God’s purpose is to have a corporate man to express Him with His image and represent Him with His dominion, and the way He is accomplishes His purpose is by His life.
First, God in Christ is the tree of life for man to take in God, enjoy God, partake of God, and be filled with God. Second, God in Christ as the Spirit is the river of water of life, seen both in Gen. 1-2 and in Rev. 21-22, reaching out to man wherever he is and quenching man’s thirst.
The second organic aspect of how God is accomplishing His purpose is the river of water of life. In the beginning of the Bible, we see the tree of life and the river of water flowing out of Eden and watering the whole earth, and in the end, in Rev. 21-22, the tree of life and the river of life in the New Jerusalem growing and flowing in the middle of the golden street.
Throughout the Scriptures, we see that God wants man to take Him as the fountain of living waters and drink of Him (Jer. 2:13) by coming to Him and drinking (John 7:37) of God as the Spirit (John 7:39).
God Himself has become the river of pleasures for us to drink, be saturated with, be watered by, rejoice because of, have our thirst quenched, grow in, and be filled with. We need to drink the Spirit as living water by staying in the fellowship of the divine life and by walking according to the divine nature.
God Flows out to Reach Man and Dispense Himself into Man
In Gen. 2:10 we see a river which flows out of the garden of Eden (out of God Himself) to reach out to the whole earth and water it. God Himself is a river of water of life flowing out to reach man, quench man’s thirst, and fill man with life.
In Rev. 22:1 we see the same picture in the New Jerusalem: from the throne of God and of the Lamb flows a river of water of life, bright as crystal, reaching man everywhere. The Lamb-God, the Redeeming God, flows out as the Spirit to reach man as water of life and dispense Himself into man.
As we drink of God as the water of life, we are brought more under God’s headship, the authority of His throne; the more we give God the preeminence in us and enthrone Him in the center of our being, the more we drink of Him as the living water.
The Triune God – God, the Lamb, and the Spirit – dispenses Himself into us as living water to carry out His purpose.
The Divine Life Flows in the Divine Nature and Brings us in the Divine Fellowship
In the New Jerusalem, the river of water of life flows in the middle of the golden street – this shows that the water of life flows in the divine nature (signified by gold, the nature of God). When we walk according to the divine nature in us, the golden divine nature, we enjoy the sweet flow of the divine life. The more we drink of the river of water of life and allow the divine life to flow in us, the more we are walking according to the divine nature.
We as God’s people need to walk not according to our old human nature with its old ways of living but according to the divine nature in our spirit, so that we may have the inward flow of life and rivers of water of life may flow out of us! This flow of life is the fellowship of the divine life – the joint participation, the communion, the common participation of the divine life.
The divine life that all the believers have received through regeneration is flowing within them, flowing them all the way into the New Jerusalem. All the genuine believers are in this fellowship (see Acts 2:42), which the Bible calls the fellowship of the Holy Spirit (2 Cor. 13:14) and the fellowship of spirit (Phil. 2:1).
The apostles first entered into such a fellowship with the Father and with the Son (1 John 1:3; Acts 2:42), and now we all believers in Christ can enjoy the sweet inward fellowship with the Father and the Son.
Isn’t this wonderful? By drinking of the Spirit as the river of water of life we are brought under God’s headship, we enthrone Him, we walk according to the divine nature, and we are brought into the divine fellowship!
Simple Ways to Drink God as the River of Water of Life
From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible mentions the river of water of life again and again. Almost in every book of the Bible we see that God’s desire is to be fountain of living waters, the stream of life, the spring of water, the source of life to His people.
Many times we fail and sin without knowing it because we don’t drink of God as the living water. Forsaking Him as the fountain of living waters is the source of all evils. Here are some simple and practical ways to drink of God as the living water:
- Speak to Christ! In Exo. 17:6 we see that Christ the rock has been smitten on the cross for our sins, and out of Him flows the water of life (John 19:34). Now, as God told Moses in Num. 20:7-8, we need to Speak to the Rock! Speak to Christ. Ask Him, Lord, give me to drink the living water! Quench my thirst! I need some water!
- Call on the Name of the Lord! God already baptized us in the Spirit and He has given us the Spirit to drink, and so now we just need to call on the name of the Lord (see 1 Cor. 12:3, 13). The Spirit is ready, flowing out, waiting only for our calling. Whenever we call on the name of the Lord, we drink of Him as the waters of salvation, the living waters! What shall I give unto the Lord for all He’s done for me? I will take the cup of salvation and drink of it by calling on the name of the Lord!
- Give the Flow of Life the Preeminence. The flow of the river comes out of the right side of the house, from the east (Ezek. 47:1-9). We need to care for God’s glory, His corporate expression, and we need to always give the flow of life the preeminence in us. We shouldn’t measure our words and actions by the principle of being right (versus being wrong), but, Do I have the flow of life as I say this or do this?
- Take the Lord as your Absoluteness. In Ezek. 47:11 it says that everything shall live where the river flows, except the marshes. Where there’s compromise and lukewarmness, God cannot flow to bring in life. We need to take Christ as our absoluteness and be absolute for God, so that we may enjoy the river which brings in life and growth!
- Take God as the Source of Life. In Jer. 2:13 God is jealous over His people because they left Him as the source of life, the source of satisfaction, the source of water. We need to stop hewing and digging other wells and cisterns by taking other things as our satisfaction and return to God as the source of our satisfaction. God is the source of living waters!
- Delight in God by Enjoying Him. Psa. 36:8-9 tells us that God causes us to drink of the river of His pleasures, and He saturates us with the fatness of His house. With God is the fountain of life! By enjoying Him, contacting Him, speaking to Him, opening to Him, and making a motion toward Him, we drink of God and are satisfied with Him, finding our delight in God.
Lord, You are the source of life and the fountain of living waters. We want to forsake any other “broken cistern” we may have drank and we return to You. We take You as the fountain of living waters and we drink of You! Oh Lord Jesus! Looooordd Jeeeesuuuuus! Keep us drinking deeply and continually of You as the living waters. We treasure the flow of life. We love to drink of You. You are our satisfaction and delight!
References and Further Reading
- Inspiration: bro. Ed Marks’ sharing in the message and some footnotes in the Recovery Version Bible: Rev. 22:1, footnote 5 and 6, and 1 John 1:3, footnote 3, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on the Crystallization Study of Genesis (1), week/msg 1, The Central Thought of God.
- Blog posts on this topic online:
# Speak to Christ the Rock to Drink the Spirit as the Water of Life! (via Tom at holdingtotruth)
# “Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters” (via John-Paul at achristianoncampus)
# The River of Life in the Garden and the City (via Don at newjerusalem)
# Why God is Spirit – drink and flow (via Kyle at lifeandbuilding)
# A True Worship (2) – drinking God! (via Katherine at simplykatherine) - Hymns on this topic:
# I have come to the Fountain of Life, / A fountain that flows from above; / I have passed from the waters of strife / And come to the Elim of love; / I have drunk of the heavenly well, / In the depths of my being it springs. / No mortal can measure or tell / The gladness the Comforter brings.
# What shall I give unto the Lord / For all, for all, for all He’s done for me? / I’ll take the cup of salvation, / And call, and call, and call upon the name / of the Lord.
# O my God, within Thee there is eternal life / And this life is expressed in the Son / He has risen, today, as the Spirit of life / Which in us quickens us, gives us life.
# Once I call His name there’s a flow within; / It turns me from my day, makes Him Lord again. / As my spirit burns, Satan cannot win. / Calling, “Oh Lord Jesus,” keeps the flow within.
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