Christ became a Life-giving Spirit to be Rivers of Living Water flowing into us

As the reality of the Feast of Tabernacles, Christ went through a process to be consummated as the Spirit for us to drink and flow as rivers of living water; the consummated Spirit is the Triune God after passing through many processes to flow in us and out of us. Amen!

In John 7 we see, right at the beginning, that the children of Israel were keeping the Feast of Tabernacles.

This feast was the last feast of the year, and it should have been a feast full of riches, enjoyment, and satisfaction.

This feast was to be an overflow of the riches of the people of God being brought together to be shared together with God and with man.

However, because the people of Israel had fallen and did not enjoy the reality of the Feast of Tabernacles, they were still thirsty.

At the end of the last of the feasts of the year, they were still very thirsty and dissatisfied.

This is a type of our human life. We think that our human life is full of enjoyment and satisfaction, and we believe that we need to work harder so that we can enjoy more things of this world, hoping that we will be satisfied.

Sometimes we may even take a long vacation, thinking that we are on holiday and now everything is at peace, we have satisfaction, and nothing bothers us.

However, at the end of every man’s feast, unless God is enjoyed and Christ is partaken of in spirit, man is still dissatisfied.

No matter how much man tries to enjoy what this world has to offer, drink and eat the things of the world, and be satisfied with what he has before him, he can never be satisfied.

Rather, all these things create a deeper hunger in him, and the thirst within man is exposed by all the things he does to satisfy himself.

If man would just partake of Christ as the reality of the Feast of Tabernacles, if man simply comes to the Lord as he is and opens to Him, he would be satisfied, for living water will flow into his innermost being.

But because man – and many times we ourselves as Christians – tries his best to enjoy the things in this world and be satisfied, he always remains hungry and thirsty.

This is why the Lord Jesus, at the end of the Feast of Tabernacles, stood up and cried out, If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink (John 7:37).

This cry sounds out throughout the generations, from Genesis to Revelation: if anyone is thirsty, let him come to the Lord Jesus as the life-giving Spirit to drink the living water!

Only the water that the Lord gives us satisfies, and only this living water can flow in and out of our innermost being!

Christ became the Life-giving Spirit to Impart Himself as Rivers of Living Water into His Believers

With the background of the people of Israel doing their best to enjoy the Feast of Tabernacles, on the last day of the feast – the great day of the feast – Jesus stood up and cried out for anyone who thirsts to come to Him and drink.

If anyone comes to the Lord to drink by believing into Him, as the Scripture said, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water (John 7:37-38). Wow!

Then the apostle John added, But this He said concerning the Spirit, whom those who believed into Him were about to receive; for the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified (v. 39).

As an explanation to the Lord’s word, John added that, before His resurrection, the Spirit was not yet, for Jesus had not yet been glorified.

How can we explain such a verse? This shows that God went through a process in order to become the life-giving Spirit for man to drink as living water.

It was in His resurrection that He as the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45), and now as the Spirit who gives life, He can be enjoyed by man.

Resurrection was for the man Jesus to get out of His human shell and to release the divine life; this resurrection was His glorification.

The Spirit of God was there from the very beginning, for He is part of the Divine Trinity essentially; however, economically, the Spirit who gives life came into being or was produced in Christ’s resurrection.

Through and in His resurrection, Christ became the life-giving Spirit to flow out as rivers of living water (Rev. 21:6; 22:17).

The entire Triune God – the Father, the Son, and the Spirit – went through a process in the Lord’s incarnation, for John 1:14 says that the Word (who was with God and was God) became flesh. Amen!

The Triune God became incarnated to be the tabernacle of God with man; God became flesh and tabernacled among us, full of grace and reality.

Then He went through crucifixion and resurrection, and in His resurrection He became a life-giving Spirit. This is a tremendous matter!

As the life-giving Spirit the Lord can now be dispensed into His believers as living water to quench their thirst, fill them, and be their full satisfaction.

God in Christ as the Spirit is now rivers of living water flowing in the being of all those who believe into the Lord Jesus, and He also flows out of their being into others and into eternal life!

This is what God desires: to be rivers of living water for man to drink and be satisfied!

For this, God went through a process in His economy to become a life-giving Spirit to be the rivers of living water flowing in and out of our being. Hallelujah!

