Right now in the world we live in, doesn’t it seem like we, the Church, are being told to be accepting of everything? The Church is described as a judgmental, old fashioned, out of touch body instead of the glorious Body of Christ that leads people to truth, freedom and grace. Well I would like to share with you a reality that the Church needs to stand by and make an emphatic statement at the same time…REPENT!
This message of repentance almost seems lost in this day and age. The Church is being pressured to accept things and compromise our beliefs in order to appease the masses. I for one, cannot compromise what the Word tells me because I have committed to what it has to say. This is the heart of repentance and we need a fresh revelation of what it really means to repent.
Let’s start with the word “repent” itself. Nowadays, when someone talks of repenting, the main idea that seems to be conjured up in the minds of Christians is the confession of sins and asking for forgiveness. This, however, is not the “heart” of repentance. It is almost as if we have reduced the meaning of repentance to saying, “I’m sorry!” That isn’t really repenting, though. The word translated “repent” in the New Testament is the Greek word “metanoeo or metanoia” and this word literally translated means, “a change of mind, or to have another mind”. This is a far ways off from the confession of sins. Yes, confession of sins is involved, but it doesn’t just stop there. You see, true repentance isn’t just turning from something, but it is also turning to something. If we leave repenting at just confession then all we do is turn away from whatever sin we are dealing with; we have to turn towards Jesus and what the Word tells us concerning any issue.
The Lord recently spoke to my mind and heart concerning this and I have been meditating on it ever since. The entire Gospel, the “good news” of Jesus is to be a complete changing of our mindset. Our thoughts and ideas were going one way, but now because of Christ, we are to think completely differently. We were going to hell, but now if we live in Him, we are heaven bound. Our righteousness was as filthy rags, but now we are made the righteousness of God. We were sick and broken; now by His stripes we were/are healed. Can you see how each one of these isn’t just going away from something, but it is going to a destination? When we repent we turn our mind from the way things used to be and now direct our mind to how things really are in Christ.
Just yesterday, at the time I am writing this, someone at work asked me about some good churches in our area. She had mentioned that she and her husband were trying to have a baby. She didn’t really attend church anymore like she used to, but she wants to raise her child in church. There was a lot there that I could discuss with her, but then she added a little requirement in what kind of church she wanted. She said that she didn’t want a church that was judgmental and also added, “You know, one of those churches that teaches that some people, especially Christians, are better than others. I don’t want my kid thinking that there is anything wrong with others, you know, like gay people or people from other religions.” I really didn’t know what to say at first, so I looked inward and asked the Holy Spirit to tell me what to say. If you don’t do that already, start there. The Holy Spirit will help you direct your mind and stop you from just reacting. The reaction my flesh had was, “Oh really?!?! We are judgmental? We think we are better than others, well let me tell you…” Instead, I checked within my spirit and told her, “You know, I just don’t know of any in the area, but if you ever want to go to church with me, you are more than welcome.” This actually led to a conversation with two people about religion. Now we all now the saying, “There are two things you don’t discuss, religion and politics”, but this shouldn’t be that case for believers, well maybe about politics. We are supposed to be able to share our faith at any time and be gracious with people when they share differing beliefs. This conversation covered several hot topic issues like: all roads lead to Heaven, homosexuality, is sin even real. All of which the two I was talking with were very passionate about. I am as well, but I refuse to let myself get irrational, irritable, or even flustered when someone tells me flat out…”your beliefs are wrong”. I don’t let any of that get to me because I rely on the Word to tell me how to think.
I can say emphatically that homosexuality is a sin, according to the Word, and that forms my personal opinion on the matter, just like it does with lying. It is important to point out here that sin by itself does not make any person necessarily evil, living apart from and opposed to Jesus does. It isn’t my fault that I believe that way. The Word of God is superior to me and I allow it to tell me what to think. The Word of God is final authority. I don’t have it all figured out in my head, so I choose the Word to teach me the truth. The Word also tells me to love my neighbor as myself, so now I have to blend all of this. This means that just because someone lives a certain lifestyle doesn’t mean that they are unworthy of my love and if I truly love someone, I want to help them, just like I needed help to get out of the sin that was in my life. Thanks be to God for sending His Son Jesus to help all of us get out of sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
When we let the Word change our mind it gives us peace and rest because we don’t have to take responsibility for how we see things. I didn’t say, “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.” 1 Peter 2:24 did! So don’t blame me if I am living in health and don’t tell me that it isn’t God’s will to heal because I have let the Word change my mind concerning the issue. I have repented of my wrong way of thinking. I don’t have to get the flu every time a sniffle tries to come on my body. That is the old way of thinking. I stand on the Word and tell every symptom that it cannot stay in my body because of the stripes on Jesus’ back. I didn’t say, “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.” Jesus said that in Luke 6:38. So don’t get angry with me when I am living in the prosperity that has been laid up for me, even while this economic “crisis” is upon us. I have let my Savior change my mind, I have repented. I have turned from the expectation of lack and turned to the expectation of prosperity.
I have made the conscious choice to submit to the Bible because I love God and His Word. I believe what the Bible tells me in 2 Timothy 3:16-17, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” I consider the Word of God to be above myself. The Word also says, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord” – Isaiah 55:8. I have to mold my way of thinking to His and that takes submission, realizing that He knows how to do things and we don’t. Once we submit to God and His way of doing things, we take the pressure off of ourselves. His rest and peace flow over our lives because He then takes responsibility for our actions because we are doing only what He has told us to do. This is why in James 4:7 it says, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” When we submit to the Lord, then we have authority over the enemy. This is an area that the Church needs mind renewal in. We can rebuke the devil all we want, but if we are not submitting to God, then nothing will happen. Only when we give into God and His ways then we will see the enemy flee from every area of our lives.
We as the Body of Christ are to lead the world to Jesus and He brings them out of destruction and to salvation. Once we are part of His Body we are not to draw back from Gospel that brought us out of our old lives. Hebrews 10:39 says, “But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.” This verse is so rich and powerful concerning repentance. In the original Greek the word “hupostole” (pronounced hoop-os-tol-ay’) is the word used for “draw back” but the real definition of that word means, “the timidity of one stealthily retreating”. This is completely based in fear. We, the Body of Christ, are not of them that fearfully and timidly retreat in secret from the truth. No, we are of them that believe to the saving of the soul. The soul here is our mind, our will and our emotions. You are a three part being, you are a spirit, you have a soul (mind, will and emotions) and you live in a body. We believe the truth and our mind, will and emotions are saved. Just think if the Church does shrink back, retreats from the truth out of fear, then the Church will be repenting, changing our mind, from salvation back to perdition or back to where we came from, the unsaved world. I will not repent, change my mind, from the Gospel. The Gospel of Christ is what brings us out from sin and bondage to life everlasting and communion with the Father. We are not of those that draw back, we let the Word of God change our mind, we don’t let the world frame our thinking. So let the washing of the water of the Word have its perfect work in you. Let the Word change your mind…Repent!