Taking the fountain - part 1

It is a pleasure to be here with you again and really in God's plans was all this. A few months ago Roberto and I were talking on the phone about the book that he had just published, we were talking about my book, we were discussing the possibility of coming to the area.

And so, tentatively, we talk about a possible date but to confirm later. Shortly after, Meche calls me and tells me: "You know what, Awilda? I have here that Roberto has such a date pending to see, to confirm later, like you're coming to this area" and he says, "and I wanted to bring you to that date, precisely, for the same date for the women's activity that we have today".

So God is in control of everything, God has everything on his agenda and among all the things that God wants to do, the most important thing is that God wants us to understand or refresh our understanding regarding Biblical truth, Biblical principles that we have to be aware that we need to constantly take from the source, day by day. Try to live under the favor of God because in the source of God we find his favor and his blessing.

Let us bow our heads, there where we are, and pray: 'Father, we thank you because we have been able to adore you with all our minds, with all our hearts, with all our being. And in this hour, Lord, we continue before your Blessed presence Oh, God! and we tell you, Lord, that we want to remain attentive to You, Lord. Attentive to what You have for us on this day. We have come to take from the fountain, we have come to take from Your Word, we need You, Oh God! and... in Christ Jesus in such a way that Your Word does in us that for which You send it, Lord. Thank you, we give you in this hour; Thank you for what you are doing and for what you will continue to do. Thank you Lord, Amen, Amen.

I invite you to locate ourselves again in John Chapter 4, which is the key text of the theme of this day.

John, Chapter 4. And it was already read at the beginning of the Service, but I want us to read Verses 13 to 14 again. It reads as follows: 'Jesus answered speaking to the Samaritan woman and said to her: "Anyone who drinks from this water, will be thirsty again. But whoever drinks the water that I will give him, will never thirst, but the water that I will give him will be a spring of water that springs up to eternal life".

This very well-known passage of Scripture and especially very well-known when we speak in the Evangelical sense, right? This passage of Scripture tells us about a Samaritan woman and her encounter with Jesus of Nazareth. His meeting with the Master, his meeting with the Messiah. And there were three factors - there could be many more - but I want to mention three factors in particular that this woman had against her.

Number one I want to mention is that this woman was what? We already mentioned it: Samaritan. In other words, this woman belongs to a race rejected by the Jews. When at a given moment in the history of the people of God, the Assyrians, the Assyrian people attack the people of God and attack Samaria, what did the Assyrian people do? He deported all the inhabitants of Samaria, they brought people from other places and what happened? Those Jews who remained in Samaria mixed with those who came from other places, so the Samaritans were no longer… what? Pure Jews, but they were mixed and they were considered by the Jewish race as a people… what? Like despicable people. They were not considered as part of the Jews anymore because they had mixed with other races.

So, this woman within what has to do with Jewish culture was, had a disadvantage and it is the fact that… was what? Samaritan. She was not of the race par excellence, she was not of the pure race and in addition to that we can also mention that this woman; the mere fact of being a woman was another aspect that was… in what? Against him or that did not favor him.

In the ancient world women counted for nothing. Sometimes it happens that way in some Hispanic cultures, but thank God in our times that has changed a lot, right? Much more in these areas.

But, the reality is that in the ancient world -even in the present- women count for almost nothing. And it turns out that being a woman in the ancient world was something very critical and being a woman within Jewish culture was also something very critical in the sense that we understand today: that it is appreciated and esteemed in its different functions. In the Jewish people it is one thing, very different. So much so, that the Jews considered the woman impure from the cradle - as if she were impure, as if she had menstruation. And excuse me for using the exact and medical and correct terms. From the cradle. The woman was considered impure, for being a woman as if she had menstruation from the cradle.

A Jew could pray to God, or used to pray to God, saying: "Thank you, Lord, for I was not born a Gentile and I was not born a woman." So, within the Jewish culture, women were not held in esteem - although God has always held us in esteem - but, within the culture, they were not held in esteem. This woman had many things against her; or at least I am mentioning three aspects.

And the third of them is that, according to the Biblical narration, to make matters worse, a Samaritan, a woman and, to make matters worse, a sinner. A woman in a sinful condition. But, this woman who had these factors, and many more that we could mention against her, was a woman who in the person of Jesus found an answer for her life, for her needs in the face of the thirst that she had that perhaps she herself did not even know not even identify. Jesus supplies him according to his need even within his condition of sin. Regardless of the factors that might be against it, Jesus did not reject it; On the contrary, the Scriptures say at the beginning of that narration, of this passage that it was necessary for Jesus to go through Samaria and the Jews when they had to go to a certain place that they had, that the route involved Samaria, what did they do? They went around and around but did not go through Samaria because it was an impure town. But, the Scripture tells us that it was necessary for Jesus to go through Samaria.

Why was it necessary for him to go through Samaria? Because there was a commission to bring living water to a woman who needed it. And it was necessary for Jesus to pass close to our lives at a given moment when we did not know him, at a given moment when we were in our Samaria, Jesus determined to pass and touch our lives and reach our hearts and we told him, "Yes, Lord, here we are and we accept you. I want to drink from that living water."

But it is interesting, important, that we can understand that this beautiful moment of encounter, of the first encounter with the Lord has to be repeated day by day in our lives. Jesus did not reject this woman, Jesus did not reject us. We were also Samaritan women. We also had our condition of sin whatever it was. This woman had a condition of sin in the sexual area, we had whatever condition it was. Perhaps opposed to moral or sexual sin, that we had the sin of believing - as it happened to me - that we were very holy because they had raised me in my house in such a way and with such moral principles that I lived a very holy life, very good people, going to Episcopal Church every Sunday, every week.

Accustomed to a very firm moral education at home, but, you know what? I was the same as this Samaritan woman because I did not have the Lord. Regardless of the condition that we had, if for my part I believed that I was fine, one day God confronted me in my Samaria and let me see: 'Don't think that because since you were little you have gone to Church and you have experienced, that you have had a good life and morals, etc., etc., that you have no sin. Because everything is sin, they are removed from the Kingdom of Heaven.’ And one day God became aware in my Samaria. We all had and were in our Samaria and Jesus did not reject us.

