I woke yesterday morning with the sound of Martha speaking a message. I have an alarm clock that houses a port for charging my iPhone. The cool thing about it is it will play songs from my iDevices rather than screaming at me. Well, Siri must have known what I needed to hear (Jennifer will love that one). It was a track from a Message of the Month entitled “A Name of a Gate.” In this message, Martha lays out perfectly how to enter the Kingdom and see Heaven amazingly come to earth. Specifically, she speaks about a path we must all walk in order to see this: the path’s name? Repentance. So after getting ready for the day, I played the whole message. Whoa!
Many people flinch at this process because it involves pain. It is painful to see myself as God sees me. It is easier to delude ourselves with, “No, everything is just fine!” rather than to face a holy God’s view of our life. The problem with following this wide route is we will never see our holy God, or experience all that He has given for us.
Repentance is a leader to every major move of God. From the Old Testament to the New, God rides the wave of our repentance. It is our invitation to experience His holiness. It’s cleaning the window of our life in order to see HIM. All the experienced pain we might feel doesn’t compare to the sheer bliss on the opposite side of repent ing.
So if you are dry, if you are dark, if you are stale or if you are empty, ask for the Spirit’s work of repentance. Is there a besetting sin plaguing your life? Ask for repentance. It is not something we can work up, manufacture, or force. The Spirit of God must move to reveal, convict and eliminate the block. But on the flipside, there is a refreshing filling of hope, desire and Presence. After the scales are removed from your eyes you will have that everything is new experience. It’s His freshness and cleansing that gives new Life and perspective.
So I am choosing not to resist, not to endure, not to just make it. No, I want to experience HIM, now and anew.
For the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There’s no regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death.
2 Corinthians 7:10
John thank you for confirming what I had just shared with a friend. repentance. Powerful and a gift from God. you can’t work it that’s worldly, fleshly and demonic.
Beside the day when I gave myself to Jesus, only one incident in my life had a comparable impact on me: The act of repentance of a dear friend; the person was so courageous and sincere in doing so, that this changed my entire life. I had been taught the Fear of God! This also opened my eyes to another truth: Our repentance will not only make a difference for us, it will affect our entire surroundings as the power of truth releases God’s power into everything and everybody we touch (or will not, if we won’t repent- a fact… Read more »
I completely agree with your whole vision. “So I am choosing not to resist, not to endure, not to just make it.” “It’s His freshness and cleansing that gives new Life and perspective.” When I received this very same word not so long ago (a few years before this blog was created), I thought I was the only one crazy around. “Not to try it?” BUMP BUMP BUMP!! Head on collision with the wall! It is clearly in our (old) nature to try it, and it is in the nature of the New to show us the failure of our… Read more »
Thanks, Sam. “Lord of the Garden”…a great picture of what John is saying. Also reminds me of Martha’s teaching: “Consider the Lily.” You are not alone being frustrated in not trying.
🙂
Yes, Lord. I choose this path.
Jesus’ first imperative to us: repent!