The ReturnSample

Return to Spirit Life

The Holy Spirit is the extraordinary gift we receive when we return to God. Before His crucifixion, Jesus promised His followers that He would send His Spirit to lead them into all truth (John 14:16–26), and we are the beneficiaries of that wondrous promise. God longs for us to seek His wisdom, consult Him, wait on Him, and then act on His plans for us. But without the help of His Spirit, we end up like the Israelites in Isaiah 30—coming up with our own disastrous ideas and alienating ourselves from God. Returning to God means receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit, who helps us to discern God’s truth and helps us not to waver once we’ve received God’s instruction. That kind of clarity and confidence is a tremendous blessing and gives us hope for a way forward.

Ironically, the Bible shows us we need to discipline ourselves to find rest in God (Hebrews 4:11), because entering into the ease Jesus promises isn’t always easy. It can feel like hard work, particularly in our noisy culture fraught with distractions. But the struggle to find time and space to rest is a battle worth fighting, because it’s in rest that we reconnect with God, our source of strength. Returning to God and living by the Spirit is an invitation to stop our efforts to save ourselves and rest in God’s ability to save us, help us, heal us, and protect us. Let’s return to God. He is waiting to welcome us and to give us the gift of the Holy Spirit, who leads us into all truth.