LABORING ON THE ALL-INCLUSIVE CHRIST TYPIFIED BY THE GOOD LAND FOR THE BUILDING UP OF THE CHURCH AS THE BODY OF CHRIST, FOR THE REALITY AND THE MANIFESTATION OF THE KINGDOM, AND FOR THE BRIDE TO MAKE HERSELF READY FOR THE LORD'S COMING
Message Four
The All-inclusive Christ as the Good Land—a Land of Waterbrooks, of Springs and of Fountains, Flowing Forth in Valleys and in Mountains
Scripture Reading: Deut. 8:7; 11:11-12; Jer. 2:13; 17:7-8; Isa. 12:3-6; John 4:14b
I. Galatians 3:14 says, "In order that the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith":
A. The physical aspect of the blessing that God promised to Abraham was the good land (Gen. 12:7; 13:15; 17:8; 26:3-4), which is a type of the all-inclusive Christ (Col. 1:12); since Christ is eventually realized as the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45; 2 Cor. 3:17), the blessing of the promised Spirit corresponds with the blessing of the land promised to Abraham.
B. Actually, the Spirit as the realization of Christ in our experience is the good land as the source of God's bountiful supply for us to enjoy; this is "the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ" as the supply of the Body of Christ—Phil. 1:19.
II. The all-inclusive Christ as the all-inclusive Spirit is "a land of waterbrooks, of springs and of fountains, flowing forth in valleys and in mountains"—Deut. 8:7; 11:11-12:
A. The waterbrooks, springs, and fountains signify Christ as the flowing Spirit (John 4:10, 14; 7:37-39; Rev. 22:1), and the valleys and the mountains signify the different kinds of environments in which we may experience Christ as the flowing Spirit.
B. Throughout the Bible there is a line concerning the Triune God as water—Gen. 2:10-14; Exo. 17:5-6; Psa. 36:8-9; 46:4; John 4:10, 14; 7:37-39; 1 Cor. 10:4; Rev. 7:17; 22:1:
1. The river in Genesis 2:10 signifies the river of water of life, along which the tree of life grows; this river quenches man's thirst.
2. In Psalm 36:8-9 the fountain refers to the Father as the source of life, and the river refers to the Spirit as the river of water of life—John 1:4; 7:37-39.
3. The river in Psalm 46:4 signifies the flow of the Triune God in Christ through the Spirit as life to God's people.
4. The water of life is a symbol of God in Christ as the Spirit flowing Himself into His redeemed people to be their life and life supply; it is typified by the water that flowed out of the riven rock (Exo. 17:6; Num. 20:11) and is symbolized by the water that flowed out of the pierced side of the Lord Jesus (John 19:34).
5. The river of water of life in Revelation 22:1 and the rivers in Genesis 2:10-14, Psalm 46:4, and Ezekiel 47:5-9 signify the abundance of life in its flow; as indicated in John 7:38, this one river with its riches becomes many rivers in our experience of the different aspects of the riches of God's Spirit of life—Rom. 8:2; 15:30; 1 Thes. 1:6; 2 Thes. 2:13; Gal. 5:22-23.
III. The water "flowing forth in valleys and in mountains" (Deut. 8:7b) indicates that Christ as the living water flows in different environments (cf. 1 Kings 20:23, 28):
A. The valleys are the experiences of the cross, the experiences of the death of Christ, and the mountains are the experiences of Christ's resurrection—2 Cor. 1:9; 4:11, 14.
B. The indwelling Christ as the treasure in us, the earthen vessels, is the divine source of the supply for the Christian life and the excellent power for us to live a crucified life for the manifestation of the resurrection life—v. 7; Phil. 4:13:
1. Paul said that he and his co-workers "were excessively burdened, beyond our power, so that we despaired even of living…That we should not base our confidence on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead"—2 Cor. 1:8-9.
2. Actually, resurrection requires death, discouragement, and disappointment in order to be manifested (v. 4; 7:5-6); the working of the cross terminates our self that we may enjoy the God of resurrection.
C. Paul lived the resurrection life under the killing of the cross for the carrying out of his ministry; "always bearing about in the body the putting to death of Jesus that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body"— 4:10:
1. Jesus, in a positive sense, is always killing all the negative things within us in order to heal and enliven us—Phil 1:19; cf. Exo. 30:23-25.
2. When we reject ourselves in the morning to receive God into us, we have the sense during the day that a killing process is going on within us—cf. Prov. 4:18.
D. "For we who are alive are always being delivered unto death for Jesus' sake that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh"—2 Cor. 4:11:
1. The killing of the cross results in the manifestation of the resurrection life; this daily killing is for the release of the divine life in resurrection—1 Cor. 15:31; 2 Cor. 4:16.
2. The apostles lived a life like the one the Lord Jesus lived on earth; the Lord's life was a life under the killing of the cross for the manifestation of the resurrection life, a life lived in such a way that His person was one with His ministry and His life was His ministry—John 6:14-15; 12:13, 19, 23-24.
