Message 44
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Scripture Reading: Exo. 17:3, 6; John 7:37-39; 4:10, 14; 1 Cor. 10:4; 3, 12:13; Rev. 21:6; 22:1-2, 17; Acts 2:17, 21
In this message we shall consider what is revealed in the Bible concerning the way to drink the water of life. I can testify that I have spent more than thirty years to find out how to drink the living water. In the foregoing message I pointed out that although I preached a great deal about drinking of the living water, I myself did not know how to drink. Eventually, I had to ask myself, “You preach so much about drinking, but do you know how to drink?” I had to admit that I did not have the way to drink. I came to realize the urgency of finding out the proper way to drink. What would I do if, after a message on drinking the living water, someone were to ask me how to drink? Suppose someone approached you and said, “I believe that Christ is the living water, and I am thirsty for Him. Please tell me how to drink of this living water.” How would you answer such a question?
Not all the divine secrets in the Bible are revealed in a clear and evident way. In His wisdom sometimes God reveals His secrets in a way that is rather hidden. These secrets are recorded in the Bible and revealed in it, but they are not altogether open. For example, the Bible commands us to believe, but it does not tell us how to believe. For years in preaching the gospel I have told people to believe in the Lord. Whenever someone has asked me how to believe, I have been troubled. What would you say if someone asked you how to believe in the Lord Jesus? Would you tell that person in a doctrinal way that faith comes by hearing? If you simply tell him to believe, what will you do if you are asked how to believe? The best answer to this question is that we believe by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus. To the unsaved we should not give complicated answers about how to believe. Do not try to explain that by believing we enter into an organic union with the Lord. Such explanations will only confuse them. Tell those who want to believe in the Lord to simply open their mouths and call, “O Lord Jesus.” The way to believe in the Lord is to call on His name.
Just as the Bible does not tell us how to believe, so it does not tell us how to drink the water of life. The Scripture simply says that if we are thirsty we should come to the Lord and drink. If we go to the Lord and ask Him how to drink, He may say, “If you are thirsty and want to drink, just drink.” We learn to drink by drinking. Thus, the way to drink is somewhat like the way to believe in the Lord. The way to drink is not exactly the same as the way to believe, but it is close. As we consider how to drink, I would like to present in a simple yet practical way what I have learned through more than thirty years of study. This word is given to those who believe in the Lord, not to unbelievers.
As believers, we have been positioned to drink. This is the first aspect of the science of drinking. First Corinthians 12:13 says, “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.” Through baptism we have been positioned to drink. As long as we have been baptized into the Lord, we have the position to drink of the living water. Before we were saved, we were far away from the living water. But now that we have been saved, we have been brought back to the water and positioned to drink of it. For example, there is a drinking fountain in our meeting hall. But in order to drink of this fountain, our mouth must be in the proper position. Likewise, to drink of the living water, we must first be positioned to drink. Baptism gives us this position. Thank the Lord that we all are positioned to drink.
Even though we have been positioned to drink, we shall not drink unless we are thirsty. To drink the water of life there is the need of thirst (Exo. 17:3a; John 7:37; Rev. 21:6). Millions of today’s Christians are not thirsty for the Lord. What a mercy it is to be thirsty! I can testify that day by day I am thirsty for living water. If I do not pray for a certain period of time, I become conscious of my thirst. It is a mercy that we are thirsty for the living water, especially when so many Christians have no thirst. Many of us can testify that during the day we are conscious of the thirst within us. This thirst causes us to pray and to contact the Lord. In a simple way, we may say, “Lord Jesus, I am thirsty for You, and I want to contact You.” If we sense that our thirst is not adequate, we may need to pray, “Lord, increase the thirst within me.” We all need such a thirst for the Lord.
We also need to come to the Lord. In John 7:37 the Lord Jesus invites the thirsty ones to come to Him and drink. In like manner, the Spirit and the bride send forth the call to come and drink of the living water (Rev. 22:17). Even though we have been positioned to drink and are thirsty, we still need to come to the Lord again and again. We need to come to the Lord continually, even twenty-four hours a day. If we tell the Lord that we want to come to Him all day long, He surely will answer our prayer. Tell the Lord, “Lord, I don’t want to stop coming to You. I want to come to You twenty-four hours a day, even when I am asleep.” No matter what we are doing, we may come to the Lord by calling on Him. Whenever we call on the name of the Lord Jesus, we come to Him.
