DRINKING AND WORSHIP
In John 4 there is the water that wells up. If you drink this water, it will well up into eternal life. The water pertains to the Spirit. The drinking in verse 14 is the worshipping in verse 24. You drink by worshipping. The water in verse 14 is the Spirit in verse 24. To drink the water is to take in the Spirit.
THE BREAD OF LIFE
In chapter six there is the bread of life. With the bread there is the eating (vv. 35, 50, 57). There is the water for drinking and the bread for eating. The bread of life is in the Spirit. “It is the Spirit Who gives life; the words which I have spoken unto you are spirit and are life” (v. 63). Here is the life-giving Spirit and also the word that is the Spirit.
RIVERS OF LIVING WATER
In John 7:37-39 the matter of drinking is mentioned again. Instead of just a fountain springing up, there are rivers. When the water flowing from the spring becomes a river, the riches of the water can be seen. When many rivers converge, there is a flood. As you enjoy the Lord, you will flow rivers of water. There will be a river of love, another of humility, another of light, and another of kindness. When you first begin coming to the church meetings, you flow just a small river, but in time the rivers will become a flood. When you open your mouth, the whole meeting will be flooded by you. Eventually the church meetings will become an ocean, as we all express the riches of Christ. “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (10:10).
THE TRIUNE GOD DISPENSED INTO US
In 14:17 it says “the Spirit of reality…abides with you and shall be in you.” Verse 20 goes on to say, “In that day you shall know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.” This means that the Triune God has dispensed Himself into us and that now we are in Him. Verse 23 says further, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make an abode with him.” These profound words say that the Father and the Lord Jesus will not simply come to visit us but will actually come to live in us and settle down. The text implies not only that we shall become the abode of the Triune God, but also that He will be our abode. The word abode here is mutual. We shall be His abiding place, and He will be ours.
Here is the divine dispensation, in a different realm entirely from religion, ethics, or morality. It is not only salvation, according to our poor understanding, but the Triune God working Himself into our being, making us His abode, and making Himself our abode.
ABIDING
When the Lord Jesus in the next chapter, John 15, tells His disciples, “I am the vine, you are the branches….Abide in Me,” He is simply continuing the thought of the mutual abiding from the previous chapter. This One abiding in us is Jesus Christ, whose very name is Wonderful (Isa. 9:6). He is very God and very man. Could you imagine that it is possible to abide in God? Herein is the best enjoyment. I can testify this to you after fifty-four years of experience. Is it not marvelous that even now we are abiding in God? How poor is the thought that someday we are going to heaven! Right now God is abiding in us!
If you think it is too mysterious that God abides in you, notice verse 7, where it says, “You abide in Me and My words abide in you.” This you can understand. The word of the Bible abides in you. This is solid and tangible.
(Life Messages, Vol. 2 (#42-75), Chapter 2, by Witness Lee)
