Father Lord, we pray for a fresh touch of your power. Speak to our spirits and turn our lives around to that which you want us to be. Thank You heavenly father, in Jesus name.
Our message this week, is entitled. “The pot or the well.” In John chapter four, we see an interesting passage where Jesus was talking to a woman. Verses 5-18 say, “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. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well; and it was about the sixth hour. There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink. (For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat). Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? For the Jews have no dealing with the Samaritans. (In those days, the Jews used to call the Samaritans dogs so they did not like them at all). Jesus answered and said unto her, if thou knewest the gift of God, and who is he that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. The woman said to him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with , and the well is deep; from whence then has thou that living water? Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well (the woman did not know she was talking to the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob), and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? (Look at it, the well that Jacob dug long before he died was still found useful.) Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. The woman said unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not neither come hither to draw.
(She did not understand.) Jesus said unto her, Go call thy husband, and come hither. The woman answered and said, have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband; for thou hast had five husbands, and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband…”
What our Lord Jesus is saying here is that if a man marries only seven wives, the last six are not really married to him. They are just glorified girlfriends. Verses 19-30 says, “The woman said unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Jesus said unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain, or yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. Ye worship ye know not what: (So, Jesus did not want to outrightly tell her they were worshipping demons,) we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a spirit; and they that worship him, must worship him in spirit and in truth. The woman said unto him, I know that Messiah cometh, which is called Christ; when he is come, he will tell us all things Jesus said unto her, I that speak unto thee am he. And upon this came his disciples, and marveled that he talketh with the woman; yet no man said, What seekest thou? or, Why talkest thou with her? The woman then left her water pot, and went her way into the city, and said to the men, Come, see a man, which told me all thing that ever I did; is not this the Christ? Then they went out of the city and came unto him.”
That Bible passage is interesting in many aspects. The woman was very sharp and quick to identify a spiritual truth that is hidden from so many today. She saw the well and threw away the pot. Sometime ago, there was a certain blind man in a church. Everybody in that church prayed for him to be healed but he did not get healed. After some time, the pastor of the church took time to ask God why he could not be healed. The Lord told him to look at the man’s walking stick the next time he came to church. The next day, when the man came to church, the man of God looked at the walking stick and found out that it was the walking stick of those who belonged to the Lodge society. So, he told the man that if he wanted the Lord Jesus to touch him, he had to renounce his membership with the occult. The man said, “No, pray for me, I want to be healed.” Then the man of God said, “Don’t worry us here. You have already donated your eyes to the devil and now you said we should be praying.” The man held tight to his cult. He did not want to release it so that he could receive his sight. It is the same thing with many people. They have refused to release their pots so that their wells can come out. At this juncture, I think you should close your eyes and pray the following prayer point with anger; “Every good thing that I have donated to the devil, whether consciously or unconsciously, I take them back now, in the name of Jesus.” That man donated his yes, and was given a stick instead. He was even proud going about with the stick.
Beloved, herein is the great truth; as a Christian, you are either a pot owner or a well owner. Many people suffer day and night because they carry pots instead of going directly to the well. I was told the following story about some Arabs. They went to England and were surprised at what they saw in the five star hotel where they lodged. They turned the tap on and water was coming out. They were amazed at that wonder and exclaimed, “We don’t have water in the desert where we come from. How can we cleverly take this water away so that we too can be having water?” They asked one of the stewards how they could get the tap and basins to buy. So, he took them to a shop and they bought the taps, basins, and everything they saw in that hotel and they were secretly happy thinking that they had been very smart. When they got back to their country, they attached the taps, sinks, etc, to the walls. Now, came the moment of truth; they turned on the tap but there was no water why? No source.
There was also the case of a man who had never seen an electric bulb before. One day, he went somewhere and saw one and was totally amazed, He waited till everybody left the place and stole the bulb, put it in his bag and went back to the village. He looked for strings used to tie animals, tied it around the bulb and attached it to the wall and behold there was no light. Why? No source.
All the servants of God can be divided into those two groups; the pot carriers and the well carriers. The pot carriers do unnecessary hard tasks while the people with the well drink directly from the source, which is the throne of grace. If you have a water tap somewhere and you keep walking up and down to fetch water, you cannot claim to be more comfortable than somebody who stays at the tap and simply turns it on to have water.
The pot owners tire themselves out while the person at the well is directly at the source. The Bible says that God has made us priests and kings unto Him. God intends for all of us to be direct priests unto Him, that is, to be at the well. It is not God’s intention that men should become mediators; that is why we have the blood of the New Testament, which gives us direct access to God. So you would do yourself a lot of good by praying to the level of being at the well. You have to abandon the pot and drink directly from the source. Unfortunately, most people prefer the pot and as a result have become slaves of prophets. You need to be at the source because your pot can be stolen, it may get broken, you may not even carry enough water sometimes and you wear yourself out trying to get more. The pertinent question is, “Do you have the pot or the well?” I want that to be very clear in your spirit.