To drink the living water we need to ask the Lord for this water. In John 4:10 the Lord said to the Samaritan woman, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that says to you, Give Me a drink, you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”
Although we have been positioned to drink and we may be thirsty and although we may come to the Lord and ask of Him, we do not actually drink until we call on the name of the Lord (Acts 2:21). In 1 Corinthians 12 we find the secret of drinking. Verse 13 says that we all have been made to drink of one Spirit, and verse 3 tells us that no one can say Lord Jesus except in the Holy Spirit. To drink the Spirit is to call “Lord Jesus.” Whenever we call on the name of the Lord in this way, we spontaneously drink the living water.
In 1 Corinthians 12 we see that the water is the Spirit, for verse 13 speaks of drinking of the one Spirit. The way to drink of the Spirit is to call on the name of the Lord. If we are thirsty and call “Lord Jesus,” we immediately drink of the Spirit. Our calling is our drinking. According to 1 Corinthians 12:3, when we call “Lord Jesus,” we are in the Spirit. I can testify that whenever I call on the Lord from deep within my spirit, I have the conviction and the consciousness that I am in the Spirit touching the Lord.
For many years I was troubled by Paul’s word in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 about praying without ceasing. I wondered how it was possible to pray unceasingly. Now I see that we can pray unceasingly simply by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus continually. The secret of drinking the Spirit in 1 Corinthians 12 is also the secret of praying without ceasing. Since we can call on the Lord unceasingly, it is possible for us to pray without ceasing. Except when we are asleep, we can continually call on the Lord’s name. Perhaps calling on the Lord will eventually become such a part of our living that we shall call on Him even when we are asleep. As those who seek the Lord and thirst for Him, we should continually call on His name. Whenever we call “Lord Jesus,” we have the sense deep within that the Lord is truly one with us in spirit.
We can call on the Lord at any time and in any place. When you are tempted to lose your temper, call “Lord Jesus.” Instead of trying to suppress your anger, call on the name of the Lord Jesus. If you call on the Lord at such a time, the living water will cause your anger to be subdued. To call on the Lord truly is to drink of the living water.
Some Christians do not agree with calling on the name of the Lord, preferring instead to contact Him quietly. I do not say that we must call on the name of the Lord in a loud way. However, I wish to point out that calling on the Lord’s name does occupy an important place in the Scriptures. The Hebrew word for call means to call out to, cry unto, that is, to cry out. The Greek word for call means to invoke a person, to call a person by name. Hence, to call according to the Bible is to call a person by naming him audibly. Although prayer may be silent, calling is audible. The Lord Jesus is a living Person, near and available. Whenever we call on His name, He responds.
For many years I was a quiet Christian. The meetings I attended were so quiet that you could almost hear a pin drop. Eventually, however, I began to practice calling on the name of the Lord according to the Bible. When we call His name, we drink of the living water.
We have pointed out that the word call means to cry out or to invoke a person by name. The preposition “on” implies prayer. It indicates that as we call “Lord Jesus,” we look to Him in prayer. Thus, we not only call the Lord’s name, but we also call on Him. As we call His name, we pray to Him. Suppose you call “Lord Jesus” as you are driving your car. This is not merely a calling on the name of the Lord, but also a way of looking to Him and praying to Him. To drink the living water in a proper way is to call on the name of the Lord.
I wish to emphasize the fact that at any time and in any place we can drink the living water by calling on the Lord. For years I had the concept that I had to be formal in my contact with the Lord. I thought that before I could contact Him in prayer, I had to be properly dressed and then go to a place where I could either stand before Him or kneel down. Now I enjoy calling on the Lord everywhere and at any time. As I drink of the living water, I do not care for formality of any kind. I only know that whenever I call “Lord Jesus,” no matter where I am, I truly enjoy the Lord.
Sometimes I may become conscious of a heavy burden within me. Spontaneously I begin to call on the name of the Lord, perhaps as I am dressing early in the morning. What an enjoyment! What a quenching of my thirst! By calling on the Lord in this way, I am inwardly strengthened to bear my heavy burden.
Some may still think that in praying to the Lord and calling on Him we need to be polite and reverent, praying at a proper time and in a proper place. This is a religious concept and is not at all practical. The Lord is our living water. If we care more for politeness or reverence than for drinking, the Lord would say, “I don’t want your reverence. I want you to drink of the living water. I don’t want you to reverence Me — I want you to drink Me. The way to honor Me is to drink Me.” How different this is from the religious concept of reverence and formality! Those who solemnly sing “Holy, holy, holy” do not drink much of the Lord. Instead of caring for religious formality, let us say, “Lord Jesus, here I am. I am not in a sanctuary worshipping You in a religious way. I am here to drink You by calling on Your name.”