Jesus does not reject this woman being Him... being what? Jew. He does not reject this woman... being what? Man. He does not reject this woman since He is pure and without sin, since He is the Son of God. On the contrary, Jesus gives him an invitation, he invites him to drink the living water. Regardless of their condition, Jesus opens and gives and extends an invitation. The most important invitation that had come to this woman. He had had many invitations in his life according to what the Scripture narrates here and according to the question that Jesus asks him later. But Jesus makes him the invitation par excellence. And Jesus begins to touch with her on the subject of what living water is and precisely that is the main theme of this Biblical passage and of the conversation between Jesus and this woman.

Unlike her, and we -I assume-, or most of us... have been what? Rescued already by the Lord. Unlike her, who at this moment in the Biblical passage is meeting the Master, we already meet the Master. We have already been rescued, but there is another thing that we are not unlike her, that although we have already been rescued, we need it today as this woman needed it at the time. There are other areas in our lives that God wants to work with us and that tells us: 'You need to drink from the living water that one day, long ago, you already drank. Today I have living water for you,' says the Lord.

In verses 4 to 5, after indicating in 4 that it was necessary for him to go through Samaria, he says that, "he came to a city of Samaria called Sychar, next to the field that Jacob gave to his son Joseph, and that there was a well,” and that Jesus…was what? Tired of? of the way The well was called Jacob's well and it is interesting that there are two Greek words for well, which are translated: well. One of them is 'prear' which refers to the well dug to get water, that is, the hole that the human being makes, the man to be able to dig water. But then we have another word called 'pegue' that some pronounce 'peje' and that means "the source of water". Do you get me?

The well is what man creates, but no matter how much man believes and lifts or digs and tries to draw water, if the source is not there, nothing comes out. And it is interesting that this woman came… where? To the well, to the prear, right?

But what did he find? The source from which it truly flows, from where it is truly produced... where it truly comes from, what? The water of eternal life.

Jesus is at Jacob's well and this woman comes… to what? To draw water This woman arrives very safely at the common task that she used to do daily to fetch water for daily needs and Jesus meets this woman there because Jesus was thirsty and he stopped in this place precisely because it was necessary for him to go through Samaria.

And when he meets this Samaritan woman, Jesus makes her an offer, that upon entering into a dialogue, Jesus arrives at a moment when he makes her the most important offer -as I mentioned- that this woman could have received.

But before going into more detail about that statement from the opening verses that we read, I want to mention a few details about this dialogue between Jesus and the Samaritan woman. And the details that I am going to mention will lead us to see that what God wishes to give us in our lives daily is His Blessing, His presence, it is His favor as he offered it to him and gave it to this woman.

Jesus was tired of the road. Jesus was tired of what he had been doing that day. He sits by the well, he was alone because the disciples had gone to buy something to eat and the Scripture says that it was "about the sixth hour." That time is more or less noon and this woman, as I mentioned, perhaps went to do what she used to do. But it is interesting, that the women usually went to the well to draw water at sunset when the sun was already... what? Lowered, right? And it wasn't so strong anymore. But, this woman was going… at what time? At the most critical hour, at noon. Very possibly -or very surely-... for what? So as not to run into the other women who knew of her condition. She was a Samaritan woman and even the Samaritan women themselves within the practice of their religion, which they understood were also God's chosen people, had to be careful about assembling... with what? With other Samaritan women who had an indecent moral life.

So, most likely, this woman went at noon to avoid meeting the other women because she had a bad reputation. And Jesus asks him for a drink. Jesus asks him for a drink. And what she answers -in verse 9- before what Jesus tells her, she answers him in the following way: "How do you," -with a question-, "being a Jew you ask me to drink because I am Samaritan woman?

Jesus asks her for a drink, she throws back a question. You are a Jew - that is, Jews and Samaritans don't get along with each other - and how can you, being a Jew, ask me for a drink?

Asking a Samaritan woman for a drink was something that Jesus within the Jewish culture should not have done. But Jesus breaks down the barriers you have to break down. We did not deserve that He approach us in our Samaria, but He broke what he had to break to reach us one day. Jesus breaks the barriers with this woman who still has to break the barriers of her own culture, of her own religion because He brought the living water. He brought the real water. And Jesus, not only does he break with the culture, with the principles of this culture, but above all things, breaking with those principles leads to a life that perhaps was... -well, very surely- he was aware of his condition, but although She was aware of her condition when Jesus enters into a dialogue with her we find that this woman, before what Jesus tells her, throws answers, and questions and questions and they come and go and it seems that she begins to evade the deal, the dialogue or the conversation that Jesus has with her.

So Jesus breaks with the principles that he has to break established by the culture to reach the lives that he has to reach just as one day he reached us. And Jesus turns this conversation - which seems to be a normal conversation and a normal conversation about the well, the water, that I'm thirsty, that I'm tired, give me a drink - he turns it into… what? In a spiritual conversation. It passes from the human and earthly plane to the spiritual plane. And when he passes to the spiritual plane in verse 10 we observe that he says: 'Jesus answered and said to him: "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that says to you: Give me a drink; you would ask him, and he would give you water live".

From the earthly plane: I'm thirsty, I'm tired, give me water, it goes to the spiritual plane: 'It's just, look, if you knew who it is that is asking you; The one who is asking you has to give you a drink! The one who is asking you for water for physical sustenance due to fatigue or the midday sun, this one who is really asking you, what I come here is to give you what I have to give you'.

And God tells us today: 'Are you asking me?' Some of us God tells us: 'You are in anguish, you have been asking for your children, for your family, for this situation, for the other, for the other and you are asking and you are asking, but I have a blessing for you What is that spiritual rest in your soul and in your being when you drink this living water that I give you every day. And that living water will help you rest in the midst of your situation, in the midst of your circumstances'.

That is why, at the beginning I told you that what God wants from us is that we keep drinking from that living water that we drink in one day in our lives... what? day to day.

The following verse follows: "The woman said to him: 'Lord, you have nothing to draw it with, and the well is deep.'" You have nothing to draw it with and the well is deep. Jesus is on a plane... what? Spiritual and she goes back to a plane… what? To a human plane. She's not getting it.