When I was in primary school, one of our teachers told us a story. He said that there was famine in the land of the animals and only the dog was getting fat while other animals were getting lean. Mr. Tortoise then begged the dog seriously to reveal the secret of his well being to him. The dog kept quiet. So one day, the tortoise poured a lot of ashes into the bag of the dog and punched a hole underneath the bag so that he could trace where the dog used to go to get food. He was able to trace the dog to a forest where he sang a particular song and a piece of coconut fell. So the tortoise memorized the song and went and sang it. One coconut fell but he was not satisfied. He then said two should fall and two fell. He was not still satisfied and said everything should fall down. Everything fell on him and he could not get out from under them.
The essence of this story is that God will not give His power to a baby; the well cannot be inside a baby. You have to grow up so that you won’t be like the tortoise. As a sister, if God gives you power now, and your husband offends you, would you not say, “Be roasted, in the mighty name of Jesus,” and the man becomes suya and you run back to church to say, “I did not know that it was going to work.” So, God wants grown-ups. A common proverb says, “Give a man a fish, and you have given him a meal. But teach him to fish, then you have fed him for life.”
The trouble is that many do not have the patience to learn about the well and to stay at the well. Many times when people come for counseling and we try to teach them how to get to the well, they disappear. They would say, “I want quick solution, this is very urgent.” And we say, “But today is your first time here, so you cannot go for deliverance now.” They would say, “No, I must do deliverance.” So, we tell them, “Yes you want to do deliverance, how about all the sugar mummies? Won’t you leave them alone? How about your sinner boyfriends? Won’t you leave them alone? They don’t want to learn how to stay by the well. They want quick fast food Christianity.
Nowadays, everything is done fast but the spiritual world is not like that. It is line upon line and precepts upon precepts. God does not jump queues. With Him, you will have to learn. He will not promote you without an examination. You must grow up. If you always have to depend on somebody else to pray for you, what if the person refuses or dies, will you go and meet him in the grave? It is better to learn how it is done so that you do not get stranded.
1. Every believer should have power to overcome all sin and bad habits. I am not talking about ordinary churchgoers. I am not talking about those who don’t know their left from their right or those who when you say, “But you are an adulterer,” they would reply, “But, David had many wives.” Matthew 1:21 says, “For she shall bring forth a Son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus; for he shall save his people from their sins.” If you say it is not possible for you to be free from sins, then you are saying that the death of Jesus amounts to nothing.
2. Every believer should have power to cast out demons. Mark 16:17 says, “And these signs shall follow them that believe; in my name shall they cast out devils.” It is your right, but something could be somebody’s right, and he will not know. The person will then be like that mother who had a son working in the city. Her son kept sending her money but she did not know that the papers were money. She thought that they were pictures. So she was gluing them on the wall as decoration whereas she was owing rent and had no money to take care of herself. Then one day, a pastor asked her about her son in the city and she said he was fine. “Doesn’t he send you money?” Asked the pastor. She said, “No, just pictures.” And the pastor said, “Where are the pictures?” She told him that she decorated her walls with them. So, the pastor followed her home. When be got there, he almost fainted because there was sufficient money pasted on the wall to buy the woman a whole house; and yet her landlord wanted to eject her. For not paying rent. So; you could have something, but not use it. You could be the best soap producer but your body could still be dirty.
3. All believers are meant to be immune to poison. Mark 16:18 says. “.And if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them..” This verse is not saying that you should consciously drink something that is poisonous, but if somebody mistakenly puts it in your food, it will not work. Let me share this testimony with you. A certain brother was traveling to somewhere, at a point, he stopped over at a restaurant to eat. He made his order for pounded yam and egusi soup and they gave it to him. He prayed seriously on the food, not the kind of prayer that many people pray when they want to eat, like, “O Lord, bless this food for Christ sake.” That is no prayer. As he took the pounded yam and was about to use it to touch the soup, something like a sun-ray seemed to come from heaven and broke the plate of soup into pieces, and the soup was scattered all over the floor. He was shocked. Some people in the canteen asked, “Excuse me, do you go to church?” He said, “Yes I do.” Then they said he should continue to go there because the God that he is serving is a powerful God. The brother did not know that in that restaurant, on that day, they were trying to poison a man, but the steward made a mistake, and served it to the brother and they did not know how to warn him against taking the food. So, they were just watching him. But when they saw the thing cracked to pieces, they realized there was a power higher than all powers and they bowed to Jesus.
