It’s raining today. That’s right. We’ve prayed through this oppressive heat that the Lord would send rain and as I write, the skies are clearing. The dark clouds are making their way toward my parents home. Our weather systems typically move in from the west or southwest, first passing my daughter, then my son on the way to me. Moving east northeast, showers graze my people scattered from here to the coast. Next time we talk, one of us will ask, “Did y’all get that rain?” Yes, y’all.
Walking outside this month has felt like walking into an industrial sized oven. I wonder if Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were spared the heat when God saved them from the blazing furnace? We know their hair and clothes were not singed. (Daniel 3:26-27) They didn’t even smell of smoke, but did they sweat? If there was a breeze allowing them to breathe, was it hot? I can’t help thinking about them when I’m checking the mail, taking the dog out or buckling my grandchildren into their car seats.
Over the weekend, my grandchildren and their parents met me at the pool. The concrete burned the soles of my feet as I half hopped from my chair to the edge. The entire pool was the temperature of bath water. Only after clouds overshadowed the sun and a breeze began to blow did being in the water begin to feel refreshing. Water is necessary for life yet in recent days, we’ve seen it do so much damage. Hurricanes caused flooding in unprecedented places with little warning. Most residents were unprepared.
In the arid regions where Jesus walked, water was life. Between John’s baptisms and his beheading, Jesus’s ministry gained momentum. People were still coming to John to be baptized but Jesus’s disciples were baptizing also. John called for repentance and turning back to God. He pronounced Jesus the spotless Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world at the Spirit’s prompting. John told those following him that Jesus must become preeminent. (John 3:30)
“John answered them directly, saying, “I am not the Messiah!”
“I am an urgent, thunderous voice crying out in the desert—clear the way and prepare your hearts for the coming of the Lord Yahweh!”
“I baptize the people in this river, but the One who will take my place is to be more honored than I, but even when he stands among you, you will not recognize or embrace him!
I am not worthy enough to stoop down in front of him and untie his sandals!””
John 1:20, 23, 26-27 TPT
https://bible.com/bible/1849/jhn.1.23-27.TPT
Have you heard of Jesus? Have you called His holy name in prayer or sworn by it? I’m not asking whether you believe in Him. Do you know of Jesus? It’s hard for me to believe that there are still people who have never heard that their Creator God became man because of His great love for them. (John 1:14)
“As the Scriptures say: Those who know nothing about him will clearly see him, and those who have not heard will understand.”
Romans 15:21 TPT
https://bible.com/bible/1849/rom.15.21.TPT
““This is how much God loved the world:
He gave his Son, his one and only Son.
And this is why:
so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life.
God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was.
He came to help, to put the world right again.
Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it.
And why?
Because of that person’s failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him.
“This is the crisis we’re in:
God-light streamed into the world, but men and women everywhere ran for the darkness.
They went for the darkness because they were not really interested in pleasing God.
Everyone who makes a practice of doing evil, addicted to denial and illusion, hates God-light and won’t come near it, fearing a painful exposure.
But anyone working and living in truth and reality welcomes God-light so the work can be seen for the God-work it is.”
After this conversation, Jesus went on with his disciples into the Judean countryside and relaxed with them there.
He was also baptizing.
At the same time, John was baptizing over at Aenon near Salim, where water was abundant.
This was before John was thrown into jail.
John’s disciples got into an argument with the establishment Jews over the nature of baptism.
They came to John and said, “Rabbi, you know the one who was with you on the other side of the Jordan?
The one you authorized with your witness?
Well, he’s now competing with us.
He’s baptizing, too, and everyone’s going to him instead of us.”
John answered, “It’s not possible for a person to succeed—I’m talking about eternal success—without heaven’s help.
You yourselves were there when I made it public that I was not the Messiah but simply the one sent ahead of him to get things ready.
The one who gets the bride is, by definition, the bridegroom.
And the bridegroom’s friend, his ‘best man’—that’s me—in place at his side where he can hear every word, is genuinely happy.
How could he be jealous when he knows that the wedding is finished and the marriage is off to a good start?
“That’s why my cup is running over.
This is the assigned moment for him to move into the center, while I slip off to the sidelines.
“The One who comes from above is head and shoulders over other messengers from God.
The earthborn is earthbound and speaks earth language; the heavenborn is in a league of his own.
He sets out the evidence of what he saw and heard in heaven.
No one wants to deal with these facts.
But anyone who examines this evidence will come to stake his life on this: that God himself is the truth.”
John 3:16-33 MSG
https://bible.com/bible/97/jhn.3.27.MSG
John answered, “A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven.”
John 3:27 ESV
https://bible.com/bible/59/jhn.3.27.ESV
Salvation is from the Lord. Purpose, Truth, Grace, Peace, Righteousness, Life and Light, even Faith is from God.
“And He was saying, “This is the reason why I have told you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him [that is, unless he is enabled to do so] by the Father.””
John 6:65 AMP
https://bible.com/bible/1588/jhn.6.65.AMP
John replied, “A man can receive nothing [he can claim nothing at all] unless it has been granted to him from heaven [for there is no other source than the sovereign will of God].”
John 3:27 AMP
https://bible.com/bible/1588/jhn.3.27.AMP
I can’t take credit for the rain. I can pray for it. I can welcome it and thank God for it. I can prepare the soil and plant seeds in anticipation but I cannot cause even one drop of water to fall from heaven. We can make predictions and learn from nature what seems to predicate rainfall but God alone opens and closes the windows of heaven.
“The rain and snow come down from the heavens and stay on the ground to water the earth.
They cause the grain to grow, producing seed for the farmer and bread for the hungry.
It is the same with my word.
I send it out, and it always produces fruit.
It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it.”
