Pathway to Holiness
He told her, “Go and call your husband and come back.” “I have no husband” she replied. Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.” John 4:16-18
Why did Jesus blow a great opportunity to lead this woman in the prayer of faith, and be able to tell His disciples how easy soul-winning really is, and get her up to testify at the next meeting? Why when it seems to be going so well does He do this?
I was 12 years old when I first stepped on Queensland soil. Our family was having a holiday at Tweed Heads. While swimming at Kirra, I was found myself caught in an undercurrent that pulled me out of the flagged area and closer and closer to the rocks. I can still remember people calling out to me both from the water and from the rocks if I wanted help. I was in trouble but would not acknowledge it. I was exhausted but still kept trying to get back. As long as I felt I might make it by myself, I would not call for help. Finally someone swam over to me and asked me point blank if I wanted help. I had to say “yes” and they pulled me to safety.
Jesus was not willing to take this woman further until she knew she was helpless and in trouble. God did not design the gospel to pre-eminently make us happy; God designed the gospel to pre-eminently make us holy (get a Concordance and look up the words ‘happy’ and ‘happiness.’ Then look up the words ‘holy’ and ‘holiness’). But the pathway to holiness begins with knowing we are not holy.
She says she’s been married five times and acknowledges she isn’t married to the man she’s with now. Jesus is not just tying to make her feel bad (“It was a great meeting; I came out feeling so guilty”). He knows that until she recognises her need, she won’t see any need for God.
Imagine you’re at a friend’s home and accidentally bump a vase; it falls and breaks into pieces. You were a little clumsy and offer to cover the cost of a replacement. You’re hoping it’s a $2 special but discover it was a $100,000 rare Chinese porcelain heirloom. Suddenly the gravity of what you’ve done is driven home. You realise you’ve done something terrible.
People are constantly trifling with God, rejecting Him, disobeying Him, and treating Him like a $2 throw-away vase.
The night I came to Christ I went into a meeting without any sense of having failed God or in any way being a sinner. Toward the end of the preaching a profound sense of my own sin flooded me. It was supernatural and almost crushing.
When we share the gospel with anyone and they have no sense of their failing before God, no sense of their sin, don’t be in a hurry to push them straight into a sinner’s prayer.
Jesus is working with the Holy Spirit in all He says to this woman. Our evangelism must too.
Do you share your faith? Are you sensitive to the Spirit when you do? Do you look for His intervention in the conversation?
Don’t take the person you’re sharing with any further than the Holy Spirit is willing to take them.
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