And she asks him: "Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this well, from which he, his children, and his cattle drank?" Earthly. And then come the verses that I read at the beginning when Jesus declares that He has living water to give this woman. And when we talk about living waters, we are talking about running waters. We are not talking about stagnant water, we are talking about water that is… what? Running constantly like those of a river, like those of a stream. It does not refer to stagnant water, but because it is stagnant little animals can come, in Puerto Rico we call them mimes, at any given moment the water can stink because stagnant water... what? It is useless to drink, it is useless. Stagnant water is dangerous when consumed, but living water is water that... what? That runs.

The Bible tells us "that the fountain never stops flowing its water." Jesus is offering this woman living water from the spring. Remember well and fountain? Jesus is offering her living water from the spring because "the spring never stops flowing."

In the Old Testament, in Jeremiah, the Bible tells us that "the Lord is a fountain of living waters." Also the psalmist in the Psalms tells us that in Zion where the presence of God is, there are all my sources "are in you" says the psalmist. "In Zion are all my sources, because there is the presence of God." Living waters, running water, God's presence, God's life in us.

So far we can, or I want to mention a principle. And the principle that I want to mention is the following: We are called to drink from the source that originates with God. We are called to take -note that I said source, I did not say well- from the source that originates from God and from now on I am going to keep mentioning the principles after having explained part of the Biblical passage and expressed some ideas.

Usually I do the opposite, but this time I am going to indicate and emphasize the principles after having developed some ideas to make us aware of how we see it in the biblical passage.

But going back to John, this woman doesn't understand what Jesus is saying to her. This woman does not understand and says: "You want water, but you don't even have anything to get it with?"

So what? As? How can we resolve this? You don't have anything to draw it out with, the well is deep. That well can be from seventy-five to one hundred feet deep. "Where do you get the living water from?" she asked him. And sometimes God speaks to us and we don't understand what he is saying to us. Even when we have been in the Lord for a long time, even when we are serving Him for many years, sometimes God speaks to us and we answer back, "But Lord, what are you talking about?"

Sometimes God speaks to us on that spiritual plane and we are having an understanding, what? from an earthly plane. She is talking about the well and Jesus was talking about the spring that fills the well.

Sometimes God speaks to you and we don't understand, we are blinded like this woman. That's why I said that we too are what? Samaritan women. Or sometimes it is not only that we allow ourselves to be involved by family situations, work situations, problems that sometimes weigh us down, but also on occasions when God has called us to the Ministry, for example, and we answer "Lord, but am I ?" and the Lord looks at us and knows that he has given us capabilities, that he has given us gifts and calls us to the Ministry because he knows that we can, because He is the one who has trained us and who will be with his grace and favor in us on that path ministerial. But we thinking we can't. "Sir! But, and from where?" And the Lord tells us "of the water that you already have inside of you." "Where do you ask me from? From what I have already given you. Keep drinking my water, keep drinking my favor, because the Blessing is found in my source, my favor is found."

But sometimes we look at the well and we find it very deep, we find it deep. We find that what God wants to do with us is a long way off. oh! With the sister yes, but with me no. No, it's very difficult with me, no I can't. No, no, it's not that the sister is graceful and has skills, she has this and she has the other. But I am so little thing. If you think you are a little thing, the little God turns it into a lot, if we take from the source.

We cannot be looking at the depth of the well, we cannot keep our eyes on the depth of the problems, on the depth of what we believe to be or do not believe to be. We have to keep our gaze on the source and draw from that source.

Principle number two: Let us seek to understand the spiritual realities that God communicates to us. Now in verse 12 she asked Jesus, "are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this well...?" In other words, for her up to now there is nothing extraordinary in Jesus. She knows that he is a Jew, but he is just another Jew and she is in dialogue with this Jew. Sometimes we are so familiar with what we have achieved or have in God that we seem to get so used to God that we forget the great and majestic God we serve. Or sometimes we have spent so many years in the Gospel serving the Lord, that we enter a state of what? to get used to everything that has to do with the Lord, to the move of God, to the Christian life, to life in the church, to the brotherhood but we stop drinking from the fountain and we are in the church, we are serving the Lord but we are not taking from the source day by day as we should take.

And this woman is considering with that question, she is considering Jesus less than the parents, less than the father Jacob. When she talks about our parents, she is referring to what? to the offspring.

Remember that there was a fight between the Samaritans and the Jews. Jews were the pure, Samaritans were a mix. The Samaritans said that they were, the Jews said that they were who they were, and so this woman is claiming what? his heritage. This woman has reverence for the patriarchs, this woman claims what she understands to be hers. This woman claims with the expression "our parents", this is what I have, but Jesus knew what He was.

Sometimes we claim before the Lord, we dare to claim. "Lord, but this! Look, Lord, I have done this and I have not seen that You have done the other". "It is that Lord, I have been in You for so many years, isn't it time that you please favor me in this area and do something?" or "This request that I asked you a year, two years or twenty years ago and what happens, Lord? Are you not going to remember me, Lord?"

Sometimes we honestly ask God questions, like this woman who is speaking honestly there as she goes back and forth in conversation with Jesus. Honestly but at the same time they are questions that reflect that we are moving away from the source. That we are moving away from the source.

And God doesn't mind us asking him. But He will always do as Jesus does with this woman: trying to take us where He has to take us, even if we don't understand, He will confront us, even if we don't understand, He will guide us in conversation, even if we try to divert, He will guide us to take us to what He has for us. us, so that we can reach his Blessing so that we can reach his favor by taking from the source.

This woman shows that she has heritage from the patriarchs, but she is talking to the quintessential Jew. He is talking to the Messiah and he was not recognizing him.

Another principle: Let's not let what we have achieved in God prevent us from seeing what God has for us next. "Ah! It's just that I've been in the Lord for so many years"; oh! It's just that I've had such an experience with the Lord"; "Ah! It is that God has used me in this way". The inheritance in the Lord does not matter, the experience does not matter, the years... one, two, three, twenty, thirty... let us keep drinking from the source because God follows us inviting day by day. This is not something of the inheritance of the past, we have to live, the past is worth, everything we have walked in the Lord is important. The past leads us to grow in Faith, to grow in the Lord but we have to live every day in the present taking from the source.

