Unlocking the Heavens: Release the Supernatural Power of Your Worship (4 page)

However, Orthodox Jews almost always avoided Samaria because of a long-standing, deep-seated hatred for the Samaritan people. The Samaritans were a mixed race—part Jew and part Gentile. During the Assyrian captivity of the ten northern tribes in 727 B.C., Jews and Gentiles had intermarried and naturally produced offspring. Because of their captivity, many could not subsequently prove their genealogy. Thus, they were rejected by Orthodox communities. At that time Samaritans established their own temple and religious services at Mount Gerizim. This development aroused even greater animosity against the Samaritan people because, to the Orthodox Jews, they appeared to be insulting the temple services of Jerusalem. The fires of prejudice were so great toward the Samaritan people that Pharisees would actually pray that no Samaritan would be raised in the resurrection. A Jew was considered unclean if he had the dust of Samaria on his feet! In fact, when the enemies of Jesus wanted to insult Him and His ministry they called Him a Samaritan (see John 8:48).

The wonderful thing about Jesus is that He was never controlled by the cultural restrictions of the day. Instead, most of His actions were completely countercultural for that era. He was motivated by His unchanging, overwhelming love and compassion to reach into people’s lives, even when those lives had been wrecked by the people’s own wickedness. Jesus had a remarkable ability to reach across racial, religious, and socioeconomic lines. This ability made and continues to make Him relevant to every generation. Contrary to what popular critics assert, Jesus has never had a problem being relevant to the world; He is “the same yesterday, and today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).

Jesus arrived at the well at the sixth hour (about twelve noon). This was not the normal time for women to fetch water, which was either early in the morning or late in the afternoon. The disciples went into town to buy supplies while Jesus waited at the well. The Scripture says specifically that Jesus was weary from the journey and sat down on Jacob’s Well: “Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat thus by the well: and it was about the sixth hour” (John 4:6). It was there that He encountered a woman whose life desperately needed a healing touch.

Before getting any deeper into this story, a little-known truth about Jacob’s well must be established. Genesis 12:5-7 (KJV) records the following:

And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came. And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land. And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him
.

God had promised Abram (Abraham) a land; and as he moved into the land, he came to a place called Sichem (also known as Sychar). It was at Sichem that God confirmed His promise to Abraham; so Abraham built an altar to worship God there. It is interesting that Sichem is not mentioned at all in the life of Isaac, Abraham’s son; rather it was mentioned in Jacob’s life. Jacob was Abraham’s grandson. The Scripture skipped a generation. Then, in Genesis 33:18-20, we read that Jacob came to Sichem. There he built another altar.

Then we read in Joshua 24:32 that Joseph, Jacob’s son, was buried in Shechem—which is the same place as Sichem—in a parcel of ground that Jacob bought for one hundred pieces of silver. Thereafter, the name Sicham, Shechem, or Sychar, is mentioned numerous times throughout the Old Testament. Then, in the New Testament, we read about Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman: “Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob’s well was there” (John 4:5-6 KJV).

The altar that Abraham had built when he first came to Sichem had evolved into much more than an altar. Fresh water had been found under the ground and a strong well had been built to serve generations of travelers and the people who had their dwellings nearby. Everyone knew it as Jacob’s Well. In other words—and this is significant—the altar that Abraham had built had become a well of resource.

The fact that Abraham built an altar of worship created an opportunity for a much later generation to be resourced by revelation. Now, with Jesus’ visit, the well became not just a place to draw water; it was a place of worship again! This portrays one of the most powerful principles that you can ever learn: worship is a mighty resource.

In fact, you can find this secret within the word
worship
itself. The origins of the English word
worship
come from the Anglo-Saxon compound word
weorthscype
. The first syllable,
weorth
, means “worth, value, or respect,” and scype means “to shape or to build.” Therefore, worship is by definition the creation of worth, value, and respect.

Worship is vital because it builds something important. We see it again when we read: “You sit as the Holy One. The praises of Israel are your throne” (Psalm 22:3 NCV). When we worship, we are building God a seat to sit upon! Just as the Ark of the Covenant provided a Mercy Seat for God to sit upon, so also our praise creates a place for Him to sit. He exercises His merciful authority from that praise-built throne.

Jesus spoke to the woman and persuaded her that He was the Messiah. She summoned the whole town to come and see him. (See John 4.) Before the day was over, Jacob’s Well was providing much more than plain water—it had become a source of living water.

