Leaving your Jar

16 Mar 2019,

Leaving your Water Jar.

(Kindly keep the bible on your side , so that you can read each reference verse written inorder to have a proper complete reading)

Last week , all of us saw an incident that a teen pretty school girl has been burned alive by another teen guy in a public place with no one to stop or prevent ,in broad daylight . It was done with ease, preplanned , emotion driven with no hesitancy . Following week... a ruthless shoot out at a Mosque in New Zealand, now Churches and hotels in Sri Lanka being bombed ruthlessly , loss of innocent lives . What does it indicate….it reiterates how much far our human mind and culture has once again moved away from the true design of God . Death and destruction is the end of it all, such a horror and dreadfulness . What in the world has happened to us.. all . We are not that…, yet we are … We have the capacity and range to swing between nature of God and nature of the Devil. At times fully immersed in love and understanding , but yet at times the epitome of Darkness and ignorance. Like to frame the question in a different way …..what is the water Jar or bottle we carry with us ?

This is what happens when we regard others and God himself only according to the flesh . That is when we relate ourselves to only a seen reality through our senses and with a materialistic view of life & reality . If we keep our classic mind and thought process unregulated & untamed , you will find your mind being maneuvered and led by the law of nature ,akin to the law of entropy .It always urges to take the path of futility simulating other laws of the nature . Law of entropy from order to disorder is what my empty heart craves for . “ The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it ?” says Jeremiah. By default our Mind is in condition of sin , though we are born again. Of course your spirit or Inner man gets renewed when we are born again (2Cor 4:16 , Eph 3: 16). But the renewal of our mind is gradual , which needs to be renewed on a daily basis. As man is made of Spirit , Soul(Mind, will) & Body.

Paul says..2 Cor 5: 16 From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. He regards God and others not through their flesh body nature but their spirit nature.

Christianity is not an old wine in a new jar , nor a new wine in Old jar. Christianity is a new wine in a new jar or new wineskin .Luke 5: 37 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. 38 But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. God is looking for new wineskins. There was a time in the history of the church, when God began to do a new thing just like He is determined to do in our days. God was busy pouring out the new wine into new bottles or wineskins ,when unexpectedly, Ananias and Sapphira brought in their old bottles and wanted the new wine poured into it. The end result was a great calamity.This is a typical extremity , if we start viewing things only through your flesh body nature. The Bible tells us that they were destroyed; they died physically . When you want God to work through you , please be available as a brand new bottle. Unfortunately , we still approach God with our old bottles .The nature of a new wine is to always expand and spread out . The fermentation process produces a great deal of pressure. An old and brittle wineskin will not be able to withstand the increasing stress, and it will burst.

The wineskin is a type of vessel. Throughout Scripture, vessels are symbols for people. For Christians, there is an “old man” and a “new man.” The old man represents the life we had before conversion, and the new man, the new vessel, is the life that comes because of conversion. But if we take the expansive and dynamic new wine, and we attempt to put that into the old life, we can be sure that we will have a disaster on our hands. Our old lives, our old ways, are entirely incompatible with the new wine. The new wine requires change, expansion, and steady improvement, while in the old life, there was no real desire or ability to change.

When God fills our being , we become charged and dynamic, we start actively working out the will of God. Your attitude, wisdom, understanding , goals and vision and character are no more the same. If not , it’s a condition of a new wine in an Old wineskin. It would eventually burst . In what condition are we in…?

Fear of death can be accounted for by the fact that God has stamped on nature, a law; it is the law of love of life and self preservation. It is natural enough that the man who has Kindred and friends would hardly like to leave behind those who are so dear. I know that when he gets more grace , he will rejoice in the thought of death ;but I do know that there are many quiet safe who will die rejoicing in Christ ,but who now, in the prospect of death, feel afraid of it. You will not prefer dying grace in all living moments. He wants also us to have a living grace as new wine bottles.

