The message I bring you today is to look at people according to the Spirit – not in the flesh, but in the Spirit or according to the Spirit. If we look at people in the Spirit, this will “unlock” them. The gifts that God has poured into them will be activated and they will minister to us with the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The opposite is also true. Until we perceive people spiritually, we cannot “connect” to them and “inhale” or “extract” the grace they have for us.
We read the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman in John 4 (John 4:5-10):
5 So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about noon. 7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” (John 4:5–10)
In verse 10, Jesus told the Samaritan woman, “If you knew – If you only knew!” The Samaritan woman did not know who Jesus was. She didn’t know the gift that he had for her. She might have asked him for eternal life if she had known he was the Messiah. But he didn’t have a halo around his head. He looked like an ordinary Jew. She was looking at Jesus’s outward appearance. She was spiritually blind and this prevented her from asking and receiving things that only God could give her.
If we could look only at people according to the Spirit! If we could only recognize who they are and what gifts are hidden within them. If we only know people by the Spirit we can access the spiritual treasures within them. The key to accessing the treasure of God’s gifts is knowing people according to the Spirit – who they are and what their position is and role in the kingdom of God.
Different Languages (John 4:7-15)
The conversation between Jesus and the Samaritan woman is a conversation between two people who speak different languages. The Samaritan woman looked at Jesus in the flesh and He looked at her in the Spirit. She looked at Him with her physical eyes, and He looked at her with his spiritual eyes. She spoke to Him in fleshly language, He answered to her spiritually. She might have thought He was trying to flirt with her. He saw in her the gift of an evangelist. He begins the conversation with the words (v. 7):
Jesus: “Will you give me a drink?” (John 4:7)
Jesus was indeed thirsty, but these words may also have been prophetic. At present, she did not have the living water of the gospel, but very soon, she would begin to give “the drink of living water” to her fellow citizens.
The Samaritan woman (v. 9): “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (John 4:9)
The Samaritan woman saw Jesus as a “Jew” – someone with whom she could not communicate, someone from the “enemy camp.” Jesus, however, continues to speak to her in a spiritual language (v.10):
10Jesus: “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” (John 4:10)
“Living” water, in this case, means running, fresh, or spring water – not well water. What the Samaritan woman hears, however, puzzles her; she begins to guess who Jesus is but continues to look at Him in the flesh and says (perhaps mockingly) (vv. 11-12):
11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” (John 4:11-12)
The Samaritan woman must have thought she knew men. She had had five. But who was this guy who spoke to her at the well?
Jesus, on the other hand, was trying to get her to earnestly desire, to long for the gift He had because He could not have given it to her without her desire. In the following verses, He says (vv. 13-14):
13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water that I will give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I will give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:13-14)
Here Jesus begins to pull back the veil and reveal to her that he is speaking not literally but figuratively. However, she does not understand and continues to think how wonderful it would be to save herself the physical effort of going to the well daily to draw water from it (v.15):
15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.” (John 4:15)
Deepening the Understanding (John 4:16-26)
Then Jesus decided to apply slightly sharper pressure and make her see spiritual realities (v.16):
16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.” (John 4:16)
With these words, Jesus stepped on her sore spot. She, however, quickly tried to divert the subject (v.17):
17 The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” (John 4:17)
Jesus, however, did not allow her to divert the conversation (vv. 17-18):
17 Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say, ‘I have no husband’; 18The fact is that you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have said is quite true.” (John 4:17-18)
Duh-duh-duh! This Jew showed her He knew her, but she had never seen Him. This shocking statement startled her, and she began looking at Him as a prophet. Her spiritual eyes began to open little by little. She began to ask at a higher level – the level she expected to receive. She sought an answer to a spiritual question (vv. 19-20):
19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.” (John 4:19-20)
Jesus answered her with an authority that was greater than a prophet. He spoke as if He, Himself, determined God’s time and the manner of worship that God required (vv. 21-24):
21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the time is coming, and has now come, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and truth.” (John 4:21-24)
Here Jesus speaks as God himself. Jesus confirmed that until His coming, Jerusalem, not Samaria, was the proper place of worship. But He moved to more profound matters and directed her attention not to the form but to the content of worship. When he said, “But the hour is coming,” Jesus suggested to her that he was talking about the coming of the Messiah. Then, He continued: “and is now here.” With these words, Jesus declared that the future had already come into the present. In this way, Jesus directed the thoughts of the Samaritan woman to the Messiah because if she recognized Him only as a prophet, this would not be enough to save her. A prophet can release a prophetic word; he can reveal to you the secrets of your heart, but he cannot give eternal life. Someone can receive eternal life as a gift only from the Anointed One. To obtain it, the Samaritan woman had to recognize Jesus not only as a prophet but also as the Messiah (v.25):
25 The woman said to him, “I know the Messiah (called Christ) is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” (John 4:25)
There seemed to be a note of question in these words: “Could you be the Messiah?” Jesus answered her in plain text (v. 26):
