Being Dispositionally Sanctified by the Washing of the Water in the Word of God

We are being washed by the water in the word of God so that Christ as the life-giving Spirit would dispositionally sanctify us and make us His glorious, spotless, blameless bride. Amen!

The holding line in the carrying out of God’s eternal economy in relation to man is the divine sanctification. God is holy; He is uncommon, separated and different from everyone else, and His very nature is holiness.

He wants to gain a holy people and He will obtain the holy city, New Jerusalem.

We as believers in Christ are in the process of being sanctified.

We are sanctified not only when we read the Bible, but the entire process of our Christian life is a process of being sanctified.

Even before we were saved, we were sanctified, for the Spirit was searching us out, lighting the lamp of the word in our being, and sweeping in our innermost being to find us out.

As seen in John 15, we were like a lost sheep, a lost coin, and the prodigal son.

We were lost, but Christ as the Shepherd paid the highest price to come find us and bring us back to Himself.

We were lost, so the Spirit swept into our innermost being to enlighten us and cause us to come to our senses and return to our Father.

The Father is always lovingly waiting and watching for us to come back to Him.

Even before we were saved, the Triune God worked in perfect harmony to sanctify us positionally to bring us back to God.

Then, the Son redeemed us, and by our believing into Christ and baptism, we were transferred from Adam into Christ; this is the redeeming sanctification.

When we believed into the Lord Jesus, amen, how wonderful, we received the life of God, the holy and divine life of God, and this life sanctified us to make us a new creation.

Now we believers in Christ are a new creation in Christ!

And we are in the process of being sanctified day by day.

As we come to the word of God, we are sanctified by Christ as the life-giving Spirit who imparts His holy and life-giving element into our being.

In this way, our soul is renewed from our mind through all the parts of our soul to make our soul a part of God’s new creation. Praise the Lord!

As we behold the Lord in prayer and fellowship, He infuses Himself into us and reconstitutes us in a metabolic way with the element of Christ so that we may be a new constitution. Wow!

We are becoming something new, a new constitution in Christ, the Body of Christ, to express Him corporately.

As we enjoy the Lord and are being renewed and transformed, we are also being conformed to the image of Christ, for we’re being sanctified to be conformed to the glorious image of Christ so that we may express Him in a solid way. Wow!

Finally, as the Lord is sanctifying us, we will be glorified; even our mortal body will be transfigured to be conformed to the body of Christ’s glory so that we may express Him in full and in glory! Hallelujah!

All this is done by Christ as the life-giving Spirit is sanctifying us little by little.

The Dispositional Sanctification is carried out by Christ as the Life-giving, Sanctifying, and Speaking Spirit

As believers in Christ, we are in the constant and continual process of being sanctified. Eph. 5:26 says that Christ sanctifies the church – that is, us, the believers in Christ – by the washing of the water in the Word.

On one hand, we have been sanctified, for we are believers in Christ, saints in the Lord and in the church life; God sanctified us and brought us into Himself and into the church life.

On the other hand, we are in further need of sanctification, for our very nature and disposition needs to be sanctified.

As we go on with the Lord in our daily life with Him, we may commit sins, make mistakes, and have trespasses; for this, we have the cleansing of the blood of Christ (1 John 1:7, 9).

When we confess our sins, the Lord washes us with His blood, and our sins are forgiven.

But we need something more than this; we need more than washing of the sins and trespasses.

What we need is the washing away of the impurities, spots, wrinkles, and anything of the old man and the natural life.

The divine, dispositional sanctification is carried out by Christ as the life-giving, sanctifying, and speaking Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45; 1 Thes. 5:23; Eph. 5:26).

Today Christ is the life-giving Spirit, the speaking Spirit. He speaks to us and sanctifies us by His speaking.

Today Christ as the life-giving Spirit sanctifies the church by cleansing her by the washing of the water in the Word. Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her; this is His judicial redemption (Eph. 5:25).

He now is sanctifying the church by the washing of the water in the word, cleansing her and removing anything of the natural life by Him as the speaking Spirit who sanctifies the church (v. 26). This is His organic salvation.

