Ezekiel 47:8 says that the river flows toward the East Sea. According to the map, the East Sea is the Salt Sea or the Dead Sea. By the flowing of the river out of the house, the salt water of the Dead Sea will be healed. This means that death will be swallowed up by life. When there is a rich and deep flow of life in a local church, much death will be swallowed up by life. However, if there is no flow in a particular church, that church will become a “dead sea” full of salt. But if there is the flow of the river, deadness is swallowed up by life, and then the “dead sea” will be made alive.
Although the Dead Sea and the dry places can be made alive and deadness can be swallowed up by life, the marshes cannot be healed (v. 11). A marsh is a place that is neither dry nor flowing with water. Consisting partly of mud and partly of water, a marsh is neither wet nor dry. A marsh signifies a situation that is full of compromise. This means that wherever there is a compromising situation, there is a marsh. We should never become involved with any situation that is a “marsh.”
The Lord Jesus rebuked the church in Laodicea for being lukewarm and neither hot nor cold. He told those in Laodicea that they should be either hot or cold but not lukewarm. He also said that if they remained lukewarm, He would spew them out of His mouth (Rev. 3:15-16). To be lukewarm is to be in a compromising situation, to be in a marsh.
Our stand concerning the church must be absolute. If you stand in a denomination, you should stand absolutely. If you stand with an independent group, you should stand with that group absolutely. If you stand on the ground of the church, you must stand absolutely. You should be either cold or hot, but you should not be lukewarm. To be lukewarm is to be in a marsh. If you give up the denominations and the independent groups yet are not absolute for the proper ground of the church, you are in a marsh. It is possible for one to be in the church life without being absolute. Such a person is a marsh.
Not even the Lord can heal a marsh. A marsh is a neutral place, a halfway place, a place of compromise. Certain saints are neither in Babylon nor in Jerusalem but in a halfway place between Babylon and Jerusalem. This means that they are in a marsh and even that they are a marsh.
We need either to be absolutely in the flow or stay on dry ground. If we remain in a marshy or “muddy” situation, the Lord cannot do anything with us. It is very easy to get into a marsh, but it is very difficult to get out of one. The church must be in a place of absoluteness. Thus, for the church life we need to be absolute.
The church should also be a place after its kind. Genesis 1:11-12 says that the grass, the trees, and the herbs brought forth each after its own kind. An apple tree cannot bring forth an apple-peach. To bring forth an apple-peach, that is, for something not to be after its kind, is to be a marsh. A man must be a man and a woman must be a woman; no one can be a man-woman. If you are in a denomination, be there after your kind. If you are in an independent group, be there after your kind. Likewise, if a group of saints in a certain locality are the church in that locality, they must be the church after its kind.
If you are in the Lord’s recovery, be in the recovery absolutely, not halfway. Come back all the way from Babylon to Jerusalem. If you stop halfway, you will become a marsh, and you will not have any flow, not even a trickle. Rather, you will have just enough water to make you “muddy.” You will be a marsh, and a marsh cannot be healed. Throughout all my years in the Lord’s recovery, I have never seen a marsh that was healed.
In Revelation 22:11 the Lord Jesus says, “Let him who does unrighteousness do unrighteousness still; and let him who is filthy be filthy still; and let him who is righteous do righteousness still; and let him who is holy be holy still.” Here we see that the Lord Jesus desires and requires absoluteness. We must learn to be absolute. By being absolute we will be in the flow, and the flow will not be a trickle but a river to swim in. Then everything shall live where the river comes.