26 Then Jesus declared to her, “I, the one speaking to you—I am He.”
Or:
“I who speak with you am the Messiah.” (John 4:26)
Do you feel the shift in the Samaritan woman’s understanding of Jesus? At first, she looked at Him in the flesh and perceived Him as a Jew. But with the help of Jesus, her spiritual eyes gradually began to open and she began to see spiritual realities little by little. At first, she saw Him as a prophet and a little later as the Messiah.
The Discovery of the Living Water
At that time, Jesus’s disciples came, giving the Samaritan woman a chance to think through the things she had heard from Jesus – to believe in Him, to see Him as the promised Messiah, and to accept Him as such (v. 27). Only then was she able to receive God’s gift – the living water of eternal life. Now, with the help of Jesus, she had fulfilled the condition He told her at the beginning (v.10):
- To know who He is that converses with her;
- To understand the gift He has to give her;
- And to long for it and ask for it from Him;
What had Jesus told her?
10Jesus: “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” (John 4:10)
Until she perceived Jesus in the flesh, the Samaritan woman received nothing. But the moment she saw Jesus in the light of the Holy Spirit, she received eternal life. To look at people “in spirit” means to see them in the light of their position in the kingdom of God – regardless of worldly standards of human evaluation – in other words, without regard to their outward appearance.
When the Samaritan woman realized who she was talking to and received the “living water” from Him, she “left her pitcher” and went to tell the others to come and “drink of the water of life” (vv. 28-30):
28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, (John 4:28)
I don’t know if you can feel it, but there is something symbolic about leaving the pitcher or the “water jar.” The woman had come to the well for water. Still, she was so moved by the “living water” she had received from Jesus that she left her pitcher and went to do something more substantial—to tell others about Jesus. Why she left her water jar? Because she already had the living water in herself. Her priorities changed.
Is the “Wheat” Ripe Or Not? (John 4:27-36)
Notice that the apostles also looked at the Samaritan woman in the flesh (v.27).
27 Just then his disciples returned and were surprise to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?” (John 4:27)
They might have just walked away without a word if they had been at the well when the Samaritan woman came to draw water. Then nothing would have happened. In contrast, Jesus did not look at the Samaritan woman in the flesh. If He had looked at her in that way, maybe all He would have seen was a broken, fallen, desperate, and complex woman. But He looked at her in Spirit and unlocked in her the gift of an evangelist. Suddenly, she got courage, authority, and boldness, and on the same day, she brought a large number of the citizens of Sychar to Jesus. She said to them (vv. 29-30):
29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” 30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him.” (John 4:29-30)
Her testimony was not in vain, for verse 39 says that because of her many believed in Jesus:
39 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” (John 4:39)
Looking at people in the Spirit is extremely important to salvation. This relationship should be a two-way approach. On the one hand, sinners who need salvation must look to Christ, the gospel, and the ministers of the gospel in the spirit. On the other hand, we as evangelists, must look at the sinners in the Spirit. Only then will we see them “ripe” for the harvest of salvation.
We cannot “gather fruit unto eternal life” if we look at men according to the flesh. We would not begin evangelizing someone because we would immediately consider them untrustworthy and nothing will happen. In verses 35-36, Jesus said to his disciples:
35 Don’t you have a saying, “It’s still four months until the harvest?” I tell you, op up your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. 36 Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and reaper may be glad together.” (John 4:35-36)
If we look at men according to the flesh, we will wait for “revival to come” and postpone the gospel for the undetermined future. Only if we look at people in Spirit will we see that they are already ready to be “gathered” into the kingdom of God.
