Embassy of the Kingdom
Embassy of the Kingdom
Maybe you walked out after something broke. Maybe nothing dramatic happened at all — you just drifted, one quiet week at a time, and now it’s been years. Either way, you’re here asking. Here is the honest answer, and it’s better than you’re braced for.
Yes — you can come back. Today, as you are, with the years still on you. Not to a trial membership while God decides if you’re serious. Here is what the Bible actually shows about people who left and came home.
Jesus told a story precisely about this — a son who took everything, left, and wasted years. The line everyone forgets: the father saw him “when he was yet a great way off, and ran” (Luke 15:20). You cannot see someone far off unless you are watching the road. All these years you thought you were forgotten — He was watching the road.
God makes a promise to people who wasted seasons of their lives: “I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten” (Joel 2:25). He does not pretend the years didn’t happen — He restores them. People who come back after a long way away often carry a depth and an honesty that never-left people take decades to find. Nothing is wasted with Him. Not even the wasteland.
The son planned a speech: “make me as one of thy hired servants.” The father never let him finish — robe, ring, feast. Jesus’ own words: “him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37). “In no wise” means: no case, no history, no exception.
It’s usually not doubt about God. It’s one of these: shame — too much happened in the years away, and you can’t imagine facing Him with it. Embarrassment — people knew you as a believer, and coming back means admitting you left. Or the waiting trap — “I’ll come back once I get my life together,” which quietly becomes never.
Look at each one honestly. The shame? That’s what the cross was for — He forgives worse than yours, on record. The embarrassment? Every person in that story chose the wrong thing to be embarrassed about — nobody at the feast was talking about the pig field. And the waiting trap has one flaw: you cannot get your life together away from the One who holds it together. That’s coming back backwards.
“And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten.”Joel 2:25
Scripture is full of leavers who became the story. Not one of them was put on probation.
Peter didn’t drift — he swore, three times, that he never knew Jesus, on the night it mattered most. After the resurrection, Jesus made him breakfast and asked him three questions — one for each denial — and then gave him the keys to everything (John 21). The man who left the loudest became the leader. That is how God handles returners.
Jonah was given a calling and boarded a ship going the other way. After everything went down — literally — the record says: “the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the second time” (Jonah 3:1). God gives second callings. The plan didn’t die when you walked away from it.
The prodigal son got everything early and burned it all — years, money, reputation. His comeback speech was three lines long, and his father only let him say two of them. The feast was already being prepared while he was still rehearsing his apology.
Some people didn’t leave God — they left a church that hurt them, and God got included in the exit. If that’s you: what happened to you may genuinely have been wrong, and coming back to God does not mean going back to that building. It means coming home to Him — and then finding healthy people. We will gladly help you find them.
Not a process. Not a probation. Three honest moves: Turn — stop walking away, face Him. Tell Him — in plain words: the leaving, the years, all of it. Walk — one step at a time, not alone. You can take the first step right now, wherever you are.
“God, it’s been years, and You know every one of them. I’m done being far away. I believe Jesus died and rose again for me — including for the leaving. Forgive me, restore the years, and take the lead of my life again. I’m coming home. Amen.”
Want the fuller prayer, and to sign your name under it? → Read it here
If you prayed that — don’t come home alone. Sign your name under the full prayer and a real person from Embassy of the Kingdom will walk the next steps with you: a place to start reading, a healthy church near you, people who won’t ask you to explain the years. No pressure, no spam — an open door.
Yes — and the Bible could not be clearer about it. In Jesus’ own story about a son who left, the father sees him “when he was yet a great way off” and runs to him (Luke 15:20). Not a lecture at the door, not a trial period — a father running. The years matter to you; they are not a barrier to Him.
Peter knew better than anyone — he had walked with Jesus for three years — and still denied Him three times in one night. Jesus restored him personally, over breakfast, and gave him his calling back (John 21). Leaving with your eyes open does not disqualify you. Coming back with your eyes open is exactly what repentance is.
No. The son in Luke 15 came home smelling of the pig field, with a rehearsed speech and nothing else — and his father interrupted the speech to embrace him. You come as you are; God does the changing. Waiting until you are “ready” is just staying away longer.
While you are breathing, it is not too late. A dying thief turned to Jesus with minutes left and heard, “Today shalt thou be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). If minutes were enough for him, your years are not too many for you.
Coming back to God is not the same as going back to the building where it happened — God is not that church, and what hurt you may genuinely have been wrong. But do not do faith alone forever; wounds heal in healthy company. Tell us your city and we will personally help you find a church that preaches Christ and keeps people safe — that is literally what the Embassy does.
Start today, with words: tell God you are coming back — the prayer page on this site walks you through it and lets you sign your name. Then read the Gospel of John, a chapter a day, and tell one person what you did. And come to a Bible study — Wednesdays at 7 PM if you are in Miami, or write to us and we will point you to one near you.