The Church – should be a fountain of eternal life to those thirsty for God
Eternal life is a spiritual type of life or nature with power to create, reproduce and never cease to be. The only type of life to meet this description is the life and nature of God. And God who is this endless life wants to impart it, impart Himself, to anyone willing to receive Him. As our hearts get to know Him by revelation, this life, God Himself, is imparted to us.
John 17:3 And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. (so, knowing God is eternal life - but)
Matt 11:27 ...The Father (the heart knowledge of whom is eternal life) is known only by the Son and by those to whom the Son reveals Him. TLB
How does Jesus Christ reveal to us the knowledge of God in order to give us eternal life?
John 6:68 But Simon Peter answered Him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life”. (God’s life, eternal life, is contained in His words)
Prov 2:1-5 My son, if you receive my words, And treasure my commands within you...Then you will understand the fear of the LORD, And find the knowledge of God (and receive more of the eternal, endless, life of God).
John 5:24 (Jesus) Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes ESV Him who sent me has eternal life...(we hear and believe to receive this life)
Eternal life, the very nature of God the Father, is given to us as we come to know Him. This knowledge of Him is revealed and imparted to us as we hear and believe His words. The very first time we hear and receive, by believing it, a revealed word from God into our hearts, that living righteous word cleans our hearts from all sin, making them brand new and therefore re-birthing us. By that word we now have the beginning of God’s eternal life.
John 15:3 Now you are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. KJV
John 6:63 ...The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are (eternal) life.
God’s eternal life is in the revealed word that we believe – can we lose it? Oh yes we can:
Matt 13:19 (Jesus) When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, (wouldn’t let God reveal it to them) then the wicked one (Satan) comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart...
Luke 8:13 ...(Others) who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root (the word couldn’t get fully established in their hearts because of stones, areas of hardness), who believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away (and get offended at the word, God or His messenger).
Mark 4:18-19 ...(Others) are the ones who hear the word, and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in (into their hearts) choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.
The knowledge of God which is eternal life is given by the word – and this life can be lost!
We’re in danger if we only receive the first words of eternal life – we must receive more
John 10:10 (Jesus) ...I have come that they may have life (eternal life, the knowledge of God, through His words), and that they may have it more abundantly.
Col 1:10 That you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; (more life)
In part because the words of eternal life can be easily lost or stolen, God wants each one of us to keep growing in the knowledge of Him through His revealed words to us. So that we have an abundance of eternal life, His nature, in us, and if we lose some of His words we won’t have lost His eternal life in us altogether and therefore perish eternally. There’s more; as we increase in the knowledge of God by believing more of His revealed words in our hearts, grace and peace are multiplied in us. And by those words we’re given all things needed for eternal life and godliness, because we’re partaking of His divine nature.
2 Peter 1:2-4 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, According as His divine power has given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him...
Whereby are given to us exceeding great and precious promises (contained in His revealed words): that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature...
Where do Christians find this abundance of eternal life this increasing knowledge of God?
God births people as Christians and delivers them from Satan’s kingdom, through His words of eternal life preached by other Christians. God grows these new-born Christians and prevents their spirits from dying of a lack of spiritual food, and from being devoured by their spiritual enemies, through more of His words of eternal life fed to them by other Christians – as they believe those words with their whole hearts. This is God’s primary and essential purpose for every Christian to keep coming to where His word is preached and being taught under the direct anointing, life, power and revelation of His Holy Spirit:
Ezek 36:25 Then I will sprinkle clean water on you and you shall be clean...
John 15:3 Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.
Eph 5:25-26 ...Christ also loved the church...that He might sanctify (make her holy)
and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word,
God frequently likens His word to living water, and when we drink some of this living water, by our hearts believing His words, eternal life is imparted to us. As we continue to drink of this living water, God’s words, it becomes a fountain of eternal life in us that now others can come and drink from – as they hear and believe God inspired words from us:
John 4:14 (Jesus) But whoever drinks (continually) of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water (the words) that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.