Acceptance is critical to the growth of faith. In verses 40-42, we read:
40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41 And because of His words, many more became believers. 42 They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man is the Savior of the world.” (John 4:40-42)
These Samaritans accepted Jesus, because they looked at Him not “in the flesh”, as some Jewish rabbi, but “in spirit” – as the Messiah, the “Savior of the world.” Because of this view of theirs, they had a priceless spiritual benefit, unlike some other Samaritans who later rejected Jesus because they looked at Him in the flesh. Luke 9:51-56)
The “Looking According to the Flesh” Barrier (Mark 6:1-5)
Jesus knew from his own experience that if people viewed Him in the flesh, and He could not change that premise, He could not minister to them.
God’s Spirit cannot move and act in an atmosphere where people look at each other according to the flesh. After he had rebuked the storm, cast out many demons, healed the woman with the issue of blood, and raised Jairus’ daughter, Jesus came to his hometown, and there He could not serve them fully. Look at Mark 6:5:
5 He could not do miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. (Mark 6:5)
Jesus could not perform any miracle in his hometown – why? Because there in his hometown, people looked at him in the flesh. Maybe they said to themselves:
- Ah, isn’t this Jesus, our boy, the carpenter?
- Who is he claiming to be – The Messiah?
- He must have lost his mind!
- What a shame for him; he thinks so highly of himself but blasphemes like that!
Mark says, “They were deceived in Him.” They could not accept Jesus as a prophet, let alone as the Son of God – why? Because they looked at Him according to the flesh. Mark 6:1-4 says:
1 Jesus left there and went to his hometown, accompanied by his disciples. 2When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue and many who heard him were amazed. “Where did this man get these things?” they asked. “What’s this wisdom that has been given to him? What are these remarkable miracles he is performing? 3 Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren’t his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him. 4 And Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor, except in his own town, among his relatives and in his own home.” (Mark 6:1–4)
Why is a prophet without honor in his hometown among his relatives and household? If you have looked at someone in the flesh for a long time, it is tough to start looking at them in the Spirit.
From Now On, We Regard No One According to the Flesh (2 Corinthians 5:14-17)
The apostle Paul had a problem with some rejecting Him because they looked at Him in the flesh, not the Spirit. Therefore, he wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:14-17 how we should treat one another and know one another not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit:
14 For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died.” (2 Corinthians 5:14)
Because Christ died for us and in our place, everyone who is in Him is dead to his old nature, to sin, and to the flesh:
15 and he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. (2 Corinthians 4:15)
We who have believed in Christ, have risen with him to new life. We no longer live for ourselves but for God. This truth applies to us, our brothers and sisters in the Lord, and every Christian. This truth is the spiritual rationale for our practical attitude. And hear what follows from all this according to the Apostle Paul:
16 So, from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. (2 Corinthians 4:16)
Before meeting the resurrected Christ on the road to Damascus, Saul looked at Him in the flesh. His appreciation of Jesus was sincere but superficial. He considered Him an impostor who claimed to be the Messiah. Therefore, He thought His followers should be exterminated (Acts 9:1-2; 26:9-11). After meeting Him, however, he renounced his idea, finding it completely wrong. When Jesus revealed Himself to him, Paul recognized Him as God’s appointed Messiah, whose death brings eternal life to all who accept Him:
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come; the old has gone; the new is here! (2 Corinthians 4:17)
How does God see us? How does He view us – in the flesh or spirit? In Spirit. He sees us as “new creatures.”
We must look at one another in the Spirit in the local church. For if Christ could move from one place to another when men looked upon him in the flesh, the local church members have no such alternative. Our only option is to change our perspective and see others as Christ sees them. Our challenge is to honor the “prophets” in their own country, city, and home. Therefore, I pray that God will help us – as the apostle Paul – “from now we regard no one according to the flesh.”
The Reward for Knowing People in the Spirit (2 Kings 4:8-18)
There is a reward for accepting people in spirit. In Matthew 10:40-42, Jesus said:
40 Anyone who welcomes you welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. 41 Whoever welcomes a prophet as a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever welcomes a righteous person as a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward. 42 And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple, truly, I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward. (Matthew 10:40-42)
We must not allow the natural outlook to influence us. We must not allow familiarity. It will prevent us from taking the Word of God seriously. We will have many opportunities to be offended and disappointed by a brother or sister. But if we cut off our relationship with them, we are in danger of falling out of God’s plan for our lives and preventing anything good from happening in the future. We must think that no matter what our brothers and sisters do, they are called by the Lord, anointed with the Holy Spirit, and endowed with spiritual gifts. We must recognize them in Spirituality. This attitude will “unlock” them, and the Holy Spirit will begin to move within them.
