All posts in category River of Life and Tree of Life

The River of Life Reaching Men

This series of posts looks at God, man, the tree of life, and the river of life in the garden of Eden and in New Jerusalem. Genesis 2:10 tells us that “a river went forth from Eden to water the garden, and from there it divided and became four branches.”

This one river was parted and became four heads (Gen. 2:10-14). What does this mean? This means that the river flows out of God as the source and the center to reach men in every direction. In the Bible the number one is the number of God, the Creator, for He is unique. The number four signifies man, the creature. Because men live in each of the four directions, the one river flows out of God in every direction to reach them.

The name of the first head is Pison, which means “flowing free” (cf. Isa. 55:1; Rev. 22:17). This river flows without price; it is free. It flows to the land of Havilah which means “to cause to grow.” This branch of the river flows freely to cause everything of life to grow (cf. Ezek. 47:9, 12).*

river of water of lifeThe river flows to reach men in all directions just like New Jerusalem has gates open on each of its four sides (Revelation 21:13) to face men in all directions. This wonderful availability is also seen in the “whoever” and “everyone” verses throughout the New Testament. Here are some:

• But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall by no means thirst forever; but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water gushing up into eternal life. (John 4:14)
• To this One all the prophets testify that through His name everyone who believes into Him will receive forgiveness of sins. (Acts 10:43)
• The same Lord is Lord of all and rich to all who call upon Him (Romans 10:12)
• Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been begotten of God. (1 John 5:1a)

The river of water of life flows in four directions and the gates of New Jerusalem face four directions. In response to this supply and openness, we should receive. As seen in the verses above, everyone can drink of the river today by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus. O Lord Jesus, I want to drink of this river; refresh me now.

Related posts:
Gates of Pearl
Three Gates on Each of Four Sides

* Witness Lee, Life-Study of Genesis, chapter 11, section 6. This is published and © by Living Stream Ministry and available for online reading here.

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by Don on May 17, 2013  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on May 17, 2013

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The River of Life in the Garden and the City

river of water of lifeThe prior posts look at God, man, and the tree of life in the garden of Eden and in New Jerusalem. There is also a river in the garden and in the city. Genesis 2:10 says, “And a river went forth from Eden to water the garden, and from there it divided and became four branches.”

In Revelation 22:1, the angel showed John “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 [the city’s] street.” Like the tree of life, the river of life indicates God’s desire to be life to man.

The function of the river in Eden was “to water the garden.” Watering is for maintaining the life of the plants in the garden. Today the Spirit is the reality of the river (John 7:37-39) and God’s cultivated land/God’s field/God’s farmland (1 Corinthians 3:9) is the reality of the garden. We are all plants on God’s farm being watered by the Spirit so that we may grow in Christ.

The Lord’s cry in John 7:37-39 to those who thirst is to come and drink. Today we come by exercising our human spirit to drink the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:13). Isaiah 12:3-4 relates spiritual drinking to our thanksgiving and audible calling. These verses say

Therefore you will draw water with rejoicing from the springs of salvation, and you will say in that day, Give thanks to Jehovah; call upon His name!

In these days we can drink the living water by thanking our Lord for so much that He is and has done, and by calling aloud, O Lord Jesus, as the early Christians did (Acts 7:59; 9:14). In eternity we will continue drinking of the river of water of life which flows through New Jerusalem.

Photo courtesy of U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

Related post: The Spirit, The Bountiful Supply, The River of Water of Life

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by Don on May 15, 2013  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on May 15, 2013

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The Tree of Life in the Garden and the City

Jesus Christ, our tree of lifeThree weeks ago I wrote about similarities between the garden of Eden and New Jerusalem. The posts since then have looked at God in the garden and the city, then man in the garden and the city. Now we come to the tree of life.

Genesis 2:9 tells us, “And out of the ground Jehovah God caused to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, as well as the tree of life in the middle of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” Revelation 22:1-2 says, “He showed me a river of water of life…And on this side and on that side of the river was the tree of life…”

The tree of life in the garden indicates that God’s desire is to be life to man. God’s desire is not to save man from sinning (although that does happen) because there was no sin when God put man in the garden with the tree of life. God’s desire to be life to man is so that man can express God. God redeemed man from sin and forgives us of every sin to cleanse us so that we may receive Him as life and thereby express Him.

Due to the fall of man in Genesis 3, it was not possible for Old Testament people to receive God as their life. But in the New Testament, Christ has redeemed us and has released the divine, uncreated, eternal, boundless life for us to receive. Now we can believe into Him and declare “Christ is our life” (Colossians 3:4).

