What is the chief result of a disciple’s life? The very same result that characterized the life of Christ—He made things live. The Nile is called the breadbasket of Egypt because it changes barren deadness into living greenness. God sends us disciples into a spiritually arid waste and expects us to leave it fertile and green. Ezekiel’s river of blessing began at the altar and traveled down through brown deadness, but what a result! Everywhere the river went, everything lived (Ezekiel 47:9).
Have you ever noticed the sharp contrast of Hebrews 11? Against a bleak background of death, those men and women of faith created life. Look at Abraham: From this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky (Hebrews 11:12, NIV). The deadness of Abraham’s body was the beginning of a miracle—by faith. That is how Jesus lived. He constantly touched dead people, spiritually as well as physically, and made them live.
Greenness is the test of a disciple. Is my path strewn with people whom I have touched into life? Worldly men can coerce others into conformity, but the man of God can ignite them into spontaneous, living obedience. But only—how important!—if the disciple himself is in direct touch with Him who is life. Do the signs of life follow me—healed wounds, enlightened minds, neutralized self, reborn souls, purified relationships, contained evil, and an atmosphere charged with the glory of God?
Lord, my purpose in life is to make the land live, but only as You, the Prince of life, live out Your life in me! Thank You for that heartening promise, I will put My Spirit within you, and you will come to life (Ezekiel 37:14). Then, Lord, make the land around me live also.
And he will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither; and in whatever he does, he prospers (Psalm 1:3).
Daily with the King 