“…wherever the rivers shall come, shall live: and there shall be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters shall come there: for they shall be healed; and every thing shall live wherever the river cometh.” Ezekiel 47:9
As there is a monumental difference between bread that we consume to strengthen our bodies, and spiritual bread from heaven, which saves and sanctifies the soul, so there is a tremendous difference between the “streams on earth” that we partake of to quench our physical thirst, and the “living water” that comes from from Christ by the Spirit. The difference between that which is earthly and heavenly is seen in the effects that each bring. One will be seen primarily in the physical world but will have an end. There is little eternal value in the physical, as contrasted to the heavenly which contributes greatly to the spiritual blessing of the soul. The bread and water which comes from God by the Spirit is that very life of Christ communicated to the soul, whereby the eternal Life not only reveals itself in a manner that increasingly resembles the Lord Jesus Christ, but the fruits and manifestation of that Life in the believer is remembered, stored, if you will, written down, so that for time and eternity, it will be the subject of worshipping God the Father, the Son, by the Spirit. That living bread and water are one and the same, for they both represent the Life of Christ, communicated to the believer by the Spirit of God.
When an individual comes to Christ by the Spirit working the heart, using the eternal truth of Scripture to bring the unbeliever to saving faith in Christ alone, Christ comes to indwell the believer’s heart and life. He comes, as the Scriptures declare, to make His abode (dwelling place) there. The same Spirit that moved upon the face of the waters at creation, to bring order out of chaos, is that One who brings the individual to the place of being IN Christ, and thus, IN the Spirit. He is one with Christ by the Spirit, and will not die. His body will die, unless he is taken at the moment of Christ’s return at the rapture of the church, or at the second coming when Christ comes as the righteous Judge of all the earth. However, spiritually speaking, because of his oneness with Christ, by the working of the Spirit of God, he cannot die, for he cannot be disassociated from Christ. He is a new creation IN Christ, and this work cannot be undone. What is the purpose of knowing these glorious truths, and how do they have an increasing bearing upon the life of the believer?
In the book of Ezekiel, we have a picture of the temple of God, with a river pouring forth its life-giving waters in an ever-increasing measure, from being very shallow to being so deep as to swim in it. The “river,” in its power and life-giving properties reveals to mankind the extent of the blessing of God to the received from Christ by the Spirit. To the Samaritan woman at the well in John’s gospel, Jesus told her, concerning the water of everlasting life, that it would be in her to be as a “…well of water springing up into everlasting life.” Later, when Jesus stood up in Jerusalem and cried out, “He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of “living water,” the Lord would not only be speaking of the presence of living water in the soul, and heart, but a measure of it that was powerful. It would be a spring, a well, a source of life. But it would also be the power of the life, bubbling up, gushing forth, poured out, and extending further and further in its ever-deepening effects on that which is life-less and helpless, to give abundant Life. This Life is eternal, for it is the Life of Christ, to be known and lived by the Spirit.
Dear Father, Give us Thy abundant Life. In Jesus’ name, Amen.