Humanly, when we are born we have the human life. Then we need to eat multiple times per day to receive the life supply to live. Likewise, when we are born again, we have the eternal life. Then we need to receive the daily supply so that we may live this life. In John 6:57 the Lord told us, “he who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me.” The tree of life in New Jerusalem shows that even in eternity we will eat of Jesus and live because of Him.

Related posts:
God presents Himself to Man as the Tree of Life
Christ as the Reality of the Tree of Life
The Tree of Life is Available Today
Christ is Our Tree of Life

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by Don on May 8, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in River of Life and Tree of Life, Old Testament pictures
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Posted by Don on May 8, 2013

http://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2013/05/08/the-tree-of-life-in-the-garden-and-the-city/

The Triune God Flowing to Us

Triune God flows to manIn Revelation 22:1-2a John says, “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. And on this side and on that side of the river was the tree of life, producing twelve fruits, yielding its fruit each month.” Here the Triune God is flowing as the supply of eternal life to man.

God the Father is the source, the Son is the embodiment of all that God is (Colossians 2:9), and the Spirit comes to dwell in man with the reality of all that God in Christ is and has accomplished (John 14:17). The Triune God flowing to man, seen in Revelation 22, is also in 2 Corinthians 13:14, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”

The note* on this verse in the Recovery Version begins,

The grace of the Lord is the Lord Himself as life to us for our enjoyment (John 1:17 and note 1; 1 Cor. 15:10 and note 1), the love of God is God Himself (1 John 4:8, 16) as the source of the grace of the Lord, and the fellowship of the Spirit is the Spirit Himself as the transmission of the grace of the Lord with the love of God for our participation. These are not three separate matters but three aspects of one thing, just as the Lord, God, and the Holy Spirit are not three separate Gods but three “hypostases … of the one same undivided and indivisible” God (Philip Schaff).

The note continues:

The love of God is the source, since God is the origin; the grace of the Lord is the course of the love of God, since the Lord is the expression of God; and the fellowship of the Spirit is the impartation of the grace of the Lord with the love of God, since the Spirit is the transmission of the Lord with God, for our experience and enjoyment of the Triune God — the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, with Their divine virtues.

After reviewing the revelation in multiple books of the Bible, the note concludes:

Thus, it is evident that the divine revelation of the trinity of the Godhead in the holy Word, from Genesis through Revelation, is not for theological study but for the apprehending of how God in His mysterious and marvelous trinity dispenses Himself into His chosen people, that we as His chosen and redeemed people may, as indicated in the apostle’s blessing to the Corinthian believers, participate in, experience, enjoy, and possess the processed Triune God now and for eternity.

Abundant thanks and praise to our Triune God for flowing to us for our experience and enjoyment both now and eternally in New Jerusalem.

* Read the entire note in The NT Recovery Version Online, © 1997-2012 by LSM

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by Don on December 15, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on December 15, 2012

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Christ is the Abundant Life Supply, Now and in New Jerusalem

Revelation 22:2a  says, “And on this side and on that side of the river was the tree of life, producing twelve fruits, yielding its fruit each month.” Christ is the reality of the tree of life and He feeds us with Himself as our eternal life supply. In Revelation 22 the richness and variety of this supply are proclaimed by the twelve fruits and by the fruit every month. The twelve fruits, which match the other “twelves” of New Jerusalem, demonstrate that the tree of life is the proper and eternal supply for New Jerusalem. The fruits every month declare the continuity of Christ as our eternal life supply.

Christ is our rich supply both now and in New Jerusalem. The abundance of the fruits of the tree of life match the abundance in Matthew 14 where the Lord used five loaves and two fish to feed 5000 men plus women and children. The disciples then gathered twelve baskets of pieces that were left over. This is a picture of the Lord as the abundant supply for our living Him (John 6:57). Here each loaf blessed by the Lord fed 1000 men and yet there were twelve baskets left over. This shows that the Lord is more than sufficient for our life supply. Praise Him!

The feeding of the 5000 is recorded in all four gospels. In John 6:1-15 we learn that the five loaves were of barley. As the first ripe grain in Palestine, it is a picture of resurrection. Putting all this together, we have Christ as the overflowing and eternal life supply in resurrection for New Jerusalem, a city in resurrection. Wonderful. Again, praise Him!

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by Don on April 3, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on April 3, 2012

http://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2012/04/03/christ-is-the-abundant-life-supply-now-and-in-new-jerusalem/

Eat Him to Live Him

Jesus said, “He who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me” (John 6:57). This is our present and on-going invitation to eat of the tree of life. In John 6:57, the outcome of eating Jesus is living Him. His desire is not that we, in our own strength, follow His example as people separated from Him. Neither is His intention that we, by our natural life, do what we think He would do in various situations. He told us that He is “the bread of God who comes down out of heaven and gives life to the world” (6:33). His coming as the bread of life is the tree of life coming to us that we may daily eat and daily live because of Him.

