Repentance

Healing of The Heart

Phil Wickham – Living Hope

In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea. This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah: “A voice of one calling in the wilderness, Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him."

Matthew 3:1-3

TAKING OWNERSHIP BEFORE GOD FOR OUR ACTIONS

Godly repentance is powerful, it changes a life, transforms, and brings healing, which we could have never imagined. It is taking ownership before God for our heart and our actions. “This is what I did, and this is who I am, please forgive me Lord Jesus.” That's repentance, that’s an overcomer!

It means to turn or return to God.

John the Baptist said, "Produce fruit in keeping with repentance." Matthew 3:8

In other words, repentance produces a harvest of holiness and righteous in the heart of those who are willing to be trained by wisdom. It produces good fruit which is love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, kindness, goodness and self control.

Fruit means our physical, mental and spiritual actions. It is our love for God, others and ourselves. Good fruit is produced through a humble, repentant heart before God that is willing to be corrected and disciplined. A heart that is hungry for God's wisdom.

In the beginning of Revelations Chapters 2 and 3, Jesus FIRST speaks to the CHURCHES. He commands repentance 8 times from His bride.

Remember therefore, from where you have fallen; REPENT, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lamp stand from its place unless you REPENT.

Rev. 2:5

Therefore, REPENT. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth (which is the Word of God).

Rev. 2:16

I gave her time to REPENT, but she refuses to REPENT of her sexual immorality. Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they REPENT of her works.

Rev. 2:21

Remember what you have received and heard. Keep it, and REPENT. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you.

Rev. 2:3

Those whom I love, I reproved and discipline, so be zealous and REPENT.

Rev. 3:19

We look at the book of Revelation and see the judgment of God coming upon the world but forget that the FIRST group of people He judges is His CHURCH. How can we bring Jesus to a sinful world if we are not willing to let Jesus judge our own hearts first?

During His ministry, guess who Jesus confronts head-on regarding their sin? The Pharisees and Sadducees…the “church of that day.” The ones who knew the truth but refused to look at their own sin and repent, instead they pointed their finger at others. Jesus wanted them to take responsibility for the condition of their OWN hearts.

Today, God is saying to His Church...repent!

HOW DOES A CHRISTIAN WALK AWAY FROM GOD?

How do we walk away from God? With one unrepented sin at a time.

Little bit, by little bit until the heart grows hard and in full rebellion to God. A heart unwilling to be taught, counseled, reproofed, corrected and rebuked by the Teacher.

A disciple refusing to receive discipline!

Remember, all of the disciples were reproofed so that their hearts would be tender and meek to the Shepherd’s voice. And as a result, they received the fullness of His Spirit and changed the world.

BETTER TO HAVE NEVER KNOWN THE TRUTH

Remember this, we who know the truth and yet choose to sin, are held more accountable than those who don't know the truth.

It would be better if they had never known the way to righteousness than to know it and then reject the command they were given to live a holy life.

2 Peter 2:21

For example, let’s say I have two sons, and told one of the boys not to eat any of the freshly baked cookies before dinner, but failed to tell the second one, because he was at a friend’s house. They both ended up eating the cookies before dinner, in fact, they ate them all. Which one do you think would be held more accountable for his actions? The one who had been told or not told?

In my youth, I knew the truth and yet chose to ignore the truth with sin and eventually walked away. Sadly, in my own life, it took the death of my child to bring me to repentance for my rebellion. I chose to walk away from God's umbrella of protection and grace. Instead, I chose to embrace the camp of my enemies. I wanted the world and it's evil more than I wanted God. So He gave me what I wanted - what I chose. He gave me into the hands of my enemies. He judged my heart and I deserved His judgment as I was up to my eyeballs in sin and hardness of heart. And most importantly, He judged my heart, because He didn’t want to live in eternity without me. I am so grateful God saved me. He allowed the death of my son to save my soul.

But when grace is shown to the wicked, they do not learn righteousness; even in a land of uprightness they go on doing evil and do not regard the majesty of the Lord.

