God’s ways are truly higher than our ways, and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. Our thought is that we need to do something for God, and our way is to do it from ourselves and by ourselves.
God’s thought is to dispense Himself into us and be expressed through us, and His way is by becoming the living waters for us to drink and enjoy! How about that!?!
All throughout the Bible we see many instances of the River of Water of Life – starting in Genesis, where there’s the river flowing, and there’s a tree there, then later there’s the cattle… and the river becomes four rivers… – this shows that God’s intention has to do somehow with the river of water(of life).
In Isaiah 55 we also see that there’s a call to come and drink, and come and eat! You can come and eat and drink without price and without money!
In Ezek 37 there’s a river flowing from the right side of the altar, and where the river flows, everything lives! There are many trees on the side of the river, there’s abundance of fish to eat, and there’s livestock where the river flows!
In the New Testament, the Lord Jesus stood up and cried out in John 7:37, Whoever is thirsty, come to Me and drink!
At the end of the Bible, in Revelation, the Spirit and the Bride in oneness invite the thirsty ones to just come and drink! And the river of water of life in Rev. 22 flows from the throne and on its banks there is the tree of life nourishing everyone!
I especially enjoyed the portion in Isaiah 55:1-3, where it says,
1. Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters, And you who have no money; Come, buy and eat; Yes, come, buy wine and milk Without money and without price.
2. Why do you spend money for what is not bread, And the result of your labor for what does not satisfy? Hear Me attentively, and eat what is good, And let your soul delight itself in fatness.
3. Incline your ear and come to Me; Hear, so that your soul may live; And I will make an eternal covenant with you, Even the sure mercies shown to David.
Somehow, the ones who are thirsty can come to the waters and buy and EAT! They are thirsty, yet they eat! How comes? Well, as presented above, everywhere in the Bible where there’s a river flowing, there’s also food! The river flows and the food comes out of the river flowing!
The food is in the water, and the water leads us to the food! Also, the wine is simply “plant in water”(the grapes are plants and they are mixed with water), and milk is “animal life to be drunk”(the cows produce the milk)… – wine and milk are “food in liquid form”.
Water is in everything and water is part of everything: part of our human body (2/3 of our human body), part of the food, part of the drinks, and part of all the vegetables and fruits! Water is vitally necessary for the growth and maintenance of life – so we need to drink both physically and spiritually!
This is why the Lord likens Himself to the living waters and to the source of waters! And He calls us to Himself to come and drink!
One more intriguing thing in these verses is – “you who have no money, come buy and eat” + “buy wine and milk without money and without price” – how can you come and buy food and drink without money? Yes, all the best things in life are free, and even God’s salvation is free, His salvation is through grace, and we can never repay God for what He is and He does to us.
But what is the “PRICE” we need to pay to get the water? We can’t pay money to God, and even if we could, money is no value when it comes to God… Here we see that the price we need to pay in order to gain the living waters is OURSELVES – we need to offer ourselves to Him!
We just need to COME TO THE LORD and drink! How do we drink? We just come to the Lord! Don’t stay where you are, in your situation and condition – come to the Lord! Give yourself to Him! The more you consecrate yourself to the Lord, the more you drink of Him!
Yes, everything is free – the living water flows freely today out of the smitten Christ; but we need to come to Him to drink! He calls us to come further to Him! We come to Him as the Lamb of God, we come to Him as the living water, and every day we come to Him again and again!
Lord, I give myself to You to drink of You! – this is the best way to come to Him! Give yourself to the Lord again and again!
In John 4 with the Samaritan woman at the well, the Lord had the living water – she just needed to ask Him for it! And in Revelation in the letter to Laodicea, the Lord is standing outside the door – He’s so close, He just needs us to open to Him, and He will come in! It’s not “much”, but we need to open to Him, come to Him!
Open the door of your heart to the Lord! Pay the price to incline your ear to hear His call, opening the door, welcoming the Son of Man in our being! Invite the Lord in! Let Him In! When we open, we deny ourselves; when we turn, we die to ourselves! The more we come to the Lord, the more we drink, and the more He can work Himself into us and accomplish His purpose in us!
[enjoyment from message 10 of the Crystallization study of Isaiah (2), entitled, The Call to the Thirsty Ones to Come to the Waters]
Lord, we just want to come to You! Strengthen our responding to Your call! Lord, we let You in! Come in, dear Lord Jesus! Come and dine with us! Lord, we just give ourselves to You! We are thirsty, Lord – give us to drink! Give Yourself to us as the all-inclusive drink for our satisfaction! Lord, we come to the waters of life! You are the living water, Lord, becoming the many rivers of waters to meet all our needs! We just come to You, Lord!
