ISAIAH 55:7 - "Returning To The Lord"

"I will arise and go to my Father, and will say unto Him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before Thee, And am no more worthy to be called Thy son: make me as one of Thy hired servants." (Luke 15:18 & 19) When we return to the Lord, we need not, nor should we make a new covenant with God; that would be like making a New Years resolution; and as soon as you have broken it, you have failed; which of coarse makes it easier to fail again, and again. God has already established His covenant with us, and guess what?, He does not fail; ever! Just like every letter to the churches in Revelation, Jesus declares a covenant with anyone who overcomes; this is a promise from God to us. We can not make promises to God, Why? Because we are fallible, (for you in Shasta Lake, that means likely to fail); we are not promise keepers, as the story goes. Many may think that they can, and many have made many promises and kept some; but none of us can keep ourselves from falling. It is only God that can remain pure, because He is Holy; so what we must come to realize is that He is our Holiness, and there is really nothing that we can do to achieve Holiness. Instead, we must walk in the Spirit of God, day by day, depending upon Him for His Holiness to be bright enough to burn off all that is not of Him in our lives; this might be why God's Spirit is called the Holy Spirit; but in order to perform this function in our lives, we must be yielded and surrendered. If we look at this story given by Jesus, which is referred to as the 'Prodigal Son', that word prodigal means wasteful; wasteful of what? Maybe we should first understand from where the son had been; what was the Father's house in the first place? What was the inheritance that the son wasted? This is not a parable, this is a lesson; there is a difference between the two, and with this lesson, I believe Jesus is giving instruction on what, and how the Holy Spirit should be valued in our lives. You may believe differently, that it is just a story of someone backsliding, or going wayward; that is also true, but remember, I am talking about, and have been talking all along about those who serve God. We are to be walking in obedience to what the Holy Spirit speaks into our lives, and when we do not, we are this Prodigal Son. How does that work, you may ask? Okay, the first thing that we must always remember is that we are not who we think we are; what we see is not who we are. You might have just blinked, but what I am talking about is in the spiritual realm. Our eternal soul is really what matters in the long run, so that is what we must be focused on; it will be living on and on for eternity; this body that we groom everyday, will only be around for a short while. So, as we now look at this prodigal son, which wasted his inheritance on worldly pleasures, what now do you see that he wasted? Remember what Jesus said to the woman at the well in John chapter 4, "God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in Truth". There is another place other than the one in which we see, and it is real, and it is Holy; that place is already present, now...I mean right now! When Jesus said, "I go and prepare a place for you", do you think He meant that it would be ready by the time you get there, or that He has already made it for you? That was not a rhetorical question; it should require some thought. Heaven has already been established, and when we walk not in the fullness of God's Holy Spirit, then we are wasting our inheritance. But God; I love that; BUT GOD...I can do that all day...But God, is able and He is willing; actually, He is waiting for us to return to Him. To quit eating out of the swine feed and serving other masters, and to return to Him for some good food and comfort. He will place a ring upon our finger, put His best robe upon us and put shoes on our feet; because He delights in us to be home; where is Home? That was rhetorical... "But the Father said to His servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it, and let us make merry: For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry." (Luke 15:22-24)