We have a tendency to approach others , our situations and even Jesus through the approach of our flesh body experience and wisdom. The basic reason is that our flesh body thought process is controlled by fear of death & ignorance of the true realization or clarity of any situation or person . We always are very confident to assert what we see, feel , hear,touch is the true reality of a situation or a person and nothing beyond. We need to even experience a seen God in the flesh , for our mind to affirm that reality . God has even affirmed that in the best possible way within the requisites of this world through his Son. I am not diminishing the thoughts of our thinking faculty. Gods working is mostly unseen,(His work can be seen) since He exists as a Spirit in an Unseen spiritual realm. Even in this natural world ,we cannot see continuously how a baby grows or how a small plant grows into a tree with our eyes literally . Can you literally see Energy, power of thought , intelligence …..Don't you think these Unseen realities are more powerful than their physical expressions or realities. But God is the cause behind all the seen reality . His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made. (Romans 1:20). We need to understand that this seen reality is caused by an unseen God through his Word . We even approach Jesus by regarding him as in the flesh .We know God came in the flesh, but its God’s Spirit in Jesus ,which is his true identity, because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.(Isa 42:1, 61:1) . The world could mostly perceive only his worldly nature . A typical example is when Jesus told the crowd. John 6: 25 When they found Him on the other side of the sea, they asked Him, “Rabbi, when did You get here?” Jesus replied, “Truly, truly, I tell you, it is not because you saw these signs that you are looking for Me, but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. The crowd connected to Jesus, by their comfort level they received in their flesh body in the presence of Jesus. How would you relate this feeling... to our human lives . For instance, a son who approaches his own father always in love and accepts his goodwill. As a result ,moving ahead his life journey was smooth & comfortable .The purpose for that lasting relationship was perhaps knowingly or unknowingly was due to the smooth journey of life so far . And in a critical moment of his life , the son leaves and forsakes him because his father became old and demanding . At the time of growing up and living together he didn’t know or realise this relation of sticking to his father was truly in his flesh nature . He thought he was loving his father . But what’s the reality ---his fallen flesh nature didn’t have the wisdom about his father as he needed to know him in the spirit . Who is my father or my mother or my wife or my children or anyone we approach… in the spirit . Who is God in the Spirit ? I cannot understand this through my wisdom about this world or what other religions teach or what my biology teacher expounds…..I cannot understand this through my wisdom in the flesh body.The maximum we understand about this , in this case his father , lets say… is about their blood relation, his human nature and that he came from his flesh body , his father's daily activities and so on . He didn't have a spiritual bonding with his father . He didn't know his or his father's spiritual identity . The flesh body relationship ,as expected has short life and it keeps changing . Always Flesh body relationships are situation driven . We also try to approach God in the same fashion as we deal with men , through our flesh body nature . What does it mean… what does it lead to….What are we looking for when we approach God ? Is our focus on God’s blessing or Are we interested to know him and his ways ?

Most of the religions approach God connecting themselves to God , on how they can influence God with their lives and thus their experiences of his blessings or curses. Isn’t it the same approach we apply with our fellow beings; its all the personal experiences we have with others which determines our interaction and relation. Look at Hinduism and Buddhism , it is Karma, your good deeds and bad deeds. Deeds or workings of the law is what you also find in Islam , 5 pillars and in Christian churches focussing only on good deeds and laws. I agree that good works have to be done , nothing wrong about it ,but that keeps us only to become a good human being...which is again controlled by emotions and are situation driven . Here again we are using our flesh body wisdom and efforts to approach God or our situation .We are using our natural skills and focus to understand God. We worship him , build him temples, churches ,mosques ,conduct all our rites , ceremonies but we don’t know who he is . Read Acts 17: 22-25. Paul was addressing a religious greek community … Like them , we also want to talk about God , hear about him, but we don’t want to find him. Acts 17: 21, this is how we also live out our spirituality by hearing or talking about it . We are not observing spirituality here , rather we are observing God for our Comfort and we have our own designed version of it . We need to find God, as we advance in spirituality and grow in it , Acts 17: 27