E. "So then death operates in us, but life in you" (2 Cor. 4:12); when we are under the killing of the Lord's death, His resurrection life is imparted through us into others:
1. The way for the church to come into being and to increase is not by human glory; it is by the death of the cross for the release of the fire of the divine life—Luke 12:49-50; John 2:19; 12:24-26.
2. The Lord, as a grain of wheat that fell into the ground, lost His soul-life through death that He might release His eternal life in resurrection to the many grains; as the many grains, we also must lose our soul-life through death that we may enjoy eternal life in resurrection.
IV. Jeremiah 2:13 says, "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":
A. The evils committed by God's people were that they forsook God as their fountain, their source, and they turned to a source other than God.
B. The hewing out of cisterns portrays Israel's toil in their human labor to make something (idols) to replace God; that the cisterns were broken and could hold no water indicates that apart from God Himself dispensed into us as living water, nothing can quench our thirst and make us God's increase for His expression—John 4:13-14.
C. In the eyes of God, the wicked one, the evildoer, is the one who does not come to drink of Him (Isa. 55:7); the evil condition of the wicked is that they do not come to the Lord to eat, drink, and enjoy the Lord; they do many things, but they do not come to contact the Lord, to take Him, to receive Him, to taste Him, and to enjoy Him; in the sight of God, nothing is more evil than this (57:20-21; cf. 55:1-2).
V. We need to build up the habit of drawing water from the springs of salvation in order to drink and flow the water of life—12:3-6; John 7:37-39; Prov. 11:25:
A. We need to draw water with rejoicing from the springs of salvation by speaking to the Lord, by the Lord, for the Lord, in the Lord, and with the Lord—Isa. 12:3-6; Phil. 4:6-7, 12; cf. Hymns, #255.
B. We need to praise the Lord, rejoice in Him, always give thanks, and sing to the Lord— 1 Thes. 5:16-18; Phil. 4:4; Heb. 13:15; Psa. 119:164; Eph. 5:18-20.
C. We need to call on the name of the Lord—Acts 2:21; 1 Cor. 12:13, 3; 1 Thes. 5:17; 1 Cor. 1:2; Judg. 15:18-19; Lam. 3:55-56; Hymns, #73.
D. We need to preach the gospel, making known to others what Christ has accomplished— Rom. 1:16; John 4:32-34; Phil. 2:9; 1 Pet. 2:9.
E. We need to give the Lord the preeminence in our being and do everything according to the divine nature—Rev. 22:1; Col. 1:18b; 2 Pet. 1:4.
VI. According to God's economy, the one who trusts in God is like a tree planted by water, signifying God as the fountain of living waters; a tree grows beside a river by absorbing all the riches of the water; this is a picture of God's economy, which is carried out by His divine dispensing—Jer. 17:7-8:
A. In order to receive the divine dispensing, we as the trees must absorb God as the water (cf. 1 Cor. 3:6; Col. 2:7a); the riches of the supplying God dispensed into us as the trees constitute us with God's divinity and cause us to grow into God's measure (v. 19); in this way we and God become one, having the same element, essence, constitution, and appearance (Rev. 4:3; 21:11).
B. The meaning of prayer is for us to absorb God; the more we contact God, the more we will absorb Him, and the more we absorb Him, the more we will enjoy Him:
1. There is a hymn that says, "Just as I am" (Hymns, #1048); this means that we should come to God just as we are without trying to improve or change our condition; we received Christ in this way, and we should walk in Christ in this way—Col. 2:6-7a.
2. To pray is to come to the Lord just as we are; when we come to the Lord, we should lay our inner condition before Him and tell Him that we are short in every matter; even if we are weak, confused, sad, and speechless, we can still come to God; no matter what our inner condition is, we should bring it to God.
3. Instead of caring about our condition, we need to enter into God's presence to contact Him by looking to Him, beholding Him, praising Him, giving thanks to Him, worshipping Him, and absorbing Him; then we will enjoy God's riches, taste His sweetness, receive Him as light and power, and be inwardly peaceful, bright, strong, and empowered; we will then learn the lesson of staying connected to Him when we are ministering the word to the saints—1 Pet. 4:10-11; 2 Cor. 2:17; 13:3.
VII. John 4:14b says, "The water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up [gushing up] into eternal life":
A. This reveals the flowing Triune God—(1) the Father is the fountain, the source; (2) the Son is the spring, the emergence of the fountain; and (3) the Spirit is the river, the flow; the Triune God is flowing through the Father, the Son, and the Spirit into us and out from our innermost being into others—2 Cor. 13:14; John 7:37-38.
B. The flowing of the Triune God is "into eternal life" (4:14b); the New Jerusalem is the totality of the eternal life, and the word into means "issuing in" or "to become"; thus, the Father as the fountain, the Son as the spring, and the Spirit as the river flow into us and with us to become the New Jerusalem as the totality of the eternal life.