What is repentance? Feeling sorrow for our sins. Godly sorrow that leads to life. Turning from all sin. There can be no repentance without totally turning from sin to God. Repentance must come before faith.
As usual, Ray Comfort does a great job in this video of focusing our attention on what it means to become a child of God. A good starting point is Proverbs 9:10.
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.” Proverbs 9:10
Listen to Jonathan Cahn’s prophetic message at the National Gathering of Prayer on February 6th, 2025 with Members of Congress. It was a Call and Charge to the American people for repentance and prayer. Unless the nation turns back to God the reprieve it has received with the election of President Trump will be temporary. Revival is needed and that will only come with repentance and prayer.
Taken from an article by Dr. Michael Brown America is in Moral Freefall, Op-ed Contributor The Christian Post, Wednesday, April 03, 2024
In 1944, 9 years before the first edition of “Playboy” was published, Rev. Peter Marshall declared, “Surely the time has come, because the hour is late when we must decide. And the choice before us is plain — Yahweh or Baal. Christ or chaos. Conviction or compromise. Discipline or disintegration.”
In 1959, Prof. Robert Coleman proclaimed, “In a day when unprecedented numbers of people have a form of religion while at the same time, the Church seems unable to stem the rising tide of degeneracy that threatens the land, the question must be raised: Why this paradox? Should not the Church have influence for righteousness in proportion to her numbers? However one may seek to answer this question, it is obvious that what is needed is not more religion, but more power. In short, we need real revival!”
In 2010, David Wilkerson stated that in just over 50 years since the decade of the 1960s, we have become a nation in full-blown, open rebellion against God. Today: We worship the Almighty Dollar. Greed has become our national motivator. Sex is our obsession. Gambling is our national pastime. We are the world’s largest consumer of illegal drugs. We have banned God from our schools. We have declared God off-limits in the public arena.
I am confident that we can go all the way back to the American colonies and find similar, thunderous warnings, speaking of our spiritual apostasy and moral rot. After all, the First Great Awakening, which presupposed a great falling away, took place in the 1730s and 1740s, “at a time when the idea of secular rationalism was being emphasized, and passion for religion had grown stale.”
There’s even a danger of becoming so accustomed to our nation’s precipitous condition that we just yawn at the latest example of our depravity.
Drag queens reading to toddlers with the enthusiastic support of the American Library Association? No big deal.
Thirteen-year-old girls having their healthy breasts removed and 11-year-old boys getting chemically castrated because of short-lived struggles with their gender identity? Nothing to fuss about.
Radical feminists launching a “Shout Your Abortion” movement? No big deal.
Christians being canceled because they dare to hold to their biblically-based values in public? Let’s not get too worked up.
How deadly complacency can be!
That’s why we need to feel the full force of the outrage of the moment, as the President of the United States, himself a professing Catholic, uses his bully platform to mock the followers of Jesus worldwide. First, he announced “Transgender Day of Visibility” on Good Friday. Then, he timed things so that it would be celebrated this year on Resurrection (Easter) Sunday.
Wake up, America! It really is revival or we die — and that revival, that awakening, that coming to life again, that returning to the Lord with all our hearts and souls, repenting of our own sins — must begin with each of us.
To pray it again, “Lord, let the awakening begin with me.
The Bible reveals that God refines His church during the last seven years before Jesus returns first to rescue the Saints. The church of Philadelphia represents the church that Jesus raptures before He pours out His wrath upon an unrepentant world.
Jesus has nothing but compliments for these survivors of the Great Tribulation, his faithful remnant.
“Jesus says, I have set before you an open door, no one can shut it; for you have a little strength, have kept My word, and have not denied My name. Because you have kept My command to persevere, I will also keep you from the hour of trial (Rapture) which shall come upon the whole earth (wrath of God).” (Revelation 3:7-13)
“hold fast what you have, so that no one will take your crown” (Rev. 3:11). There is yet time to fall away and lose their rewards.
Deep in the capital of Lebanon, thousands of Christians recently gathered to praise Jesus in a one-night worship experience that organizers say became “a beacon of hope and joy” for the Middle East. “Beirut 2024” was an ecumenical musical event that brought together believers from different Christian faith traditions to worship God and instill hope in its attendees. The event was held as part of celebrations for the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity and the 50th anniversary of the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC).