In the chapters of this book, I will reveal the secrets that I have found at the well with the Lord. You will find some keys woven into the pages of this book that could very well turn your life around to the glory of God and unleash the abundance of Heaven on your behalf. Why not start now? Before you read another word, simply take the next fifteen to thirty minutes to worship. Before you finish this book, find a quiet place, lift your voice, and open your heart, and start to worship. I am asking God to give you and your fellow readers the same throne room experience that I have had so many times.

Build the altar of worship! That is where you will find all of the resources you need. You cannot find your resources in human strength. They can be found only as you soar to the high places of the earth through worship. Allow the wings of your worship to use the winds of your turmoil to take you out of this troubled earthly atmosphere into the abundance of a heavenly one.

Chapter 4

SECRETS OF THE WELL

A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” …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
(J
OHN
4:7,9)
.

W
hen Jesus encounters the Samaritan woman drawing water in the middle of the day, which is highly unusual, we quickly learn from their conversation that there are probably some good reasons for her timing. Normally, she would go the well to fetch water in the middle of the day to avoid the scrutiny, rejection, and even mockery of the other women. As Jesus noted, she was far from being an expert on relationships, having suffered the pain of five divorces and currently living out of wedlock with a sixth man. In all likelihood, she did not come to the well when the others did because her lifestyle had shamed her before the other women of the community. Perhaps she could not take any more of the other women’s questioning her about her serial relationships in a society that highly valued monogamy. She had run out of explanations, and the less said, the better. Her current lifestyle was her own business. Besides, every time the subject came up, the wounds of relationships gone bad were reopened just as botched surgeries that can never heal. The oppression of past failures and reproach for her current questionable lifestyle enforced a penalty of isolation and inconvenience. Trips to the well in the heat of the day were only part of the picture.

Today she could not retrieve her supply of water without being noticed. What was this Jewish man doing here? As He asked for a drink, His tone of voice did not seem to indicate any hint of the traditional antagonism between the Jews and the Samaritans.

FROM NATURAL WELL TO HEAVENLY WELL

Jesus’ prophetic eyes must have seen a desire for breakthrough in the heart of this woman. I must admit that of all of the people in the Bible, a woman of her character would not have been my personal choice of someone to whom to reveal the greatest revelation about worship in the New Testament; however, “the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7). In His mercy, the Lord gave this nameless Samaritan woman a key that would change her life, heal her brokenness, and remove her shame—the key of worship.

Right away, the conversation took an interesting turn. No sooner did He reveal her deepest secrets and thus prove that He was more than just another thirsty traveler, than He immediately started teaching her about worship. There, sitting on the edge of Jacob’s Well, which long before was an altar of worship, He revealed to a woman who had come to draw her day’s water from a natural well how to find the ever-renewable resource of a heavenly well. Worship was the key.

This woman’s life was in a mess. No amount of well water could wash her clean or satisfy her thirst for love. While Jesus knew that worship would restore and heal her devastated life, she could not understand at first. He needed to talk about true worship. The problem was this woman’s concept of worship had been skewed by the deep-seated cultural hatred between the Jews and her people. In order to position her to receive all of what He wanted to show her, Jesus first had to explain three common fallacies about worship.

FALLACY NUMBER ONE: YOU MUST WORSHIP IN THE RIGHT PLACE

The Samaritan woman said, “Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship” (John 4:20). She was making the same mistaken assumption that many church people do today—that worship must occur in a certain place, or that worship is something that happens only on Sunday mornings, Sunday nights, and Wednesday nights. We Christians have erected great shrines to mark our places of worship.

In reality, worship transcends place. In fact, it has little to do with a place, but everything to do with a Person. You could even say that assigning worship only to a particular place is a form of idolatry.

The human race has a tendency toward idolatry, but sometimes it is hard to see. For example, consider the idolatry that Hezekiah opposed. (See 2 Kings 18.) As one of the righteous kings who came after King David, Hezekiah had his work cut out for him. He became king at twenty-five years of age, and his first act as king was very unusual. Did he erect a monument to his father or try to improve the economy? No. His first act as king was to reestablish true worship in Israel.

Second Kings 18:1-8 records the following things King Hezekiah did to refocus the people in true worship:

He removed high places.

He broke the images.