Mankind is created to worship God (Rev 4:11). The problem is that the majority of the world does not realize it.

Jesus was explaining to the woman at the well that she did not understand what she was worshipping.

Jesus stated a time was coming, and now is that time, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth.

Notice that he used the word true worshippers. There are a lot of people that worship the Lord, but it does not mean that they are true worshippers.

In order to be a true worshipper, we must worship him in spirit and in truth.

In this lesson we will focus on the spirit. The question is how can we worship God in spirit, if we don’t have his spirit?

There is a part of man that once knew God but now, don’t know him, but at the same time desire to know him. In other words, we are born with a dead or dormant spirit.

It is not something that we have done, but something that Adam and Eve had done to cause us to be born with a dormant spirit.

How did this come about? We will look in the book of Genesis to find out.

God told Adam that he could eat from every tree in the garden except from the tree in the midst of the garden (Knowledge of good and evil). God said the day you eat there, of it you shall surely die.

We know that God cannot lie, when he said you are going to die, that is exactly what he means.

Here is the question, what happens in the natural when someone dies? Life as we know, comes to an end. Life ceases to exist and life separates from the body.

Adam knew if he ate the fruit, something would cease to exist and there will be a separation from the body and life would come to an end.

Notice here, that God did not give the commandment to Eve, but he gave it to Adam, for Eve was not created at that time. After Eve was created, Adam gave the commandment to Eve, but she knew that it came from God.

Eve quoted the commandment of the Lord to the serpent, “God hath said, we can’t eat from or touch the tree, lest we die. Eve knew there would be a price to pay for eating the fruit. She knew she would die (cease to exist, separation, life leaves the body).

Did they die? Not in a physical sense, but in a spiritual way. Man is made of a threefold being, body (flesh, experience pain, disease, sickness and death), soul (the mind, will of man, intellect that is control by the five senses), and the spirit (the part that God gave us that he would know (Ecc 12:7), and that would connect with God).

The communication process between God and man in the book of Genesis, worked like this; God (being a Spirit John 4:24) would commune with the spirit of man, and the spirit of man would commune with the soul of man, and soul of man knew how to please God.

The reason why their eyes were opened and they knew that they were naked, was because their spirit died (cut off from God’s Spirit) and they were no longer seeing through the eyes of God.

The spirit that God placed in man went dormant, and because of man’s spirit being in a dormant state, there is a part of us that will always be empty, hungry, and thirsty and never satisfied. The only way to have that void filled in our life once again is for God’s Spirit to come into us and reconnect our spirit with his.

Because of the sin of Adam, every one that is born into this world, is born with a dead (dormant to God’s Spirit) spirit.

That is why the drug addicts, alcoholics, gang members, prostitutes (male or female) cannot break their habits, because they are looking for satisfaction in all the wrong places. They realize that there is something missing in their life, but they don’t know what it is, so they will use the things of this world to try and fill the emptiness, void, hunger, and thirst that is in their life.

What people fail to understand is that it is the spirit of man crying out for a relationship with God. That void will never be filled, until God’s Spirit comes into their life.

David overcame being a product of his own environment and being born with a sinful nature. He became a man after God’s own heart. The Spirit came on him on two different occasions; to protect the sheep from a lion and a bear. God also used him to kill the giant. When David prayed, God would answer his prayer. He had a strong relationship with God, but he realized something was missing. Look at verse 6.

There was something on the inside of him that said there has to be more to God than what I have. It was his spirit crying out for a relationship with God. It is not enough to believe in God, but we must be filled with his Spirit. The inward parts of David said there has to be more; I’m not satisfied. There is nothing that can fill that void except the Spirit of God.

First, I want to make this point; Jesus will do whatever it takes to get to someone that needs him. He stated, “he must needs go through Samaria.” Why? So he could minister to the woman at the well.

When Jesus asked the woman of Samaria to give him a drink, she was shocked, because the Jews were very prejudiced people, especially toward the Samaritans. The Samaritans were called Mongrel Jews, because they were half Jew and half Greek, and because of this, the Jews would have nothing to do with them.

Jesus went to the well for a reason, because this woman had a need that she did not realize that she had. To the Lord, the race of a person means nothing to him.

This woman was thinking in the natural and Jesus was speaking in the spiritual. The woman thought Jesus wanted to give her natural water, but Jesus was talking about the inner man (Man’s spirit), because he knew her spirit was thirsting for more than what the world was able to give.

He was not just talking about natural water, he was talking about what ever you use in this world to try and quench your thirst you will thirst again. It is impossible with out God.

Jesus said the water that he gives shall be like a well of water springing up into everlasting life and that a person would never thirst again. In other words, the Lord will completely satisfy you where you don't need to drink from the world. For his well will be in you. He is talking about the Spirit of God.

The women got tired of coming to the same well.

When Jesus first began to deal with the woman of Samaria, he did not expose what she was using to fill her emptiness and void in her life. He just simply pointed out that there was a need in the inside of her.