There was the case of another brother who God told that his next-door neighbour was a witch and whenever the witch was going out at night, God would wake him up and let him know about it, but the brother was merely watching and did nothing about it. Then one day, the woman said she was celebrating her birthday and cooked some rice and chicken. She served the brother some of the food and he took it. When he took the plate, something reminded him that God had told him that the woman was a witch. He refused to heed and said, “It is written, if I drink anything deadly, it shall not harm me.” He cited scriptures to support his gluttony and began to swallow the food. Before he finished the food, trouble started and he was rushed to us. They prayed seriously for him because he almost died.
4. All believers should have the ability to lay their hands on the sick and the sick would recover. Mark 16:18 says, “..they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.”
5. All believers are meant to be able to bind and loose. Matthew 16:18 says, “...Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
6. All believers must be able to destroy the works of satan wherever they find them.
If as a believer you cannot do these things, it means that you have to drop the pot. Pot carriers as in the church of God are not difficult to know. They always report back. They would say, “I prayed on the problem and the thing went, then after two weeks it came back.” They won’t tell you that they had been fighting and getting angry. They would also say, “I don’t know what is happening. I did deliverance and everything went out that time, but now, they are back again.” But they won’t tell you that they have been losing their temper, or that they have been going to their boyfriends or girlfriends. That is why I tell people that any Christianity they embrace and their lives do not undergo a revision is a waste of time. If you still dress the way you like, talk the way you like, and do what you want, your friends do not change, you are not serious yet.
Nowadays pastors are not interested in the spiritual growth of their members. In the days of our Pentecostal fathers, a pastor may walk from the back of the church and just tap somebody and say, “Brother, you are preaching this morning,” without prior notice. This made everyone to be serious because they never could tell what would happen when the pastor walked in from the back. So, people came prepared and they got on fire.
Pot carriers are those who are always keeping different holy waters at home. They would say, “I got this water from Jerusalem, this one from river Jordan. This anointing oil is from Israel, this other one from Mountain of Fire, this one is from Ogere and this one from Cameroon. When I have fever, I use the water from Jordan when it is bad dream, I use the anointing oil from Mountain of Fire, etc. There is no power in these things apart from the power of our Lord Jesus that is inside them and the Holy Spirit that has incubated them. So, your faith is not in the anointing oil. It is only a point of contact for your faith.
Pot carriers are always roaming about prophets and looking for special revelations. These prophets scare them and magnify their problem. Sometimes they will tell you the decisions that witches have taken concerning your life meanwhile they are members of that witchcraft. All they are doing is communicating their decisions to you and when you accept it then you got it, you have signed for the parcel.
Sometime ago, a prophet was passing by the house of a sister and suddenly, he branched there and told the sister that the Spirit of the Lord was telling him that three people would die in that place, unless they brought him a bell and some candles. The sister being a woman that was on fire said, “Prophet, sorry. There is no money to buy this bell, can you lend me the money?” The prophet got up, hissed and went away. As he was going out, the woman said, “Come back. You are the people spoiling Christianity. Which God told you what you are saying? You are a fake prophet.”
Pot carriers are those who fail to ask the question, “What is the matter with me? Why is God not talking to me about myself? Why is He talking to somebody else?” Pot carriers are those who receive healing and run away. When the sickness comes back they will reappear to pray, “Jesus heal me.” Pot carriers are those people who only speak one sentence of tongues and that is it.
Pot carriers are those who develop stomachache and headache when they pray serious prayers. Then they will keep quiet and allow the ache to subside before they start again. But the person by the well will always use fresh water. Somebody drinking from the tap of heaven can never run dry. You can drop your pot and drink from the source today.
Do you want to drink from that well that never dries up? Jesus says all those who thirst should come and drink. If you want the well, you must thirst for it. The second thing you must do is to come. And the third thing is to drink. So thirst, come, drink then be filled, that is what Jesus says.
Jesus got to that pool of water and healed only one man although the Bible said there were multitude of people there. Others glued their eyes on the pool, looking at the pot. While the well was passing by, they were looking at other things. You cannot get to the surgical theatre and tell the doctor to allow you to assist him with the surgery. You will only be disturbing the surgeon. Many Christians have died prematurely for treating spiritual problems with physical solution.
So the question again is, do you want the pot or the well? If you say you want the well, then we are going to do what is in Psalm 81:10. It says, “I am the God thy God which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, open thy mouth wide and I will fill it.” As many as are ready to open their mouths wide, the Lord says He will fill them.. You will raise up your voice like thunder and pray like somebody who wants to drink at the well.
Jesus says, “Let all that thirst come unto me and drink, he that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly, shall flow rivers of living waters,” not ordinary water.
PRAYER POINTS
1. O Lord, remove spiritual pot from me and put me at the source of power, in the name of Jesus.
2. I break every evil linkage to my past, in the name of Jesus.
3. O Lord, revive my beneficial potentials, in the name of Jesus.
4. Spirit of stagnancy, depart from my life, in the name of Jesus.
5. My soul, drink from the living water, in the name of Jesus.
6. Every organ of my body donated to the devil, be returned now, in the name of Jesus.
