If you want to know more, about this check out Mark Driscoll’s sermons. www.marshillchurch.org
Repentance is a very common word that a lot of Christians know how to say but very few live a life of repentance. I have been doing a little study of the word repentance and the more a read the bible about what it means to repent; the more I realize that I have not lived my life by it and doing so is a lot harder then most people say it is.
So let’s get straight into this and see what Repentance is:
It all begins with a change of mind, which then leads to a change of life. The reason I say that is because what ever you believe determines what you value, which then determines how you live.
That means that you cannot change your behaviour or life without changing your mindset. All you do then is Modify your behaviour and the bad thing about that is when you then get put under pressure or you are persecuted; you fall back on to your core belief system and values.
Repentance starts in the mind/heart with the scriptures. You’ll read the bible and realize that what you believe about God is not true, and how you are living life is wrong, and the majority of people will then feel convicted, they will feel like they know something is wrong in their “gut.” The solution is straight forward, God is perfect and holy and we need to change our mind in agreement with what the scriptures say. A good way to get another view on this is be seeing yourself how God sees you… So You know all the things that you think, say, and do; so pretend your are looking down at your life and see if there are any areas where you are believing a worldly lie, instead of a Godly truth.
Our Lives are fundamentally built on lies our truth. If you are a new believer or you don’t believe there is one way to heaven and His name is Jesus, then a lot of the core values in your life can be built on lies.
So if you have been living in lies, repentance is a change of mind, receiving the truth, living in the light of the truth. Romans 12:2 says, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Practically that is why being in a church were you are hearing teaching from the bible, helps you renew your mind on a weekly basis. Being in a Discipleship Group where you are hearing from people who are following God and you can see how they struggle and how their lives are continually being transformed. That helps bring renewing to your mind. Reading and studying the bible, reading GOOD Christian books can help bring renewing of your mind. But most of all, being in a relationship with God, speaking to him, listening to him, being one in every area with him just like Jesus did. All of these things lead to Repentance.
If your someone who isn’t big on learning, then you are pretty much saying that your not big on repentance. We must all remain teachable and humble if we want to repent of our sins.
Now how do we actually repent? Well when you see sin in your life, imagine the act of Jesus dieing on the cross for your sin. From there you can place your sin on the cross with Him. So then you can now put your sin to death because Jesus died for it! You don’t have to accept it anymore, you don’t need to blame it on others, you don’t need to excuse it, and you don’t need to hide it. You can kill it!
But, because Jesus rose again on the third, you can live a new life of freedom from those things in the past. This means that you can stop sinning in the areas before, because there is a change that has taken place, and a transformation of the mind.
The 3 Tire Levels of Repentance:
1. Conviction
• The Holy Spirit will guide you from sin to righteousness
• When you feel convicted it is a gift from God. Don’t be ashamed, don’t think your life is over, and don’t blame others. The statements, “You made me…” and “The devil made me…” are excuses. It is the holy Spirits job to convict us of our sin.
2. Confession
• Talk about it; since our sin is against God you need to talk to God and express yourself to him. If you find it hard to express yourself, just think, God made you and knows everything thought that you have ever and will ever make, so I think he will get it.
• Talk to the people that you have sinned against, apologize to them.
• Share what’s is going on in your DG, let them be praying with you throughout everything and not just when it become a crisis.
3. Repentance
• It’s deep heart felt remorse which leads to a change of mind that leads to a change of life.
• You put your sin to death and by the power of the Holy Spirit you start to live like Jesus.
*Little Tips*
• If you have ripped someone off, pay them back. Try to fix the mess that you have made. This is called restitution and can help with repentance.
• Reconciliation takes time. If you have hurt somebody, they may need time to re-gain the trust that was lost. You can loose trust quickly but you gain it slowly.
• Patiently earn that trust, just like God has been patient with you.
What Repentance Isn’t…
1. Repentance is not just a verbal confession, there needs to be a transformation of the mind. A lot of Christians love people who will openly confess sin, but sometimes you need to wait patiently and see how their life has been changed.
2. Repentance is not Selfish. People will pretend to repent in order to get something in return from people or God. If you tell God your sorry for the way you live your life and promise to never do it again…But only if you give me a job, or wife, or husband. You cannot manipulate God into giving you something.
3. Repentance is not religious. Religious people will repent of everyone else’s sin and never there own. Be very careful of a leader who is always asking you what you need for prayer but when you ask them they don’t have anything going on in their life. People who think they have all the answers and have life figured out, and have God figured out… are religious.