Then, in the future, Christ will present the church to Himself glorious, without having any spot or wrinkle or any such thing.

Christ as the life-giving Spirit sanctifies the church by cleansing her according to the washing of the water in the word. Amen!

According to God’s concept in the Word of God, water here refers to the flowing life of God typified by the flowing water (Exo. 17:6; 1 Cor. 10:4; John 7:37-39; Rev. 7:17; 21:6; 22:1, 17).

The redeeming blood of Christ washes away our sins (1 John 1:7; Rev. 7:14), and the water of life washes away the blemishes of the natural life of our old man.

We have spots, wrinkles, and many such things, signs of oldness, signs of our living in the old man and according to the natural man.

These need to be washed by the water in the word. We need to come to the Lord and enjoy Him as the life-giving, sanctifying, speaking Spirit in the Word of God so that we may be sanctified.

Today we are in this process of being washed to be sanctified.

We are in the washing process by the water in the word so that the church may be holy and without blemish before Him in love.

We need to be washed and cleansed not only of our sins and trespasses; we also have the flesh, the self, the old man, and the natural life.

All these things in us need to be washed and cleansed, so that we may be purified and sanctified to be the holy, spotless, pure, beautiful bride of Christ.

For this, we need to come to the Lord in the Word so that we may experience the washing of the water in the Word of God. Hallelujah!

May we daily experience the dispositional sanctification carried out by Christ as the life-giving, sanctifying, and speaking Spirit.

Lord Jesus, thank You for shedding Your blood for our redemption and for the forgiveness of our sins. We come to you to repent and confess our sins; wash us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness, sin, and trespass. Amen, Lord, we believe in Your blood who can cleanse us from all our sins. Even more, Lord, wash us and cleanse us from anything that comes from our old man, our natural man, our flesh, and our natural life and the self. We come to You in Your word; wash us by the water in the word. We want to experience the divine sanctification carried out by Christ as the life-giving Spirit! Amen, Lord, we want to enjoy and experience the dispositional sanctification carried out by Christ as the sanctifying and speaking Spirit! Speak to us today in Your word. Wash us by the water in Your word and remove all blemishes, spots and wrinkles. Purify us, cleanse us, and wash us until we become Your beautiful bride to be presented to You for our marriage life together!

Come to the Bible to be Cleansed and Sanctified by the Water in the Word of God

The Bible is a book like no other; it does not only contain God’s plan for man’s redemption and the history of God with man and in man, but it is filled with the water of life.

When we read the Bible and come to the Lord in His word, something happens within us: we are washed by the water in the word of God.

The word for “washing” in Eph. 5:26 means “laver” which refers to the laver between the tabernacle and the altar in the Old Testament (Exo. 38:8; 40:7).

In the Old Testament, the priests had to wash themselves from any earthly defilement in the laver (Exo. 30:18-21) before they entered into the tabernacle.

Today we as the New Testament priests, the children of God, need to also be washed by the water in the word before we can come to fellowship with God.

Without us even realizing it, simply by living in this world and doing the things we need to do, we are being defiled, contaminated, and dirtied.

We may think that we only go to work, take care of household chores, or study at school or university; but simply by being in the world, we are made dirty.

We may contact the Lord in the morning, but by lunchtime, He may seem to be so far away, for there’s a layer of dirt between us and Him.

We may not have sinned or made mistakes, but our mere contact with the world causes us to be contaminated.

Day by day, morning and evening, we need to come to the Bible to be cleansed by the laver of the water in the word.

For our sins, we have the blood of Christ, and when the Lord enlightens our conscience concerning any sin, we simply need to confess.

For our defilement by the world, we have the washing of the water in the Word.

We have the real laver; the priests only had a type, a material laver made of brass, but we have the real laver, the laver in the word of God.

We have been saved, redeemed, and justified, for we believed into the Lord Jesus and His perfect sacrifice on the cross.

Now we daily come to the Lord in His word to be cleansed and sanctified by the water in the word of God.

