Power Walk Ministries

Guest (Male): This is the Power Walk Ministries broadcast. We're so glad to have you join us today. Reverend Paul Cannings, our founder and president, also serves as senior pastor of Living Word Fellowship Church in Houston, Texas.

Our current series on this broadcast is titled "The Samaritan Woman," and today Dr. Cannings continues to take us through the conversation between Jesus and the woman from Samaria. It begins with Jesus's need for a drink but goes on to him offering something totally unexpected and of much greater value. Here's Dr. Cannings now with today's message titled "The Gift."

Dr. Paul Cannings: Many people today are excited to have a spirited worship service, great music that spurs their soul. Nothing wrong with that. Some people are excited just to have a great word from God. But many times when that takes place, we want it within a certain time span and we want to make sure that we are fed so we go back to living strengthened.

Fundamentally, there's nothing that is wrong with that in the sense that we are stronger as we go forward. So having that strength and experiencing God providing us the wisdom, the strength to live each and every day and be productive for his kingdom is absolutely necessary. We are the salt and the light to the world.

But actually, the whole focus for which God gathers us is not just centered on that. As a matter of fact, in Hebrews chapter 10, he would say when we come together, we must commit to stir one another to love and good deeds. When we also look at Acts chapter 2, they came together because they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, to the breaking of bread, to fellowship. So there was time involved and they went from house to house and then they obviously went out in the community sharing the gospel.

So there was a commitment to God's agenda for the local church because there are spiritual gifts there. There is work to do. Ephesians chapter 4, that makes the worship service comprehensive so that when we leave, the comprehensive plan of God, the agenda of God is achieved. In other words, are we there for God's agenda or just ours? We have to grow. We're supposed to be salt and light. We need to develop spiritually. All of those things are essential, but is that the overriding purpose?

That's the issue here in John chapter 4 when we look at the Samaritan woman. You see, the Samaritan woman went to this mountain. On that mountain was a worship service. The worship service took place in Gerizim. When they had this service, as a matter of fact, the Jews became so irritated that they would build another temple, that they destroyed the temple. But they still had worship on there because we know that from verse 24.

He says in verse 23, the hour is coming and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father seeketh such to worship him. Same thing you would find in Deuteronomy 28. He is seeking these worshipers. Not that she wasn't going to the worship service because she responds by saying, "Hey, we have a worship service here, but you guys messed it up." She responds by saying, "We do worship."

So it's not that this woman wasn't going to worship. The issue was that the agenda of God was not being achieved because they were more committed to what they can get out of worship than what they bring to worship. The word worship means the worth-ship of God. So we are magnifying his value when we worship him. We're not magnifying what our needs are first. We magnify what his agenda is first.

So that's why it's his worth-ship. That's why it's about singing to give him glory and praise and honor. That's why there were hymns and spiritual songs and praise songs that were sung in Colossians chapter 3, and in Ephesians chapter 5 verse 18 on, he talks about the different styles of hymns and spiritual songs and praise songs that can take place in a worship service. There's a balance to it.

He says all of those things can happen. Why? We are magnifying him, talking about how great and wonderful he is. It reminds us when we are hurting and in pain and in struggle that God is still functioning. He's still sovereign, he's still in control, he's still powerfully moving. And he likes it when we come spirited. They came with a lot of spirit, but they x-ed out half the Bible, the Old Testament, because the Old Testament and historical books did not speak nicely of the Samaritans in the fact that the Northern Kingdom was destroyed by the Assyrians.

Out of that came the Samaritans, so they weren't excited about reading the rest of it. They just wanted to read the Pentateuch. So this woman's life never changed even though she went to worship and she left encouraged. Her life ended up with five husbands and a live-in boyfriend and knowing most of the men in the city. Her life was never affected. And that's why Christ wants to focus on the journey, not just the moment.

We want the moment, but God wants a journey. He came to give us life and life abundant. What kind of man is this that would lay down his life for a friendship? He came to provide us a friendship. This friendship can only happen when we have this life, this life abundant. He wants us focused. For him dying is, like Paul would say, "I no longer live, it is Christ that lives in me. The life I now live, I live by faith." In other words, "I now," as he would say in Colossians chapter 3, "I no longer live. I live in Christ, and Christ lives in me through the ministry of the Holy Spirit."

God has provided us, 2 Peter chapter 1 verse 3 and 4, of everything we need for life and godliness. Everything. This is how we come, verse 4 says, to the true nature of God. We can't arrive to experiencing the focus, the purpose, and the ultimate achievement of this journey, the nature of God living inside of us fully. We're drunk in the spirit, being influenced to do what God wants us to do, becoming Christ in our homes, church in our homes, productive for the glory of God, spiritual gifts impacting the people in the church and the community for the glory of God so that the church stands up tall, so that Christ now stands tall, so that everybody's drawn to him because he's lifted up.