You may be in the most united group of positive friends, or relatives or a religious community , but why is that you suddenly hear about a shocking news about someone suiciding or retiring mentally or ending of a relationship within your group, community … why couldn’t the victim possibly not share his situation with someone else… what went wrong ? All our relationships which we thought and assumed as valuable and great , was truly according to the flesh .We couldn’t connect with that person , neither could he ,with us. How could we truly enter into a spiritual relationship . Long lasting relationships can always be achieved only by interaction through the spirit . Same applies also in our relationship with God. All relationships in the flesh is changing and has short life. How do we understand or discern the kind of interaction we make…

When you go without water your body gets thirsty. And the soul, when it goes without God, gets thirsty. Your body was made to live on water. Your soul was made to live on God. This is the most important thing to know about yourself. You were made to live on God. You have a soul, a spirit. There is a you that is more than a body. And that you, if it does not drink from the greatness , wisdom , power ,goodness , justice , holiness and love of God, will die of thirst.

I would like to bring your attention to a passage in John 4 , which reveals how we can truly interact with a person in the spirit and what are the obstacles faced .Its a very interesting conversation and try to visualise it as any typical situation, of an interaction of a spirit man with a flesh body man . I couldn't find a better passage than this . We will go through each verse of John 4 and try to understand word by word.....

John 4: 5 So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob's well was there; This is how the background or the Pretext of this passage is…Gen 33:19, Josh 24:32- Jacob’s well was an inheritance of the descendants of children of Israel & Joseph indicating God’s promise. In this passage you notice Jesus moving away from the Pharisees to this spot at Jacob’ well. Its symbolizes the journey from the Works of the law to works of promise or inheritance .Symbolises moving from the Old covenant to the new covenant, rather from the Old wine to the New wine. Moving from the curse of the law to the land of inheritance. Moving from the status of slave to a son. It’s a Journey from works of the law to Faith..... The well symbolises the place of Inheritance or Promise.

The Old wine or the Old covenant is following the laws, it was not the reality but only a temporary arrangement .Gal 3: 23- 26 . There was no Promise of the Spirit . The Old covenant was only promises for blessings or curses in the flesh or earthly. What is the difference between Law & Promise. A law has conditions . The result depends on, whether you are obeying the law or not . A Promise is unconditional , but only think you need to do is, to wait for it in Faith, until the promise comes to pass . How do we get our earthly inheritance ? We get our inheritance by Law, there is a legal document which signifies that you are a heir to this or that property . But Eternal inheritance is not through the law .Bible clearly says God’s gave his inheritance through a promise . Gal 3: 18 For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no longer of promise; but God gave it to Abraham by promise. This lady and Samaritans believed, that this Jacob’s well was their inheritance . But God’s promise was to Abraham and his offspring Gal 3: 16. This offspring was Christ. The true inheritance of her forefathers was standing right in front of her. The new wine was right in front of her.

Defining a spiritual interaction …

John 4:7 A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” 8 For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. 9 Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.

We can picturise a Lady carrying a Jar walking towards a well at the noon of a day . The condition of her life was truly depressive and beyond repair . She was truly bound by the society and was living a unstable married life of remorse. It depicts a typical human being in her daily routine ..toiling for her needs . The empty Jar represents her need in the flesh body. Her only goal was to fill the jar with water and go home, nothing more . Do we encounter such people ? .. most certainly on a daily basis. In fact that’s what we encounter most of the time. God interacts with us through our daily routine life. Yes, he does …We see ,how Jesus tries to interact with her . How does she view the situation seeing Jesus. Her Flesh body nature comes into action, her flesh body wisdom analyses and focuses on the exterior : In this case her Sex , Cast , Race , Religion –she was a Samaritan ,a Lady, a divorcee and a male Jew asking her for water were barriers in the flesh for a proper spiritual interaction. So she couldn’t relate herself with Jesus in this situation and to her the situation appeared meaningless . If we analyse our daily interactions , same or similar reasons pop up in all our flesh body interactions with anyone . There is nothing to bond with .

Men approach us or interact, from their comfort levels , needs ,wants or goals . They cannot easily connect with anyone unless comfort levels , needs ,wants or goals match. Here you notice , she was feeling a discomfort when she interpreted the situation through her flesh body wisdom. If it was another Samaritan lady with a Jar, she wouldn’t have perhaps had that much of an issue in interaction.