Isaiah 26:10

FEET MUST MATCH THE MOUTH

I was an unrepentant believer. As a so-called Christian teenager and young adult, I did not understand the need for repentance. I did not understand that it was NOT ok to say I am a Christian, proclaim my relationship with Jesus and then walk as the world walked. My lips did not match my feet. It’s what they call wearing a mask – two faced, a hypocrite.

I frequently stole money from my Mom, (a poor, single parent who worked hard for every penny), played around with witchcraft, lied, was very deceitful, looked at pornography, watched movies that were not appropriate for a professing Christian, drunkenness and sexual immorality. All that with absolutely no thought of repentance. No surprise that by the age of 23, I had completely turned my back on God.

If we don’t repent, eventually our souls will walk away!

Repentance can only come by the power of the Holy Spirit. Praying earnestly for the Holy Spirit to come into our hearts, homes, our families, our churches and to the world. But it first begins with us as individuals, repenting of OUR sins before the ONLY one who can forgive us. The only One who makes and keeps us righteous. No other god, statue, box, good deeds, or religion can forgive me, but the One who gave His own blood for my blood…Jesus Christ. The penalty for all my sins was death, my blood, but Jesus took that penalty for me and replaced it with His blood so I would not die, but live. He forgave and continually forgives me of my sins. That is the power of repentance!

THE HEALING POWER OF REPENTANCE IN MARRIAGE AND RELATIONSHIPS

For many years, my marriage was in shambles and I could not see my sin which was right in front of my face. Sin that was infecting our relationship. In desperation, I cried out for more of Jesus, more of His wisdom and more of His Holy Spirit. He showed me that I was the queen of criticalness and condemnation and it was destroying my marriage. Unfortunately, I could not see the ugly condition of my heart, because there was too much pain. I repented of these sins and Jesus began to shower our relationship with healing and restoration. It was a miracle!

When there is brokenness, chaos and wounds in a relationship, the most destructive thing to do is accuse and blame the other person. Behavior that only produces more wounds. Healing in the relationship begins when we start taking ownership of our own crap, repenting of our own sin, ceasing from pointing the finger, confessing sin and forgiving the other person. It doesn't matter how they receive it - they may even laugh and reject the transparency or claim it to be fake. What matters is that we make things right before God and others. Remember, when we are steeped in sin we destroy the reputation of our name. The name that God gave us at birth. So if we don't care about the reputation of our name neither will others. That's why it takes time for people to trust us and trust our name after we repent and make things right with those we have wounded.

When I repented of my sin and made things right with my husband, he said, "Right, we'll see, I don't trust you." God said to me, "Let him be, he has a right to his response because he has been wounded. Give it time. He will see that your actions match your mouth and your repentant heart is authentic."

Our repentant heart, willing to own our own crap, refusing to blame and accuse others, brings healing to us and to others.

PRODUCE FRUIT

Some say we don’t need to repent; Jesus took our sins once and for all.

Yes, He did take our sins and continues to forgive them…that’s grace; getting what we don’t deserve and mercy…not getting what we do deserve. Jesus is continually reproofing and correcting, leading us to repentance as we work out our salvation in fear and trembling before Him. It is the fear of God that gives us wisdom to flee from sin. My life is a living and breathing testimony of Christ’s ongoing, transforming power of repentance and grace. It is HIS righteousness that makes us holy!! Praise the LORD!

Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent.

Revelations 3:19

GODLY SORROW

Now there is a huge difference between godly sorrow for our sins and worldly sorrow.

Paul says in 2 Corinthians 7:10, For godly sorrow produces a repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, whereas worldly sorrow produces death.

If I say, “I'm sorrowful for my sins, because I got caught or because of the earthly consequences,” that is not the same as repentance. That is worldly sorrow and it will produce guilt, shame, regret, discouragement, repeat offenses and death. But godly sorrow is being sorry for the sins (the offenses) we have committed because they are first and foremost against Christ.

Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight.

Psalm 51:4

Understanding that sin committed is first and foremost against God, this alone produces repentance that births freedom and leaves no regret.

