Then he brought me back to the door of the house; and behold, water was flowing from under the threshold of the house toward the east….
By the river on its bank, on one side and on the other, will grow all kinds of trees for food Their leaves will not wither and their fruit will not fail. They will bear every month because their water flows from the sanctuary, and their fruit will be for food and their leaves for healing.
— Ezekiel 47:1, 12
Wherever this river flows, things are made alive. This river bears a particular mark—the many trees “for food” that grow up because of it (Ezek. 47:12). In the churches, there is the need of many fruit-bearing trees to stand with the Lord for His testimony.
One of the characteristics of a tree is that it is not easily moved. I first saw this during the “storm” that broke against the church in a certain city in 1977. A number had gone to that city with the intention of destroying the church there. I was present when these brothers demanded that the leading ones leave the city. One of the brothers, however, simply said that if any of the saints felt to go, they were free to follow the Lord, but as for him, the Lord had led him there, and there he would stay. At that moment I realized what a tree was. Because that church had such “trees,” it was able to stand.
Genuine trees are produced in the divine flow. They become blessings to their localities, and their localities become fruitful. When a locality is short of such trees, I am very concerned. But when a brother rises up and is manifested as a tree, or a brother moves to a locality and becomes a tree there, then I can be restful, for I know then that the locality has someone who is standing there for the church life with the capacity to bear the needs of the church. When a nourishing tree is raised up in a locality, that locality is able to bear fruit and receive the Lord’s blessing. May we all become such trees by abiding in the Lord’s flow!
Adapted from The Reality of the Divine Stream, page 42.
Tomorrow: “The Churches’ Unique Aim: God’s Glory”