Isaiah 55:10-11 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/isa.55.10-11.NLT
“Jesus knew the Pharisees had heard that he was baptizing and making more disciples than John (though Jesus himself didn’t baptize them—his disciples did).
So he left Judea and returned to Galilee.
He had to go through Samaria on the way.
Eventually he came to the Samaritan village of Sychar, near the field that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.
Jacob’s well was there; and Jesus, tired from the long walk, sat wearily beside the well about noontime.
Soon a Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Please give me a drink.”
He was alone at the time because his disciples had gone into the village to buy some food.
The woman was surprised, for Jews refuse to have anything to do with Samaritans.
She said to Jesus, “You are a Jew, and I am a Samaritan woman.
Why are you asking me for a drink?”
Jesus replied, “If you only knew the gift God has for you and who you are speaking to, you would ask me, and I would give you living water.”
“But sir, you don’t have a rope or a bucket,” she said, “and this well is very deep.
Where would you get this living water?
And besides, do you think you’re greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us this well?
How can you offer better water than he and his sons and his animals enjoyed?”
Jesus replied, “Anyone who drinks this water will soon become thirsty again.
But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again.
It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.”
“Please, sir,” the woman said, “give me this water!
Then I’ll never be thirsty again, and I won’t have to come here to get water.”
“Go and get your husband,” Jesus told her.
“I don’t have a husband,” the woman replied.
Jesus said, “You’re right! You don’t have a husband— for you have had five husbands, and you aren’t even married to the man you’re living with now.
You certainly spoke the truth!”
“Sir,” the woman said, “you must be a prophet.
So tell me, why is it that you Jews insist that Jerusalem is the only place of worship, while we Samaritans claim it is here at Mount Gerizim, where our ancestors worshiped?”
Jesus replied, “Believe me, dear woman, the time is coming when it will no longer matter whether you worship the Father on this mountain or in Jerusalem.
You Samaritans know very little about the one you worship, while we Jews know all about him, for salvation comes through the Jews.
But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth.
The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way.
For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”
The woman said, “I know the Messiah is coming—the one who is called Christ.
When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
Then Jesus told her, “I Am the Messiah!”
The woman left her water jar beside the well and ran back to the village, telling everyone,
“Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did!
Could he possibly be the Messiah?”
So the people came streaming from the village to see him.”
John 4:1-26, 28-30 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/jhn.4.1-30.NLT
We’re all seeking something. Spiritually, emotionally, or physically, we yearn to be satisfied. We name our desires things like marriage, children, peace, prosperity, justice, freedom, influence. They sound admirable, things worth chasing, even fighting for. Jesus said, “Really, only one thing is needed.” (Luke 10:42)
“Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and he will give you everything you need.”
Luke 12:31 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/luk.12.31.NLT
““He has come from above and is greater than anyone else.
We are of the earth, and we speak of earthly things, but he has come from heaven and is greater than anyone else.
He testifies about what he has seen and heard, but how few believe what he tells them!
Anyone who accepts his testimony can affirm that God is true.
For he is sent by God.
He speaks God’s words, for God gives him the Spirit without limit.
The Father loves his Son and has put everything into his hands.”
John 3:31-35 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/jhn.3.34-35.NLT
His disciples were hungry. They had gone into town to buy food and were just returning to Jesus at the well. They must have noticed even from a distance the intensity of the interaction or else Luke would not have recorded their collective shock.
“Just then his disciples came back.
They were shocked.
They couldn’t believe he was talking with that kind of a woman.
No one said what they were all thinking, but their faces showed it.”
John 4:27 MSG
https://bible.com/bible/97/jhn.4.27.MSG
“Why don’t you eat?” they plied Him.
“He told them, “I have food to eat you know nothing about.”
Jesus said, “The food that keeps me going is that I do the will of the One who sent me, finishing the work he started.
As you look around right now, wouldn’t you say that in about four months it will be time to harvest?
Well, I’m telling you to open your eyes and take a good look at what’s right in front of you.
These Samaritan fields are ripe.
It’s harvest time!
The Harvester isn’t waiting.
He’s taking his pay, gathering in this grain that’s ripe for eternal life.
Now the Sower is arm in arm with the Harvester, triumphant.
That’s the truth of the saying, ‘This one sows, that one harvests.’
I sent you to harvest a field you never worked.
Without lifting a finger, you have walked in on a field worked long and hard by others.”
Many of the Samaritans from that village committed themselves to him because of the woman’s witness:
“He knew all about the things I did.
He knows me inside and out!”
They asked him to stay on, so Jesus stayed two days.
A lot more people entrusted their lives to him when they heard what he had to say.
They said to the woman, “We’re no longer taking this on your say-so.
We’ve heard it for ourselves and know it for sure. He’s the Savior of the world!”
John 4:32, 34-42 MSG
https://bible.com/bible/97/jhn.4.32-42.MSG
I cannot cause rain to fall. No one can save God alone. He causes the sun to shine and sends rain on the righteous and the wicked alike, for God shows no partiality. (Matthew 5:45, Romans 2:11)
“There is no one else who has the power to save us,
for there is only one name to whom God has given authority by which we must experience salvation:
the name of Jesus.”
Acts 4:12 TPT
https://bible.com/bible/1849/act.4.12.TPT
We have our marching orders, all of us who have trusted Jesus and pray as He taught. “Your kingdom come, Your Will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:10) Take a good look at what’s right in front of you. It’s harvest time! He sent you to harvest a field you never worked. Without lifting a finger, you have walked in on a field worked long and hard by others. Preach the gospel and don’t forget to invite them to come to Jesus.
“Everyone who reaps these souls for eternal life will receive a reward.
Both those who plant spiritual seeds and those who reap the spiritual harvest will celebrate together with great joy!”
John 4:36 TPT
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