We think being sad for our offenses and apologizing for injuring others is enough. No, no, the first and most important person we have sinned against is Jesus. We should not confuse the two. So, the question is, are we sad because of the consequences or sad because we sinned against Jesus? It can’t be both. That’s why at times, we keep repenting over and over for the same sin. Look at the sorrows. For one will birth death and the other life. If we possess guilt or regret, sin is hiding somewhere. Let guilt be a measuring rod. Find the sin, repent of it and be free. No more regret!

Remember this, with godly sorrow there is repentance and Jesus' forgiveness. His forgiveness is the key! But with worldly sorrow there is NO forgiveness from Jesus. That's why it produces regret and death. Jesus' forgiveness is the ONLY thing that gives us freedom from our sins.

CALLING OUT SIN

The crazy thing is I don’t recall anyone teaching on repentance/sin in my youth. I don’t remember anyone telling me, “Hey knock it off, you’re wearing a mask, you’ve got your feet in two different pastures. You can’t call yourself a Christian and do what you’re doing. You need to choose whom you are going to serve...Jesus or Satan, because you can’t do both. You are only fooling yourself and deceiving others. You can't be a partner with Satan, steal money from your mother and say you’re a Christian. You can’t entertain witchcraft, mess around and be a follower of Jesus.”

Proverbs 28:24 says, “He who robs his parents is a partner with him who destroys.”

My ears were deaf and my eyes blind to my sin, but I was responsible for my actions, I was to blame and no one else. Repentance first starts with our own hearts, our own sin. Jesus talked about the plank in our own eyes not the speck in the eyes of another.

But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.

1 Corinthians 11:31-32

If we keep tolerating sin in ourselves and do not confront it head-on as laid out in the scriptures, then the church will be ineffective in influencing the world, which is already happening. It’s called being two-faced, a hypocrite.

We say we follow Jesus, but in secret places we follow the world. LISTEN to me! The bride is being overcome by the world, but through repentance, by the power of His Holy Spirit and the Word of God, we WILL overcome.

Satan’s desire is for us to be powerless and weak, and the bride of Christ of today is being overcome with pornography, sexual immorality, lust, adultery, addiction, lying, greed, gossip, dissension with brothers and sisters and church leadership, division, bickering, anger, stealing, rebellion, witchcraft, faithlessness, and idolatry of money. I know this because at any given point in my life, I was many of these and He is still cleaning out my heart today. Jesus set me free, He led me to repentance, He forgave me of all that and continues to reproof and forgive. Jesus says if you do not repent, I will spit you out of my mouth, which is exactly what he did with me. My robes were dirty and stained with filth.

HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS

Every sin I committed while professing Christ, re-crucified my Lord.

Sometimes sin is very difficult to overcome. However, we can’t, it is ONLY by Jesus’ righteousness AND His blood that makes us righteous. HE makes us holy; He forgives, He gives us the power to overcome. Complete and utter dependency on Him for righteousness through the healing waters of repentance. After we repent from His loving rebuke and discipline, we then declare His righteousness and His blood over us to protect us from our sinful nature. For we cannot be righteous in our own strength, but only through Jesus’ righteousness.

Repentance births great healing in our own lives and in others.

Repentance was preached before Jesus healing ministry began and before the kingdom of heaven came to the people. It birthed a massive harvest. God is calling His people to repentance so that the Great Harvest may now come forth. Healing for the churches through repentance must come first.

God says I gave you my Word, I showed you my power, I gave you Jesus and His flesh and blood and I placed you at the center of the world, yet you still refuse to see your sin. We are without excuse.

OH CHURCH! Wash your robes white in the Blood of the Lamb. Do not look at others and their wrongdoing, but continually let the Teacher reproof your own heart and repent not because of consequences, but because of your love for Jesus.

ME FIRST

So, let revival begin first with our own hearts!

I have heard myself say the church is so messed up, but Jesus says to me what about you Beth? Yes, I am the messed-up church. Healing the messiness begins first with me. A revival must begin in my heart first before a revival can happen in my family, my church, my nation and the world.

For repentance brings healing!!

Come now, let us settle the matter,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.

Isaiah 1:18