REPENTANCE: THE DOORWAY TO HONESTY WITH GOD> What exactly is repentance that changes hearts? We read...
REPENTANCE: THE DOORWAY TO HONESTY WITH GOD> What exactly is repentance that changes hearts? We read about the Greek word in the bible is metanoia. It means to change one's mind and turn toward God's Will. But, I will add some depth from my experience. We must get so honest with God about our sin, knowing we cannot change without HIS HELP and transforming power of the HOLY SPIRIT. This is one reason Christ came to baptize us in the HS and fire. Fire is used in the altar to cleanse from sin, and coals from that fire are used in the altar of incense, which is our prayers about the thankfulness to God for our redemption.
God will use trials in our lives to show us what is in our hearts. Yep, this hurts and feels like fire at times. Recently, I was struggling with needing direction on several courses of action we could take. Some were "wants, and some were needs." BTW many of these choices could create much distraction to accomplish. Distractions are what the "enemy of our soul" uses to keep us out of the word of God. I had been asking for solid direction from the Lord. I went for a walk to pray about these situations. As I headed out and took the little bible that had the Psalms in it, I was now at PS 23. "Oh," I thought, "how nice." I prayed the Psalm back to the Lord. "The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want." The thought shot through my mind. "That isn't you, Ric Joyner, you are a ball of wants." BAM, my heart laid wide open. So repentance had to start, and it began like this: "Lord, thank you for revealing my motives. So my prayers about direction were really: "Lord, will you bless whichever path I decide I want? Now I needed to repent and change my mind, but how?
"So, Lord, will you change me as I "want all these wants?" But more than that, Lord, I want you to be my shepherd, and I need to wait (depend) on you. Then the next verse said. "He MAKES me lie down in green pastures." BAM 2. "Ok, gotcha, I need to stay put." Then I prayed an honest prayer again: "Lord, even if this scenario is my own mind, I will trust it as your word because acting on it shows faith and thus I cannot see how my flesh would like a prayer answered in this way, so I will take this as from You. But will you pls change my steps as I move forward if I heard you wrong?". This is repentance. He reveals our motives and sin, and with His help, He will change us!
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