We need to be washed not only before going to the meeting or before coming together with some saints; we need to come to the Bible and be cleansed and sanctified by the water in the Word of God again and again.

If we realize that, without our knowledge, we are being dirtied and contaminated by the filthy and defiling world we live in, we will set some time aside every day to be in the word of God.

Early in the morning, before we start the day and take care of so many things, we need to set some time aside to be with the Lord in His word.

We need to come to the Bible to be washed and sanctified by the water in the Word of God.

Then, at least at the end of the day, before going to bed, we need to take some more time to be in the word of God so that we may be washed by the laver in God’s word.

We may think that, after reading the Bible and praying over God’s word, we may not remember much from the word, but what happens is that we are washed, cleansed, and sanctified.

The Chinese people in the old days used to wash the rice by putting it in a basket of willow basket and dipping it again and again in water.

The water came into the basket and left the basket, and no water remained, but the impurities were gone.

Though we may feel that not much remains in us after reading the Bible and enjoying the Lord in His word, we need to keep coming to the Bible to be washed by the water in the word of God so that we may be sanctified.

Little by little, day by day, the word of God is washing us, cleansing us, and sanctifying us; as time goes by, there will be a solid deposit of the riches of Christ in our being.

In this way we are dispositionally sanctified, that is, even our own constitution, nature, and disposition are saturated with the holy element of God in His word.

Lord Jesus, we need Your cleansing, washing, and sanctifying by the water in the Word of God. Keep us coming to the Bible day by day, morning and evening, so that we may be washed and cleansed. Amen, Lord, wash us by the water in the word of God. May the living water in the word wash us and sanctify us. We come to You with all the filthiness, dirtiness, and contamination of the world; we just come to Your word to be washed and cleansed. Sanctify us in our very disposition, Lord, by the washing of the living water in the word of God. Remove any impurities, defilements, contaminations, and spots. Oh Lord, keep us coming to Your word again and again to be washed and sanctified. How much we need to be cleansed from the defilement we have accumulated in our contact with the world! Keep us under the washing of the water in Your word until we’re fully sanctified in our disposition and made beautiful and holy to be Your bride!

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 Ed Marks in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Ephesians, pp. 457-459, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, An Overview of the Central Burden and Present Truth of the Lord’s Recovery Before His Appearing (2023 July Semiannual Training), week 1, entitled, The Ultimate Goal of God’s Economy – God Became Man that Man Might Become God in Life and in Nature but not in the Godhead for the Building up of the Body of Christ to Consummate the New Jerusalem.
• Similar articles on this topic:
  – The washing of the water in the Word, a portion from, The Revelation of the Mystery, Chapter 9, by Witness Lee.
  – From glory to glory, article by Ed Marks via, Affirmation and Critique.
  – What is a Holy Life? Read more via, Hearing of Faith.
  – How Your Spirit, Soul, and Body Can Be Wholly Sanctified by God, article via, Holding to Truth in Love.
  – Three Stages of Sanctification to the Holy City, New Jerusalem (3), via, New Jerusalem blog.
  – The Vital Groups in Perspective, article via, Living to Him.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Oh, purify us, Lord, by speaking in our heart; / Thy living, spoken word this washing will impart. / Increase Thy speaking, Lord, and cleanse our every part. / Oh, purify us, Lord, we pray. / Oh, purify us, Lord, today; / Wash all our natural life away. / Speak now Thy words in us, / And make us glorious. / O Lord, do speak in us today. (Hymns #1135 stanza 2 and chorus)
  – Thou art the food and the water of life, / Thou canst revive me, my spirit upbear; / I long to eat and to drink here of Thee, / Thyself enjoy through my reading and prayer. / Thou art the Word with God’s fulness in Thee, / Thou too the Spirit that God my life be; / Thee in the Word I enjoy as my food, / Thou as the Spirit art water to me. (Hymns #811 stanzas 2-3)
  – Who will now be washed by water in the Word? / “Behold, the Bridegroom cometh!” / Spots and wrinkles cleanse before the shout is heard, / “Behold, the Bridegroom cometh!” (Hymns #1309 stanza 3)