The life-giving Spirit is the consummated Spirit, the consummation of the processed and consummated Triune God (2 Cor. 3:17-18; Gal. 3:14; Phil. 1:19).

The Spirit as the third of the Divine Trinity cannot enter into man; it is only the life-giving Spirit, the consummation of the processed Triune God, who can enter into man as rivers of living water.

God became something, someone, who can come into us to indwell us.

The Gospels and the book of Acts show us the process God went through in order to become a life-giving Spirit to be rivers of living water for us to drink.

The consummated Spirit is the Triune God after He has passed through the process of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection (John 7:39).

The process through which the Triune God has passed in order to become the Spirit is an economical matter, not an essential one (1:14; Heb. 9:14; 1 Cor. 15:45).

God can never change in His essence, but in His economy, He went through a process to become the Spirit.

God being processed refers to the steps through which the Triune God has passed in the divine economy.

God being consummated indicates that the process has been completed, and the fact that today He is the consummated Spirit implies that the Spirit of God has been processed and has become the consummated Spirit. Hallelujah!

Today we have the life-giving Spirit, the consummated Spirit, who flows into our innermost being as rivers of living water to quench our thirst and flow out of us into others and into eternal life! Praise the Lord!

Today God in Christ as the life-giving Spirit can enter into us, can be received by us, can be enjoyed by us, and can mingle with us. Praise the Lord!

Lord Jesus, thank You for being incarnated, crucified, and resurrected to become not just man but a life-giving Spirit! Hallelujah, Christ as the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit in His resurrection and now we can receive Him as rivers of living water! Praise the Lord, God today no longer dwells in unapproachable light but He can be enjoyed by us in His economy! Wow, Lord, what a privilege it is for us to know and enjoy the consummated Spirit – God becoming the life-giving Spirit to come into our spirit as rivers of living water! Amen, Lord, we come to You! We are thirsty. Give us to drink. Dispense Yourself into us as life today. Flow in us as rivers of living water. Flow into all the parts of our inner being and saturate us with the living water. Oh Lord, flow in and flow out of us as rivers of living water today! Praise the Lord, our God is enterable, receivable, and enjoyable! Hallelujah, God in Christ as the Spirit who gives life flows in and out of us as rivers of living water!

The Spirit who “was not yet” can now be received by us as Living Water because Christ went through Incarnation and Resurrection to become a Life-giving Spirit!

We can never underestimate what the Lord has done for us, nor can we speak too much of the processes He went through, for it is because He became the flesh (John 1:14) and then He became the Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45; 2 Cor. 3:17) that we can receive, enjoy, and be filled with God today.

In John 7:39 John said that the Lord’s promise to give us living water when we come to Him is fulfilled when He becomes the Spirit, which took place at His resurrection.

Before the Lord Jesus was crucified and resurrected, the consummated Spirit was “not yet”.

Of course, the Spirit of God was there from the beginning (Gen. 1:2), but the Spirit as “the Spirit of Christ” (Rom. 8:9), “the Spirit of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:19), was “not yet” at the time of John 7:39 because the Lord Jesus was not yet glorified.

Can we receive merely the Spirit of God as seen in the Old Testament? No, because the Spirit of God does not have the element of humanity nor can He dispense Himself into us.

In the Old Testament at most God could move man, inspire man, and empower man to do certain things or speak certain words, but the Spirit of God could not dwell in man.

But praise the Lord, in His economy He took two major steps: incarnation and crucifixion with resurrection, so that He can become a life-giving Spirit to be received by us as rivers of living water.

The Lord Jesus was glorified when He was resurrected, and through this glorification, the Spirit of God became the Spirit of the incarnated, crucified, and resurrected Jesus Christ (Luke 24:26; Phil. 1:19).

Now the Spirit, whom Christ became, is no longer just the Spirit of God; the element of God is there, but there is much more.

In the life-giving Spirit we have God and man, humanity and divinity, and all the elements and effectivenesses of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension.

Even more, through His death Christ fulfilled all the requirements of God’s righteousness, holiness, and glory, which separate man from the tree of life.

Through His death, Christ opened a new and living way for us to come to the Holy of Holies and partake of God as the tree of life (Heb. 10:19-20). Hallelujah!

