Come and Drink the Living Waters!

Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters!

This cry in Isaiah 55:1 expresses the highest gospel, revealing God’s heart’s desire toward man, that is, that God Himself is the living waters for man to drink, and be filled with in order to express God in His rich, overflowing life.

“And a river went forth from Eden to water the garden, and from there it was divided into four branches.” (Gen. 2:10)

“And he showed me a river of water of life, bright as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb in the middle of its street.” (Rev. 22:1)

In this post we’ll consider God’s intention to become the river of water of life to us and how we through God’s salvation can drink of Him.

God’s Intention—Concerning the River of Water of Life Revealed from Genesis to Revelation

The Bible reveals that the God of the universe is a flowing God. He desires to flow out as the water of life to reach man, enter into man, and fill man with Himself so that man might express Him, the God who is life. We can see this divine flow beginning in Genesis 2 (v. 10) and continuing throughout the entire Bible until it reaches its consummation in the river of water of life flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb in the New Jerusalem in Revelation 22 (v.1).

Man’s Fall—By Forsaking God
as the Fountain of Living Waters

However, God’s eternal intention to be life to man was frustrated by Satan, through the serpent’s deceiving man in Genesis 3. Thus man, created by God to express Him, became fallen, sinful, corrupted and deadened. What was the unique factor of man’s fall? It was that man forsook God Himself, the unique fountain of living waters (Jer. 2:13). Leaving God as His unique source of life, man became independent from God, choosing knowledge rather life. Hence, man lost God as his enjoyment and resorted to many vain replacements for God, “broken cisterns,” which could never satisfy man.

“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. (Jer. 2:13)

God’s Salvation—By Drinking of the Living Waters:
God in Christ as the Spirit

Yet, God’s intention could not be deterred. God in His wisdom flowed into humanity in the Person of His Son, Jesus Christ. In Christ, the living waters reached man. In John 4, Jesus told an immoral Samaritan woman,

“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 springing up into eternal life.” (John 4:14)

Then, through Christ’s death, not only was sinful man redeemed, but the water of life embodied in Christ, flowed out. On the cross, Christ’s side was pierced and immediately there flowed out two substances—“blood” and “water”—“blood” for redemption and “water” for life-imparting (John 19:34). His was not only a redeeming death, but also a life-releasing death. Through Christ’s death, this divine flow was released. Christ was the reality of the rock, smitten for us (Exo. 17:6), that the living water might flow out to become our spiritual drink (1 Cor. 10:4).

But it was not until Christ entered into His resurrection, becoming “a life-giving Spirit” (1 Cor. 15:45) that He became truly “drinkable.” For before His death the Lord Jesus 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. But this He said concerning the Spirit, whom those who believed into Him were about to receive for the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.” (John 7:37b-39)

It was in His resurrection that Christ was glorified (Luke 24:26), and it was in His resurrection that “the Spirit,” that is, the Spirit of the glorified Jesus (Phil. 1:19) became available to us as the “living water” for us to drink (1 Cor. 12:13). Now that Christ has passed through all the processes of His incarnation, human living, death and resurrection, He can be received by us as the “rivers of living water.”

God’s Call to the Thirsty Ones—
Come and Drink the Living Waters

God, through the prophet Isaiah, sounded out a call to the thirsty to come to the waters saying,

“Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters, / And you who have no money; / Come, buy and eat.” (Isaiah 55:1a)

The Lord Jesus, on the great day of the feast, sounded out a similar cry saying,

“If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.”(John 7:37)

Finally, the Bible, ends with the call of the Spirit and the bride,

“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.” (Rev. 22:17)

The gospel is a cry to the thirsty to come. It is to “everyone” (Isa. 55:1) and it is to “anyone” (John 7:37). Oh how I thank God that this cry is to “everyone” and to “anyone.” This cry is to me and you.

But the second qualification is more direct, “everyone who thirsts…” Oh friend are you thirsty? If we are short of such thirst, we may should simply pray, “Lord, grant this mercy that I may be always thirsty for You.” It is a great blessing to be thirsty. To receive the rivers of water of life, all you need is thirst.

However, there is still a further requirement, that is to come. Although the waters are free, Isaiah 55:1 says that we must come to the waters and drink. Herein is the price, not money, but ourselves. We must come to the waters.

The price we pay to get these living waters is ourselves. That is, we must come to the Lord Jesus. O come to the fountain of life! Come to the living waters!

Then we must open ourselves to let Him in. Open your heart, open your mouth and call on His name from your deepest part saying,

“Lord Jesus, I’m thirsty! Lord Jesus, I come to You right now! I open myself to You. Cleanse me from all my sins. Fill me with Yourself as the rivers of living water. I call on Your dear name, Lord Jesus!”

“For the same Lord is Lord of all and rich to all who call upon Him; for “whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (Rom. 10:12b-13)

Such a great salvation is not just for the hereafter, it is a moment-by-moment salvation by continually drinking of these waters of life in every situation, by calling on our rich Lord. Such a continual drinking of the river of water of life will flow us into eternal life, that is into God’s eternal goal, the New Jerusalem.

References:

• The inspiration for this post came from my enjoyment of The Crystallization-Study of Isaiah, Message 22 contained in the January 2011 issue of the The Ministry of the Word published by Living Stream Ministry, Anaheim CA.
• For a deeper appreciation of drinking the water of life you might enjoy reading “I Come to Drink,” a post by my fellow blogger Don Martin.
• Photo Credit: Clark Russell