Today we can drink from the well of redeemed and covenanted water!
It is very important to see that there are only two wells – only two sources of living, the well for Isaac and the well for Ishmael.
If we drink of the well for Isaac, the processed and consummated Triune God as the life-giving Spirit, we will live a life for God’s purpose and will accomplish His heart’s desire (as Isaac did). But if we drink from the well for Ishmael, we will live a life for ourselves, in our natural man, and we will become joined to the world (as Ishmael did).
The well in Beer-Sheba where Isaac had fellowship with God was actually dug by his father Abraham and was forcefully taken by Abimelech’s men, later being redeemed by Abraham with seven ewe lambs (see Gen. 21:28-32). This means that the well for Isaac is a redeemed well.
The well of God, the well of Christ, and the well of the Spirit is a redeemed well – Christ has paid the highest price to redeem this well, and now from His side flows both blood for redemption and water for quenching our thirst (John 19:34).
We shouldn’t drink from the unredeemed and wild well in the wilderness but from the redeemed well, the water purchased at a great cost, the water that is no longer natural but flows out the divine life into us for the accomplishing of God’s purpose.
Also, this well is covenanted – Abraham made a covenant with Abimelech that this well is his. Christ made a new covenant with us and enacted it through His redeeming blood (see Matt. 26:28); now we have the right and privilege to drink of the living water, the covenanted water! Hallelujah!
We drink redeemed and covenanted water flowing from God Himself, who is the source! Our meeting on the Lord’s Day to remember the Lord at His table is a testimony that we have been redeemed and we entered into a covenant with God to drink of Him as the well of living water!
What Well do You Drink From?
Our daily life is a life of drinking: we drink not only physically but also psychologically and spiritually. As we do this and that, go here and there, and take care of the things in our daily life, we drink. Our inner being is thirsty, and we continually drink.
The world has a lot to offer, and there’s a “flavor of water” for each one’s taste in the world. But in God’s eyes there are only two wells, two sources of living: the well of Ishmael and the well of Isaac.
As believers in Christ we have Christ growing in us little-by-little and day-by-day, and we need to discern what well we drink of.
If we drink of the well of the living water from God Himself we will be filled with the divine life and this life will flow in and out of our being for the accomplishing of God’s purpose. But if we drink of the well of the world, the natural well of Ishmael, we will slowly drift into the world, we will kill things of life for our pleasure, and we will be rejected by God.
Every day we have a choice: which well do we drink from? God has been processed and consummated to become the living water available and ready for us to drink and be satisfied.
Throughout the Bible there are many verses that show us God’s desire for us to drink of Him as the well of living water, and here are some of them:
- Psa. 36:8, They are saturated with the fatness of Your house, And You cause them to drink of the river of Your pleasures. He Himself causes us to drink of Him as the river of water of life for our satisfaction and pleasure.
- Jer. 2:13, For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, The fountain of living waters, To hew out for themselves cisterns, Broken cisterns, Which hold no water. In God’s eyes nothing is more evil than NOT to drink of Him as the fountain of living waters.
- John 4:14, But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall by no means thirst forever; but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water gushing up into eternal life. We drink of the Lord, and the living water becomes in us a well springing up with living water unto eternal life.
- John 7:37-38, Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes into Me, as the Scripture said, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water. We need to drink of Him: He’s inviting anyone who is thirsty to come and drink!
- 1 Cor. 12:13, For also in one Spirit we were all baptized into one Body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and were all given to drink one Spirit. All believers in Christ were both baptized in the Spirit and were given to drink of the same Spirit, the same one well of living water.
- Rev. 22:17, And the Spirit and the bride say, Come! And let him who hears say, Come! And let him who is thirsty come; let him who wills take the water of life freely. Even in the last chapter of the last book in the Bible speaks of God inviting us to drink: if you’re thirsty, come and drink!
On His side, God made everything possible for Him to be available as living water; on our side, we need to keep drinking of Him as the well of living water and our thirst will be quenched and His purpose will be accomplished!
