Blog
[ Created: 2010-07-11 07:51:07  Updated: 2022-11-15 16:41:17 Owner: rl ]
Title: To alter your thinking, to change directions    
     
     
     
     
 
    
 
     
     
     
     
 

 

The first message Jesus preached was on repentance.   
And saying, Repent you: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. -
repentance is responding positively to the Truth and willingly accepting it and its implications for change.     

The Kingdom Of Heaven is the Lord the Holy Spirit who issues from the Spirit Realm into the Physical Realm.

Late in His Ministry Jesus made this statement:
I tell you, No: but, except you repent, you shall all likewise perish. -
Though it is not the Lord's will that any perish, it is up to each individual to determine their fate.

So it appears repentance is pretty important.   What does it mean to repent?   
Definition: To change your thinking.   To change direction.   
The word repent in the Greek is metánoia.   

Jesus told us that our thinking is wrong- that it is what is causing all of our problems.   

What caused our wrong thinking?   The Sin Nature that formed in man in the garden.   

  1. The first and most basic area of wrong thinking is about our Creator.   His nature, character, purposes and expectations were completely misunderstood when Jesus began His ministry.   

    The God that the pharisees taught was an exacting, harsh, angry God who had to be placated by righteous human performance in order to receive any kind of blessing from Him.   

    Jesus showed the true nature of the Lord by healing all who were sick, by forgiving all manner of sin and by liberating all who were in captivity - freely .   

    clearly state the truth about the Lord's love and will for mankind.   

  2. The second important thing that Jesus told us to repent about is sin.   

    Jesus stretched the definition of sin to include even wrong thoughts!   He purposely brought condemnation upon all those who were striving for performance based righteousness.   

    Performance and animal sacrifice are inadequate.   The blood of Jesus and only the blood of Jesus can take away sin.   

  3. The third important thing that Jesus told us to repent about is unbelief.   

    Jesus made it perfectly clear that unbelief is unacceptable - that it is the enemy of the Lord and man.   

    The will and expectation for good is how heaven operates.   Unbelief does not understand the Lord's good wil and as a result does not expect good to manifest.   

    Jesus taught us to expect salvation, good health, freedom, victory, power, love, joy, peace...etc.   to manifest in the Physical Realm because it had been willed in heaven.   

    This is having faith in the Grace of our Lord through Christ Jesus.   

  4. The fourth important thing that Jesus told us to repent of is our self image.   

    In the Old Testament the Jews were referred to as children of Abraham and, most often, as children of Israel.   

    In David's writings he used the imagery of shepherd and sheep to show the relationship between God and man.   

    Jesus told us to refer to the Lord as our Father.   This represented a monumental change in the relationship between the Creator and man.   

    The relationship the Lord had with Abraham and His promises to Abraham are what sustained the children of Israel for two thousand years.   

    The Lord does not want us to have second hand relationships with Him!   

    In the shepherd-sheep imagery we see God as a different species than man just as the shepherd is a different species from the sheep he tends.   

    Our Father does not want us to dumbly depend on His care with no hope of ever becoming more than a sheep.   He has made us His Children through the New Birth.   

    We are now Sons!   We are filled with the Holy Spirit!   We may come boldly to the thrown of Grace.   We are a royal priesthood.   

  5. The fifth important thing for us to repent about is prayer.   

    Jesus showed by example how prayer is supposed to work.   

    Jesus spent time in the Word, meditated on the Word, prayed for wisdom and revelation in the Word.   His prayer life was one which invited the Father to manifest the Word in His body.   

    Jesus prayed to prepare Himself to be able to operate in the Holy Spirit and the Word.   His time in the wilderness before he began His ministry was the most significant time of prayer in His life but there were no doubt many other instances.   

    But once He was prepared, He spoke and did the will of the Father - without asking the Father to do anything .   
    He taught with zuthority.   He commanded demons to leave with authority.   He healed with authority.   He forgave sins with authority.   

    Contrast our Lord's example of prayer with that of the typical Church person today.   Most prayer is one of petition for specific needs, often coming across as begging God to do something.   

    Sometimes it even sounds like the person praying is ordering God to do something.   

    Jesus never begged His Father to do anything or commanded Him to do anything.   

    Jesus told us to ask and receive, seek and find, knock and see the door opened.   

Repentance is repudiation of the Sin Nature and turning to Christ Jesus who gives you the Holy Spirit nature through the New Birth.   