Jesus Christ is not our role model nor is He someone we should imitate by our efforts. He came to give us life, to be our life, to live in us, and to live Himself through us. In addition to John 6, we read:
•   our life is hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3)
•   Christ our life (Colossians 3:4)
•   Christ lives in me (Galatians 2:20)
•   to me, to live is Christ (Philippians 1:21)
Christ lives within us and our living is joined with His living. Therefore, the outcome is not a living that is like His or similar to His; the outcome of eating Him is His living through us and our living because of Him. According to these verses, we should have such a living now. In addition, we will have such a living, although in a much greater scale, in the New Jerusalem. The entire city will drink the Spirit, the river of water of life, and eat Christ, the tree of life. The result will be a grand, corporate living out of the Triune God through redeemed, regenerated, and glorified humanity.

Bible verses quoted in these posts are from The Holy Bible, Recovery Version, published and copyrighted by Living Stream Ministry, Anaheim CA, 2003. The New Testament of this Bible, with its outlines, footnotes, and cross-references, may be viewed at online.recoveryversion.org; this too is copyrighted by Living Stream Ministry.

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by Don on April 1, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on April 1, 2012

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Come to Christ, Hold Christ

Revelation 22:1-2 presents to us “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. And on this side and on that side of the river was the tree of life, producing twelve fruits, yielding its fruit each month.” In New Jerusalem, as in the new man, Christ is “all and in all” (Colossians 3:10-11). Christ is the life, He is on the throne as the Lamb, in Him we have the golden divine nature, and He is the tree producing abundant fruits.

The prior post shows the contrast in Colossians between Christ and many other things which, in the human realm, may be highly regarded. However, they distract us from Christ and defraud us from growing in Him. Two stanzas from a hymn (music) by Witness Lee about Christ as the one reality of all:
___Christ is our real God, our real Lord,
______Christ is our real life, our real light;
___Christ is our real food, our real drink,
______Our real clothing, and our real might.
___Christ also is the one reality
______Of all our doctrine and theology;
___And all our scriptural knowledge without Him
______Is just in letter and is vanity.

This is hymn 496 from Hymns, © 2001 by Living Stream Ministry

The last two lines were exactly the case with the Jewish leaders. They had much scriptural knowledge but would not come to Christ for life (John 5:39-40) and rejected Him as the stone for God’s building (Matthew 21:42). We, in contrast, should daily hold to Christ our life (Colossians 2:19; 3:4) and come to Him the living stone (1 Peter 2:4-5) for our building up in Him throughout our Christian life now and unto New Jerusalem.

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by Don on March 29, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on March 29, 2012

http://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2012/03/29/come-to-christ-hold-christ/

Full Grown in Christ our Life

Revelation 22:1-2 declares, “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. And on this side and on that side of the river was the tree of life, producing twelve fruits, yielding its fruit each month.” Like much in Revelation, the river and tree are spiritual signs. The Spirit is the real river of water of life and Christ is the real tree of life. For our Christian life, we need to focus on Christ and the Spirit.

The Colossians were distracted from Christ and from a direct relationship with Him by many things, including philosophy, traditions, rituals, self-generated lowliness, and ascetic practices (v. 2:8-23). To be occupied with these things is to be “carried off as spoil” and “not according to Christ” (v. 8), is caring for shadows rather than Christ (v. 17), and causes us to be “defrauded” (v. 18). May we not be distracted by so many things. Instead, let us appreciate all that we have in Him (v. 2:10), thank Him for all that He accomplished in His death (v. 2:11-15), live together with Him (v. 2:13), hold Him as our Head (v. 2:19), live in the reality of our death and burial in Him (v. 12, 20), and seek and set our mind on the things where Christ is (v. 3:1-2). By these practices we will all become “full-grown in Christ” (v. 1:28). Such growth unto maturity will bring us into the reality of New Jerusalem.

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by Don on March 27, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on March 27, 2012

http://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2012/03/27/full-grown-in-christ-our-life/

Come to Jesus for Life

In Revelation 22:1-2 is the “river of water of life” and “on this side and on that side of the river” is “the tree of life.” In John 5:40 Jesus emphasized, “come to Me that you may have life.” He has come to be our life; now we need to come to Him. The key words here and in several prior posts are “Christ” and “life.”

Christ as our life is the focus both in New Jerusalem and on the way now to New Jerusalem. Our need is to come to Christ for life initially and for the supply to grow in life continually. At their initial salvation the Corinthian believers were “enriched in Him, in all utterance and all knowledge” (v. 1:5) yet they were babes in Christ (v. 3:1). Their need was not more knowledge but spiritual milk for growth in life (v. 3:2). Likewise, in John 5:39-40 the Jews were searching the Scriptures. The Lord did not rebuke their searching; rather, He rebuked them for not coupling their searching with coming to Him.