Church is intended to be a gathering of Christians whose hearts have been drinking these waters of eternal life, God’s living words or counsel. Then any other Christian who attends such a gathering, if they are thirsty for God, will be able both to be washed by and to drink of this water of the word, and either begin or grow in their knowledge of God.
Prov 20:5 Counsel (God’s words) in the heart of man is like deep water, But a man of understanding (one who is thirsty for God) will draw it out (and drink).
Rev 22:17 And the (Holy) Spirit and the bride (of Christ, those currently righteous) say, "Come!" And let him who hears say, "Come!" And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him come and drink the water of life freely.
What must have happened if a Christian goes to a meeting but doesn’t receive more life?
This tragically is happening in our Church meetings all the time. Christians come to the meeting and then go away without ever drinking more of the waters of eternal life; without believing in their hearts and being changed by more of God’s eternal word; without growing in their personal knowledge of God. Why? There are only two possible answers:
1. Neither the ministers present nor any of the other Christians in attendance were currently living in the Spirit, in submission to God, having been themselves constantly drinking of the waters or the words of eternal life. Therefore they had no fountain of eternal life in them with which to water others. This is a lamentable failure of the Church.
Isa 58:11 You (disciples of Christ) shall be like a watered garden, And like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail (this is how we all are intended to be).
Prov 11:25 ...And he who waters (others with God’s word) will also be watered himself.
2. But if the waters of life are available, then any Christian who leaves a Church meeting un-watered, who doesn’t receive a fresh word from God, cannot have been thirsty in their hearts either to begin or to grow in their knowledge of God. And what is the principal reason why a person doesn’t have or has lost their thirst for God? The answer is that only those with tender hearts are thirsty for God; the absence of thirst means a hardened heart.
What makes someone’s heart or spirit become or remain hard to God and God’s people?
• Matt 15:8 These people draw near to Me with their mouth, And honor Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me. (why? for they love other things more than God)
2 Tim 3:2-4 For men shall be lovers of their own selves (preferring their self-image rather than the image of Christ)...lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
• Heb 3:13 ...Lest any of you be hardened (in heart) through the deceitfulness of sin (some common sins include; taking offence, un-forgiveness, worrying which is fear, the pride of self-will, envy, jealousy, lying, laziness, and general doubt and unbelief).
• Mark 7:7 And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men (there are multitudes of false doctrines that misrepresent God, in the Church; many are self serving, giving license to the flesh by offering a false eternal security).
• 1 Cor 2:14 But the natural man (or the natural mind of the Christian) does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. (to keep on trying to understand scriptures with the brain, instead of with the spirit, is the ruin of many a Christian).
These are some of the things that make or keep a Christian’s heart or spirit hard and therefore unable to drink of the waters of eternal life and grow in the knowledge of God.
What can be done for a hard hearted Christian to soften their hearts toward God?
While the waters of life, God’s words, flowing from another believer, may not penetrate and refresh the heart that has been hardened. That same water, just like the rain, can begin to soften the ground of that heart, if the person keeps coming to the meetings.
Isa 55:10-11 For as the rain comes down...from heaven, And...waters the earth...
So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth...
Luke 8:15 But the seed in the good earth — these are the good-hearts... MSGE
Ps 65:9-10 You visit the earth and water it...You make it soft with showers...
Luke 1:17 (John)...He will soften adult hearts to become like little children's, he will turn disobedient people to the wisdom of the righteous... TLB
The sign of a heart softened toward God is repentance that now acknowledges the truth.
2 Tim 2:25 In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if perhaps
God will give them repentance so they may acknowledge the truth;
Can you see that everything about our relationship with God has to do with our heart or spirit? This is the part of us that was re-born when we became Christians. God intends for our heart to inherit eternity, but it can’t if it becomes hard. We must guard our heart from those things that harden it and keep it soft by constantly drinking the waters of life:
Deut 4:9 Only take heed to yourself, and diligently keep yourself, lest you forget
the things your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. And teach them to your children and your grandchildren,
Prov 4:23 Keep and guard your heart with all vigilance and above all that you
guard, for out of it flow the springs of (the living waters of, eternal) life. AMP
