“The Spirit and the Bride Keep On Saying: ‘Come!’”

 
“The spirit and the bride keep on saying: ‘Come!’ . . . Let anyone thirsting come; let anyone that wishes take life’s water free.”—REV. 22:17.
 
WHAT place should Kingdom interests occupy in our lives? Jesus urged his followers to ‘keep on seeking first the kingdom,’ assuring them that if they did so, God would supply what they needed. (Matt. 6:25-33) 

He compared the Kingdom of God to a pearl so valuable that upon finding it, a traveling merchant “sold all the things he had and bought it.” (Matt. 13:45, 46) Should we not attach the utmost importance to the Kingdom-preaching and disciple-making work?
 
 As we saw in the two preceding articles, our speaking with boldness and our using the Word of God skillfully in the ministry demonstrate that we are directed by God’s spirit. That spirit also plays an important part in our having a regular share in the Kingdom-preaching work. Let us see how.
 
An Open Invitation!
 
 An open invitation has been extended to humans by means of holy spirit. (Read Revelation 22:17.) The invitation is to “come” and satisfy one’s thirst with a very special type of water. It is not ordinary water composed of two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen. 

Though literal water is essential for sustaining life on earth, Jesus had in mind a different type of water when he said to a Samaritan woman at a well: “Whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never get thirsty at all, but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water bubbling up to impart everlasting life.” (John 4:14) The extraordinary water that humans are invited to partake of imparts everlasting life.
 
 The need for such water of life arose when the first man, Adam, joined his wife, Eve, in disobeying the very one who created them—Jehovah God. (Gen. 2:16, 17; 3:1-6) 

The first couple were expelled from their garden home “in order that [Adam] may not put his hand out and actually take fruit also from the tree of life and eat and live to time indefinite.” (Gen. 3:22) As progenitor of humankind, Adam subsequently introduced death into the entire human race. (Rom. 5:12) 

The water of life represents all of God’s provisions for recovering obedient humans from sin and death and giving them unending perfect life in Paradise on earth. At the very root of these provisions is the ransom sacrifice of Jesus Christ.—Matt. 20:28; John 3:16; 1 John 4:9, 10.
 
 Who originates the invitation to come and “take life’s water free”? When all the provisions for life through Jesus become fully available to mankind during Christ’s Millennial Reign, they are portrayed as “a river of water of life, clear as crystal.” That river is seen as “flowing out from the throne of God and of the Lamb.” (Rev. 22:1) Jehovah the Life-Giver is, therefore, the Source of the water containing life-giving elements. (Ps. 36:9) 

He is the One who makes that water available through “the Lamb,” Jesus Christ. (John 1:29) This symbolic river is Jehovah’s means to undo all the harm brought upon mankind by Adam’s disobedience. Yes, Jehovah God is the Originator of the invitation to “come.”