God approaches or interacts from his Promises or his Inheritance through his spirit . We interact from our comfort level in the flesh.

Interaction with anyone in the spirit ,needs to be approached, rekindling God’s promise or inheritance . Jesus couldn’t find any barriers in the flesh while interacting, unlike the lady. Jesus interacted with her in the spirit by seeing her too, as an inheritor of God’s promise. The question is ….. Do we see others as God’s inheritance or Gift during an interaction ?

10 Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”

The true gift and promise of her so called Forefathers was right in front of her. In any interaction , pls understand that every individual has a need .Every need is also created by God. It may be anything . For every physical need, you encounter in a situation, there is a spiritual solution as well which God can reveal . Here water was the physical need , and Jesus interacted with her through the same physical need . It made her interaction more meaningful, when Jesus spoke about living water .God speaks to us through our situation. Our spiritual interaction with anyone becomes more meaningful when we rely on the Holy spirit to interact in a way relating to the situation.

11 The woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? 12 Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?”

Four probable things you may encounter in your interaction with any man in the flesh is....

a) Impossibility b) Ignorance c) Not able to perceive spiritual things beyond the situation of the well d) Improper Yardstick

When we try to interact in the spirit to a flesh body man, he uses his earthly wisdom,tools,logic and tradition to assess the situation. Flesh body man sees impossibility . Secondly he doesn’t understand the revelation of the words in spirit. When Jesus offered her the living water .She says, there is nothing or any tool to draw the water, Well is deep.a) Impossibility and b) Ignorance dominates . It also further leads them to ... c) to regard your words and yourself related only to this earthly realm or according to the flesh . d) Yardstick of a flesh body man is always other human beings. Here you can see the lady understanding Jesus words just in the flesh body realm and also hinting at the best possible human yardstick as her forefather Jacob. The true yardstick is God alone. John1: 9-13 gives a clear picture.

John 4 : 13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again,14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

What was Jesus transferring to her spirit or mind . Jesus was transferring his love and was connecting with her through the word of God by the power of the Holy spirit .Loving the person through the word of God is the key factor. Jesus never quoted anything in his own wisdom . It was from the scripture itself that He interacted . In Isa 58:11 And the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden,like a spring of water,whose waters do not fail. (Isa 49:10) We do not have to worry , on what to say ,the Holy spirit will give us the word at the right time .

We can know God through the word of God and others can see God also through this word of God. Knowing the word of God , is knowing God. Words we utter ,identify with ourselves .People understand us through our words .Every word Jesus spoke identified himself with the Father, even remember his last words on the cross . If someone dear to us ,pass away , we are always particular to enquire about the last word he or she spoke, we don’t enquire ,on how he or she looked . Its the word spoken by a person which relates our selves to that person. When the word of God is spoken , the light of the word will start working on the flesh body man to seek his need and find it . 15 The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.” She really didn’t understand the words Jesus told her about springs of water which was in the spirit realm .

A spirit man can unveil the true spiritual inadequacies of the person in the flesh. The Holy spirit revealed the spiritual gap or inadequacy in her life , that’s when Jesus said… . 16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.”17 The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You have well said, ‘I have no husband,’ 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly.” This is the work of the Holy spirit to unveil it , even without our knowledge.( John 16: 8). That is the point where the flesh body man gradually connects with you … This passage reveals another truth in the spirit . The Samaritans were also worshipping God on Mount Gerzim and following the 5 books of law or Torah . She was aware about the law of Moses and she knew she was the transgressor of the law . She was living a life in Adultery and secrecy . She was seeing a mirror of herself through the words of Jesus. The law is like a mirror . When we interact with people , you can mostly certainly hear from them about their situation, weakness and all attrocities they face. It is rarely you hear from anyone , anything about how they are placed in front of God’s law or their own moral transgression. People don’t like to reveal them, its quite natural. We do understand it . In a way , Jesus was revealing the veins of the law through his words and she realized and experienced a spiritual death within the question Jesus asked her . This statement from Jesus had suddenly led her to a feeling of condemnation . Condemnation leads us to repentance . Her mind was now seeking repentance and seeking God . To worship him. What followed was … Rom 3:19 - 20 & Gal 3:24 is what then happens. The nature of Finding God in our state of spiritual death is the first step to spirituality for a flesh body man.This is the most important step.