Sometimes the glorious past of experiences in God can stagnate us for the next thing that God wants for us because we feel satisfied in all the past experiences and then, we forget about what? That there is something new and fresh from God for our lives in the present.

What is the source of water that sustains our lives? In the new covenant the source that Jesus was speaking of here to this woman when he declared to her this truth that "I will give you living water to drink" – is the Holy Spirit. We take from that source the day we receive the Lord, but as I mentioned at the beginning, this Biblical passage, although it is used a lot in evangelization to talk about salvation; is a biblical passage that speaks to us every day. It is a biblical passage for daily living taking from the source daily applying it to our lives daily in our present.

Jesus also declared in the Gospel of John: "I have come that they may have life" and so that they may have it. How? In short supply? No, in abundance. That is and that is achieved when we are constantly drinking living water.

The next principle I want to mention is: We must draw from the source day by day in order to be satiated in God and live abundant lives. When we are weak, when we are in a state of despair and even depression. Because they say that it happens to us women -to men too- but to us women, after a certain age even more, right? But in depression, despair or anguish, do you know what happens? Even in those difficult times, we forget what? To take from the source.

But if we drink day by day when difficult times come, when depression announces itself, when restlessness announces itself, when despair announces itself, when problems come, the water that we are constantly drinking and day by day refreshes us to work and deal with every situation that arises in our lives. That is why it is necessary to draw from the source day by day to live abundant lives.

Now, in verse 15, the woman said, "Give me that water to drink, so I don't have to come here to draw it." Again what happened? spiritual plane versus what? the earthly plane. He is understanding everything on the earthly plane. "Give me a drink" when he is offering a water that if I drink it, well, I will never get thirsty.

"Give me a drink" and so… what? I don't have to come every day, I don't have to avoid meeting other women who know about my condition. I don't have to come to catch the midday sun because I have to escape from them. "Give me that water to drink", he is understanding it in the sense… what? human, on the earthly plane. He is on a natural plane, he is looking at what is convenient for him.

Sometimes we, let's be honest, we are on such a natural and earthly plane that we are also negotiating with the Lord looking for what is best for us. And it's not what's good for us, it's what He knows is good for us.

That is what God wants for us. But the reality is that sometimes we are stubborn, excuse me for saying it like that... sometimes we are stubborn and God knows what is best and we insist on where? in what is not convenient. We continue... Ah, but Lord! Well, give me because then... and this..." and negotiating with the Lord. The Lord knows what is good for you, the Lord knows what is good for us and He knows that the water that He is offering us springs up into eternal life.

We can also say that when this woman answers Jesus like this, in that Verse, she may be playing with Jesus. Because obviously in the natural plane of human life it is known that no water quenches thirst forever, that we need to drink water constantly, day by day. So this woman is what? On the earthly level, even playing with what Jesus is telling him. You are not taking seriously what Jesus is communicating. He is not considering in depth and on a spiritual level what this Jew, who really was the Messiah, was offering him. This woman is playing in the conversation, pulling from one side to the other and answering with questions and with phrases and with different ideas what Jesus is communicating to her.

And we sometimes - no matter how long we are in the Lord - here we are, Lord, conversing with you. What dialogue? We dressed him up as...

Interruption

"No, Lord, but..." and the Lord tells us: "Take care on the spiritual plane." Time...

This life has had so many questions as to why he does or doesn't do something that he has even thought about leaving the church. God tells you today: "Don't look at the circumstances and stop to drink the living water that God has for you." The fact that you are here today -and excuse me for dwelling on this but it is very important- but the fact that you are here today is God rescuing you from what you are thinking.

We return to the Word. God invites us to constantly drink his living water. It is not what suits us, the next principle.

It is not what suits us, the natural plane, what suits us should not go above what? of the will of God, the spiritual plane. What suits us should not go above the will of God; what suits us is how we want God to do things and the spiritual plane is how God determines and wants to do it because he knows what really suits our lives.

And it's interesting that going back to the Samaritan woman and the passage, in verse 16, Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband."

Oh! But wait, this woman is not saying in the previous Verse "Give me that water so I don't have to come here to get it", so Jesus is doing the same thing that she does, changing the subject?

Jesus is taking her where he has to take her, Jesus is not letting himself be fooled by her answers or by the themes she brings up or by the comments she makes. He knows where he is going, because remember it was necessary for him to go through Samaria to bless this woman and those who would believe her testimony.

"Go, call your husband, and come here." Now Jesus declares his condition to him. Jesus declares to her the moral -and spiritual- condition in which she was living. But this woman is still very cunning, she is still very smart, and what does this woman say to Jesus?

He tells her in verse 17 "I have no husband." Oh, you don't have a husband! But Jesus knows them all, Jesus said to him: "You have said well: 'I have no husband'". Of course you did, you spoke the truth. She is telling a lie but Jesus tells her: "You have told a truth: you have no husband" and why? that Jesus has said that he told a truth -Verse 18: "Because you have had five husbands and the one you have now is not your husband; this you have said with truth".

The woman's cunning response, "I don't have a husband." Jesus transforms her and tells her... yes... what was a lie Jesus transforms her and tells her: "You have told the truth." Because look, you've had more than one, you've had up to five and even the one you have now is not your husband, he declares his condition. But when Jesus declares her condition, he does not declare it to leave her in it.

One day Jesus declared our condition but rescued us and gave us living water to drink.

So Jesus' answer, this answer that doesn't seem to fit with the theme of "Give me a drink", "I don't have anything to draw the water with", etc., etc. It does fit very well because Jesus knows where he is going in his conversation. Jesus is taking her to drink from the living water and for her to drink from the living water it was necessary for her to acknowledge her sin, leave her sin behind and drink from the fountain. Then the living water would transform him.