Man fell and was short of the righteous, holy, and glorious requirements of God, but God became a man and, through His death on the cross, fulfilled all the requirements of God so that man would come forward to God! Hallelujah!

Now man can simply repent and believe into the Lord Jesus, and the Lord as the life-giving Spirit can flow as rivers of living water into and out of the innermost being of man!

By faith in Christ we are organically joined to Him, and He can dispense all that He is into our being.

We can drink God in Christ as the Spirit and we can flow Him out by exercising our spirit to believe into Him, receive Him, and flow Him out.

The flow of the Spirit which began in Gen. 1:2 is also found in Rev. 22:17, where the Spirit and the bride call all those who are thirsty to come and drink the water of life freely!

All this is possible because Christ became a life-giving Spirit in His resurrection!

The last Adam, who was Christ in the flesh, became the life-giving Spirit in resurrection; since then, the Spirit of Jesus Christ has both the divine and human elements, including the reality of the incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection of Christ (1 Cor. 15:45b; Acts 16:7; Rom. 8:9).

What an amazing Spirit we have today!

All we need to do is believe into Him and we will enjoy Him and experience Him!

We can partake of the riches of the Triune God as the rivers of living water flowing out for us to drink, be satisfied with, and flow out! Hallelujah!

Lord Jesus, thank You for becoming a life-giving Spirit for us to drink as rivers of living water today! We exercise our spirit and believe into You to receive all that You and all that You have accomplished! Hallelujah, God became flesh and the flesh became the life-giving Spirit to flow out as rivers of living water into us, the believers in Christ! Amen, Lord, we want to drink and flow You out as rivers of living water. Thank You for Your desire to dispense Yourself into us. We open to You. We open our whole being to Your divine dispensing. Dispense Yourself as rivers of living water into our being today. We want to be filled with You. Fill our whole inner being with the living water. Flow in our mind, emotion, and will, and saturate us with Yourself. Apply all that You are, all that You have, and all that You have accomplished and attained to our being today. Praise the Lord, we can drink the processed and consummated Triune God as the life-giving Spirit today so that we may be filled with Him and flow Him out as rivers of 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 James Lee in the message for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1993, vol. 2, “The Spirit with Our Spirit,” ch. 2, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Experiencing, Enjoying, and Expressing Christ (2024 July Semiannual Training), week 8, Christ as the Feast of Tabernacles and as the Spirit Flowing out of the Believers as Rivers of Living Water.
• Similar articles on this topic:
  – In resurrection Christ as the last Adam becoming the life-giving Spirit and entering into His believers as the Holy Spirit, a portion from, The Economy and Dispensing of God, Chapter 5, by Witness Lee.
  – Christ, the life-giving Spirit, article via, Affirmation and Critique.
  – Very few Christians have seen that Christ in resurrection is a life-giving Spirit, via, Life-Study of 1 Corinthians, Chapter 68.
  – The Last Adam Became a Life-Giving Spirit for Life to bring forth New Jerusalem, via, New Jerusalem blog.
  – What is the Life-giving Spirit? More via, Hearing of Faith.
  – The Last Adam, Christ, Became a Life-giving Spirit, via, Holding to Truth in Love.
  – Christ as the last Adam becoming the life-giving Spirit, a portion from, Enjoying the Riches of Christ for the Building Up of the Church as the Body of Christ, Chapter 7, by Witness Lee.
  – Glossa – (the) life-giving Spirit, article via, Affirmation and Critique.
  – How the Lord becomes the life-giving Spirit, a portion from, Life-Study of Luke, Chapter 62.
  – Christ in His person (10) – in Resurrection, the life-giving Spirit, via, Church in Regina.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – The Spirit of life is within us today, / Who’s likened to water our thirst to allay; / Of Him we may drink and be filled thus with Him, / Until as a river He flows from within. (Hymns #278 stanza 1)
  – Water of life is the Spirit, / God as the life in it flows; / Carrying with it His Lordship, / Through every place where it goes. / River of living water, / Fellowship freely bestows; / Bringing authority with it, / Through every place where it flows. (Hymns #984 stanza 2 and chorus)
  – Christ has put on human nature / and become a man like me, / He has died upon the cross that I from Adam / might be free, / He has risen and as Spirit He has come / to live in me / That He might be my life. (Hymns #1017 stanza 1)