Christ is the elevated land. He is typified by the land resurrected from the death waters on the third day in Genesis 1 (vv. 9, 13). On the third day the land came out of the water; this land is the resurrected Christ. We live in Him, walk in Him, labor on Him, and then enjoy Him. We enjoy all the riches of life, the different aspects of life. Many different aspects of life came out of this elevated land in Genesis 1, showing that all the riches of life come out of the resurrected and ascended Christ. We just need to labor on Him and enjoy Him. The result, the issue, of this enjoyment of Christ is the building up of the church.

The Pharisees and the scribes learned the objective teachings of the Old Testament, but they were the ones who plotted to put the Lord on the cross. The Lord told the Jewish religionists that they searched the Scriptures, but they were not willing to come to Him that they might have life (John 5:39-40). To search the Bible for knowledge is one thing, but to come to the Lord to contact Him for life is another thing. The priests and the scribes had the knowledge concerning the birth of Christ, but they did not have the heart to seek after Christ as did the magi from the east (Matt. 2:1-12). The learned Gentiles, the magi, did not know the Scriptures concerning where Christ would be born, but they went to the newborn King.

The Christian life is not a matter merely of knowledge but a matter of eating. Do not merely consider the church meetings to be like a school. You have to take the church meetings as a restaurant. Do not come to the meetings just to learn, but come to eat, to feed on the Lord. People do not go to a restaurant just to learn how to read the menu. Whenever we go to a restaurant, we do not go for the menu. We just care for one thing—eating. Learn to eat the Lord. [145] Knowledge puffs up, but love in life builds up (1 Cor. 8:1). We have to learn how to enjoy the Lord. Strictly speaking, the Bible is not merely for us to learn but for us to eat. Man lives not only by bread but also by every word that proceeds out through the mouth of God (Matt. 4:4). The word from the mouth of God is our food, not merely knowledge or teachings.

All the Bible’s teachings are for Christ. The menu’s purpose is for eating. You should not take the menu as the eating itself. We have to be brought back from the distracting knowledge and the distracting teachings to this one thing—the enjoyment of the living Lord as the life-giving Spirit. Learn to deal with Him and to be dealt with by Him. Learn to contact Him. Learn to dwell upon Him. Learn to labor on Him. Then God’s purpose will be fulfilled. Then the desire of God will be attained. God’s desire for the temple, the dwelling place, the universal building for God to rest in, can be realized by our eating of the Lord, by having the Lord mingle Himself with us. There is only one way for the Lord to get into us and for Him to mingle Himself with us, and that is by our eating Him.

We have to keep the principle of the first mentioning in the Bible. After the creation of man, the first thing mentioned about the relationship between man and God is man’s eating. The first picture in the Bible shows us that God presented Himself to man in the form of food and that man had to learn how to eat of Him, how to take Him in, how to live by Him, and how to digest Him in order to have Him be man’s very constituent. By this matter of eating, God can attain His desire and fulfill His purpose.

THE LORD AS THE JUDGING FIRE, 
THE BREATHING AIR, AND THE FLOWING WATER

Also in the Old Testament there is a prophecy about the temple to come in the book of Ezekiel. In the book of Ezekiel there are three great chapters—chapter 1, chapter 37, and chapter 47. In chapter 1 there is fire (vv. 4, 27). In chapter 37 there is air or wind, breath, Spirit (vv. 9, 14). And in chapter 47 there is water (vv. 1-12). These are the three great chapters of Ezekiel, and the contents of this book depend on these three things: fire, air, and water, which are the Lord God Himself. Our God is a consuming fire, our God is the air, and our God is the water.

The first part of Ezekiel reveals to us how God is the fire to judge [146] by burning. God is a burning fire to burn away all things which do not correspond with His divine nature. After this burning, God came in to breathe. After the burning is the breathing. After the fire is the air. The air, the breath, is the divine Spirit. The air came into the dead and dry bones, which were under the judgment of the fire, to quicken them, to make them alive, and to give them all that they needed in order to constitute them into a body. The breath (Heb. ruach) put into these dead and dry bones signifies the very Spirit of God Himself (37:5-6, 14). The body comes from the air, from the breath, from the life-giving Spirit.

After the dead bones were made alive, they became three things: the body (vv. 7-8), the army (v. 10), and the dwelling place (vv. 26-28). The body lives for God, the army fights for God, and the dwelling place is for God to rest in. All the dead bones were constituted into a living body, and this living body became a fighting army. Eventually, this fighting army became the very resting place of God. When we can live with God and fight for God, we can be the resting place to God. The temple, the house of God, comes from the enjoyment of the Lord as life, as the life-giving Spirit. When we enjoy the Lord as the breathing element, we will become alive, we will grow, and we will be built up. Originally, we may have been pieces of bone, but now we can be built up as a body and formed as an army to become a dwelling place for God to rest in. This building, this temple, this house of God, comes out of the very enjoyment of God as our life.

Many Christians are indifferent to the things of the Lord and are worldly and even sinful, backsliding far away from the Lord. There are, however, some seeking ones among the Lord’s children who have been revived by the Lord and to a certain extent experience the Lord. But many of them have been distracted to pay their full attention to the study of the Word merely for the sake of gaining more knowledge. Teachings and knowledge could not make the dry bones in Ezekiel 37 alive. Do the dry bones need the teachings or the letter of the Word? No! They need the air; they need the breathing; they need the breath. And who is the air? God is the air; He is the ruach, the pneuma. What we need is this life-giving God, this life-giving Spirit.

Fire judges, consumes, and burns; air quickens, generates, energizes, strengthens, enriches, and builds. After the building was set up in Ezekiel, the water flowed out from the building to water others. Before the flowing out of the water in Ezekiel 47, there was a desert [147] everywhere with only death and dryness. But by the flow of this living water out of the house, every part was watered (vv. 8-9). Death was swallowed up, and life was ministered to all these dead, dry places. The book of Ezekiel reveals judgment by fire, quickening, life-giving, by air, and ministering by water. These three steps are still with us today in principle. We first have to be judged, to be burned by the Lord as fire. Then the Lord will be as the air to breathe upon us. By this breathing we will be quickened, regenerated, and we will grow up and be built up. After the building is set up, the living water will flow out to water us. The real content of the book of Ezekiel is the Lord as the judging fire, burning and consuming, the Lord as the breathing air, regenerating, strengthening, and building up, and the Lord as the flowing water, ministering Himself to the dry places. All this can only be possible by our eating of the Lord.