So Jesus' answer is a very accurate answer. Applying it to us then we can say, and God asks us, not in the sense in which he asked the Samaritan woman who spoke to him in the sense of moral sin. But God can ask us who is your husband? And we can say "who is your husband" in the sense, what am I dedicating more time to than to the Lord that I cannot drink the living water? Am I spending more time, including my husband? I'm not saying that husbands or home should be neglected, everything has its balance. But you know what? I have known women who are so faithful in Christianity, Christian women who admire their husbands so much -and we have to do that, the Bible tells us about admiring the husband and recognizing what they are for us as the head of the home- but in a On occasion I met a woman who admired him and her Pastor husband so much that one day she told me: "If I lose my husband, I don't know what I would do" and I... I wasn't saying it in the sense of human company, they understand me? We were talking about what had to do with the Ministry, with service to God in that sense, we were talking and I say: "If my husband is missing, I continue walking in the Lord, with pain in my heart and God will work with me." that is true? but I keep walking in the Lord. My service to God, even if one is ministering together with her husband, my service and my commitment to God has to be from a total that I take from the source daily individually.

I have to appreciate what God has given me as a partner, the person that God has given me as a partner, but what is my responsibility? individually before the Lord. I have to drink from the well, just like my husband has to drink from the well, and my husband cannot take the place in my heart that the Lord does. He can take second place after the Lord, but not first. The first will always be the Lord.

You have to take it from the source. Who is your husband? Don't you have a husband? Are you alone? There is some that this example that I just gave does not apply to them because they are alone for some reason in life. But sometimes, then, loneliness takes the place of what? What should God occupy? Because then we are thinking so much: Ouch! What if I had a partner, like such a sister! What do they serve the Lord together! How nice! So regretting what we don't have in the present or that I have had to live with raising my children alone, how hard! We understand financial, emotional, spiritual responsibility in all aspects is not an easy thing. Then we take the present situation of our life, that God also understands it and that God cares for us, but we worry so excessively about it that we forget that He is our husband! That He is our maker!

Even if I am alone raising my children or even if I am alone without children because I do not have a husband because I have not been given the blessing of being married, He is still my maker, He is still my Creator, He is my companion par excellence. It is the source of life from which I have to draw. He is the one who really satisfies me one hundred percent.

I always tell the sisters that no matter how good a husband we have -I have a good husband, thank God- the one who has to satisfy us spiritually and even emotionally one hundred percent is the Lord. Our husbands, no matter how good they are, will limp somewhere like us, who also limp somewhere. But the Lord never limps with us, the Lord is always, always faithful. Hallelujah!

But we have to keep taking from the source, taking from the source.

Verse 19: 'The woman said to him: "Lord, it seems to me that you are a prophet." Now how does the tone change? Finally, it was time! Now this woman is kind of changing her tone in the middle of the conversation. Well of course! Jesus took her against the wall, she looked around to escape from what Jesus is declaring to her, but Jesus took her because he wanted to give her living water and now she recognizes "I believe that you are a prophet" because of what you are saying. And it is interesting that the Samaritans do not recognize any other prophet after Moses. Only the Prophet that would come: the Messiah.

So when this woman says "I believe that you are a prophet" what she is implying is that she is in some measure acknowledging that this Jew is indeed sent from God, that this Jewish man that I am here with going back and Forward in my conversation, he is sent from God and he really has something. "It seems to me that you are a prophet."

But you know what? Still, he changes the subject again.

Verse 20. 'Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you say that Jerusalem is the place where one should worship.' OK. It seems to me that you are a prophet, because I am going to change the subject of my morality and I want to talk about the matter of being a worshiper, about which is the place where one should worship because our parents say in such a place and you say in such a place. He changed the subject again, although at one point he admits "It seems to me that you are a prophet." Sometimes God impresses us and for the moment we fall into place and understand what God is trying to tell us, but then we want to turn it around on the Lord. Oh no Lord!...wait let me continue where I'm going...

We begin to understand what God wants, we begin to understand where God wants to take us but at the moment we stray because we stop what? to take from the source.

The other principle I want to mention: Let's pay attention to the truth that God communicates to us and do what needs to be done. And before the question: our parents worshiped in such a place, where is it then that one should worship? We find that the place of worship - the answer that Jesus gives - is not important. What matters is… what? Jesus answers, –Jesus goes beyond the place of worship, what matters is that 'a heart that worships in spirit and in truth'.

Jesus goes to the need of this woman. It is not where you worship, it is that if you go to worship in such and such a place but you continue in the condition you are in, you are not being a true worshipper. You need to drink from the water, you need to drink from the fountain, you need to receive forgiveness, and you need to be a worshiper in spirit and in truth. Jesus returns inside the turn that this woman takes leads her back to the truth: we need to be worshipers in spirit and in truth. It leads her to what He wants to lead her to. 'You need to drink this living water', in other words, Jesus is telling her again.

And God tells us today, something we already know, that He is looking for female worshipers who will worship Him in spirit and in truth.

Many years ago, from those years that Meche spoke, or a little earlier... around the year '74 I converted to the Lord and I remember that about a year later we were in a prayer service and God gave you a prophetic word and asks and says "I am looking for worshipers who worship me in spirit and in truth. Where are they? Do I find any in this place?" And I remember that in my heart I said to the Lord: "Lord, here I am." I told him: "Lord, I want to adore you in spirit and in truth." Understanding that what he says here is to serve, it is to give life to God in spirit and in truth.

I told the Lord, "Lord, I want that, Lord. I want to give you my life and serve you with integrity, serve you from the heart. Give you the best of me, obey you, Lord, and wherever you want to do, whatever you want, Lord ". I told him "Count on me, Lord" and my husband in his heart was also saying to the Lord "Count on me, Lord". And God listened to our answer and God then began to get us more and more into what? in missionary work, more responsibility, more church work... why? because we told him "Yes, Lord, we want to adore you and serve you in spirit and in truth".

What is important is what is in the heart. Because with what is in the heart, that is what we are going to take into action. We can have an action that appears to be service to God, but we are not really worshiping the Lord and serving him in spirit and in truth. That service to God becomes null. We can be in church, we can be here every Sunday, we can be in every women's activity, but our heart has to be a heart that keeps drinking from the fountain, it has to be a heart that serves the Lord in spirit and in truth. .

And I fly and say: regardless of our circumstance: single, married, divorced, with children, without children, grandmother, sister... the role that we have to live, the roles that we play but serving the Lord in spirit and actually.

