The last three posts have been about how some Great Men of the Bible have overcome their past failures and sins, so this time I wanted to teach about a Great Woman of the Bible. There have always been great women in the Bible. There are many corners of society that would say that women are not supposed to have any kind of voice or be heard in religious circles and church, but I disagree. The prophet Joel said that in the last days God would pour out His Spirit on men and women. And there are so many women in the Bible who did great things in their service to God. So today, I want to talk about a Great Woman!
To set the stage for the emergence of this woman, I would refer you to the parable of the wedding feast that Jesus told once to describe the Kingdom of Heaven. In this parable, a king plans a wedding for his son and invites certain people. But when it is time for the wedding, none of the invited guests come into the wedding so then the King orders his servants to go out and invite anyone and everyone, the good and the bad to come into the wedding. This is a parable of how Christ came to the Jews first and they rejected Him. Because they rejected Him, the Gospel was open to the rest of the world.
Just because God had opened the doors to other peoples did not mean that the Jews were ready to include others in on their place with God. So to get the Gospel outside of the Jewish nation, He performed a miraculous thing by speaking to Peter in a dream telling him to go out to the Gentiles who the Jews considered 'unclean.' And Peter did and Peter was a great man of God. But there was another people group that God wanted the gospel to go and this people group was going to be even tougher to reach. They were not just outside of the Jewish community, but they were hated by the Jews and they hated the Jews. They have been feuding and fighting for centuries. And when God decided to break through this barrier, He did not choose a man. He chose a woman!
She was a Great Woman! She was a preacher, a teacher, an evangelist, and a missionary. She started a revival in a group of people that were going to be the hardest to reach during Jesus' time. Unlike Peter though, she was not the beneficiary of three years of training with Jesus. She received no training. Peter had the advantage of miracles, but this woman never witnessed a miracle and she never performed a miracle. Peter would have the advantage of the full measure of the Holy Spirit, but this woman started a revival before Pentecost. You can read about her in John, Chapter 4. Yes, it's THAT woman, the woman at the well.
Jesus chooses her though she is not even a true believer yet. She is a harlot. She is a fornicator. And she is still living in sin. After five marriages, now she is living with a man. Jesus did not choose a religious leader. He did not choose a leader of the community. He chose a sinful woman with a checkered past. Again, this is not a series for perfect people. People who have perfect pasts and have never messed up do not understand what good news it is to see Jesus choose a messed-up woman to do something great. But for all of us who have messed up, this is great news. It is a Word from God that He still has a plan for our life even if we have messed everything up. Too many of us have given up on the idea that our life can ever be worth anything, but this is proof that God never gives up on us.
There are three things that this woman does that allows her to position herself to walk out of her past and overcome her sins, weaknesses, and inadequacies.
1. She stops letting what others think about her control who she was
When Jesus finds this woman, she is alone at the watering well. She was alone because everyone knew her reputation and people judged her. They looked down their noses at her. They whispered and glanced and laughed. After a while, she decided that she would just gather her water for the day in the middle of the day, in the heat, all alone. The opinion of others kept her in bondage to her past no matter what she wanted for her future. But after she met Christ, she said to herself that what they thought did not matter because the Messiah had chosen to come and see her. And she went out into the city instead of hiding and she began to talk to anyone and everyone who would listen ignoring the whispers and glares. She was free!
If you want to position yourself to overcome your past, you must stop letting the opinion of other people keep you in check. They will judge you and lock you into the place they think you belong. But they don't know you. they don't know what you have been through. They don't know the Hell you had to fight through just to get here. They don't know what demons set up their tent in your room as a child. They don't know how many times you were emotionally dropped and abandoned by the people who should have been there for you. You can listen to those judgmental, arrogant people who don't know anything. Or you can listen to God who knows everything about you and says that you are His image. He says you have been fearfully and wonderfully made. It's your choice, but I know who I am going to listen to.
2. She shared her testimony.
When she went out to the people, the revival began because she shared her testimony. She did not try to hide everything she had ever done, but instead she let it be known.
If you are ever going to set yourself free from your past, you can't ignore everything that has ever happened to you. You do not need to dwell on it like the Devil would want you to. He will try to make you feel stupid, crazy, and loose. But examine your past from the eyes of God. These places where the Enemy has attacked you become the places where God's power has been the most to heal you. If you have open wounds that have not been healed, these are your points of faith believing that just as God has healed other wounds, He will also heal these. Do not be afraid of your past, but don't let it control you. Share your past with people so that you can announce to them and remind yourself that these are the places where God has done the most for you.
3. She realized that God did not judge her for who she was, but who she could become.
Had Jesus simple looked at the person she was and made a judgment, it would not have been good. But God sees us who we were before we had to deal with all of the mess of this world. He knows who we were before the stress, the pain, the abuse, the neglect, the anger, and the lonliness ever hit us. And the plan that He established for us before all of these every happened He still has.
I don't care if you are a thief or a harlot. It doesn't matter if you are a rapists or murderer. It doesn't matter if you have killed an unborn child or been the victim of molestation and abuse. Perhaps, you have a checkered past. i want you to know that God has loved you each and every day of that past. He wept over you for the things that happened to you and He still has a plan for you. He is still hoping for you. The person of your past dies the moment we call upon the name of Jesus Christ. We become a new creation by faith. And it is by faith that we force our mind to remember that He is still hoping for you.
What has been in your past that you need to break away from? What do you need to do to let God pull you out of that bondage and into a brand new life??