Drinking the Spirit by being Identified with the Crucified Christ and Speaking to Him

Christ as the spiritual rock that follows us all the days of our Christian life has been smitten, and we simply need to drink the Spirit, for drinking the Spirit solves most of our problems, makes us the Body of Christ, and prepares us to be the bride of Christ.

It is so wonderful to see and realise that God became a man and he even became a rock, the rock of our salvation, the rock of our protection and hiding, and He was smitten on the cross by the authority of God’s law.

When He was crucified, Christ became the unique sinner in God’s eyes, and He was judged by God on the cross on our behalf.

On one hand He died for our redemption, and so from Him flowed out blood and water, and on the other hand He was smitten by God so that out of Him as the rock living water would flow. Hallelujah!

We need to not only believe into the Lord and be cleansed, washed, and purified from our sins, but we need to also drink the living water from the smitten rock.

This water is a living water in resurrection, for it is in resurrection that Christ flowed out as the Spirit for us to drink.

When He was on earth, at the end of the feast, the Lord Jesus stood up and cried out to all those who are thirsty to come to Him and drink, and when they drink, out of their innermost being will flow rivers or living water (John 7:37-37).

Hallelujah, we can come to Him as we are – for we are thirsty – and we can drink the living water flowing out from Him in resurrection.

As we drink this living water in resurrection – which living water is himself as the Spirit – we will be inwardly supplied, our thirst is quenched, and there’s a fountain springing up in our inner being to flow out into eternal life! Hallelujah!

Resurrection is not just a fact – it is a Person, the person of Christ, and resurrection is actually the water the we drink.

When we exercise our spirit and come to the Lord in His word, we drink resurrection – we drink the Spirit, who is the resurrection of Christ; as we drink this One, all our death is swallowed up, and we overcome death and any problem.

The source of the water of life that we drink is the throne of God and of the Lamb; the redeeming God flows out water of life in resurrection that we may drink and be brought into resurrection. Hallelujah!

Drinking the Spirit in Resurrection to Build up the Body and Prepare the Bride

In John 4:14 we see the flowing Triune God – the Father is the fountain, the Son is the spring, and the Spirit is the flowing river; what issues out is a flow of life, which consummates in the eternal life, of which the New Jerusalem is the totality.

When we are drinking the Spirit, there will also be a flow; the destination of this flow is the fullness of the divine life, the New Jerusalem.

If we drink of this flow and flow in this flow, we will all end up in the same place – the New Jerusalem.

In the Old Testament we see in Exo. 17:6 that the entire Triune God was involved in the water flowing out of the smitten rock for the people to drink: God the Father was standing upon the rock (I will stand on the rock), Christ the Son was the rock (1 Cor. 10:4), and the living water coming out from the rock signifies the Spirit.

The Father, the Son, and the Spirit flow out, and the living water we drink is the drinkable and outflowing Spirit as the ultimate issue of the Triune God (John 7:37-39).

Our drinking of the one Spirit in resurrection makes us the members of the Body, builds us up as the Body, and prepares us to be the bride of Christ (1 Cor. 12:13; Rev. 22:17).

This is not just a doctrine or a truth in God’s word; we need to drink the Spirit and be members of the Body, be built up as the Body, and be prepared as the bride.

Our physical body is 60% water; we can go 2-3 weeks and we will survive, but after 2-3 days without water we may die.

From our head to our toes, we need water; water keeps us alive and does so many things in our body, including the balancing of our body temperature, the digesting of the food, the elimination of waste, the lubrication of the joints, the proper functioning of the brain cells, etc.

Every part of our being needs water. Spiritually speaking, we have a lot of problems when we don’t drink the Spirit; when we don’t properly drink the living water, we have brain problems, joint problems, constipation, indigestion, and many other problems.

Most of the problems in the church life and in our family life are because we have not been drinking the living water. We need to drink!

We need to seek the infilling and the out-filling of the Spirit, the two aspects of the filling of the Spirit – both essentially and economically.

In the church life in general there may be a general situation of the lack of the infilling of the Spirit; there is some spirit, but there’s no fulness of the Spirit, for we lack the infilling of the Spirit of Jesus Christ to be filled to the brim with Him.

Because of this, there’s a “low grade depression”, a mere survival, a minimal Christian life, a get-by church life, and we do not have a church life that is full, erupting, exploding, gushing forth with life!

If we drink the Spirit, we will gush forth with the divine life, with resurrection, and with the Triune God, and this will swallow up any kind of death and problems, making us buoyant, transcendent, flowing, and powerful! Oh Lord Jesus!

It is time that we see this kind of church life in the Lord’s recovery. It’s not about having a Pentecostal miracle-working movement but having the fullness of the Spirit!

Hallelujah, we have been baptised into one Body in one Spirit, and we were given to drink – we are even made to drink – of the one Spirit perpetually!

It is by drinking the Spirit that we function as members of the Body, it is by drinking the Spirit that we are built up in the Body, and it is by this drinking that we are prepared as the bride of Christ. Drinking fulfills God’s purpose.

We are not in a dry land, and we should not have long, dry spells; the Lord may allow some long dry spells, but we should not remain there for a long time but rather, be drinking and flowing Christians, those speaking and singing! Amen, may there be a drinking and flowing in all the local churches!

