We Drink the Living Water flowing from the Crucified Christ as the Spiritual Rock

Christ has been crucified to become a spiritual rock that follows His people to give us the living water to drink; we simply need to identify ourselves with the crucified Christ and speak to the rock, and living waters will flow to quench our thirst. Amen!

In 1 Cor. 10:3 we see that the children of Israel ate the same spiritual food – a type of Christ as our daily manna for us believers in Christ to eat.

Then, in v. 4, we see that the children of Israel all drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank of a spiritual rock which followed them, and the rock was Christ. Wow!

In Exo. 17, after we see the mention of God providing His people with the heavenly food, manna, we also see that He gives them to drink the water from the smitten rock.

There is another case of water flowing out of the rock in Numbers 20, but that happened many years after Exodus 17. It is easy to think that both records refer to the same story, but actually, these two incidents happened thirty-eight years apart.

When the children of Israel came out of Egypt and started to wander in the wilderness, they realized they had no water to drink, so they came to Moses and asked him to give them water.

They were wandering in the wilderness, and they could not find any water. In a sense, they were wandering in the wilderness; in another sense, they were being led by the pillar of cloud during the day and the pillar of fire during the night.

The fact that they arrived at a place with no water was no accident – they were led to that place. It was not that they made a wrong turn and found no water; rather, the Lord led them to such a place. Wow!

God is the One who leads us; we make no wrong turn or get into things by accident – He leads us, and at one point or another, He will lead us to a place where there’s no water. He leads us to a waterless place to test us and expose us.

He tested Moses, He tested the congregation of Israel, and even it was a test to God; out of these three parties, only one passed the test – God Himself.

The children of Israel were in the wilderness and they had just experienced seven miracles, seeing how God brought the plagues over Egypt, how He delivered them with a mighty hand, and how He parted the Red Sea for them to cross. This was amazing!

And then they came to a waterless place, and instead of trusting in God based on all that He has done for them, the children of Israel complained and murmured. However, the Lord did not rebuke them – rather, He provided them water to drink.

We need to see what the spiritual application of this matter is, what it means for Christ to be the spiritual rock following us to give us to drink the Spirit as the living water, and how we can drink the Spirit as the water of life in our daily life.

Christ was Crucified to become a Spiritual Rock Following us to Give us the Spirit to Drink as Living Water

We all can testify that the Lord is with us, He leads us, He guides us, and He shepherds us through all kinds of situations and in all sorts of environments.

He gives us the all-inclusive Christ to be our daily manna for us to eat, and He supplies our every need.

However, sometimes He leads us to a situation where we are short of water; we simply are thirsty, and there are many problems.

Trouble among God’s people can be caused by the shortage of water, which typifies the Spirit of life (Num. 20:2-13).

Whenever we, as the people of God, are short of the Spirit of life, we will have many problems. However, when we as God’s people have an abundance of the Spirit as the living water, our problems among ourselves and with God are solved (John 7:37-39; Rom. 8:2).

In the case of the people of Israel as they were wandering through the wilderness, they arrived at a waterless place, and the people complained and murmured against Moses, asking him to give them to drink.

Moses went before God and God told him to strike a rock, and water will flow for all the drink and refresh everyone. And this is what happened: Moses struck the rock and water flowed!

Paul says in 1 Cor. 10:4 that this rock was Christ. Wow! There was a rock that followed the children of Israel and, whenever they needed water, it gave them to drink. Amazing!

The spiritual drink in 1 Cor. 10:4 refers to the living water that flowed out of the cleft rock (Exo. 17:6); it typifies the Spirit who flowed out of the crucified and resurrected Christ to be our all-inclusive drink (John 7:37-39; 1 Cor. 12:13). Hallelujah!

Christ came through incarnation to be the rock; on the cross, He was smitten by the authority of God’s righteous law to accomplish God’s redemption.

His side was pierced, and living water flowed out for us as God’s people to drink (John 19:34). Wow! Praise the Lord, Christ was smitten as the spiritual rock on the cross so that living water may flow!

Now we can drink the living water in resurrection, which living water is the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit as the ultimate consummation and issue of the Triune God.

We believers in Christ were given to drink the same spiritual drink, which is the Spirit as living water flowing out of the smitten Christ.

Whenever we are thirsty, we just need to come to the Lord to drink the living water. He was smitten by God on the cross and living water flows from Him constantly.

We have been baptised into Christ and we have also been given to drink the one Spirit – the one spiritual drink flowing from the spiritual rock that follows us.

Wow, there is a rock that follows us – Christ is the spiritual rock following us, being with us wherever we are, for us to drink the living water flowing from Him.

When we are short of the Spirit of life as our spiritual drink, we will have problems. But when we drink the Spirit of life as the living water, all our problems are solved.