When the woman asked for that living water, then Jesus exposed what she used to fill her emptiness and void, it was men. Jesus said go and call thy husband, and come-hither.

He let her know that she was living in sin and the only way for her to come out of it, and the men she had been with, was to drink of that living water which is the Spirit of God.

Nicodemus was a Pharisee, a teacher and a ruler. He came to Jesus by night because he did not want his Pharisee friends to see him. The Pharisees were a strict religious sect that lived by the Old Testament law. They felt like Jesus was a blasphemer and a false prophet.

He made a statement about Jesus, that he did not answer, instead he answered the question of his heart in verse 3.

Nicodemus was searching for something within himself to bring him complete satisfaction. According to Romans 14:17, the bible say that the Kingdom of God is not meat and drink but righteousness, and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.

Nicodemus was confused about what Jesus meant about being born again. So he asked Jesus a question in verse 4.

Nicodemus understood what Jesus said about being born again, but he was thinking in the natural and Jesus was speaking in the spiritual. Jesus took it a step further in verse 5.

In order to enter into the Kingdom of God, you must be born of the water (Baptism) and Spirit (Received the Holy Ghost). The key is you must be born all over again in a spiritual way.

Some people say, when we are born naturally, that is our water birth. But Jesus here in verse 6 makes a strict distinction, “and that which is born of flesh is flesh and that which is born of Spirit is spirit”.

Nicodemus was thinking within himself, he said I’m a Pharisee, a ruler of the Jews and I instruct people on the things of God, and he is telling me that I must be born again in order to enter into the Kingdom of God? Jesus spoke to him in verse 7.

Here in verse 8, Jesus gives us a little insight on what it is like when a person is filled with the Holy Ghost.

When a person is filled with the Holy Ghost, it is like the wind. You can’t see the Holy Ghost coming and you can’t see it going, but there will be a sound thereof.

In verse 6, Jesus made a statement that which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of Spirit is spirit. Jesus made the Spiritual birth process just like the fleshly birth. In the flesh when a person is born, several things have to take place.

Husband and wife come together in an intimate way and the woman conceives. The baby is being developed in the water sac. When the water breaks, and the mother is rushed to the hospital, and the baby is delivered, what is the sign to the mother and everyone else around that the baby is alive? It is when that baby cries. That is the cry of life, the sound of new life.

The Spiritual birth is just like the natural birth. When a person hears the word of God, it is planted in their heart. The bible calls the word of God the seed (Luke 8:11). The seed or the word causes us to do something. Jesus said except a man is born of the water (water baptism) and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. Notice that water is present in the natural (water sac) and in the spiritual (water baptism). We said when the baby came out in the natural; the only way we knew that the baby had life was when the baby cried. It is the same way in the spiritual; a person cries with a new language when they are filled with the spirit. You can’t understand a newborn natural baby when it cries; neither can you understand a spiritual baby. But one key thing is that the cry for the natural baby and spiritual baby, is a sign of new life.

Why would Jesus ask this type of question during a feast? Because he knew the natural things of this world could never satisfy the soul of man. So here the Lord is speaking of a spiritual thirst.

If we believe on him according to the scriptures, out of our belly will flow living water. What is the living water? The living water is the Spirit of God.

Notice the word should receive, that means it depends on you. God will not force his Spirit on anyone.

There is a sign that follows every true believer; they will speak with new tongues.

The next few scriptures we look at, everyone that received the Holy Ghost spoke in tongues and there was a sound thereof according to John 3:8.

These signs shall follow them that believe they shall speak with new tongues. Acts 2:4, also said, “ as the Spirit gave them utterance”, that is the sound thereof according to John 3:8.

Cornelius was a devout man and one that feared God with his entire house, and gave alms to the people and always prayed. By religious standards of today, we would say that he was saved and ready to go to heaven. But Cornelius did not have everything that he needed to be saved. Because he loved God so much, God sent down an angel to tell him whom he need to go to and that what he ought to do. Peter was the one that the angel of God sent him to. Remember Peter had the keys (Matt 16:18-19).

The next few verses that we read will explain what happened when Peter came.

Here Peter is preaching the word of God.

How do we know that they received the gift of the Holy Ghost?

You can believe and not have received the Holy Ghost.

These signs shall follow them that believe, and they shall speak with new tongues and there will be a sound thereof.

Everyone that received the Holy Ghost, according to the word of God spoke in tongues.

A question is why did God choose tongues as a sign of people receiving the Holy Ghost?

The reason why the word of God uses the analogy of bits that are put in a horses mouth,

is because the word is letting us know that something so small can control something so big.

Something so small can control something so big.

Mankind has been able to tame everything except???

God chose the tongue because when you receive the Holy Ghost and the Spirit speaks a new language through you, God is showing that he can control something that you can’t, and when God takes control of your tongue, it means he has control of your whole body.

Now explain to them how to receive the Baptism of the Holy Ghost.