Divine Appoinments

I traveled to Summit over the weekend to speak at the WINGS banquet, a fundraiser for a battered women's shelter. It was a wonderful occasion and everyone was so kind and cordial in gathering for a needy cause in southwest Mississippi.

To those in attendance, I talked about the importance of them being a divine appointment for the women at the WINGS shelter. Sure, we think of divine appointments as opportunities for US to benefit from someone's encouragement, their hope, their finances, friendship, talents, you name it. I'd like for us to focus on how God can use you and I as someone's heavenly connection.

Although we don't know the name of the woman at the well, we know she had a divine appointment. John 4 talks about her meeting with Jesus. This meeting was substantial because the Jews of that time treated Samaritans like outcasts. They were thought to be nasty, good-for-nothing people. For Jesus to talk to a woman alone was considered improper in itself and because she was a Samaritan only doubled the offense.

Jesus and the disciples were going from Judea back to Galilee and had to pass through Samaria. When they came to Jacob's well, Jesus was tired and sat down while the disciples went into the city to get food. When Jesus asked her for a drink of water, she argued at first that he was a Jew and shouldn't have anything to do with her. In John 4:10 Jesus told 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." Jesus reveals to the woman that he knows about the life she's been living. She told Jesus she had heard the Messiah would come and know all things. It's at that time Jesus admits to her that he is the Messiah. But the story doesn't stop there. In John 4:28, the woman left her water jar, went back into town and told the people, "Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?"

Did you notice after the woman at the well had her encounter, she went and told others about the love of Jesus? Isn't that what divine appointments are all about anyway? We can call them coincidences or happen stance, but when you have one yourself, you know who orchestrated it as it can only be described as God inspired.

The Holy Spirit is constantly scheduling people and things to come your way. It's time for you and I to be used by the hand of God to be someone else's divine appointment.