When your car battery has died, which do you prefer, a tow or a jump-start?  A tow doesn’t fix anything; it just moves you to a new place.  A jump-start, on the other hand, brings your car back to life.  Most people treat God like a tow truck operator, calling on HIm when they are stuck, hoping He will get them to where they want to go.  But what He has in mind is a jump.  Not a temporary jump-start but a permanent new, living flow of energy to keep you powered up and moving forever.

Back in Bible times, jump-starts were not common, but most folks had experienced what happens to a desert after a good soaking rain.  Miraculously, the glaring, hot sand is transformed into a lush bed of flowers.  That’s why God told Isaiah to say it like this:

³ For I will pour water on the thirsty land,
and streams on the dry ground;
I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring,
and my blessing on your descendants.
⁴ They will spring up like grass in a meadow,
like poplar trees by flowing streams. (Isaiah 44:3-4)

We humans were designed to have the Spirit of God living within our souls.  Without that Spirit we are as dead as cell phones with no signal.  God’s jump-start connects us to His Spirit, a gift that comes to all who put their trust in Jesus.  It’s not a temporary tow.  It’s eternal life.