Drinking from the Well of Redeemed and Covenanted Water
There are two sources of living: one is the natural source in the wilderness of our soul, whereas the other is the redeemed source in the garden of our spirit. At Beer-Sheba, Abraham was contending for the well which had been so violently taken away. Today we also need to fight for the divine well that we may have it for both the Christian life and the proper church life. (Life-study of Genesis, msg. 46, by Witness Lee)
There are two particular characteristics of the well of Isaac: it was redeemed and it was covenanted (see Gen. 21:28-32). Abraham dug this well, but it was violently taken away by Abimelech’s servants. Then Abraham had to fight for it and redeem it at the cost of seven ewe lambs, and he made a covenant with Abimelech that this well is his.
The well of Ishmael wasn’t fought over or covenanted; rather, it flowed freely in the wilderness with nothing special about it.
The fact that the well of Isaac was redeemed means that the living water we drink of today has been redeemed by Christ through His death on the cross. The living water we so freely can drink today has been redeemed, bought back, by Christ’s full redemption.
In Christ we have redemption: through His blood, the forgiveness of offenses (Eph. 1:7). We have been redeemed with the precious blood of the Lamb, the blood of Christ (1 Pet. 1:18-19), from whose side flowed blood and water when He was on the cross (John 19:34).
This living water is not natural – it has been redeemed at a great cost. The people in the world today drink from a source that is without redemption, but we live by a redeemed source. Christ’s blood paid the price, and now we can drink of Him!
This well was also covenanted, and Abraham’s covenant was a type of the new covenant enacted through Christ’s redeeming blood (see Matt. 26:28; Luke 22:20; Heb. 8:8-13). The water we drink of is not “wild water” but water that has been redeemed and covenanted.
The water we drink today from the spiritual “well of Isaac”, the processed and consummated Triune God, is redeemed and covenanted water (see John 4:14; Heb. 8:10-13). This is a special kind of water that only the redeemed sinners know and only the believers in Christ can appreciate.
When we come to the Lord’s Table Meeting we declare openly that Christ has redeemed us, He made a covenant with us, and the water we drink of Him is a redeemed and covenanted water.
In the new covenant enacted through His blood Christ is constantly imparting His laws into our mind, He is our God and we are His people, we know Him from the smallest to the greatest, He is propitious to us, and our sins He remembers no more.
We need to fight to drink from this well and allow nothing and no one to replace this source of living water. Don’t drink from the natural source of water in the wilderness of your soul: enter into the garden of your spirit (mingled with the divine Spirit) and drink deeply from the water of life, the redeemed and covenanted water!
Lord, we come to You through Your precious blood so that we may drink of You as the fountain of living waters. Thank You for dying for us on the cross and paying the highest price to redeem us back to God. Now through Your blood we have access to the redeemed and covenanted water, the living water! Thank You for the covenant You made with us. We want this living water. We open our whole being to You to be cleansed and washed by Your precious blood so that we may drink deeply of the living water from the well of God!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Minoru Chan’s sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Genesis (msg. 46), as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Genesis (2), week 10 / msg 10, Two Wells — Two Sources of Living.
- Hymns on this topic:
# I have come to the Fountain of Blood / That for guilt and uncleanness doth flow; / I have washed in its sin-cleansing flood / And my garments are whiter than snow. / I count not my righteousness mine— / ’Tis Jesus that lives in my soul. / I partake of His nature divine, / And in Him I am perfectly whole. (Hymns #523)
# From my spirit within flows a fountain of life— / The Triune God flowing in me; / God the Father’s the source, Christ the Son is the course, / And the Spirit imparts life to me. (Hymns #1191)
# Once I thirsted for a fountain, / Something deep that would satisfy, / But the fountain that I’d drink from, / Left me searching and still so dry. / Then one day I found Him, / He satisfied my thirst, / Became in me a deeper source / Whence living waters burst. / Now I drink Him! (Hymns #1327)
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