The woman asks him later about the coming Messiah in verse 25.

Sorry in verse 23 before that, he tells him "But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for the Father also seeks such worshipers to worship him." God is looking for this, God is looking for, women, that we serve him in spirit and in truth and that we drink from his source daily. And then he goes on to say: "God is Spirit; and those who adore him must adore in spirit and in truth."

And on 25: 'The woman said to him: "I know that the Messiah, called Christ, will come; when he comes he will declare all things to us" and what this woman - who had recognized something of a Prophet in Jesus - is not recognizing is that Jesus was the Messiah.

'Jesus told him' -in Verse 26-: "I am the one who speaks to you". The Messiah who was offering him the living water.

"I'm the one talking to you."

And in Verse 28, further on he tells us: 'Then the woman left her pitcher and went to the city' and spoke with whom? 'with the men of the city and told them: "this man has told me..." what? "All my life". This man knows what my life is. Look what this man has told me!

But it's interesting, where did she go? Well, he took from the source, right? But it was to the men of the city, the context she knew. She went to the context that she knew, to the men who knew her. He went and said to them: "This man has told me everything that I have done." But those who listened, precisely because they knew her, those who listened believed in Jesus and went looking for Jesus because of the testimony of this woman who was offered living water and confronted with its truth.

So we can see in this passage that this woman is persistent and constantly tries to evade what Jesus is telling her. And sometimes we are persistent and try to evade the route, the path, the intention of God in our lives. God's intention is to lead us to enjoy an abundant life. But sometimes God has to give us... like that in the head, right? and he tells us: "Oh, what a stubborn you are!"

Have you heard that expression? We Puerto Ricans say it a lot. It is that we are stubborn and God has to give us and call us to account and tell us "Come and drink from my source, come and drink, not from the well, but from the source, from where the blessing water that I have for you originates." . We can say that in this passage, despite the stubbornness of this woman, Jesus is persistent.

And I have to tell you that despite our stubbornness, Jesus is persistent with us. He insists and insists and insists and insists to achieve from us what he wants to do. This woman finally "left her pitcher and went to proclaim the truth of what had happened in her life." The pitcher can represent those questions that she had had. The pitcher for us can represent those buts or questions, questions that we have before the Lord, those buts. The pitcher can represent something in your life that stops you or that stops us from what? to reach drink the living water that God has for us.

Leave your pitcher, leave what worries you, leave what stops you, leave what you have in your hand to leave in order to proclaim the truth of God in your life and in order to drink the true water that we have to drink daily .

Now, although we have already mentioned the importance of drinking from living water, I want us to continue discussing or talking a little about why it is necessary to constantly drink from this source. We already mentioned to live abundant lives, satisfied in God and under God's favor. Let's remember that I mentioned stagnant water, it's not moving and it's useless. But Jesus offers us a water that is alive, that is in motion, that is the source of life. That is what we have to drink, from the water that is running, because the water that is running is good for us. bless us. The water that is running is the favor of God that runs into our lives. That's the water you have to drink. When we drink from that water, there is emotional healing, there is spiritual and even physical healing at the source of the water of life, which is the water that God gives us.

Why else is it needed to take from the source? We need to constantly draw from the source to be transformed and grow. We cannot live the Christian life, or we should not live the Christian life at the same stage every time. It is time to grow.

We women are very emotional, right? And God, Daddy God is also emotional. Jesus wept before Jerusalem; Jesus wept when Lazarus died. There is no problem with being emotional. There is no problem with shedding our tears before the Lord.

I've done it twenty thousand times! and I'll continue doing it. But there are times when we shed so much tears and so much emotion that we stay in that state and do not move towards the maturity that God wants from us.

You have to cry! But you have to dry your tears, get up and keep walking. You have to cry, but you also have to mature and grow. And within that maturing and growing there will come another day when we will cry again, when we will worry, when we will have headaches due to different circumstances but we will also move forward as long as we keep drinking from the source.

You have to take from the source to be transformed and grow! We must grow and improve in our character, in our attitudes. Sometimes we have negative attitudes even within the same work in the church. Aww, sister! What are you talking about? That does not happen here. Oh! Excuse me.

Yes, sometimes we have negative attitudes even at work in the church and God wants us to correct what needs to be corrected in our lives. For that you have to take from the source.

I want to tell you something. There are times when spiritual gifts are given so much importance... I'm talking about now, especially those mentioned in First Corinthians that lately are called spiritual gifts -and people give a lot of importance to Prophecy- that's well, it is for edification, gift of discernment, knowledge, healing, miracle, etc. great!, but you know what? one day I said to the Lord: "Lord, I want the fruit of your Spirit flowing in my life. I want that first. I know that You have given me these gifts and that You want to use me in this, I am going to keep doing. But Lord, what is the use of ministering this gift, the other and the other and that the fruit of your Spirit is not in me?"

Because the fruit of the Holy Spirit, Joy, Peace, Benignity, Faith, Meekness, Patience is what helps me live daily life in victory!

So there was a moment in my life that I said to the Lord: "Give me all the gifts that You want. I am willing to obey You. But, Lord, I want the fruit of Your Spirit flowing in me." And for the fruit of God's Spirit to flow in our life we have to keep constantly drinking from the fountain. So this Samaritan woman is confronted with her truth; This Samaritan woman is corrected what was necessary to be corrected for her to be transformed and then we can say Oh, sister, but this woman was in a critical moral condition!

And God can tell us the following in our case to apply these truths to us. She was told: "Five husbands you have had. The one you have now is not yours." But you know what? We can be told: "Five times you spoke rudely to your husband and what you are thinking of telling him now is rudeness." "Five times you have not forgiven your sister for the offense committed and what is still in your heart is lack of forgiveness." Oh my God! We are not Samaritans. "Three times I have spoken to you about the ministry and you know that I am calling you to the task and you always have a but and a no, ah! but we are not Samaritans like this woman who was in this type of sin. No, we are not Samaritans . Oh no!

But on the other hand, God can also tell us "I called you and you answered me", "I called you and you have been drinking from my source and today I bless you. And in a little you have been faithful and in much I will put you, because you have been taking from my source my favor is on your life, my Blessing is on you".