That is lost when we can't deal with the fundamental situation of renewing our minds like the Berean Christians. You see, she was open to this in one sense. She stayed committed to the conversation. As a result of that, Christ could respond this way. Jesus answered and said unto her, "If thou knowest the gift." There's three things in here that are critical in this verse. If thou knowest the gift of God, who it is is the second aspect to it, that saith to thee, "Give me to drink," thou wouldest ask of him, and he would have given thee living water. That's the third thing.

We're not going to get through all of this today, but I want you to focus on this first thing: the gift. In other words, you don't bring anything to this party. Second thing in this, renewing the mind is the first thing, second thing is that you don't bring anything to this party. What happens here because you open up your heart and are willing to accept it, is a gift to you. She needs to be saved. That's why even though she's coming to church, she's not experiencing God powerfully by the fact that she has five husbands and a live-in boyfriend.

It doesn't mean that she doesn't have a heart for God because she stays in the conversation. She engages. She is going to keep engaging until she gets an experience of the Holy Spirit in her life that drives her back into the city and tells everybody about Jesus Christ and draws the whole city out so that the city now comes to hear Christ and the men would eventually say, "We're not getting saved because of her anymore. We're getting saved because of him." She drew them to Christ.

So this situation goes this far simply because she needs to accept the gift. Folks, the gift is the Holy Spirit because Christ is distinguishing here and making the spindle and the wheel water. He is taking water and making it, just like he did for Nicodemus, the complete focus of the conversation. I love how Christ is playing on this whole well and water thing. That's what she came for. That's what she needs. It's an embarrassing moment of her life because she can't come with the other women and she has to come here by herself, which is not necessarily safe.

So it's dangerous for her to go by herself. He's using this water as a pivot in the story and he's saying you need this gift. You actually see this developed in chapter 7 of John down into verse 37. This is what he would say: "In the last days, that great feast of Jesus, Jesus stood and cried out saying, 'If any man thirst, let him come to me and drink. He that believeth on me as the scriptures had said, out of his belly will flow rivers of living water.'" Verse 39, John continues to interpret this for us: "But this spake he of the Spirit, which they believe on him would receive."

You can't experience the gift unless you're open to the message. That's why he's saying, "If you know who it is." If you open up your heart to the message and to experience the message and try to understand the message. Stop being so defensive, he's saying. Stop worrying about this situation with this water and focus on who is talking to you and get to learn who is talking to you. Then all the issues that you bring to this conversation are gone. You no longer have to worry about talking to this strange man. You don't have to worry about this strange man doing anything to you. You don't have to worry about him being a Jew and get into all these racial issues. All of these things are gone if you focus on who he is.

So if you get the message, you experience the gift. Folks, we want the Holy Spirit to be powerful in our lives. But the Holy Spirit came to guide us into truth. That's what John 14 verse 16 through 17 would say and chapter 16 verse 13 would say. He came to guide us in the truth. Why? Jesus is the way, the truth that leads to this life that he came to give us, which is life and life abundantly. So the trigger to this whole process of experiencing life is for the Holy Spirit to take over our lives.

That can't happen unless the trigger goes to work, and that's the truth. The only way the truth can go to work is when the Spirit of truth guides us into the revelation of what the word of God means for day-to-day living. The Spirit of God drives us to humility, to servants, to spiritual gifts, to serving the local church, sharing the gospel because he's into how the word becomes a reality. That's what truth means, it's a reality into day-to-day living. That's why it ends up needing wisdom that we pray for.

He's telling this lady once this message becomes real to you because you accept the speaker who's telling you the truth, Jesus Christ, then the gift would become an experience to you that will lead to living water. The issue today is are we experiencing the gift? Because when we experience the gift, church becomes truly church and the world changes. People experience God on a whole different way because the fruit of the spirit is joy, not just what I can get for a moment. Stay focused.

Guest (Male): This encounter is so applicable for us today. Christ says the very same things to us. If you don't know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, that gift is being offered to you today. If you have questions about that, then please give us a call. Our number is 281-260-7402. The number again is 281-260-7402. You can also visit us online at powerwalkministries.org for all of our ministry resources.

Dr. Paul Cannings: I had someone walk up to me and said, "Hey, you so blessed me when I listen to the station and feed off the word that God has placed through you." Oh, that means so much. I had a person say to me, "Hey, you saved my marriage. I was really going to walk out on my wife. You saved my marriage." That moved me to keep pressing on.

I pray, folks, that you would support our ministry and become a part of it and share with us in the resources that we have because that goes to the support of this ministry. Pray for us, please. Sincerely mean that. Pray for us. Share the word with other people and become a partner, a regular partner with us. All you have to do is go to our website, powerwalkministries.org, and press the donate button. It would explain in there how you could become a Power Walk partner. God bless you. It's been a blessing serving you.

Guest (Male): Thank you, Dr. Cannings. Once again, our web address is powerwalkministries.org. Our mailing address is PO Box 920517 Houston, Texas 77209. Now as we leave you, remember you can't experience God's gift until you open your heart and engage in conversation with him.