Gather Yourselves By the Watergates
We all know what it is like to be very thirsty as a whole group of people. The first chance of drinking some water and everyone gathers around the water gate. Some of us work outside as a group and when it is time for a break everyone gathers around the water cooler. If a group of people are running in the warm weather, the first chance possible everyone will gather around a water fountain. If we are mowing the lawn or practicing sports, the first chance we get we want to quench our thirst and everyone will gather where the water is. Imagine living in the days where common religious practice involved human sacrifices and very many other atrocities to human beings! But, the nation of Israel had the Law of Moses, the Ten Commandments, to set them apart from such atrocities. However, it had been a while since the Word of God had been opened to them. What did they do? The people gathered in the streets by the water gates, in great numbers, and spoke to have the Word of God read to them, and it was read to them. Not only was it read to them, but the Ministers expounded on the Word so that it was clearly and easily understood. The people were filled with praise, joy, sweetness, and a feeling of victory!
The message here is to gather by the water gates! The water is the Word of God and the gate is the Cross of Christ! Christ is the Living Water and the Word of God! Those who believe will draw from the water of the springs of salvation as from his innermost being will flow rivers of life, from which he will never thirst again! Accepting the remission of the sin from the Cross of Christ will cause those waters to begin to flow. We need to gather ourselves by the water gate! We need to request the opening of the Word and to be filled with joy, praise, victory, and sweetness of the Holy Ghost. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is the Word of God made flesh, full of grace and Truth. The Three in Heaven are the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost; and His name is called the Word of God. We need to gather ourselves at the water gate! The original sin of Adam was to try to be equal to God, which in those self-efforts we think we have no need to open the Word by the Water Gate! Accepting what Christ did for us on the Cross nullifies that egotistical self-consciousness to give us a God consciousness. In our humility, we are filled with the Holy Ghost to enliven us with praise, joy, sweetness, and a feeling of victory. We need to gather ourselves at the Water Gate!
We are the Temple of God, a House where the Living Waters flow and the Word of God is alive within us! Satan wants to steal the Water and the Word, Satan wants to kill the Word of God that is in our heart, soul, and mind, and Satan wants to destroy the House of God. We need to gather ourselves at the Water Gate to be filled with the Word of God. What Christ did at the Cross defeats Satan, sin, and all his demons to reconcile the Temple of God back to God. We are the Temple of the Holy Ghost filled with praise, joy, sweetness, and a feeling of victory! There is a flood that comes when the Water Gate opens and that flood flushes out sin, the ways of the world, and Satan. Open the word and let the Waters flow in. We need to gather at the Water Gate.
“And all the people gathered themselves together as one man into the street that was before the water gate; and they spoke unto Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the LORD had commanded to Israel. And Ezra the priest brought the law before the congregation both of men and women, and all that could hear with understanding, upon the first day of the seventh month. And he read therein before the street that was before the water gate from the morning until midday, before the men and the women, and those that could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive unto the book of the law. And Ezra the scribe stood upon a pulpit of wood, which they had made for the purpose;….And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people; (for he was above all the people;) and when he opened it, all the people stood up: And Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God. And all the people answered, Amen, Amen, with lifting up their hands: and they bowed their heads, and worshipped the LORD with their faces to the ground. Also Jeshua, and Bani, and Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodijah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, and the Levites, caused the people to understand the law: and the people stood in their place. So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading.” Nehemiah 8:1-8