Each one of us knows where we are. This message is for everyone. And I tell you, God speaks to me just as he is speaking to you. By my own message. This message is for all of us, regardless of the circumstances that surround us, let's try to live constantly taking from the source to be able to live abundant lives, to be able to be transformed and grow. To be able to mature and grow in the Lord, to be able to advance in the Lord. When we drink from the source, we are also blessed in obedience. Because when you're close to the source, you know what happens? one is so in love with the Lord that he does not want to do anything other than obey him. But when we are far from the source, what happens? Oh, how does it matter to me! Yes, Lord, I want to obey you, but sooner. Let me settle these matters.

But when we are stuck to the fountain, we are so in love with the Lord that what we want is to please you, Lord. What we want is to please you Lord; what we want is to bless you, Lord; what we want is to bless Your name; that from our lips comes genuine worship in spirit and in truth. Be Blessed in obedience. Israel was a people that God promised fresh rain and dew on the Earth and that implies blessing on the Earth, right? fruits, animal husbandry, etc., etc. Well-being and Blessing.

If they kept what? serving God. But if they turned away and looked at other gods, then what would be missing? the rain would be missing, the dew would be missing, the blessing would be missing. So when we are drinking from the source, it represents that we are trying to be obedient to God to take from his Blessing.

God has Blessing at its source.

At the source of God there is no curse for us. There are times when we can live deceived lives and the devil - I don't like to be mentioning the devil much. I like to talk about the Lord, but the reality is that there is an enemy who often wants to deceive us and cover up and hide and disguise the truth of God in our lives. God wants to bless us. God does not want a curse on us. Difficult circumstances come but God intends to turn them to good if we keep what? taking from the source. God wants to visit the land of our hearts. On a certain occasion - in Psalm 64 - Scripture says:

"You visit the earth, and water it;

You greatly enrich it;

With the river of God, full of waters,

You prepare their grain, when you so dispose.

You make their furrows soak,

You bring down their channels;

You soften it with rain,

Bless its branches."

God wants to bless the land of our hearts. God wants to bless and irrigate that land of our hearts. If at any time that ground has dried up, if the land is arid, God has brought you today to tell you: "It is time for the ground of your heart to soften and allow me to remove it again, and allow me to work in you and give you the blessing of my living water".

What prevents us sometimes from taking from the source? Sometimes negative childhood experiences. Do you know that sometimes we carry negative childhood experiences that prevent, interfere with our relationship with God in the present?

I don't know if I have recounted it here, but in other places I have recounted the experience of a brother who heard me pray to God even in public in cults; and I would say "Good daddy" and talk to the Lord like that about "Daddy", those expressions of closeness like that. And he came up to me one day and said: "Sister, I want to ask you something. That confidence that you have in the Lord and I don't dare to call God "Daddy". And I asked him: "What was your experience with your dad in your childhood? How did he treat you?" "No," he tells me, "my dad treated me very hard, very hard. My dad didn't give me expressions of affection. My dad was always a strong hand with me". "That's why the image you had as a father as a child has affected you in the image of God that we have as a father".

Although my father did not raise me, my parents divorced when I was 6 months old. My experience was also different. But my experience, perhaps, because I lack a father when I have the Lord is "my good daddy" and his experience was one that because his father treated him so hard and he did not receive expressions of affection, he did not dare to approach the Lord with tenderness and confidence like the father who is willing to embrace us. He did not dare to take that source as we have to take it, with all confidence.

What prevents us from taking from the source? Things like these. I just gave one example and I could give many more examples, but I want to move on.

What else prevents us from taking from the source? Ourselves. God has forgiven us, including things from the past. This woman, Jesus forgave her. Imagine that after being forgiven and maintaining an upright life before God, she remembered the past as "Oh, Lord, but what I did...! No! At the moment she drank the living water , God forgave her.

Sometimes we ourselves persist in remembering things that God has already forgiven for a long time. And we bring them to memory, but God does not bring them to memory. Or sometimes we want -understanding that we are very intelligent- to prepare our life and our path in our own way and what happened to the people of Israel happens to us, when the prophet Jeremiah once declared: "Because my people have done two evils. they left my source of living water and dug for themselves cisterns", broken cisterns that what? They do not retain water.

Living water is a spring that constantly flows, we said. The broken cisterns, what happens? The water runs but what? there is no benefit in that water, because the cistern is broken. The cisterns do not benefit, they are prepared to store water to be supplied with that water. But when the cistern is broken there is no benefit because the water cannot be used, it goes away. On the one hand you kick her out and she runs away.

And sometimes we, instead of drinking that fresh water every day, we begin to dig a cistern. But they are hollow cisterns that what goes in comes out and goes and does not bless us and God's favor is not in it, because we think of our own opinion. We decide on our own criteria, not on God's criteria, so we are raising or creating broken cisterns that are not a blessing.

What else can prevent us from taking from the source? Prioritize other things. Oh, Lord, but I love you! Yes, you know that I love you. Yes, but this, the other, the other, today's agenda is full.

Yes, Lord, I have to pray, I have to look for this other thing. Yes, Lord You know that I love you. I adore you in spirit and in truth but I'm leaving Lord, after a while we'll talk.

Prioritize other things. God has to come first in our lives. We can have the best wish in the world but we cannot stay in the desire to be close to the source. We have to go to the source.

What else can prevent us from taking from the source? Excuses, yes too. Laziness, oh yeah too! Lack of commitment, too. Sometimes we are engaged in the task of the church. oh yes! Help is needed in this or that. Of course I... sign me up sister I'm going to help. But committed to what? With my personal relationship. As I approach that source day by day, do we leave that for when? For after and after and after. Excuse, laziness, lack of commitment. Whatever excuses they may be, so many things that we sometimes put and give priority to taking from the source.

What do we have to do? We must protect the water channels in our spiritual life. Israel, the people of Israel, when they were going to build cities, one of the most important factors that they had to take into account or consideration was that the city was built near sources... from what? Of water, of natural sources of water and canals were built to carry the water, how far? Up to the city. Those canals were also protected, protection was built in those canals in such a way that if enemy towns came they would not poison the waters, etc., etc. So if we also apply that principle of how Israel built and how it took care of the water that had to be conducted to the city, we can say that we have to take care of the spiritual water channels of our lives. We have to put up walls of protection, in such a way that this water lives, that this water that God has for us, that this water that is already in us is not contaminated. We have to build walls of protection, we have to take care of what we have inside of us, that Holy Spirit that we mentioned is the water of God in us.