The MECC organized the gathering and estimated that about 10,000 people were in attendance. According to the “Beirut 2024″ website, the celebration was an event that sought to “showcase the Holy Spirit’s presence in the Church’s worship across ages.” With escalating tensions in the Middle East, leaders also decided to hold a “unique prayer meeting” to unite “diverse Churches in praise, fostering unity as outlined in Ephesians 1. Additionally, it symbolized a beacon of hope and joy for Lebanon and the wider Middle East.” “It is an opportunity to pray for peace in Lebanon and repentance for its people,” the website shares.
A choir of 300 singers and musicians from different churches led the congregation of church leaders and worshippers through the night of prayer and praise. “No one is surprised that this blessed choir speaks with multiple languages, for it is filled with the Holy Spirit who gave it to speak in this way, as happened on the day of Pentecost. Our chant tonight will be ascending to heaven, with the power of the Spirit that unites us, and it will be stronger than the screams of haters and murderers of man, and louder than the blast of their bombs,” said Professor Dr. Michel Abs, Secretary General of the MECC. “Our ecumenical spiritual evening is the product of the Holy Spirit, through believers, who worked with persistence and determination to make it happen and bring together the one Church of Christ with its cultural diversity and richness, in which the Middle East abounds,” he added. Those who attended reflected on the importance of praying for unity and peace in the Middle East. The event was broadcast live on the Lebanese MTV channel and other Christian stations.
Source: CBNNews
On January 31, 2024, at 7:30am the National Gathering for Prayer and Repentance (http://www.ngpr.org) gathered with Christian and government leaders to pray for the USA at the Museum of the Bible.
Our nation needs God. Now. Our Founding Fathers understood that our strength and unity were found in our commitment to Him and to His righteousness. We think America is strong, yet a long train of events reveals weakness on every front and historic level of division. We assume America will always be. It will not. ‘Under God’ must become more than a part of our Pledge of Allegiance. ‘In God we trust’ must be more than our national motto on our currency. America needs God. While some may refuse to accept that reality, we readily acknowledge that America truly does need God. It is for that reason that we come together at the National Gathering for Prayer and Repentance to repent of sin.
Great message from Luke 13:1-5. The only important truth not given by our Brother, Jeff in this video that I would add is the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Jeff does say that our lives must change to show our repentance but he does not add that Jesus made it possible for our Heavenly Father to send the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, to indwell our spirit in order to enable us to live a life showing the world our lives have changed due to our repentance. The fruit of the Holy Spirit is now evident in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, faithfulness, gentleness, goodness, kindness, and self-control. The ministry gifts of the Holy Spirit are also being used to bring glory to God: Word of wisdom, Word of knowledge, Gift of faith, Gift of healing, Working of miracles, Prophecy, Distinguishing between spirits, Speaking in tongues, and Interpreting tongues.
“Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” Luke 13:1-5
Without repentance there is no forgiveness of sins so it is encouraging to see Repentance Movements being established and thriving in African nations. The following is a report on Zambia but it is just one of the countries in Africa where God is moving powerfully.
Repentance preaching is breaking out in Africa! Old pagan strongholds and old, tired religious traditions without the Holy Spirit are giving way to The Way, inspired by the youth!
The latest example is in Zambia. They are in the midst of a 4 day youth Zambia Kneels conference. Please take two minutes to watch this noisy but sincere repentance of these young people in the video below; they’re not playing church; as they each repent and come into His Kingdom, His Body is growing:
Every Thursday, God willing, Jeff Daly and the National Repentance group hold a 2 hour Africa Kneels Zoom meeting for pastors and worship leaders in Africa. Every session includes private time with the Holy Spirit to consider an old sin pattern that each person wants to remove, to cleanse, to be that much more ready for His soon return as our Bridegroom.
Instead of sitting passively in a church building week after week, God calls us to experience, and then preach, by our new Godly conduct, repentance, and the remission of sins to bring in new disciples. This follows the command of the Risen Yeshua/ Jesus Christ. One of His last words before His ascension:
” Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that REPENTANCE and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.” Luke 24: 46-47
The process of self-emptying so that we can be filled with the Spirit of God and made into new creatures is often easier for those who are naturally wretched and miserable, as opposed to those who seem to have it “all together” like Denzel Washington.
