The power of Paul's life was changing from that of his flesh and blood personality to the energy coming from the power of Christ. The result has been an unsurpassed revelation of God's Person and His will in Christ. In fact, Paul's letters have become Holy Scripture.

Isaiah (above) gives us a picture of the believer who continually is buffeted by the Lord until he is completely captured in God's will, God's rest.

God's Word is applied to us line upon line, rule upon rule, a little here, a little there, until we have been snared by the Lord. When we commence we do not realize this is what is going to happen to us. The Lord is very cunning as He draws us away from our self-life into the waters to swim in.

The theme of Paul's continual death and resurrection appears throughout the Book of Second Corinthians. Of note is the following:

We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. (II Corinthians 4:8-10—NIV)

Compare:

"So that they will go and fall backward, be injured and snared and captured."

"We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed."

Paul's natural adamic life was constantly being knocked down that the Life of Jesus might come forth. Paul was suffering the death of Jesus, the humiliation, rejection by the Jews, persecution, treachery, perplexity (why have You forsaken me?), the insults, the denial of the ordinary comforts and pleasures that people enjoy, the physical pain.

The result of such suffering was twofold: first, Paul's inward nature was growing in resurrection life; second, the Life of Jesus was being revealed in Paul's body. He was becoming a tree of life. To the present day we are experiencing the life found in the epistles of Paul, the eternal life present in his writings because of the crucifying of his natural life.

All true ministry and fruit-bearing proceeds from the individual who is being crucified with Christ and in whom the resurrected Christ is living.

It is our opinion that Ezekiel's Temple is a picture of the inward personality of the believer who has become a new creation in Christ. Whether or not such is the case, it is clear the river described in the forty-seventh chapter is the River of Life, the Holy Spirit that always and only flows from the Throne of Almighty God.

As the man went eastward with a measuring line in his hand, he measured off a thousand cubits and then led me through water that was ankle-deep. (Ezekiel 47:3—NIV)

When we first receive Christ as our Savior, His righteousness is ascribed (imputed) to us and on this basis we are given a portion of the Spirit. The Spirit of God comes only where there is righteousness, ascribed, or manifested in our behavior.

To be continued.