There’s one more principle that we can learn from the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well. Remember, Jesus revealed the woman’s sins to her, and then gave her the solution – HIM! When she realizes this, she drops her pot and runs to town to tell everyone the good news. It’s a natural response of a saved person to tell others what God has done for them!

Of course, the disciples were worried about what kind of food they would eat, and missed the entire boat. So Jesus is teaching them a lesson about witnessing:

John 4:35-42

35 "Do you not say, "There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest'? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest. (This is all the people from the city, who have come out to hear, wearing their white robes)

36 "Already he who reaps (referring to Jesus) is receiving wages and is gathering fruit for life eternal; so that he who sows (that’s the woman, telling people about Jesus) and he who reaps may rejoice together.

Notice that - the believer who fulfills his responsibility as an ambassador for Christ will rejoice with Him, both in time and in eternity!

37 "For in this case the saying is true, "One sows and another reaps.'

38 "I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored and you have entered into their labor."

Jesus had sent them into the city to evangelize, but they had been worried about food. Now they can reap where the woman has sown.

39 From that city many of the Samaritans believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, "He told me all the things that I have done."

40 So when the Samaritans came to Jesus, they were asking Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days.

41 Many more believed because of His word;

42 and they were saying to the woman, "It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this One is indeed the Savior of the world."

Because of the woman’s testimony, many people believed in Him. This is something we have to understand; we all have a responsibility to represent Jesus Christ in this world.

2 Corinthians 5:20

20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

As His ambassador, you should be active in personal evangelism. But don’t worry; this is not as hard as you’ve always thought. We tend to put too much of the responsibility on ourselves, when our part in evangelism is really simple. It’s a question of three steps:

1. Intercessory prayer. You might think that you should be praying for an opportunity to present the gospel, but that’s putting the cart before the horse! Before the gospel is presented, the person must be prepared by God the Holy Spirit. You have to realize that God is the one who has to prepare their souls to believe! Then you can pray for an opportunity, and for the sensitivity to realize the right time.
2. Waiting! You must patiently wait for the Lord to open the door. What happens when you force open a door too quickly, and someone is standing behind it? You break their nose! You have to wait for the door to be opened, or you can be doing a huge disservice and pushing them farther away!
3. Then you get to the actual communicating. This can be either sowing or reaping. You can sow, like the woman at the well, and tell people what God has done for you, without actually giving them a call to believe. You can also passively sow by letting your life be an example of Christ. Reaping would be presenting the Gospel with an invitation to believe.

You must trust God the Holy Spirit to direct you, to reveal the correct time and opportunity, and to lead you to fulfill this responsibility. YOU CANNOT ACTUALLY SAVE PEOPLE, ONLY GOD CAN!

Lewis Sperry Chafer, in his book, True Evangelism, Winning Souls through Prayer, said that “the divine order is to talk to God about men, until the door is definitely open to talk to men about God.”