond. I know this is my child, I respond. I know this is my husband, I respond. This is my wife, I need to do this and be a provider, I need to get this done, I need to be focused. Well, what happens to Christ? When we come to Christ, why is there such a debate when it's time to surrender? The issue for us in this life is the journey, not the moment. Stay focused.

Guest (Male): Thank you, Dr. Cannings. Jesus sees the deep thirst and meets the Samaritan woman at this human level, but then takes her on a supernatural experience of never having to thirst again.

Dr. Paul Cannings: One of the hardest things in ministry is not actually doing ministry when God has blessed you to be this equipped, but it's to get the resources to get it done. That's the hardest. We've stepped out in faith because we believe that. But we pray that God will touch your heart to partnership with us, and you could do that simply by going to our website. It's a secure website and pressing the donate button. On that button, you will be able to become a partner with us and we will seek to bless you for being a blessing to us. I pray that God will move on your heart to be our partner. God bless you.

Guest (Male): Thank you, Dr. Cannings. Once again, our web address is powerwalkministries.org. Our mailing address is P.O. Box 920517, Houston, Texas 772092. And if you live in the Houston area and you don't have a church home, you're welcome to visit Reverend Cannings and his congregation at Living Word Fellowship Church. Thanks for joining us today, and we value your prayers and financial support for our ministry. Now remember, this one encounter with Jesus changed this lady's life. One encounter with truth in Christ can change your life too.