Lord Jesus, save us from remaining thirsty in our Christian life; may we be those who are drinking the Spirit and flowing out the living water! Hallelujah, the Spirit has been given, we have been baptised in one Spirit into one Body, and by drinking the Spirit we are made members of the Body, we’re built up as the Body, and we are prepared to be the bride of Christ! Oh Lord, we come to You to seek the infilling and out-filling of the Spirit in our Christian life and church life! May we be filled with the Spirit so that we may live a church life that is full, erupting, exploding with life, gushing forth living water to swallow up any kind of death and problems and difficulties!

Receiving the Living Water from the Crucified Christ by applying His Death and Speaking to Him

In Num. 20:8, after God’s people complained again concerning water, the Lord told Moses to take the rod and speak to the rock, and abundant water will flow.

This is a wonderful picture of what we should do in our Christian life today; Christ has already been smitten, the Spirit is flowing, and we simply need to “take the rod” and “speak to the rock” so that we may receive the living water from the crucified Christ.

Since Christ has been crucified and the Spirit has been given, there’s no need for Christ to be crucified again – just as there was no need for Moses to strike the rock again so that water may flow.

In God’s economy, Christ should be crucified only once (Heb. 7:27; 9:26-28).

He has been crucified, He as the spiritual rock has been smitten, and the Spirit as the living water is flowing; Christ has already breathed Himself into His disciples on the night of His resurrection (John 20:22), and He has already been poured out as the Spirit upon the whole Body of Christ.

Now we need to be those drinking the Spirit flowing from the crucified Christ by applying His death to our situation and by speaking to Him! Our desperate need today is to drink and receive the Spirit, to be filled with the Spirit and overflow with the Spirit!

We don’t need to ask the Lord to die again or to flow out again, for He has already been given out as the Spirit; we simply need to speak and believe, then drink and receive!

To “take the rod” is to identify with Christ in His death and apply the death of Christ to ourselves and to our situation. When we identify with the smitten Christ, that is, when we are one with Him as the smitten Christ, the divine life as the living water flows out of us (see Exo. 17:6; John 7:38; cf. S. S. 2:8-9, 14; Phil. 3:10).

The well of living water has been installed into us; the living water has been freely given to us, and now we need a way to experience and drink this water. The first thing we need to do is identify ourselves with the smitten Christ and be one with the crucified Christ.

We need to be one with Him in His crucifixion, for on the cross we died in Him; we are dead unto the world, and the world is dead to us (see Hymns #474).

May we keep ourselves in this position of being crucified with Christ; when He died, we died, and we remain with Him on the cross experientially.

We need to reject ourselves, reject our natural life and soul life, and reject all the things that the cross has crossed out; then, we remain with the Lord, being conformed to His death.

Christ wants to see us, His lovers, in oneness with His cross; He wants us to remain on the cross, take up our cross daily, for the more we do this, the more we drink. For the Lord the cross was a dry place, but for us there’s water there – water flows!

To drink the living water we need to speak to the rock – we need to speak a direct word to Christ as the smitten rock, asking Him to give us the Spirit of life based on the fact that the Spirit has already been given.

We need to learn the lesson of faith; we shouldn’t try to “feel the rock” or “feel the living water” but rather speak to the Lord and declare, Hallelujah, the Spirit has been given! Lord, give us to drink!

We need to have a lot of conversations with Christ all the time, calling on His name and speaking to Him as the rock. If we apply the death of Christ to ourselves and ask Christ in faith to give us the Spirit, we will receive the living Spirit as the bountiful supply of life (see Phil. 1:19).

Lord Jesus, give us to drink! Amen, Lord, we are thirsty, so we exercise our spirit, we identify ourselves with the crucified Christ, and we ask You to give us the living Spirit to drink! Hallelujah, the Spirit has been given, and we can receive the Spirit by faith. Praise the Lord, we no longer have to remain thirsty – we can be drinking the Spirit! We can come to the Lord as we are and, based on the fact that the Spirit has already been given, ask Him to give us the Spirit of life! Lord, Amen, we come to drink! We come to receive the Spirit, and we believe You are flowing into us for us to be drinking the Spirit!

This article can also be read in the Romanian language / Citiți acest articol în limba română vizitând următorul link, Noi bem din Duhul fiind identificați cu Cristosul crucificat și vorbindu-I.

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. Minoru Chen for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Numbers, msgs. 29-30 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Numbers (2), week 4, Speaking to the Rock to Drink of the Spirit as the Water of Life and Digging the Well to Allow the Spirit as the Water of Life to Flow Freely within Us.
• More on this topic: see the article, Speak to Christ the Rock to Drink the Spirit as the Water of Life! via holdingtotruth.com
• Hymns on this topic:
  # I heard the voice of Jesus say, / “Behold, I freely give / The living water: thirsty one, / Stoop down, and drink, and live.” / I came to Jesus, and I drank / Of that life-giving stream; / My thirst was quenched, my soul revived, / And now I live in Him. (Hymns #323)
  # “Come and drink the living water,” / Say the Spirit and the Bride— / Church and Spirit speak together, / Utterly identified. / Just according to the Spirit / Must be our reality; / Just the Spirit in the churches / Is the Lord’s recovery. (Hymns #1123)
  # One with Thee in crucifixion, / On the cross I died in Thee; / I am dead unto the world, Lord, / And the world is dead to me. (Hymns #474)