MOMENTS WITH THE WOMAN AT THE WELL

I love when He interrupts your prayer time to give you an assignment of love. One morning, I was out praying and just rejoicing in the season I was in... when this hiker passed me, and I heard—with the kindest and matter-of-fact tone—“her sister misses her, and she should call her." 

People pass me all the time, but Jesus wanted to speak at this moment. I thought, “What??!! Jesus, don't interrupt!” Haha, just kidding. I thought, “ Jesus, what are you doing and do you want me to go and tell her that?” Then it came to my mind, “Oh no, James, you always tell your church to take risks.” So I thought, “Okay, Jesus, here we go!”

This poor woman… I start chasing her down, yelling, “Excuse me, ma’am! Excuse me, ma’am, excuse me!” She finally realized this sweaty man was talking to her and probably thinking to herself, "I knew I should have bought that bear spray on Amazon!”

I was at least 10ft away, and with the biggest smile on my face, I said, "I'm so sorry for running, but I'm a Christian, and this never happens, but I think I heard something from God for you. Can I share it?" Before she tried to think of how to respond to a sentence she had never heard before, I said, "I started practicing hearing God's voice, and I think He may have shared something with me.”

The whole time I was running to talk to her, I thought, "what if she doesn't even have a sister?" "you're not hearing James" (is this God talking or are you talking to yourself?) But then she agreed to listen to what God had told me. Her face looked very intrigued but skeptical. I said I felt like He said, "your sister misses you, and you should call her.” 

No lie, the moment I said the first part of that sentence, her shoulders sank with love and acceptance tears filled her eyes. "My sister just moved to New York." This was when the Covid pandemic had just hit New York. She said, “I was beating myself up all morning in anxiety about whether I should call her or not.”

I was blown away with a compassionate awareness of Jesus' love for her as if she was the very woman at the well in John 4. I don't remember what I said next, but I told her something like, “God brought me on this mountain today because you are so valuable to Him, and He sees how great of a sister you are. Can I pray for you?" She said yes, and we had a powerful interaction where we just received God’s expressive tenderness and warmth.

I was so in awe that Jesus was still present in that way—in real-time. Jesus saw her; Jesus heard her inner cry and, just like the woman at the well, wanted to keep doing what He came to do. I didn't know the reality could be that I would follow Him in what He wanted to do for her. That is different from me going about my day, wanting to please Him. In this situation, I responded to Him and got out of His way, allowing Him to do what He wanted. This was a new way of ministry I was beginning to learn all about.