Build a Well Not a Wall

I have to be honest, I am not sure exactly where the title originally came from, but I remember the first time I heard it. I was with a group of women playing games and fellowshipping, and we were talking about testimonies and how some people live in the victim mentality and some people live in the victor mentality. I was not very familiar with the things of God (probably a couple of months saved, if that), and one of the ladies said about building a well, not a wall. You don’t build a monument with what you go through that you stand and mourn at;  you build a well that others can drink from - a well of your testimony of what God has done in your life. It stuck with me for six years so far and for years to come. I thought for this message, it would be the perfect title. 

I think desperation can be used for good. God hears cries of desperation (Psalm 107). I remember one time a gentleman named Josiah was preaching a word on a Wednesday night. I am sure others have preached the same word, but I remember him talking about people who went up to the prayer line Sunday after Sunday and how sometimes there was almost an undercurrent of frustration from some people in the congregation, but how watching these people believe and believe for their miracle without giving up, to keep reminding God about what He said over there lives, and then to watch God honor their request because they were relentless  - it stirred something in His spirit about the faith that God would do it whether it took one prayer or thousands. These people held on to hope in the spiritual when it seemed hopeless in the natural, and God came through like He always does. 

The woman with the issue of blood had no hope. She had an incurable disease. She was thought to be unclean and she couldn’t be in fellowship or around anyone. She had spent all of her money on doctors. She had no money, no friends, no family, but she had two things. She had faith and she had desperation. She heard about someone doing miracles and healing and she wanted that. She was desperate for it. She went to a crowd she was by law not allowed to be around and she knew that if she could just touch the hem of his garment, she would have her healing. She believed with all her heart that this was her healing and when she finally pushed through the throngs of people and touched His hem, she was healed immediately. Jesus, feeling this, asked for the person who touched him and she immediately fell down before Him and shared her testimony. Luke 8:48 tells us that in her healing, Jesus told her to have peace and that she was healed because of her faith. This was a woman who was absolutely desperate - this was her last resort. The woman with the issue of blood would have and did do anything to get to Jesus. You can read about her story in Mark 5-24-34. We don’t know what happened after this, the Bible doesn’t elaborate so I sought the wisdom of my Pastor and concurred with his theory that there was probably a beautiful reunion as she had gone 12 years without seeing her family. They would probably inquired of her healing and I would assume they would know that it had to be a miracle. Perhaps they also then became believers. 

Imagine if there was someone you were absolutely desperate to see. Would you push through throngs of people, getting hit and hurt, taunted and whispered about.  Would you risk your life? What else would you do? Zacchaeus was a rich tax collector, and very greedy. Even though he was worldly rich, Zaccheaus was spiritually poor. He was so desperate to see Jesus that he climbed a tree to see him. Not just any tree, but a sycamore tree. I am making a distinction because a sycamore tree is a large tree, averaging about 100 feet tall. There were no safety harnesses, no trampolines or mattresses in case he fell, it was just a man in desperation doing whatever he could to chase after Jesus, even risking his life. When Jesus spotted Zaccheaus in the tree, he told him to come down and have dinner with him, despite the grumblings of those appalled that he would have dinner with *gasp* a sinner! Upon meeting Jesus, Zaccheaus repented and gave restitution to those he wrongly took from. “Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.” (Luke 19:8) Not only did Jesus have dinner and stay at Zaccheaus’ house, but the encounter with Jesus caused his household to be saved. 

The last person I am going to talk about seeking after God is a little different than the first two examples. The first two examples actively sought after God, however this example didn’t even realize that is what she was searching for. It’s a story most of us are familiar with. John 4 opens with a story of Jesus traveling through Samaria when he stopped at a well for a rest. A woman coming up to the well in midday was rare, so she was clearly an outcast. Jesus asked her for a drink and she said I am a Samaritan, you are a Jew, why would you ask me for a drink? As the conversation progresses, one thing is certain, the woman clearly had a little bit of a religious background because she is referencing Jacob and where they can worship. Even though she has this religious background, she is still searching for something, a void in her life, because when Jesus tells her to bring her husband back and she says she cannot, he tells her he knows because she has had five husbands and is living with a man. Shocked, he tells her about the living water and that he is the messiah, and she instantly believes him. 

Not only does she believe that Jesus is the Messiah, she runs back to town to tell everyone that she met Jesus. Not only did Jesus give her living water, but he set her on fire for the Lord. My favorite verse in that whole story - the one that makes me tear up every time - is John 4:39 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” The townspeople, inspired by her story, go to see Jesus preach and the Bible tells us because of that, many more in the town became believers. 

Before I moved to Coudersport, I was desperately lonely. I had lost everything. I had grown up in an incredibly abusive home and I had no contact with any of my family, I had no friends, and I had no job. I looked to everything else to satisfy a deep longing in my soul but I could never fill that void. When I moved here, it was only because God gave me no other choice. It was honestly a choice between here or death. It was here that Jesus met me. It was here that Jesus restored me and gave me a family and showed me what love truly was. It was Jesus that made me feel like life had purpose again and like the woman with the issue of blood, like Zaccheaus, like the Samaritan woman, once I had Jesus, I had restoration and healing.

What do all of these examples have in common: they used their desperation to seek after healing, to seek after  what could heal them and it was there that they met Jesus. They then took that encounter and used to spread the gospel. The woman with the issue of blood had her healing witnessed by a mass crowd. Zaccheaus had his healing witnessed by all of those he rightfully restored what he had taken from them, and the woman at the well told everyone she came across about the man who had told her everything that she had ever done. 

Revelation 12:11 says that we overcome by the blood of the lamb (our healing) and the words of our testimonies (our hope). We are required to first be healed, and then to help heal. I gave a testimony and sermon and have heard many sermons on how praise causes breakthroughs for those around you  - testifying does the same thing! Testifying also builds a relationship - many times at a testimony service, I have heard people give their testimony, maybe for the first time, and thought to myself “I didn’t know that” and it caused me to step out of my comfort zone and talk to that person. 

You never know who may hear your story and say “if God did it for her or him, he can do it for me.”