In 2 Kings 4:8-17, we read about how a Shunammite woman was miraculously rewarded for her treatment of Elisha:
8 One day Elisha went to Shunem. And a well-to-do woman was there, who urged him to stay for a meal. So whenever he came by, he stopped there to eat. (2 Kings 4:8)
Notice that this Shunamite woman insisted that Elisha visit her. She “urged” him – why? Because she recognized that he was a man of God. Because of this, she thought it a small thing to receive him as a guest and decided to set aside a room for him in her house where he could live permanently.
9 She said to her husband, “I know that this man who often comes our way is a holy man of God.” (2 Kings 4:9)
This Shunammite recognized Elisha as a “holy man of God.” One day, she looked at him not in flesh but in Spirit. Spiritually, perhaps, Elisha was not very handsome. From 2 Kings 2:23 we learn that he was bald. But she looked at him and saw the supernatural gift and calling that God had given him. So she decided to do something for him and thus honor God. She said to her husband:
10 Let’s make a small room on the roof and put in it a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp for him. Then he can stay there whenever he comes to us.”” (2 Kings 4:10)
This attitude unlocked the power of God in Elisha.
11 One day when Elisha came, and he went up to his room and lay down there.” (2 Kings 4:11)
One day, Elisha was stretching out his feet on his bed in the Shunammite’s house, and perhaps he was thinking, “Praise God! He has revealed himself to this Shunammite and she has treated me well. Let me see how I can repay her for her hospitality. If she has served me with material blessings and her possessions, can I not also do something for her from the position God has given me in the Spirit.”
12 And he said to Gehazi his servant, “Call the Shunammite.” So he called her and she stood before him. 13 Elisha said to him, “Tell her, ‘You have gone to all this trouble for us. Now what is to be done for you? Can we speak on your behalf to the king or the commander of the army?’ She answered, “I have a home among my own people.” (2 Kings 4:12-13)
The Shunammite was a modest woman. There was no need for connection in the upper echelons of power.
14 And he said, “What can be done for her?” Gehazi answered, “She has no son, and her husband is old.” (2 Kings 4:14)
This woman had no children and could not have any. Reproductive problems are the biggest source of pain for a family. Therefore, despite her wealth, she was perhaps not happy.
15 Then Elisha said, “Call her.” So he called her, and she stood in the doorway. 16 “About this time next year,” Elisha said, “you will hold a son in your arms.” (2 Kings 4:15–16)
For the Shunammite woman, it was too good to be true.
“No, my lord!” she objected. “Please, man of God; don’t mislead your servant!” (2 Kings 4:16)
However, these were prophetic words. Elisha was God’s’ representative and He spoke God’s Word – a Word that calls into existence what does not exist.
17 But the woman became pregnant, and the next year about that same time she gave birth to a son, just as Elisha had told her. (2 Kings 4:17)
Glory to God! Do you see how God rewarded Shunammite? Why? What in particular did she do? Do you remember how it all started? She looked at Elisha in Spirit and said:
“I know that this man who often comes our way is a holy man of God.” (2 Kings 4:9)
Truly, Truly, I say unto you, if we look upon men in Spirit, we shall not lose our reward!
Who Do We Accept, and Who Do We Reject?
It is essential to know people in Spirit. Let’s be careful. Let us accept a prophet in the name of a prophet, but be careful not to accept a false prophet in the name of a prophet. Then we will be in error because this is also possible. The Corinthians accepted false apostles in the name of apostles (2 Corinthians 11:1-5; 13-15,19). The Galatians received false teachers in the name of teachers (Galatians 1:6-7). We have to be very careful. Just as we should not reject those whom God has called and anointed, we should not accept those who take authority and rights that do not belong to them.
May God help us! If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit and look at others in the Spirit. If we look at people in this way, we will be able to have the right attitude toward non-believers, believers, and even our enemies.