20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship. 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father.22 You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. ” When we regard everything in the flesh , our belief system and ideology gets flawed. We need to be careful in leading people when they are ready for God. Our standard advise is to lead them to a church .In the flesh body realm we seek a God at a physical place , but God is a spirit . There is nothing wrong to lead them to a church .But something more even important than that . She was seeking to worship God on some mountain like the rest of her tribe . We know of religious pilgrimages , men climbing mountains trying to find God . Do you know, through which part of our body ,are all our major and key decisions in life made ? – its our conscience (spirit). God is a Spirit and the best place God likes to dwell is in your own spirit or conscience if you are willing to receive him. That is what Jesus was hinting at her . God wants to possess you through your heart . God wants you to experience Him through your own heart or spirit….Its possible only when your heart can see him through His Son in the Spirit .Notice Jesus doesn’t tell her directly to worship him , because she may limit God as in the flesh . But instead tells her .That God lives where there is Truth & Love . Her life so far was truly a Lie and in bitterness . She was all through out facing lie & bitterness from other human beings . Her flesh body approach had led her to this . Aren't we sometimes like this .She didn't know to fill the Gap in her heart . She was trying to fill the gap in her spirit by checking out her relationships with different people, instead of God….Only God can fill your conscience or your inner man. Although more, she was seeking an unknown God who was apart from her or a God placed in a mountain or a church. Jesus tells her that her ,life itself is a worship . Let me tell you an extreme case of our approach in the flesh . We know the story of Moses in Jude 1:9 ( But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses,) & 2 Kings 18: 4 about Nehustan. I have seen people trying to interpret this passage in a different way .These 2 incidents is a sign of how the world could have literally worshipped Moses or a bronze serpent as God itself . Moses was the most adored person in OT ,who did every miracle , he could have been possibly worshipped with his body at the grave by men who always seek to find a material to equate it with God. Bronze serpent is another example.

23 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. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 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.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”

To worship God in truth and spirit. Jer 31: 33 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

God has not asked us to worship an unknown God. But in the midst of all lies and bitterness she had one truth in her heart or spirit , that Messiah or Christ is coming . When her only single absolute Truth became a reality in front of her , that’s when her dimension and plateau of life changed, her heart was quickened .When…, 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”

.Her whole concept about salvation , worship and others changed when she knew who God is . When she received the knowledge about the Holy one. She also understood who she was .She knew her true value and her inheritance . All impossibilities and ignorances & fear instantly changed into Possibilities , Joy , hope and courage . She no more regarded Jesus in the flesh , nor herself .She also received a new identity, a new value system entered her thinking faculty 2 Cor 5: 16 From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

Meanwhile you see the disciples entering back into this passage .31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” 33 So the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?” 34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. 35 Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. 36 Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37 For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”

In a spiritual interaction our goal should be to do the will of God by understanding the actual need in the spirit . Again this word in verse 36 is from Amos 9: 13, where Jesus quotes from The OT. Faith is created only with the Word . Jesus said my words are spirit & life. At one instance in John 14 :9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works.

It is the Jesus in Spirit which is the real one, he says its not just the flesh body you see but Jesus is truly the word of God with the Father's spirit in Him, Jesus is Omnipotent God … The Holy spirit dwells in us and is perceived by the words we speak in the Holy spirit .

41 And many more believed because of his word.42 They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.”

We can worship God only when we understand Jesus in the Spirit . Jesus told Nathanael that you understood my identity by the words I uttered . And when we understand Jesus by his word , then we can start doing greater things like how the Samaritan Lady did , leave her jar and attracted many to God . Revelation happens when we understand Jesus through his word . John 1 : 50 Jesus answered him, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” 51 And he said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

Her New wine skin or the new Jar of her spirit was now filled with the new wine and she was no more concerned about her Old jar

28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?”

May Jesus fill your jar .....Amen