This planet is about to be transformed through an abundance of pure water. The deserts will bloom; the most desolate of land will become fertile, productive and habitable (Isaiah 35:1, 6-7). The beauty of the land and the scale of this transformation are hard for us to comprehend.
An important facet of these waters is the deep symbolism they have for all mankind. The transformative, life-giving effect of physical water points to something even more miraculous, which is the transformation that will occur in individuals and society as people are taught God’s ways, repent and begin drinking of God’s Holy Spirit, the real living water (John 7:37-39).
The power of God’s Holy Spirit will enable all people who choose God’s way to overcome sin, grow in God’s righteous character, and ultimately to be born into the God Family as perfect God beings.
As people start obeying God’s law and putting God’s Holy Spirit to work in their lives, they and their families, communities, cities and nations will become happy, joyful, peaceful and unified.
Revelation 22:17 paints a stunning prophetic picture: “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” This is speaking of a time in the far future, after 1,100 years of God freely offering salvation. And note: It specifically references “the bride,” speaking of the Bride of Jesus Christ! We will be directing people to those spiritual waters.
Throughout the fall holy days, God’s people are reminded of our role in this process of bringing all of mankind into a relationship with God. God emphasizes the importance of living water and its power to inspire us about the next stages of His master plan after the return of Christ. This also reminds us of the transformative power of His Holy Spirit and of our need to have an abundant flow of that Spirit in our lives today.
The Flow of God’s Spirit
Today is our time for transformation. We must be drinking of God’s Holy Spirit and putting it to work individually and in our marriages and families, working to become “a new creature,” transformed in our mind (2 Corinthians 5:17; Romans 12:2). Every day we need an abundant supply of God’s Holy Spirit so we can overcome and purify our lives, so God can build His righteous character in us and we can grow and thrive.
Herbert W. Armstrong explained that the Holy Spirit flows. Some days we have it in abundance—but if we neglect to secure our daily supply, it dwindles, like a pool of water dries up if it’s not replenished. “… Jesus said this power of God shall flow out from our innermost being! (John 7:38),” Mr. Armstrong wrote. “This power of God is active—dynamic! It is not static. You cannot get a supply of God’s Spirit and then bottle it up within you. This power comes into you from God daily! It circulates from God into you and then on out from you in love, in faith, in joy, in patience—even in performing miracles. You might have been imbued with this power yesterday and depleted of it today!” (Good News, February 1983).
Mr. Armstrong then explained how we must go back to God as the Source of that power and ask for more. The Apostle Paul explained the same thing in 2 Corinthians 4:16: We replenish the inner man day by day. Are we attaching enough importance to this admonition? Are we praying to God daily with sufficient energy and fervency to be imbued with His Holy Spirit? We wouldn’t normally think of going for a day without a drink of water. Do we think the same way about securing our daily supply of God’s Holy Spirit on our knees in prayer?
A Daily Supply of Water
In April 2010, National Geographic published an inspiring, thought-provoking article titled “The Burden of Thirst.” It really made me stop and think. It illustrates the effort we ought to put into our daily prayers to secure our supply of the Spirit.
The article told the story of a 25-year-old woman named Aylito, who lived in a mountainous area of Ethiopia in a village called Foro. The village had been built higher up in the mountains to avoid malaria. Their only source of water was the Toiro River, far below the village. Since the age of 8, Aylito had made the difficult journey three times a day down the slopes of the mountainside to collect water from the river.
The journey down to the river took 50 minutes. The path was difficult to negotiate, with steep rocky slopes and boulders. Aylito got up extremely early every day to make the first journey, setting out before dawn to avoid lines at the riverbank. She filled two large Jerry cans with 10 gallons of water, each weighing over 80 pounds. She carried these across her shoulders using a coarse rope that tied the two cans together. Carefully she had to climb the steep, difficult path back to the village carrying that life-giving water.
On her return to the village, the water was used for cooking, to provide liquids for her family, and to irrigate the small crop of cassava beans that she and her husband grew.
This was incredibly hard work, navigating rocky paths in bare feet, with each round trip taking up to three hours. But this effort brought life to her and her family. Without water, she, her family and their crops would have all died. So this daily trek was essential work, absolutely necessary for survival—a matter of life and death.
Our Daily Prayers
Reflect on the physical effort Aylito exerted to obtain life-giving water: Compare her strenuous dedication to the effort we need to invest in our prayers, renewing the inner man and securing our daily supply of God’s life-giving Holy Spirit.
Most of us can pray and replenish our supply of God’s Spirit in the comfort of our own homes. Still, we struggle sometimes to commit the time to this valuable task and to approach it with the energy and zeal we should. We don’t have to navigate treacherous paths carrying heavy weights. Yet in going through the process of prayer, God gives us something far more valuable than physical water: He gives His Spirit that enables us to build righteous character that surpasses the value and beauty of anything in the physical world. God gives us the power to fight, to endure, to overcome, to score victories.
If Aylito and the other women in her village would arise before dawn every day and make huge exertions to obtain physical water that has a temporary impact, how much more should we be willing, every single day, to get down on our knees first thing in the morning and to energetically seek God and our daily replenishment of His Holy Spirit.
At the Feast of Tabernacles, we are reminded that we are mere tabernacles. The only way for us to have an eternal future is to put God’s Spirit to work in our lives now. Our daily prayer plays an essential role in us securing our supply of that Spirit. We must work at it.
“It takes real effort to have those living waters flowing in our lives!” Mr. Flurry wrote. “If we don’t put forth that effort, it won’t be flowing” (Royal Vision, May-June 2012). He described the arduous work required to build Hezekiah’s Tunnel to bring water into the city of Jerusalem (2 Chronicles 32), and he used that as a picture of how hard we must labor for spiritual water. “If we’re going to get to that spring water, we have to dig—sometimes through solid rock. We have some rocky trials, but we must get the water! We must break through and drink from that Spirit of God. Don’t stop digging until you strike the water as Hezekiah did! 2 Chronicles 32 highlights how Isaiah and Hezekiah got down on their knees and prayed to God for victory. They were both doing everything they could, but they also called on God’s help” (ibid).
The holy days vividly picture how God will bring repentant mankind into His Family. The symbolism of water points to the abundant availability and transformative power of God’s Holy Spirit. These holy days should inspire us to double down in our efforts to secure our daily supply of God’s life-giving Spirit. We need to thirst after God’s Spirit every day and go after that living water in our prayers, exerting effort as if our lives depended on it—which they do!