So, the question is: Have I truly repented?   

tells us that we will perish if we don't repent.   Jesus was not threatening us with hell-fire because the gift of our Father is Eternal Life - Himself.   But He was telling us that failure to repent will cause us to fail to experience Abundant Life which was His purpose in coming to earth.   

tells us that a Double Minded man is unstable in all of his ways.   

We all need stability in our lives.   The solid rock of Christ Jesus, the written and incarnate Word Of God, is our foundation.   But our minds must be transformed through heart-felt repentance before we will see the manifestation of the power of the Holy Spirit in us.   

So, let us stop halting between two opinions and bring our mind and body under subjection to our spirit which is new and perfect.   

References (223) to repent
#ItemDescription
Repent To alter your thinking, to change directions
Repentance Changing of the mind - see Repent
1 - A Better Way To Pray A Better Way To Pray
1 - Getting Along Getting along with people
2 - A Call To Prayer A Call To Prayer
2 - Fully Persuaded Faith How to move mountains
2 - God and Country God and Country
4 - Christians and Politics Christians and Politics
5 - Divine Healing Divine Healing
10  6 - Galatians The epistle to the Galatians
11  1 - Giving Why, When and Where to Give
12  1 - Overcoming Doubt How To Overcome Doubt
13  1 - Relationship With God Relationship With God
14  2 - Water Walking How to Become a Water Walker
15  2 - Where Am I From Where Did I Come From
16  2 - Your Spiritual Authority Your Spiritual Authority in Christ Jesus
17  3 - Sovereignty Of God Sovereignty Of God
18  3 - What Pleases God What Pleases God
19  4 - Harnessing Emotions Harnessing Your Emotions
20  5 - Killing Sacred Cows Killing Sacred Cows
21  5 - Romans The Gospel of Grace
22  6 - Romans The importance of the book of Romans
23  Able To Hear Prepared, interested and attentive
24  ACLU American Civil Liberties Union
25  Agree To hold the same Opinion, to Walk in Unity
26  Altar Call A traditional invitation for a person to come physically to an Altar to be Saved
27  America- June- 2020 Status update
28  America- June- 2021 Status update
29  America- June- 2022 Status update
30  American Revival How America Can be Healed
31  Amoral Without moral principles
32  Another Gospel Any plan of Salvation other than through Christ Jesus
33  Anti Christ Kingdom Repent for the Kingdom of Anti Christ is at hand
34  Anti Truth Against Truth - for Lies
35  Baptized In The Name Of Jesus Christ What does it mean to be baptized in the name of Jesus
36  Belial The Devil - Satan
37  Belief The act of believing, what you Believe
38  Believing The state of being in Faith
39  Better Covenant The Gospel is about a better Covenant
40  Blip Little bit of Wisdom through RL
41  Book Of Job A book on human perspectives about God
42  Burden A weight that is difficult to bear
43  Calvinism See TULIP
44  Celebrity A well known person
45  Champion A representative of the people who challenges their enemy
46  Change The Dialogue Change the spirit and subject of the conversation
47  Chastise To inflict punishment
48  Cheap Grace Grace is not Cheap though it is Free
49  Childish Acting inappropriately like a Child
50  Children Progeny , offspring , legal heirs
51  Christian Clean Up Going back to our First Love and doing the First Works
52  Christian Deception No one is immune to Deception
53  Cleanup To recognize filth, round it up, pick it up and dispose of it
54  Come To Repentance True Repentance is a decision to take a journey
55  Commission An assignment with status, Authority and Power
56  Communism or Communion We will worship something - man or God
57  Compass Something that points to the Truth
58  Confusion Lack of Understanding ; uncertainty.
59  Consequence The result of a Choice
60  Conservative A person who espouses Conservatism
61  Convert To change one's belief system or way of thinking - Repent
62  Crisis In America When you come to a fork in the road, take it - Yogi Berra
63  Critical Thinking Thinking clearly and rationally, understanding the logical connection between ideas
64  Culturalism Feeling your Culture is superior to others
65  Cycle A series of events that are regularly repeated in the same order
66  Dark Ages Christianity Christian traditions developed in ignorance of the Word
67  Deceived Convinced that a Lie is the Truth
68  Deluded Immersed in a false reality
69  DEMO1_02 - Salvation by Grace Salvation by Grace
70  DEMO1_06 - Repentance Repentance
71  DEMO1_08 - Water Baptism Water Baptism