May we not blame God for bringing us to a certain situation or into a particular environment where there’s no water; may we rather come to Him to drink!

He leads us from the front through His Spirit and by His word, and He follows us as the spiritual rock to supply us.

We may go through a dry spell in our Christian life where nothing seems to work. We may be very thirsty, for there’s no water in our environment, in our being, or in the situations we’re in.

By the Lord’s arrangement, we may go through a dry spell and be in waterless places in the family life, in our Christian life, and in the church life.

The church life used to be such a wonderful place for us, but now it seems that everyone has a problem, and we are dissatisfied and disappointed. When we are short of the Spirit of life, we have problems.

God allows certain things to happen to us, in our environment, in our married life, and in the church life to test us and expose us.

We may hit a dry spell in our married life; we used to love our wife so much, and we were so pleasant and romantic to her, but now we may be quite rude to her, say negative things to her, and have an attitude. We may go through a dry spell, having no living water.

The Lord allows such things and situations to test us and expose us to show us how much we need the living water.

In all these things, we need to learn to come to the Lord and ask Him to give us to drink!

Lord Jesus, thank You for coming through incarnation to be the spiritual rock smitten on the cross by God’s righteous law to flow out the water of life! Amen, Lord, thank You for dying on the cross for us and for flowing out the living water for us all to drink! Hallelujah, Christ is the spiritual rock following us today to give us the living water to drink! Oh Lord, we are thirsty! We are so thirsty! Give us to drink the living water. We come to You to drink the living water – the Spirit flowing out of the crucified Christ! Hallelujah, we can drink the water of life in resurrection, the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit flowing out of the crucified Christ! Amen, Lord, may we keep coming to You throughout the day so that we may drink the same spiritual drink. Shine on us and keep us under Your leading. May we clearly see how much we need the living water. Have Your way, Lord, to test us and expose us so that we may return to You and drink the living water all the time! Hallelujah, when we have an abundance of the Spirit, our problems among ourselves and with God are solved!

Receive the Living Water from the Crucified Christ by Applying the Death of Christ to our Situation and Speaking to Christ as the Spiritual Rock to Give us to Drink

Thank the Lord that He was incarnated to be the spiritual rock, and then He was willing to be crucified so that He might be smitten by God’s righteousness so that living water may flow out of Him.

Since Christ has been crucified and the Spirit has been given, there’s no need for Christ to be crucified again; there’s no need to strike the rock – we can now speak to the rock and living water may flow. Amen!

Num. 20:8 shows us that, the second time that the children of Israel were in a waterless place, Moses didn’t have to strike the rock; he only had to speak to the rock and water would flow out.

For us as believers in Christ to receive the living water from the crucified Christ, we simply need to “take the rod” and “speak to the rock.” Amen!

What does this mean in our Christian experience?

To take the rod is to identify with Christ in His death and apply the death of Christ to ourselves and to our situation.

Christ has been crucified, and we also have been crucified with Him (Gal. 2:20).

There is no need for Him to be crucified again so that living water may flow; the living water is flowing, Christ as the spiritual rock is following us, and we simply need to speak to Him. Amen!

Based upon the fact that the Spirit has already been given, we simply need to speak a direct word to the spiritual rock following us and tell the Lord, We need water! Give us the Spirit!

In John 4:10 the Lord Jesus told the Samaritan woman that, if she knew the gift of God (which is Christ) and who is He who says to her, Give Me a drink, she would have asked Him, and He would have given her the living water.

We believers in Christ need to know the gift of God and who is He who has been smitten for us on the cross, and we need to ask Him to give us to drink the living water.

Just ask Him. If we are in a dry situation, we will prolong our dryness by just not asking for the living water, that is, by not asking the Lord for the Spirit.

But if we ask Him, He will give us the living water.

If we speak to the spiritual rock following us, applying the death of Christ to our situation and speaking to Christ, He will give us to drink! Hallelujah!

If we apply the death of Christ to ourselves and ask Christ in faith to give us the Spirit, we will drink the living Spirit as the bountiful supply of life (Phil. 1:19). Amen!

The living water is flowing. The Spirit has been given. The supply is there. There’s a bountiful supply available for us to drink and partake of. We simply need to exercise our spirit and ask the Lord to give us to drink.

We may think that the Lord can’t be bothered by us so many times to give us to drink, but we need to remember Luke 11:13. The Lord was teaching His disciples how to pray, and He gave them a little story to instruct them.

Here we are told that someone was asking his neighbour for some bread in the middle of the night, for he had some guests and had nothing to give them to eat. The neighbour did not want to give him the bread, for he was sleeping and his family was asleep, but because of his insistence, he gave him what he asked.

