«　WEEK 6　DAY 5　»

　　Exo. 17:6 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…

　　John 19:34 …One of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately there came out blood and water.

　　7:38 He who believes into Me, as the Scripture said, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.

　　The work of the apostles is the work of death operating in them so that life may operate in the believers [2 Cor. 4:12]. The result of this operation of death is wonderful—it is life in others… In the Lord’s recovery we need to die so that life may work in others. Hence, our dying is our working. The Lord does not need you to accomplish a work for Him. He needs you to die. If you die, life will work in others. You will minister life to others by dying. Therefore, our work is to be put to death. The apostles were not followers of a great person, but of a small man, Jesus of Nazareth. Furthermore, instead of being exalted, they were always being put to death so that the life of Jesus could be manifested in their mortal flesh. (Life-study of 2 Corinthians, pp. 295-296)

　　You ask me how you can be used to minister life to the Body. Not by setting out deliberately to do a lot, nor indeed by running away into retirement and doing nothing, but simply by letting the Cross operate in the normal course of your walk with the Lord. Those who only serve by words and works find they have no ministry if at any time they are reduced to inactivity or silence. But the measure of your ministry is not determined by the measure of your activity… It is an abiding principle of the Body that “death worketh in us, but life in you.” So you need make no special effort to bring increase to the Body in this way, for anything God takes you through by way of the Cross will spontaneously bring increase there. (CWWN, vol. 40, “What Shall This Man Do?” p. 125)

　　If we would flow the water of life, we also need to be identified with the smitten Christ (Exo. 17:6; John 7:38). The smitten rock signifies the incarnated Christ in His crucifixion… On the cross Christ was smitten by God. We need to be identified with this smitten One. This means that our human life, our natural life, must be smitten so that the living water may flow… If we simply are one with the smitten Christ, identified with Him, we shall experience the crucifixion of our natural life. Then as Christ’s divine life flowed out as living water through the smiting of His human life, we also shall experience the flow of the water of life through the smiting of our natural life. Only when our natural life has been smitten will the divine life flow out from us.

　　If we speak without being identified with the smitten Christ, our speaking, even our praise and prayer, will be natural. We need to be one with Christ in a way that is actual and practical. Then we shall experience the smiting of the natural life which took place in Him and with Him at the time of His crucifixion. If we are identified with the smitten Christ…, the water of life will flow not in a natural way, but in a way that is pure, without mixture. Whatever issues from us in prayer, praise, or testimony will be the flow of the divine life in its purity.

　　When we are identified with Christ in His death, our natural, human life will be put to death. Then whatever flows out of us will be the very life of God, the divine, eternal life. This life is the water of life. If we are identified with the smitten Christ, what flows out from us will be pure. There will not be the mixture of the divine life with the natural life. By speaking and by being identified with the smitten Christ, we shall have…the rivers spoken of by the Lord Jesus in John 7:38. Rivers of living water will flow out from our innermost being. (Life-study of Exodus, pp. 527-528)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of 2 Corinthians, msgs. 30-35; CWWN, vol. 40, ch. 8; Life-study of Romans, msg. 44