The reliance on natural gifts can not only prevent us from coming to Christ but also hinder our daily reliance on His Holy Spirit once we have. Relying on our own powers and failing to recognize the ultimate source of those powers can stunt our relationship with our Creator and, ultimately, lead us into the first of all sins, the sin of pride.
That the Christian life is fundamentally related to the humility of the soul before God is itself revealed in the life of Christ. Paul talks of God’s “self-emptying” (kenosis):
“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Philippians 2:5-11
The process of self-emptying so that we can be filled with the Spirit of God and made into new creatures is often easier for those who are naturally wretched and miserable, as opposed to those who seem to have it “all together”:
Men like Denzel Washington endowed with incredible natural gifts like charisma and talent, find it harder to rely on God’s power and providence. It is so easy for them to say who needs God, I can supply all that I need. That Denzel struggled to “want [the Holy Spirit”], didn’t want to “go too deep” and wasn’t “ready to live it” is an honest account of what it is often like for those who are gifted by God to not want to acknowledge the source of those gifts, but to rely on them as their own. But, that Denzel is as outspoken a follower of Christ as he is, given his incredible circumstances, is itself a testimony to God’s grace and Denzel’s faithful response to that grace.
For C.S. Lewis, who called himself “the most reluctant convert,” it was not his looks per se, but his natural gift of intellect that prevented him from humbling himself before God. For many of us, it may be something other than looks or intellect that hinders us from coming to Christ. But, that some part of our natural gifts may be the very thing keeping us from the Giver of those gifts, is very likely the case.
What about you?
David Wilkerson prophesied in 1986 that God is going to smash ministries that reject the ministry of repentance. This prophecy has proved to be true as God has exposed so many TV ministries. Hillsong in my own country, Australia, is a major one of those ministries that preached prosperity and the leadership has been exposed. Thankfully, some pastors like Francis Chan have walked away from megachurches and gone back to church as described in the Book of Acts.
David Wilkerson shows that even the O.T prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah prophesied what we are seeing in these last days. The way of the flesh is so attractive: money and crowds. David Wilkerson admits he was on this path and repentance was essential for him before he could preach this message.
“Ah, stubborn children,” declares the Lord, “who carry out a plan, but not mine, and who make an alliance, but not of my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin;” Isaiah 30:1
“And now, go, write it before them on a tablet and inscribe it in a book, that it may be for the time to come as a witness forever. For they are a rebellious people, lying children, children unwilling to hear
the instruction of the Lord; who say to the seers, “Do not see,” and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us what is right; speak to us smooth things, prophesy illusions, leave the way, turn aside from the path,
let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.” Isaiah 30:8-11
Jesus carried out his ministry in the power of the Holy Spirit, announcing the good news of salvation. He showed numerous times his compassion for the poor and the outcast. He fulfilled prophecy and carried out His purpose: to seek and save the lost.
“The steps of a man are established by the LORD when he delights in his way; though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong, for the LORD upholds his hand. I have been young, and now am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his children begging for bread. He is ever lending generously, and his children become a blessing. Turn away from evil and do good; so shall you dwell forever. For the LORD loves justice; he will not forsake his saints. They are preserved forever, but the children of the wicked shall be cut off. The righteous shall inherit the land and dwell upon it forever.” Psalms 37:23-29
Scripture is clear: “As He who called you is holy, you also must be holy in all your conduct” 1 Peter 1:15
Look what A.W.Tozer said:
“I look back and remember a day when it was common for men and women to come to an altar of prayer and kneel there, shake, tremble, and weep in agony of conviction over their iniquity. We do not see it now because the God we preach is not the everlasting, awful Holy One who cannot look upon iniquity. When we get a vision of the Holy One as he desires to reveal himself, this will come back as a mighty power to change us into his likeness.”
Tozer then quotes this hymn by Charles Wesley:
Lord, incline me to repent; Let me now my fall lament, Deeply my revolt deplore, Weep, believe, and sin no more.
Repentance is the lost word in the Christian dictionary. You may want to consider adding the sentiment of Charles Wesley’s words to your next prayer. I am sure you won’t use Wesley’s words exactly.
It is not as if we have to repent and be holy in our own strength. Jesus made it possible for our Heavenly Father to send the Holy Spirit to enable us to be holy. He will produce the fruit of the Spirit in your life and enable you to do the ministry that God has called you to do. We just need to submit to His leading day by day and not grieve Him or quench His work in our lives.
LIVING ETERNAL NOW 