God’s very appearance is the separating factor of this wall [of New Jerusalem]. The more a local church is in the likeness of God, the more it is separated from the world and everything common. How do we acquire God’s likeness? We can acquire God’s likeness only by God’s life. If the life of God flows within us, we will be in His very likeness, and His likeness will be the separating power of the church….God’s life must flow within us so that we may bear His likeness without. This will cause the church to be separated from the common and worldly things, and at the same time this will protect us from so many injurious influences.*
The flow of God’s life is central in the Bible. It begins with the river in the garden of Eden, a picture of the river of water of life in New Jerusalem. It continues with the water flowing out of the smitten rock in Exodus 17 and Numbers 20. The river appears also in Psalm 36 and 46.
In Isaiah 12 we are urged to “draw water with rejoicing from the springs of salvation.” Isaiah 55 is the same; in this chapter the way to drink is to call on the name of the Lord, as in Romans 10:12-13. In Jeremiah 2 God is the fountain of living waters and in Ezekiel 47 a river flows out of the house of God “and everything shall live wherever the river comes.”
In John 4 and 7 and 1 Corinthians 12:13 there is the Spirit as living water for us to drink. The more we drink this water, the more God’s likeness, the likeness of the separating wall of New Jerusalem, is developed within us
* Excerpt from The Vision of God’s Building by Witness Lee, chapter 18, © LSM
More on the river and drinking: Take Freely the Water of Life