Wilderness Survival GuideSample

SURVIVAL TIP #5 — DRINK WATER

Hydration is essential to survive a natural wilderness — It is also essential to survive a supernatural wilderness. Just as drinking clean water is urgent in hot, dry weather, we must drink in God’s presence during desert seasons. Our refreshment in the wilderness is God’s presence, and God’s presence is the Holy Spirit. Just as the Holy Spirit is our comfort, shelter, and fire, so also is He, like water, the essence of life for our whole being. 

Scripture often relates the Holy Spirit to water and if God’s “liquid” presence is the Spirit, how then can we remain “hydrated” by the Spirit’s presence while crossing a dry spiritual landscape? We do this by praying in the Spirit (Ephesians 6:18 and Jude 20-21). 

We pray in the Spirit when we connect with His presence, partner with His leading, and permit Him to empower our prayers. The important thing is to allow His expressions — His feelings and “language” — to mesh with our feelings and language. That is praying in the Spirit. 

The Spirit expresses Himself through us in several ways. He praises and thanks God with many different kinds of songs, groans too deep for words, He may cry out with a childlike need for God as our “Abba” (Galatians 4:6), or declare Christ’s Lordship. My point is this, praying in the Spirit means getting close to Him, sensing His mood, hearing His voice, and cooperating with His specific expression in any given moment.