Winter
2005
Finding
The True Fountain of Life
Seeley Kinne
Contact the Lord and spend time with Him, and you will become
like Him. The closer the contact, the more you partake of
His nature. He is such a fountain of life that He imparts
life to all who approach Him. This “imparting”
power is in Jesus Christ.
“Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.”
James 4:8a
“When He shall appear (draw nigh), we shall be like
Him; for we shall see Him as He is.” I John 3:2b
There are varying degrees of fellowship and experience with
God, as is taught by many Scriptural illustrations, such as
the Outer Court, the Holy Place, and the Holy of Holies in
the Tabernacle; the High Priest, the Priests, and the Levites
in Israel; the three within the twelve disciples; the thirty-sixty-hundred
fold.
“But in a great house there are not only vessels of
gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some
to honor, and some to dishonor.” II Timothy 2:20
The kingdom of God is indeed a great house, in which are
many vessels varying in quality, capacity, rank, and order.
Our “placement” in His kingdom requires of us
an extensive and particular course of preparation. A part
of this is the development within us of a quality prophetic
capacity.
“Prophecy” is the utterance of one who has developed
this prophetic quality; one who partakes of God, of His Divine
nature; eats the flesh and drinks the blood of Christ, the
true bread of God.
True prophecy is God speaking by the mouth of man, yet it
is more than that.
“The words that I speak to you, they are spirit, and
they are life.” John 6:63b
The prophetic word is “spirit” words, which are
brought down to the human level to become words of life to
the hearer.
“For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power.”
I Corinthians 4:20
“And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing
words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit
and of power.” I Corinthians 2:4
To merely speak the words of divine truth apart from an experiential
knowledge of them is to be as a Pharisee, of whom Jesus said,
“They say and do not.”" The Words of the
Almighty are full of life and power. Christ has nothing in
common with Pharisees.
For the Son of God to become the Saviour of men, He first
became the man Jesus Christ: a babe in a manger, a boy in
the temple, a man from Nazareth who was a carpenter, baptized
of John. He received witness of His Father from heaven through
a voice saying, “This is My beloved Son in whom I am
well pleased,” as the Holy Spirit, in the form of a
dove, descended upon Him. One would suppose that His ministry
would begin at once, but instead, “Jesus was led by
the Spirit into the wilderness, being forty days tempted of
the devil.”
Jesus must know the vicissitudes and sufferings of man with
the various attacks, insinuations, and temptations of Satan,
so malicious and painful.
“For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched
with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points
tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” Hebrews 4:15
Not only did Christ personally meet and vanquish Satan, but
He dwelt among the people. He met and shared their temptations,
trials, problems, and sufferings. He ate with the publicans
and sinners. He was too familiar with the common people to
suit the religious leaders of that time. They had theories
to promulgate, but He had spirit, life, and power, to impart.
And He came to know, not by observation, but by experience,
our afflictions and heartaches, that He might become a merciful
and faithful high priest.
When Jesus spoke, it was the anointed prophetic word, gracious,
full of spirit, life, and power. The dead came to life, lepers
were cleansed, the lame leaped, the blind saw, and life sprang
up wherever His Word came. For He not only spoke the Word,
He had compassion. He felt, He knew, He experienced and lived
in the life of the articulated Word. This is the mystery -
that Jesus not only spoke the Word, He was the Word (John
1:1-5).
Jesus said, “I proceeded forth and came from God”
(John 8:42). He proceeded as the living Word from the Father,
and came forth into the world as a messenger sent by the Father.
This procession of the Word, from the Father through the
Son, is a most profound mystery; and can be rightly understood
only as God reveals it. That same infinite power that is in
God, the Almighty Father, and in Christ, the Almighty Son,
is in their spoken proceeding Word. Nothing of it can fail.
“For ever, O Lord, Your Word is settled in heaven.”
Psalms 119:89
And so of Jesus, the God-man, not only does the fullness
of the Godhead dwell bodily in Him, but the fullness of man
also. Jesus not only knew us by observation and discernment,
but He participated in our thoughts and feelings, partook
of our human (un-fallen) nature, and became a sharer in our
joys and sorrows, our pleasures and pains, and all our vicissitudes:
a merciful and faithful high priest, in all points tempted
and tried, yet without sin.
We then are to become His ministers, and share the eternal
Word in its being spoken forth. This procession, or coming
forth of the Word does not end with the Son; but the “Word
of God was preached of Paul,” the early Church, and
onward through us (Acts 17:13, 19:20).
He who proclaims the Word of God must first partake thereof
himself; he must eat the book – “The husbandman
must first be partaker of the fruit.” He cannot speak
the Word mechanically as a mere machine, like Balaam’s
dumb ass. He first shall enter into its fellowship, and experience
its meaning and life. This is a living essential truth, which
lies at the foundation of the prophetic Word of God. It cannot
be evaded without our becoming pharisaical.
“Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all
wisdom.” Colossians 3:16a
“In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus
stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come to
Me, and drink. He that believes on Me, as the Scripture has
said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.”
John 7:37-38
To become a “co-worker” with the Lord in dispensing
the quickened, anointed Word of God is a most exalted ministry.
But it requires being a partaker of the Word before one can
become a dispenser thereof.
Natural water carries, in solution, the elements of food.
The water-of-life is the Spirit of Christ carrying the Word
of God, His words and gifts. One who is prophetic becomes
a dispenser of this living Word, and its miracle effects.