We have to take care of what we have inside of us. "Don't you know that you are the temple of God?" says the scripture in Corinthians. "That the spirit of God dwells in us!". We must take care of those rivers of living water that Scripture speaks to us, which is the spirit of God that dwells within us.

Sometimes we grieve even the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit grieves within us and we do not allow him to do in us what he is called to do. Sometimes we live lives in the Lord, where we go in and out and we are like the Samaritan woman, asking and not asking and diverting the Lord from where He wants to take us. God wants us to affirm in our life what needs to be affirmed, to correct to a certain extent - I don't want to use that word too much, but that's the reality too - to correct what needs to be corrected but to keep drawing from the source. May we not allow our water to become contaminated. God is a Holy God and expects us to live in Holiness.

In Proverbs we are told when the righteous give way to the wicked "it is like a polluted spring" and God tells us "drinking of living water also implies taking care of that living water that is in us." Not contaminating ourselves, not contaminating ourselves with what wants to come through the co-worker or the neighbor or this or that; or circumstances in life that want to lead us to… what? To stop drinking that living water.

Tunnels or spiritual channels through which the Holy Spirit flows in protection. The Holy Spirit has been given to us, we have the responsibility to protect and care for what we already have within us. We are called to constantly drink from the source to live under God's cover, to live under God's favor.

Isaiah, chapter 12 -I'm not going to discuss it, I'm just going to read it- verse 1 to 6 says as follows: "On that day you will say: 'I will sing to you, O Lord; for although you were angry with me, your indignation he turned away and you have comforted me. Behold, God is my salvation; I will be sure and not fear; for my strength and my song is JAH Jehovah, who has been salvation for me. With joy you will draw water from the fountains of salvation. And you will say on that day: Sing to Jehovah, acclaim his name, make his works famous among the peoples, remember that his name is magnified".

Verse 5: "Sing praises to the Lord for he has done magnificent things; let this be known throughout all the earth. Rejoice and sing, O inhabitant of Zion; for great is the Holy One of Israel in your midst."

Verse 3 said: "You will draw water with joy from the fountains of salvation." From the sources of salvation of living water that Jesus offered to this woman.

This passage is an eschatological passage that speaks to us today, that tells us there are springs of living water. We have to rejoice drinking from those springs of living waters.

And you don't have to look for this, I'm going to read it directly. Just listen to it. Isaiah 41 says: "I will open rivers in the heights, and fountains in the midst of the valleys; I will open pools of water in the desert, and springs of water in the dry land. I will give in the desert cedars, acacias, myrtle, and olive trees; I will put in solitude cypresses, pines and boxwood together, so that they may see and know, warn and understand that the hand of Jehovah does this, and that the Holy One of Israel created it".

This passage describes a whole blessing, a whole fruitful land, a whole blessing from God in the midst of the earth. Even in the desert, God makes it flourish, even in the desert God raises his cedars, God raises his myrtle trees, God raises his olive trees. Even in your desert God lifts you up if you decide to drink from the source.

Stand up, please.

We adore you, Lord. We adore you, God. We adore you Lord, blessed are you God. Blessed are you Lord. Lord here we are before You and we tell you we are also Samaritan women. One day You rescued us from our Samaria. One day You rescued us from our condition and even today you speak to us to rescue us or you have spoken to us to affirm what we are doing in You. But you have cared, God, to tell us that we need to keep drinking from the source. That we need to keep taking from Your Blessing, because in that source of living water, we find Your favor, Lord. In that source that You give us, that source is equivalent to Your blessing and in Your favor, Lord.

Today we tell you 'Here we are, Lord, before You'. And I invite you to continue with your open heart. Continue with your heart open because the Holy Spirit of God is here, is ministering, or continues to minister, has not stopped. And it's ministering in this hour, while this tune is playing, the Holy Spirit is working in each one of our hearts.

God has spoken to some of us to return to the source or to increase the intensity. To others, God has corrected us from conditions even to extremes, even to extremes that attempt against the intimate relationship against the Lord and even against Salvation. To others God has told us "You have led yourself and you have kept drinking from my source. Enter my joy, rejoice in me even more, because I have seen your walk, I have seen your closeness, I have seen how you look for me day by day". .

God has spoken to each one of us depending on our need and at this time I declare a word of blessing, oh God, upon your people! Father, at this hour, I declare a word of blessing on your daughters, Lord. I declare, Lord, your freshness. I declare Your visitation, I declare that fresh rain that comes from Heaven. That blessing rain of that fresh living water that You, oh God! You determined to give us today because You oh God determined this day to bless us! You determine to set apart this day to bring fresh blessing upon Your people; fresh blessing on our lives and in this hour we say 'Here we are, Lord' and I receive.

Tell the Lord, 'Lord, I raise my hands and my heart to You and here where I am I receive what You have for me.' Tell the Lord, 'I have understood what you have told me.' Tell him, 'You have spoken to me. I have taken it, Lord, I have taken what you have had for me on this day and I tell you: "Here I am Lord".

I receive Your blessing, I receive Your blessing, I receive Your favor, I receive Your favor. Hallelujah!

God blesses you today as the sisters sing a song, overflow before the Lord because the Lord overflows to bless you today. Hallelujah! The Lord overflows.

Behold, the Lord has overflowed, behold, he has poured out, even before reaching this place, the Lord had already poured out from his presence.

Already the source of God was flowing. Behold, the Lord is in this place and is pouring out a blessing. He is visiting you where you are, the Lord is visiting you.

Receive where you are, wherever you are, the Lord visits you. It spills over you. It spills over you. Pour out your heart because He is pouring out on you, the Lord is pouring out on you.

Blessed are you God. Blessed are you Lord. Thank you Lord, thank you Lord.

Sermon by Awilda Gonzalez-Tejera recorded June 6, 2009 at León de Judá Congregation

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