Repentance and Revival

 

I am excited about what God is doing at Asbury University in Kentucky. I have been reading a lot about this revival and God brought my attention to a foundational truth in all movements of God, and that is repentance. We have made repentance something emotional and hard. God’s Word shows us that repentance is something that needs to be part of our relationship with God on a regular basis.

 

Repentance is a change of mind that leads to a change of action. The word in the New Testament means to do an about face. We are traveling in one direction, and we see it is the wrong direction, so we turn around and go in the exact opposite direction.

 

Repentance is brought by the work of the Holy Spirit to reveal to us the wrongness of the direction we are going and to give us the desire and power to change and go in the right direction.

 

Another thing that God had reminded to me again is the unity that is in His Word.

 

Zephaniah 2:3 says, “Seek the Lord, all you humble of the land, who do His commands; seek righteousness; seek humility; perhaps you may be hidden on the day of the anger of the Lord.”

 

God is using Zephaniah to call the nation of Judah to repent and seek the Lord.

 

Zephaniah mentions two components of repenting and seeking God.

 

We have to humble ourselves. If we don’t humble ourselves under God’s authority, we will be the authority of our lives. When I have been the authority of my life and tried to control life, it has been a disaster. Humbling ourselves is simply recognizing God is Lord and living with that as the reality of our lives.

 

We have to seek not our righteousness, but the righteousness of God. In 2 Corinthians 5:21 Paul tells us that the Father made Jesus to be sin even though He had never sinned so that we might become the righteousness of God. And in Romans 3:10-12 Paul reminds us that no of us by nature is righteous. So, if we are righteous, it is because by our receiving Jesus’ death to pay for our sins, we have also received His righteousness.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about humbling ourselves under God’s authority and receiving His righteousness as our own.

 

We also see that just as Hebrews 13:8 tells us that Jesus is the same yesterday and today and forever, we see in the New Testament that same call to repent.

 

Acts 3:19-20 says, “Repent therefore, and turn back that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus.”

 

Peter tells us to repent, to turn back to God.

 

Peter says that three things will occur when we repent.

 

Our sins will be blotted out when we repent. The term blotted out is an accounting term and it means to completely erase, meaning that they do not exist anymore. When we confess our sins and turn away from them to Jesus, He removes them from existence.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about repenting and having our sins done away with.

 

Times of refreshing will come from the presence of the Lord when we repent.

 

We picture repentance many times as something that leaves us feeling worthless, but repentance brings refreshment and freedom from Jesus. Repentance frees us from the guilt of sin and puts us on the path that leads into the presence of Jesus.      

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about repenting and receiving joy and freedom through the presence of Jesus.

 

We will experience the presence of the person of Jesus in our lives. Sin that is not confessed and not repented of just stays in our lives and hinders the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. In John 14:26 Jesus says that the Holy Spirit will teach us and bring to remembrance all that Jesus has said to us. In John 16:14 Jesus says the Holy Spirit will glorify Jesus in us. Sin in our lives hinders the Spirit from doing these things. When we confess and repent, it allows the Spirit to work in full power so that we can experience the fullness of Jesus in our lives.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about repenting so we can experience the fullness of Jesus in our lives.

 

Pray that the work that God has begun at Asbury will spread all over our nation to bring revival to God’s church and spiritual awakening to our nation.

 

By Repentance Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                            Joe