Everybody in my house enjoys free accommodation, free food, free light, free water for drinking, bathing and washing, et cetera. Some people enjoy more than these. These are my children, by birth and by marriage. My children’s spouses are my children, and they are on equal status with my biological ones. They have access to me all the time and can enter my bedroom at any time, whether I am at home or not and can lie down on my bed. They can use my name for any purpose.
It is the same with God. He has given free air, free sunlight, free moonlight, free darkness, et cetera, to every man on earth, irrespective of who he is and what he believes. He has, however, made available, special blessings for us, His children. We shall be discussing these blessings this morning. That was I, speaking during the worship service at Evangel Pentecostal Church Headquarters on June 30, 2019.
Of the blessings of God for us, the most important is salvation, where a sinner is transformed as a saint. You send your son to the university and after five years, he finishes his studies. “How did you perform?” You ask him. You will not be interested to hear from him how wonderful the university was or how wonderful the lecturers were. What is critical is whether he obtained his degree. At the end of life, the critical question will be whether we made Heaven. Salvation is the gift of God and is not obtained through our righteousness. That was why Cornelius, a Roman Army officer, who was very righteous, needed also, salvation of God. In Acts 10, he is described as devout, God fearing with his entire family, a generous giver, a prayer warrior and he even saw a vision – vs2-3. We thank God that Peter ministered to him and he was saved. His opposite was a Samaritan woman, who had a track record of sleeping with all types of men. She too, was saved.
The Lord Jesus met her by the side of a well and requested drinking water from her. She was surprised that He was making such a request, being a Jew and she, a Samaritan, when the two tribes were not relating. Unbelievers relationship with people depends on the person’s tribe of origin. Some people in the Church do so because of Church affiliation. We, God’s people, stress commitment to God. The Lord Jesus, in Matthew 12:47-50, taught us that it is the believer, who is His brother, sister and mother. Nath, my uncle, was surprised the day I told him that if I had a secret, I would tell my brother, Tunde Oladiran, and not him. “Why?” He asked me. “Tunde is my brother and will rather die if a gun is pointed at his head to disclose it but you, under a similar circumstance, will disclose it,” I told him. He did not like what I said, and I did not bother. That was in 1976. As if Tunde heard the discussion, when he finished his M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering in England, he returned to Lagos to live with me, though his elder brother was living also in Lagos. “What guided your vote casting during the last election? Was it expected performance or tribe?”
Jesus made the woman to know that she was ignorant of the Gift of God and the Person talking to her, otherwise, she would have asked Him to give her Living water. It is possible to be working hard in the Church, without knowing Jesus, God’s Gift to man. The woman sized Him up and reminded Him that He did not have bucket and line and that the well was deep and wondered how He would give her that Living water. Though she knew that the Messiah, called Christ was coming, she did not know that the Lord Jesus was limitless. He could defy the law of gravity and walk on the sea. She, like a typical unbeliever, then insulted Him brazenly, by asking whether He was greater than Jacob, who gave them the well, not knowing that it was Jesus, Who created Jacob.
On the cross, the Lord Jesus was told to come down as a proof that He was the Son of God. Unbelievers know how to ridicule and provoke us so that will spark like them. On my way to Shalom Board meeting, a member called, asking where I was. “At Oshodi,” I told him. I did not ask him where he was because he would always arrive at the Board meeting before me. When I arrived there, some members were there, including Maj. General Paul Toun, our chairman, but he was not there. Midway into our meeting, he arrived. “Why are you late?” I asked him, only to hear that he was arrested by the Police and even dragged to their station. “You didn’t tell them who you are?” I asked him. “I didn’t,” he replied. That was Maj. General Usiade, Gen. Toun’s boss for many years in the Army! “Are you greater than Jacob?” What an insult! Jesus could descend from the cross and hang in the air for hours or days and would go back to the cross, but He did not. Gen Usiade, a child of God, could flaunt his identity card and it would be ‘oso’, even through the window, for the DPO and his men but he did not, though nothing was wrong with that.
The Lord Jesus told the woman the awful truth, that material possession does not satisfy absolutely, and it is the spiritual possession that satisfies and that He had what could satisfy her absolutely. Mocking Him, and speaking on cross purposes, she asked Him to give her that water of His so that she would not thirst again nor come to the well again. A carnal woman, while she was concerned on material things, Jesus was talking on things with eternal perspective.
Touching her open nerve, her most vulnerable spot, the Lord Jesus told her to go and bring her husband. That might have humbled her, having a history of many men. Perhaps in a low voice, she made the confession that she had none. Jesus applauded her sincerity that she had no husband. Some women would have lied that their husband travelled to Italy. Salvation benefits honest people. Jesus reminded her that she had had five husbands and that the sixth, living with her, did not marry her. God has the details of all the evil things we do. She accepted that He was right. Some people might have denied it, asserting that He accused them wrongly. Not her! As a typical unbeliever, she then wanted to pull wool across His eyes by asking which Church was better, His or hers!
Jesus gave her His message, stressing that God is a spirit and must be worshipped in spirit and in truth. This is the reason an unbeliever, not matter how he sings or dances during the worship service, cannot worship God. What he does is nothing, but to thrill the congregation. The Lord Jesus then revealed Himself to her as He did to me on April 16, 1972. Salvation is the blessing of God, which is above all blessings.
For further comment, Please contact: Osondu Anyalechi:
0802 3002-471; [email protected]