Smoke Screens

One of the things I really love about Jesus’ ministry is the unique manner and methodology he invoked to bring about the manifestation of true salvation. Our lives, the full sum total of our lives, are ultimately to bring about Glory to God, that is, to bring heaven here on earth. In this regard, God can use anything and anyone to bring this to light. By the way, this includes all our baggage, emotional, psychological, financial, societal etc… But because of our embarrassment, shame, pride, jealousy and societal expectations and perceptions, we invariably hinder the work of God in our lives and the full completion of our God given ministries here on earth. Which is sad, considering that truly speaking, there is really nothing new under the sun, God has seen it all.

John Powell is quoted as saying: "I am afraid to tell you who I am, because, if I tell you who I am, you may not like who I am, and it is all that I have”

Its so unfortunate that the world we are living in is creating a silo existence that lends itself to us perpetuating the lies of satan that make us believe that our cultural set up and societal organisation is incapable of being influenced and changed, to the extent that these very social constructs bring us no joy and shut us out of the glorious existence of salvation! So when the truth actually attempts reveals itself, we actually shut down wisdom knocking on our doors which carries the very keys to we need for the type of revelation and speed to live lives we KNOW to be in sync with gods purpose for our lives. We forget that yes, the foolishness of God is wiser than man…” Think about the story of the woman of Samaria - https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+4&version=TPT

The Samaritan woman Jesus met faced prejudice from her own community. She came to draw water at the hottest part of the day, instead of the usual morning or evening times, because she was shunned and rejected by the other women of the area for her purported immorality. Jesus knew her history but still accepted her and ministered to her in a very honest and open manner.

She exhibits remarkable theological acumen sparring with Jesus over where true worship is found. Unlike the respected rabbi, Nicodemus (John 3), who meets secretly with Jesus at night and departs still doubting, the Samaritan woman meets him in broad daylight and departs a true believer. On her word, "Many of the Samaritans of that town began to believe in him because of the word the woman who testified “He told me all that I ever did”d,…" (John 4:39).

This text is the longest conversation Jesus has with any woman in all four Gospels.

For John, the Samaritan woman represents the consummate "outsider" who, after her transformative encounter with Jesus, becomes not only an "insider" but also a leader, publicly proclaiming Jesus the Messiah to both men and women via village communication channels.

Along the way the narrative deliberately highlights and then discounts stereotypical female behaviors to which she does not conform. Yet her non-conformity presents no obstacle to her acceptance and subsequent leadership in Jesus' kinship network.

For me, the most compelling piece of "good news" in this passage is that the Samaritan woman's search for true worship comes to fruition in her lengthy dialogue with Jesus.

In the encounter not only is she changed, but so is Jesus.

In the absence of her vulnerability and willingness to confront her shame and societal rejection, she would have totally missed one of the most prolific encounters with our Messiah, and carried on living a life of normalised second rate citizenship.

Her joyful embrace of Jesus' teaching quenches his hunger to fulfil God's will "on earth as in heaven." "I have food to eat that you don't know about," says a re-energized Jesus, rejoicing that God's harvest is indeed vast (John 4:32-38).

The woman's search for true worship "in Spirit and in Truth" is at last fulfilled. Jesus recognises that he did not sow the hunger for God that already existed within her. But he did reap what another had sown.

We are in a time and generation when people are inquisitive to hear, but are not willing to listen, because they rather wish that what they are hearing is not the truth! And so, they might change the subject halfway at times, or walk away or defend what they rather believed as or want to believe as the truth.

Turning ourselves open and being vulnerable is a high level of trust, and it is a trust that our life won't be destroyed for it. Vulnerability is actually the only way to get over some things that happened in our lives; no matter how old this issues may be. The question then has always been, who can handle your truth, without labelling you or putting you in a position to begin defending or explaining yourself.

Most times the vulnerable person is more secure than those they speak to. And at times, because even in our expression of falsified positivity and fake humility there is some denial involved than complete truth, so we end up be slapped in the face by the other side of the reality. We therefore postpone the inevitable because we completely miss the opportunity of devising strategies of overcoming ahead of time to defeat the negative realities of life before their follow up manifestations during the course of life.

We need to possess maturity to receive certain truths about ourselves. Maturity is the stamina to hear and handle truth objectively, not selectively nor with denial. Its more about your mental and emotional health than anything else. "Confession is good for the soul."

Ask God to lead you in this respect, He has such perfect promises in this space because of His Love for that which He created. I love how 1 John 4:17-18 MSG expresses this idea:

17-18 God is love. When we take up permanent residence in a life of love, we live in God and God lives in us. This way, love has the run of the house, becomes at home and mature in us, so that we’re free of worry on Judgment Day—our standing in the world is identical with Christ’s. There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life—fear of death, fear of judgment—is one not yet fully formed in love.

May grace, peace, inner health, strength and love be yours, now and forever in Jesus precious name.

Amen...

NK