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Verse:“But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!’ ” —Luke 15:17
The story of the prodigal son is one of the great stories of the Bible. A son is desperate to receive his share of his father’s wealth, so he asks for his inheritance while his father is still living. The son then goes to a far country and squanders all he has before deciding to return home and throw himself upon his father’s mercy.
Most recitations of the story explain that the father in the story represents our heavenly Father, who patiently waited for his beloved son to return after he walked away from the family farm. Which, of course, cannot possibly be true.
While undoubtedly well-intentioned, this version of the famous Bible story portrays God as waiting back at the family farm while His children are lost out in the world. An accurate retelling of this story would have the son leaving for the bright lights of the big city while the Holy Spirit appealed to the boy every step of the way.
Through the agency of the Holy Spirit, heaven did all it could to persuade the prodigal to remember the God of his youth. The Holy Spirit was present every time the young man woke up with a pounding headache after a night of partying and every time he squandered his money on yet another wasteful purchase.
And the Spirit of God urged the young man to return home.
Feeding swine in order to eke out a living, the young man “came to himself.” That is, the voice of the Holy Spirit finally broke through the young man’s tough exterior. While mud squeezed up between the toes of the reluctant pig farmer, the Holy Spirit impressed upon him the claims of the love of God, and finally, he relented and repented. If you are burdened for unsaved family or friends, know that God is at this moment doing all He can to reach them for eternity.
You can be grateful today that God doesn’t leave anyone alone to come to their senses. Instead, He pleads with sinners through the agency of the Holy Spirit.
And if you have not given your life to Him, the Holy Spirit is pleading with you.