Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river. Their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail. Every month they will bear fruit, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing (Ezekiel 47:12 NIV).
Did you notice something amazing in our opening verse? It talks about the water coming from the sanctuary, and it says because the water flowing to the trees is coming from the sanctuary, their leaves won’t wither and their fruit won’t fail. The trees would bear fruit every month, and their fruit would serve for food, and their leaves for healing.
This is extraordinary, because it’s about us: we’re the temple of the Holy Ghost; we’re God’s sanctuary: “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16). With the Holy Ghost in you, you’re a living sanctuary unto God. In John 7:37-38, the Lord Jesus said, “…If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.”
He said out of your belly shall flow rivers of living water. How can these rivers flow out of your belly? It’s because you have drunk of the Holy Ghost! The day you received the Holy Spirit, you drank of Him; you drank of the Spirit of life. Remember, He’s the life-giver; so, today, when you speak, life comes out of you. The rivers of living water come out of you in words—words of life. Jesus said, “…the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63).
The words that we speak, having drunk of the Holy Ghost, are spirit and life. They issue from the sanctuary—our recreated human spirit—where God dwells, and everything the waters touch, comes to life! Any dead thing in its path receives life. No wonder we’re called life-givers, for we’re born of the life-giving Spirit. Hallelujah!
Pastor Chris Oyakhilome.