72  Democrat DEMagogues, Obamanators, Crack-pots, and RATS
73  Demon Oppressed Harrangued by the Enemy through guilt and fear
74  Destination The place to which it is going or being sent
75  Duality Son and Servant, Spirit and Soul, Perfect and Carnal
76  Eating Your Seed The opportunity cost of eating your seed
77  Election 2022 Results Faith in man in the face of his failures
78  End Game That part of a contest which accomplishes the goal of the contest
79  End Time Hagin End time Prophecy by Kenneth Hagin
80  Enemies Of Christ Reprobate minded soldiers of Satan
81  Enlightenment Greater Knowledge and Understanding about a subject
82  Eunuch Minister A minister that tries to appease everyone
83  Evil Generation People of an age group Collective whose identity is Evil
84  Evil Men Men who have chosen to go against God whose art is deception
85  Faith Healer A person who Heals Weak Faith
86  Faith Or Sight Walking by Faith or by Sight
87  Favor Kindness and Blessing
88  Fearful And Unbelieving Full of anxiety, vulnerable, doubtful
89  Federalist Papers 85 essays by Hamilton, Jay, and Madison from 10/1787 - 5/1788
90  Few Or Many Will there be few or many who find Christ ?
91  Figment A thing that someone Believes to be Real but that exists only in their Imagination
92  First Love The intense, exhilerating, absorbing object of life
93  First Works Works of righteousness - aspiring to the Spirit Walk
94  Foundation Footing, base, substructure, infrastructure, underpinning
95  Freeloader A person who enjoys the benefits of others efforts
96  Give To offer freely
97  God Allow Allowing or causing?     Pleased or disappointed?
98  Godly Thinking and acting like God
99  Godly Sorrow Sorrow for being separated from the Lord by sin
100  Gospel Good News of the Kingdom of God
101  Gospel Spirit How to deliver the Good News of God's Grace
102  Government or God?      In whom do we trust?
103  Great Awakening 3 The third great awakening
104  Guilty Proven worthy of condemnation - Guilt
105  Healing The state or act of being healed (see Heal)
106  Heart Turn A core change of character, purpose and focus
107  Hebrews Letter from Paul to the descendents of Jacob - the Jews
108  Hitler He wasn't such a bad guy after all, was he?
109  Hoax A plan accomplished by deception
110  Holy Spirit Disciples Jesus commanded and the Holy Spirit worked in the Disciples
111  Homeless No house, no apartment, no camper, no tent, no church, no friends, no family
112  Homosexual Destruction Historical and observable destruction from homosexuality
113  Homosexuality Bondage to Homosexual lifestyle
114  Human Condition The state into which every human is born
115  Humble Themselves And Pray How is the land Healed?
116  Idolatry Valuing something higher than God
117  Imagination Image + Nation powerful, ruling, mental pictures
118  Infallible Incapable of making mistakes or being wrong
119  Information Or Relation The basis for your World View
120  Jesus Commandments The 7 Commandments of Christ
121  Jesus Is Offensive He is a Stumblingblock and rock of offence
122  Kingdom Kingdom of Our Lord Jesus Christ
123  Kingdom Come The manifestation of the Kingdom of God
124  Lake Of Fire Final place of torment
125  Leaven, Leanings, Leaves and Lamentations As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.     
126  Liar A person who traffics in Lies
127  Liberty Quality or state of being Free
128  Lie A false statement made with deliberate intent to deceive
129  Light And Darkness Can America be united again?
130  Litmus Test A decisively indicative test
131  Little By Little Not all at once but gradually
132  Longsuffering Patient endurance
133  Love For God Reciprocating the Love of God
134  Love Is Not Sufficient Christianity is about Relationship with Christ Jesus
135  Lukewarm Neither hot nor cold
136  Manipulator A person who strategizes on ways to control another person
137  Many Be Offended Uncomfortable by a belief system challenge
138  Martyr A person who dies in the service of our Lord
139  Meekness Not Arrogant or self-serving
140  Memorial Day Apology Who we were, Who we are and Who we will be
141  Mind Of Christ A Heart and Soul that is of God and for God and that is God
142  MLK Martin Luther King, Jr.
143  Monday Is My Favorite Day How can Monday be my favorite day?
144  Mouth The source of vocal utterance
145  My 2020 Testimony and Grief The blessings and the disappointments of 2020
146  Mystery Hidden The Mystery of the Kingdom is still hidden to many
147  Mystery Of Iniquity Satan is the Mystery of Iniquity
148  Name Of Jesus The powerful, glorious name of Jesus
