Freed by the Spirit

Book Pick: Unleashed

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UNLEASHED

How to Receive Everything the Holy Spirit Wants to Give You

By Sonja Corbitt

Ave Maria Press, 2015

192 pages, $15.95

To order: avemariapress.com

 

 

Do want to be more aware of what God is up to in your life and where he’s taking you? 

Sonja Corbitt, in her book Unleashed, says the Holy Spirit has been trying to communicate with us in specific, intimate ways throughout our lives, but most of us just don’t know how to listen.

Corbitt, a speaker, broadcaster and writer, who is also a lay Carmelite in Tennessee, reveals that the Bible is just one of the means through which God speaks to us. The Holy Spirit is also trying to get our attention through our relationships, memories and emotions.

Corbitt does an excellent job of explaining how certain aspects of our lives echo God’s specific messages to us. In regard to relationships, she writes, “We are attracted to certain types of people because we have soul work to do regarding what they provoke in us.” She explains how even our associations with people we don’t particularly like are vital teaching tools of the Holy Spirit: “Whatever offensive faults we see in them are the arrows pointing to our own hidden faults, often multiplied several times over.”

As for our memories, Corbitt provides fascinating insight on how the Holy Spirit uses them to guide and speak to us. She says, “Our memories aren’t pure, and they aren’t accurate. But they are important. Their purpose is not historical, but spiritual.”

Because of her book, I now find myself pondering certain memories, instead of just dismissing them as sticking around by chance. Furthermore, Corbitt explains that our memories are intricately attached to our emotions: “There is a memory associated with every emotional eruption. If I can fully feel the emotions of that memory in God’s presence and work through it with him, he can heal it forever, and it will have no other power over me.”

Corbitt also has a knack for presenting Bible verses in an enticing way. For instance, she relays the story of the woman caught in adultery, whom Jesus saved from being stoned, in a captivating way: “Her dress is inside out, untied at the nape, and it rips as she jerks, first to one side, then the other, against the painful grip of the men dragging her, stumbling, through the crowded street to stand before Jesus.”

I always find myself more moved by biblical scenarios when they’re narrated with further detail and sentiment than the Scripture alone provides.

Overall, Corbitt’s intimate writing style had me captivated throughout the reading process.

Corbitt says she hopes those who read Unleashed will “discover the secret to true fulfillment: turning the Holy Spirit loose in our hearts and giving him permission to identify and eradicate the causes of our worry, unhappiness, discontent and regret.”

She writes with a tender dedication to help readers be unleashed, and she is not shy about her own painful experiences. She doesn’t fail, however, to reassure her readers of God’s infinite generosity, which is always manifested once the storm has passed: “If we can brave the pain, we will see him weeping there beside us, waiting to unleash something miraculous and beautiful.”

Elizabeth Pardi writes

from Columbus, Ohio.