In the past I encouraged the saints to spend time alone with the Lord every morning. Although I do not call back this word, I now can say that if you know how to drink the Lord, you can forget about trying to set aside a certain amount of time to contact Him. Let us call on the Lord no matter where we are or what we are doing. When we first wake up in the morning, we should drink the living water by calling on the Lord’s name. As we are washing and getting dressed, we can drink the water of life. We need to forget all formality and care for drinking the living water. Forms do nothing but kill. What we need is to take in the Lord Jesus in a pure way by calling on Him. Then we shall have the supply of the living water.
To call on the Lord spontaneously and informally is much better than approaching Him in a religious way with reverence, formality, and solemnity. I would rather hear the young people calling on the Lord on their way to the meeting hall than hear a choir singing anthems in a religious way. How good it is to hear the saints calling out to the Lord, “Lord Jesus, I love You! Lord, I am here to drink of You and to enjoy You.” How much better this is than a formal, religious service! I realize that this may shock the religious people. But I know what I am talking about. By drinking of the living water I am often beside myself with joy in the Lord. I encourage you all to practice calling on the Lord’s name continually. The more you call on Him, the more you drink of the living water.
Recently we have been having fellowship about opinions and the damage they cause in both the Christian life and the church life. The way to deal thoroughly with our opinions is to call on the Lord Jesus. Usually when we are strong in our opinion, we stop calling on the Lord. Those who are argumentative seldom call on Him. The same may be true of a sister who is unhappy with her husband. Due to this unhappiness, she may not be willing to pray or call on the Lord. Sometimes I remind such a sister that although her husband may have offended her, the Lord Jesus surely has not. Then I may ask her why she will not speak to the Lord. But often the sister will still refuse to call on the Lord. Because there is no calling, there is no drinking of the living water. Thus, instead of the supply of life, there is death and dryness. Let us stand against all such deadness. When you are tempted to quarrel with your husband or wife, drink of the living water by calling on the name of the Lord.
Finally, we drink the water of life through receiving and taking by believing. According to John 7:39, we receive the Spirit as the living water by believing into Christ. Revelation 22:17 speaks of taking the water of life freely. As we call on the name of the Lord, we spontaneously receive the living water and take it freely. If we call on the Lord, we shall have living faith. The more we call, the more we shall believe, and the more we believe, the more we shall receive and take the living water.
Calling on the Lord’s name solves all our problems. If you are filled with sorrow and worry, call on the Lord. If you are disappointed, discouraged, or distracted, call on Him. Call on Him when you are weak and when you are strong. By calling you receive and take the living water.
A basic problem among Christians, especially among those in organized Christianity, is related to the religious worship of God. Even many unbelievers have the concept of worshipping God in a religious way. Those who care for God think that they should worship Him as the mighty, transcendent One. They regard the almighty God as the object of their worship. This concept is part of their very nature.
Because the Bible tells us to worship God, we cannot say that the thought of worshipping Him is wrong. But how are we to worship Him? In John 4:23 and 24 the Lord Jesus told the Samaritan woman, who had raised a question concerning worship, “But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and reality; for the Father seeks such to worship Him. God is Spirit; and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and reality.” The Lord’s word clearly reveals that we are to worship God. However, the question still remains concerning how to worship Him. The Jews and the Moslems have their ways of worship, and those in the Catholic Church and in the denominations have their ways. Actually, all the different religious ways of worship are wrong. Even the Samaritan woman in John 4 held a mistaken concept of the way to worship God. The Lord Jesus revealed to her that the proper worship of God is not in a certain physical place; it is in our spirit.
According to John 4, to worship God in our spirit is to drink of Him. Do not regard God as an object of worship which you then worship in spirit. In such a case the organ (the spirit) is right, but the way is still wrong. To prostrate ourselves before God is not the proper way to worship Him; to drink Him as the living water is. God does not want to be the object of our worship. Instead, He comes as living water for us to drink. When we drink of Him as the water of life, we worship Him in a genuine way. To drink of the Lord with our spirit is truly to worship Him.
The Lord’s table meeting is a meeting for worship. To remember the Lord at His table is to worship Him. The way to worship the Lord in this meeting is not to kneel down or to prostrate ourselves, but to eat the bread and drink the wine in remembrance of Him. Eating and drinking constitute real worship. We do not remember the Lord by exercising our mentality to recall certain things. We remember Him by eating and drinking. To remember the Lord by eating and drinking is to worship Him.
