““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!””
John 4:16-18 NLT
The woman at the well seemed to have a problem with men. To be in the sixth relationship is going some, even by modern standards. The fact that she came to draw water on her own probably indicated that the other women in the village wanted nothing to do with her. For all we know, she had a local reputation for being a bit of a marriage wrecker. But how did Jesus know about her private life? It wouldn’t have been posted on the local Facebook page, or mentioned in a flyer pinned to the wall above the well. We can try and make sense of why she was so active in husband recycling, and presumably psychiatrists would have a selection of answers to her problem, but none of this matters very much. What does matter is that Jesus grabbed her attention and lifted her thoughts out of the drudgery of drawing water and forced her to consider her situation.
Jesus, of course, was in constant communication with His Father. We read in John 5:19-20, “So Jesus explained, “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything he is doing. In fact, the Father will show him how to do even greater works than healing this man. Then you will truly be astonished“. So communicating with His father through the power of the Spirit, Jesus would have known who the woman at the well really was. He saw right into her very soul and put His finger on the main issue driving, and destroying, her life. And by doing so He laid the foundation for a revival that was soon to happen in that Samaritan village. An uncomfortable and embarrassing experience for the woman led to her life, and the lives of others, being transformed.
We pilgrims also have access to situations where, through the Holy Spirit, a prophetic word, a word of knowledge, can expose the truth and transform the life of a sinner. We have a “still small voice” within us that we need to listen carefully to. It needs practice to hear it, but the Holy Spirit within us constantly speaks. A question we must often ask is, “What do You want me to know about this person, or say to them, Lord?” We pray for that insight that will unlock an otherwise lifeless conversation. And at the start of a day we pray for divine encounters, or opportunities to share the Good News with those around us, with people trapped in hopeless situations like the woman at the well.
Dear Father God. We pray today for a fresh infilling of Your Spirit, revitalising us and equipping us for the day ahead. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Being a Pilgrim 