How you can be a source of life and health to others

Have you ever wondered why God has given you new life? Why did He save you, plant you, heal you, sustain you, bless you, and grow you?

Ezekiel gives us a profound picture in Ezekiel 47. And knowing this truth can make all the difference in how you see yourself. The Lord has actually made you to be a source of life and health to others.

“And on the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither, nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing” (Ezekiel 47:12).

John Gill says that this river illustrates the love of God. Ephesians 3:17-19 says we (like trees) are rooted in the love of God. The love of God is “the secret spring” that has been running “underground from all eternity.” The love of God has been “channeled through Christ.” Gill also says that these waters may also be “applied to the grace of the Spirit of God in regeneration and conversion; which is compared to water.” Water cleanses and refreshes “and this flows from the God of all grace through Christ… and becomes a well, yea, rivers of living water” (John 7:37-39).

This river first is a trickle. Then it flows deeper and deeper. Gill says, “This may signify the large spread of the Gospel in the latter day, when the earth shall be filled with it, as the waters cover the sea” (Isaiah 11:9).

We believers are the trees by this river, a “wonderful sight; an emblem of true Christians, believers, and regenerate persons, who are trees of righteousness, planted by the river of divine love; watered with the grace of God, and doctrines of the Gospel; whereby [we] become fruitful in good works” (Psalm 1:3; Isaiah 61:3).

This river pictures Jesus, the Living Water, and “is the spring of spiritual life to dead sinners… revives drooping saints, quickens [our] graces, [and] enlivens and cheers [our] spirits” (John 4:10, 14). Jesus gives life to everything He touches.

And so, we are “the trees of the Lord, trees of righteousness, good trees, that bring forth good fruit” (Isaiah 61:3, Psalm 92:12.) Our fruits, “which appears in [our] words and actions, are very beneficent to others; [our] fruit is a tree of life, (Proverbs 11:30) and [our] lips feed many” (Proverbs 10:21). We are sources of healing for others who need to meet the Great Physician (Psalm 107:20).

To God alone be the glory. We didn’t plant ourselves. He did. We don’t nourish ourselves, He does. We don’t bear fruit in and of ourselves. He’s the Source. We don’t heal anyone. He heals. But the Lord through us brings healing to others. This is amazing grace!

We are not nobodies! We are “the trees of the Lord, trees of righteousness, good trees, that bring forth good fruit!”

Questions: Will you thank God today that you are one of the trees He has planted? Will you sink your roots more and more deeply into the Lord? Will you ask Him to help you become more and more a source of spiritual food and health to others? Will you look for someone to bless today?