Not many Christians have seen that God’s intention is to work Himself into us. Most believers only realize that God is God, that we are God’s creatures, that we became fallen, and that out of His love for us God sent His Son to die for us on the cross and to accomplish redemption. Genuine Christians also realize that Christ was resurrected and then sent the Holy Spirit to lead us to repentance, to cause us to believe in Him, and to receive Him as our Savior. Then, according to the natural concept, the Bible is used as a book of ethics to teach the believers to glorify God in their daily living. Finally, Christians are told that, after they die or after the Lord comes back, they will spend eternity with Him. The Bible, of course, teaches such things. However, these teachings are superficial. They are not the kernel of God’s revelation in the Bible. The kernel of the divine revelation is that God created us and redeemed us for the purpose of working Himself into us to be our life. We in the Lord’s recovery need to see a fuller vision of this revelation. If we have such a full vision, our concept of worship will be regulated by it.
The Triune God works Himself into our being as we eat and drink of Him. As our food and water, He enters into us to be one with us organically. What we take into us by eating and drinking becomes one with us in this way. It penetrates our fiber and becomes our organic tissue. When the food we take in by eating and drinking is digested and assimilated, it becomes our constituent. Thus, we are a constitution of what we eat and drink. This is true both in the spiritual realm and in the physical realm. Through eating and drinking, the bride becomes one with the Spirit. According to Revelation 22:17, the Spirit and the bride speak as one to call those who are thirsty to drink of the water of life.
If we see that God’s intention is to work Himself into us, we shall automatically eat and drink of Him. Mothers know that babies eat and drink automatically, not caring for any forms, manners, or regulations. Infants are better at eating and drinking than adults are. Our eating and drinking are often hindered by all the attention we give to table manners. Sometimes the more we pay attention to manners, the less we enjoy our food. I heard of a Chinese ambassador who attended a formal state dinner in Germany. Because he was so concerned about proper etiquette and table manners, he did not enjoy the food at all. He spent his time watching how others at the dinner conducted themselves and how they used their eating utensils. Table manners kept him from eating. Children are not like this. When my little granddaughter visits us, her grandmother often gives her something to eat. My granddaughter enjoys her food in a spontaneous and informal way. She is a good example of how we should pay less attention to forms and more to eating and drinking.
At the very time the Lord Jesus was speaking with the Samaritan woman, the priests in the temple were worshipping God in the formal, systematic, prescribed manner. But where was God at that time? Was He in the temple with the priests, or was He with the woman by the well in Samaria? As we all know, He was with the Samaritan woman. He met with her in the open air, away from the temple and the altar, without religious forms and rituals. Eventually, this Samaritan woman drank of the living water and offered real worship to God. At that time the true worship to God was offered not by the priests in the temple, but by the Samaritan woman who was drinking the living water. The priests worshipped God in vain; the Samaritan woman worshipped Him in reality by drinking Him into her being. The Spirit as the living water was infused into her. God was seeking real worship, and He received it from this Samaritan woman who drank of the Spirit as the living water.
Today’s Christians need to see what real worship is. They condemn those in the Lord’s recovery as heretical, when they themselves are heretical and ignorant of the truth. Like the priests in the temple, they are blind to what true worship is. In John 4 the Lord Jesus did not spend time talking to typical Jews according to the Old Testament way of worship. Instead, He conversed with an immoral, semi-heathen woman concerning the worship which satisfies God’s heart. This woman worshipped God in her spirit by drinking of Him as the water to quench her thirst. Thus, God was worshipped by her in a genuine way. How much different this is from formal, religious worship!
Throughout the centuries, most Christian worship has been like that of the priests in the temple. Only a small number have worshipped God in spirit by drinking of Him as living water. But as we have pointed out emphatically in this message, this is the proper way to worship Him.
We must admit that to a large extent our way of meeting is subconsciously or unconsciously still under the influence of our religious background. The more we enter into the real worship of God by drinking Him as the living water in spirit, the more we shall realize how short our practices have been. By the Lord’s mercy I have come to see the worship God desires. Because of the vision I have seen, I do not care for religion, nor even for our own practices. Actually, we have no need of practices. Our need is to see that our God today has passed through the process of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, and enthronement to become the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit for us to drink. He is such a compound Spirit, and we have a spirit with which to drink of Him. In spirit we are one with Him. If we see this vision, the focal point of the divine revelation in the Bible, we shall know how to drink the Lord as the water of life.