New Jerusalem, as the conclusion of the New Testament, is a city of life with God and Christ on the throne and the Spirit flowing as a river to distribute Christ as the life supply. Although God does desire that all men come to the full knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy 2:4), this is not apart from Christ, who is the truth, and is in a book that concludes with an exhortation to “lay hold on that which is really life” (6:19). To lay hold on that which is really life is to eat Christ as our present tree of life.

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by Don on March 25, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on March 25, 2012

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His Availability and Our Cooperation

Revelation 22:2  declares, “And on this side and on that side of the river was the tree of life.” From the time Christ rose and unto eternity in New Jerusalem, He is the real food for us as the reality of the tree of life. The prior post presented His steps of incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection, by which become available as food to us. This availability is depicted by the tree of life on both sides of the river of water of life.

Although He is available, we still need to come to Him. John 6 speaks often about “he who eats” (active), but never about “he who is fed” (passive). John 6:37, 44, and 45 speak about our coming to the Lord. In the same way, Hebrews 4 encourages us to “come forward with boldness to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace for timely help” (v. 16). Our Lord is merciful and full of grace for us (John 1:14) but we must cooperate by coming forward with boldness. Our boldness is neither in nor of ourselves but is because of what He has accomplished and what He is as our “great High Priest” (Heb. 4:14). The more we look at Him the more we will be emboldened to come forward. Hebrews 12:2 urges us to look “away unto Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith.” A note on this verse says,

The wonderful Jesus, who is enthroned in heaven and crowned with glory and honor, is the greatest attraction in the universe. He is like an immense magnet, drawing all His seekers to Him. It is by being attracted by His charming beauty that we look away from all things other than Him. Without such a charming object, how could we look away from so many distracting things on this earth?

(The note is from online.recoveryversion.org; copyrighted by Living Stream Ministry.)


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by Don on March 23, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on March 23, 2012

http://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2012/03/23/his-availability-and-our-cooperation/

The Tree of Life is Available Today

Revelation 22:2 declares, “And on this side and on that side of the river was the tree of life, producing twelve fruits, yielding its fruit each month…” In John 6 Jesus presented Himself as the bread of life for us to eat. Today, He is the reality of the tree of life as our daily food supply. We should not dream about a future tree of life in New Jerusalem; we can come to Him today!

The tree of life being on both sides of the river of water of life emphasizes the availability of the tree of life. Jesus has become available to all men through the steps revealed in John 6. Verse 33 says, “the bread of God is He who comes down out of heaven” and verse 51 says, “I am the living bread which came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he shall live forever.” This “coming down” is incarnation. In verses 53-56 flesh and blood are separated. This occurred in the Lord’s death (John 19:34). In verse 56 the Lord told us that the person who eats Him “abides in Me and I in him.” This mutual abiding is only possible in resurrection (John 14:20).

The whole scope of John 6 shows us that through His incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection, the Lord became available to all men. Based on the blood shed for forgiveness, He is now receivable by all men as life. This receiving of life and the daily life supply is portrayed in John 6 by bread and flesh and in Revelation by the tree of life. The tree of life shows that even in New Jerusalem in eternity we will continue to receive the Lord as our life supply.

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by Don on March 21, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Characteristics of New Jerusalem, Life and New Jerusalem, River of Life and Tree of Life
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Posted by Don on March 21, 2012

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Jesus said, “He Who Eats Me, He Also Shall Live Because of Me”

In Revelation 22:1-2 “the tree of life” is found “on this side and on that side of the river.” The tree of life with its fruits for us to eat is our life supply. The two prior posts showed that Christ is the reality of the tree of life. To eat Christ (John 6) is to eat the tree of life.

In John 6:57 Jesus said, “He who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me.” In order to live the Christian life, we must eat Jesus. Some of His disciples thought that this was a hard word (John 6:60). Jesus responded, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life” (v. 63). “The flesh profits nothing” indicates that eating Jesus is not physical. Eating Jesus is a spiritual matter; “it is the Spirit who gives life.” Furthermore, eating Jesus involves the words which He speaks to us, words which “are spirit and are life.”

The words in John 6:63 are very similar to 2 Corinthians 3:6 about “ministers of a new covenant, ministers not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” We need to come to the Bible with our human spirit, so that through the pages of the Bible we may touch the Spirit who gives life. This is the way for us to eat the tree of life today.

For more on contacting the life-giving Spirit through the Bible, I recommend the booklet “Pray-Reading the Word” by Witness Lee, which is also available for online reading. In addition, see the prior posts tagged Christ the living word and word and spirit.

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by Don on March 19, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on March 19, 2012

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