Thursday

Related Verses
John 7:37-39
37 Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.
38 He who believes into Me, as the Scripture said, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.
39 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.

Rev. 7:17
17 For the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and guide them to springs of waters of life; and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

Rev. 21:6
6 And He said to me, They have come to pass. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give to him who thirsts from the spring of the water of life freely.

Rev. 22:1, 17
1 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.
17 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.

Exo. 17:6
6 I will be standing before you there upon the rock in Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it so that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.

1 Cor. 10:4
4 And all drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank of a spiritual rock which followed them, and the rock was Christ.

Related Reading
In Ephesians 5:26 Paul says that Christ sanctifies the church by cleansing her by the washing of the water in the word. According to the divine concept, water here refers to the flowing life of God, which is typified by flowing water (…John 7:38-39; Rev. 21:6; 22:1, 17). The washing of the water here is different from the washing of the redeeming blood of Christ. The redeeming blood washes away our sins (1 John 1:7; Rev. 7:14), whereas the water of life washes away the blemishes of the natural life of our old man, such as “spot or wrinkle or any such things” (Eph. 5:27). In separating and sanctifying the church, the Lord first washes away our sins with His blood (Heb. 13:12) and then washes away our natural blemishes with His life. We are now in such a washing process, that the church may be holy and without blemish. (Life-study of Ephesians, p. 445) 

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The cleansing is the sanctifying. The cleansing by the washing of the water of life is in the word. The Greek word for word in Ephesians 5:26 denotes an instant word. The indwelling Christ as the life-giving Spirit is always speaking an instant, present, living word to metabolically cleanse away the old and replace it with the new, causing an inward transformation. This indicates that in the word there is the water of life, which is typified by the laver between the altar and the tabernacle (Exo. 38:8; 40:7). In Greek the word rendered “washing” in Ephesians 5:26 means “laver.” This Greek word is used in the Septuagint to translate the Hebrew word for laver. In the Old Testament, the priests washed themselves from earthly defilement in the laver (Exo. 30:18-21). Now the laver, the washing of the water, washes us from defilement. 

In a very real sense, the word of God is a laver. According to the Old Testament, the priests who served God in the tabernacle had to have their sins dealt with by the blood on the altar, and they had to have their defilement dealt with by washing in the laver. I believe that Paul’s concept here is that the church is cleansed by the laver of the water in the word. Hallelujah, we have the real laver! (Life-study of Ephesians, p. 446) 

In the New Testament two Greek words are used to denote word. One is logos, referring to the word in a general sense; the other is rhema, which although translated as word in Scripture, means something quite different from logos. Logos refers both to things which have been eternally determined and to things used in an objective way…But rhema refers to words which are spoken…Both logos and rhema are the Word of God, but the former is God’s Word objectively recorded in the Bible, while the latter is the word of God spoken to us at a specific occasion. 

The rhema reveals something to us personally and directly; it shows us what we need to deal with and what we need to be cleansed from. We must specifically seek after this very matter, because our Christian life is based on this rhema. What word has God really spoken to us, and how has He spoken to us?…The important thing is this: Is God speaking that very word to us today? 

True growth depends upon our receiving the word directly from God. God is using His rhema to do His work, and He desires to speak to us…If we desire to be useful in the Lord’s hands, we must be spoken to by the Lord…When God speaks to us through His word, we are enlightened; through His word we are sanctified; and through His word we are made to grow…If we have rhema, the living word of God, we can be cleansed and sanctified. (CWWN, vol. 34, “The Glorious Church,” pp. 51-54, 57-58) 

Further Reading: Life-study of Ephesians, msgs. 54, 57, 59; CWWN, vol. 34, “The Glorious Church,” ch. 3