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Topic: Water (04/26/04)
TITLE: Water By Sylvia Huffnagle 05/01/04 |
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It is a common fact that water is essential to life. Let’s take a look at some of the ways God uses water for good in the Bible and at how essential spiritual water is to spiritual life.
In the beginning God separated the waters above from the waters below. Then He made the firmament, etc. This shows that water must be confined and controlled to do good.
God used water to purge the earth at the time of the great flood.
He used water to stop the Egyptians at the Red Sea.
In Isaiah 55, water is the term used to describe the thirst-quenching work of the Holy Spirit that takes place when one receives God’s offer of salvation through Jesus Christ. In verses 10,11, God compares His word to the rain that waters the earth. So, His word is a form of spiritual water that causes what is planted in the heart to spring up and produce according to the amount of spiritual rain it receives.
Jesus talks about this living water in John 4. The claim is that one who receives this living or spiritual water will never have to thirst for inner life sustaining substance, again, for because of the person’s acceptance of Jesus, he can have wells of water springing up from within.
Ezekiel 47 and Revelation 22 speak of a river which brings cleansing, healing and prosperity.
Water is used in baptizing to symbolize the washing of the water by the word. The immersion into the water also signifies the ‘born again’ person’s death, burial and resurrection.
Ephesians 5 says God sanctifies and cleanses the church in the washing of the water by the word. Jesus prayed in John 17 that His Father would sanctify His sheep through the Truth and that God’s word is truth.
In summary, truth, Holy Spirit baptism and God’s word are all spiritual water that God administers to those who exposed themselves to it. And this water will sanctify and cleanse them. It will quench their inner thirst and it will cause their spiritual crops to thrive and produce abundantly.