The Lord is our neighbour; He is the spiritual rock following us, and if we ask Him, He will give us the living water and the food supply. The Lord said, What father, when his son asks for a fish, gives him a snake? Or what father, when his son asks for an egg, gives him a scorpion?

If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father who is from heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him? Amen!

In Matthew, in the same account, the Lord said instead of the Holy Spirit, the good things. If we just ask the Lord, He will give us the good things, the Holy Spirit as the all-inclusive drink of living water.

May we learn to ask Him for the living water. May we speak to the rock, telling Him that we are thirsty, and He will give us the supply.

In Moses’ case in Num. 20:9-11, however, instead of speaking to the rock, he was angry with the people, condemned them as rebels, and struck the rock twice with his rod. Oh Lord!

He condemned the people as rebels, but it was actually Moses who rebelled against God’s word (v. 24; 27:14). Moses didn’t believe in Jehovah to sanctify Him in the sight of the children of Israel (20:12).

To sanctify God is to make Him holy, that is, to separate Him from all the false gods. To fail God, however, is to make Him common.

In being angry with the people when God was not angry, Moses did not represent God rightly in His holy nature, and in striking the rock twice, he did not keep God’s word in His economy; thus, Moses offended both God’s holy nature and His divine economy.

Because of this, even though he was intimate with God and may be considered a companion of God (Exo. 33:11), Moses lost the right to enter the good land.

In all that we say and do concerning God’s people, our attitude must be according to God’s holy nature, and our actions must be according to His divine economy.

This is to sanctify Him; otherwise, in our words and deeds, we will rebel against Him and offend Him.

May we sanctify God and have our attitude according to His holy nature, and may our actions be according to His divine economy.

May we first come to Him to drink the living water, applying the death of Christ to our situation and to our being, and asking Him to give us to drink.

Then, may we let Him flow in us and through us to many others, the thirsty ones, so that they may drink, have their thirst quenched, and have their problems with God and man settled by their drinking the living water.

Lord Jesus, we are thirsty: give us to drink! We identify ourselves with Christ in His death and apply the death of Christ to ourselves and our situation. Amen, we have been crucified with Christ. Lord, give us to drink! Give us the Spirit of life as our living water! We exercise our spirit to speak to the spiritual rock, Christ, to give us to drink! Thank You for being smitten on the cross for us to flow out living water. Amen, Lord, we apply Your death to ourselves and we ask You in faith to give us the Spirit! We open to You and we drink You as the living Spirit, our bountiful supply of life! Oh Lord, may we not remain in the dry spell we are going through and may we not prolong it but rather, may we come to You to drink! Thank You for being willing to give us the good things – the Spirit as the living water! Keep us drinking You! Hallelujah, we all have been given to drink of the one Spirit, and now we can drink and be satisfied! Amen, Lord, give us to drink! We open to You to drink You as living water!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Ted Williamson in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Exodus, msgs. 40-41 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Experiencing, Enjoying, and Expressing Christ (2) (2024 December Training), week 16 (msg. 4), Our Spiritual Food, Our Spiritual Rock, and the Contents of the Lord’s Table.
• Similar articles on this topic:
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  – The Life Flow for New Jerusalem’s Wall, via, New Jerusalem blog.
  – Drinking of Christ as the spiritual rock, a portion from, The Crucial Revelation of Life in the Scriptures, Chapter 4, by Witness Lee.
  – Confess our Sins and Come back to the Intimate Fellowship with the Lord, via, 21 Century Nazarites.
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  – What Does the Blood and Water that Came Out of Jesus’ Pierced Side Mean? More via, Bibles for America blog.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Blessed Rock of Ages, / Thou art open still; / Thy blest Holy Spirit / All our being fill; / Still Thou dost say, / Wherefore struggle so? / Call for the Spirit, / Whisper soft and low, / Speak to the Rock / Bid the waters flow. / Speak to the Rock, / Bid the waters flow, / Doubt not the Spirit, / Given long ago; / Take what He waiteth, / Freely to bestow, / Drink till its fulness / All Thy being know. (Hymns #248 stanza 2 and chorus)
  – Lord, Thou art the Heav’nly Manna, / As our daily food supply; / Strengthening and energizing, / All our need to satisfy. / Living Rock Thou also art, Lord, / Cleft for us with life to flow; / Drinking of this living water, / Thirst is quenched, Thy life we know. (Hymns #196 stanza 4)
  – My Christ, He is the Tree of Life / With fruit abundant, sweet; / My hunger He doth satisfy; / Of Him I daily eat. / My Christ, He is the smitten Rock / Whence living waters burst; / He is the fountain in my heart / Which quenches all my thirst. (Hymns #510 stanzas 3-4)