149  Neutered Rendered ineffective; deprived of vigor or force .
150  New You The New You and Holy Spirit
151  Normal Conforming to a standard; usual, typical, or expected
152  Our Future What is on the Horizon?
153  Pandemic An infectious disease that spreads worldwide
154  Part Of The Problem Clearing up the Confusion in America
155  Patriotism America - love it or leave it
156  Pearls And Swine The Gift of God and the Spirit of Rebellion
157  Perception Ability to see, hear, or become aware of something through the senses
158  Perish Suffer an untimely death
159  Persecution To suffer as a result of being different
160  Perversion Behavior or thinking as a result of rejecting the Lord's authority
161  Pharisee A strict observer of traditional and written law
162  Pleasure Is Pleasure a Good thing?
163  Political Message Messages to Politicians
164  Politicize To attempt to effect policy in every area of life
165  Polytheism Belief in or acceptance of many gods
166  Prayer Proximity Understanding where God is
167  Predator An organism that obtains food by the killing and consuming of other organisms
168  Pride Or Power When we Rebuke and Exhort is it Pride or Power
169  Principle Prostitution The sacrifice of Principle for gain
170  Pronouns A word or phrase that is used as a substitution for a noun or noun phrase
171  Providence The foreseeing care and guidance of God
172  Public Education Government funded education facilities, and curriculum
173  Racism Fleshism Racism is a byproduct of walking by Sight
174  Reality The state of things as they actually exist
175  Rebellion Resistence to Authority , Non-Conformity
176  Relationship The state of being connected by blood or marriage.     
177  Reset Button Hitting the Reset Button
178  Resist Anti Christ Should we resist satan physically?
179  Revival And Riot What happens when Truth shows up
180  Revival Or Return Will there be revival or will the Lord return soon
181  Salt That which enhances flavor and quality of experience
182  Sane Of sound mind; not mad or mentally ill.
183  Satan The opposer/adversary (aka Devil ) (formerly Lucifer)
184  Saviour Our redeemer - Jesus
185  Scribes Pharisees Hypocrites Enemies of Truth
186  Scripture Rightly dividing the inspired Word of God
187  Shades Of Gray Black or White vs Shades of Gray
188  Sign Someting that signifies or validates
189  Sin Conscious Aware of Sin, thinking of Lust and Guilt.
190  Socialism The god and Political arm of the Religion of Secular Humanism
191  Social Repentance Things that Society must change in order to be saved
192  Social Worker A paid knock-off of a practicing Christian
193  Sowing To Sow Seed
194  Spirit Baptism Being baptised with the Holy Spirit
195  Sports Support Prostitution Supporting Education or Professional Institutions that Fight against God
196  Sugar Something that obscures the natural flavor with sweetness
197  Sword Of The Spirit The Word of the Lord is the sword which the Holy Spirit wields
198  Systemic Unbelief Unbelief resulting from a corrupted Gospel message
199  The Forecast What the future holds
200  Tithe Ten percent of increase
201  Tone The general character or attitude of a sound or piece of writing
202  Traitor A person who works against their own country
203  True Holiness The Manifested Spirit of God
204  Trump Coarseness The gift and cost of being coarse
205  Truth Jesus is the Truth
206  TULIP Calvinism principles
207  UMC United Methodist Church
208  Urban Disease Spritual disease that thrives in Urban areas
209  Vail of Darkness To be lifted by the Return of Christ
210  Victim One that is subjected to oppression, hardship, or mistreatment
211  Water A colorless, transparent, odorless, tasteless liquid that is absolutely necessary for life
212  Water Baptism Baptised in water as a symbol of dying to the old life and being Born Again
213  Western Civilization White European Christian Religion, Government and Society
214  Wicked Culture 7 Reasons Pastors Stay Silent in Our Wicked Culture
215  Willful Sin Rejection of God's Law by removing the Sin label
216  Will Of God The plan, intent or purpose of our Creator
217  Will We Repent Will there be massive repentance and turning to God
218  Wish When you Wish upon a star
219  Witchcraft Communication with the Devil or with a familiar spirits
220  Word Of Faith Faith in Gods Word connects us with His Power
221  Word Of His Power That force which upholds all things in the universe
222  Work Activity involving mental or physical effort done in order to achieve a purpose or result
223  Wrath God's fixed, controlled, passionate feeling against sin.     ..     a settled indignation