ARE PEOPLE READY FOR JESUS?

When the Son of God lived as a man, He also encountered a lot of resistance but He never allowed Himself to become negative about people.

John 4:35 (ESV)   Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. 

What was Jesus saying here? His disciples were like most of us. They thought most people were not yet ready to embrace Jesus.

But Jesus was saying people are much more spiritually hungry than we think.

What was the situation?
Jesus was walking through Samaria, a community of people with mixed Jewish ancestry. These people had adopted a corrupted form of Judaism but the Jews would not have anything to do with them. It was segregation by mutual agreement. 

Jesus was a Jew and His Heavenly Father had sent Him to minister to the Jews. 

• What more hostile and unfruitful mission field could a Jew find than Samaria? Surely they were not yet ready for the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Jesus began a conversation with a Samaritan woman at a well, a social outcast who had been married five times and was living with a man she was not married to. Was she perhaps a woman reduced to prostitution and living with her pimp? We don’t know.
Jesus knew nothing about her but he began to talk to her. 

Jn 4:9 (ESV)  The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 

She was not impressed and not receptive at all. 

She did not respond until Jesus told her the story of her life, a story he did not know himself but he was listening to the Holy Spirit and he used a gift of supernatural revelation, the gift of the Word of Knowledge.

John 4:17-19 (ESV)  The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” 

• Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” 

The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. 

There are many people today like this woman.

• They are not ready to even listen to the Gospel but God has given the followers of Jesus THE KEYS OF THE KINGDOM.

One of the Keys of the Kingdom is the simple message of salvation through Jesus and a few people do listen and receive this truth. 

• However, sadly many do not.

But there are other Keys that God has given us. 

One is the Charismatic Gifts of healing and supernatural revelation.

• If we only use these gifts with other Christians in church meetings, we break God’s heart.

Jesus showed us how to use supernatural miracle gifts to open the doors to the hearts of lost people.

• When Jesus said: FOLLOW ME, he meant among other things that we should listen to the Holy Spirit just as he did. 

If we do, the Spirit of God will give us keys to open doors into many closed lives.

John 4:35 (ESV)   Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. 

When Jesus says: LOOK and LIFT UP YOUR EYES, he is telling us to look up to God and see people through HIS eyes. 

If we see people from our own human religious perspective, we may see a rebellious, drug addicted prostitute but God might see a tormented and hungry heart which longs to be set free. 

Jesus used supernatural revelation to open the door to a woman’s heart. We can do the same. 

• Why don’t we? Maybe we don’t operate such a gift but our lack of gifting need not be permanent.

YOU HAVE NOT BECAUSE YOU ASK NOT... says James. (James 4:2)

Paul wrote to the Corinthians:

1 Corinthians 14:1 (ESV)   Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy.