Repent

REPENT REPENT REPENT

Repent of sin, repent of loving the things of this world, and repent of leaving your first love, Jesus Christ. With out this repentance taking place there will be no outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

We have a choice, humble ourselves or be humbled. If these things are not repented of then we will be judge. We will be judge for these things before we get to judgement day. 1 Peter 4:17 says “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?” We will be judged for the purpose of purifying the Church. If we respond in repentance to this judgement we will be washed by the blood of Jesus and forgiven. If we do not then we will be judged on judgement day.

These things need to be dealt with in the Church. How do we know that they are there? Because the Church is not living in victory as it should. Our Heavenly Father longs to see the Church of today living to glorify Him just as the New Testament church did. This is not happening. Why? Because these three things run rampant in most believers in the Church. They did not in the New Testament Church.

The Church wants the anointing and revival. The way to get it is to die to self and be full of Jesus. The believers in the New Testament Church turned from their sin when they turned to Jesus. Jesus came and lived in them and there lifestyle was changed so that sin living in them was not taking place. Jesus was their first love because they cut their ties to loving the things of this world. Because of this they were living full of the Spirit and their life exemplified it. The Church of today does not exemplify being filled with the Holy Spirit.

2 Co. 5:15 “And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.” This is not a lifestyle that is lived in the modern Church. We do not live unto Him that died for us. Let us be honest. We live unto ourselves. We allow so much stuff into our minds that does not line up with the Word. We do not spend the time with Jesus that He desires.

Gal. 2:20 “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” Have you crucified who you are? Is Christ alive in you? How do we know if Christ is alive in us? First the Holy Spirit will be a witness to us. Second our lifestyle will be a lifestyle that glorifies the Father and shows Jesus to the world. One problem that we can run into as believers is that we check ourselves to see if we have a lifestyle that follows this. When we see something that doesn’t, we then try to make it happen. Usually we do a pretty good job. The problem is that it is still us trying to do it. The answer is that in this area of our life we must be crucified with Jesus and allow Him to make this particular area of our life alive through Him. We must not attempt to do it because we will be building up “self”.

If the Spirit is to be alive and at work in a believers life then the three things mentioned above must be repented of.

One thing that the Lord has been speaking to me over and over again is the need to sever the things of this world and to sever the love for the things of this world. This is the picture that He has shown me.

He showed me a vine branch that was grafted into the Vine. There were little parts of this branch that were rotten and needed to be cut off. But in this picture they did not get cut off so they infected just about the whole branch until it was just about all rotten. Finally at that point it was all cut off except for the little bit at the base of the branch that was not rotten. This was necessary so that the branch would have another chance to grow healthy. Once all the rotted part of the branch was cut off the branch did grow back fully healthy. If at the beginning the little things had been cut off everything would have been ok

I know this is no new revelation. Scripture tells us that we are grafted into the vine and that we will be cut off if we bare bad fruit. But this is so prevalent in the Church today. Believers are so consumed by this world, the lusts of this world, and the cares of this world that they are becoming rotted and can not be as Jesus wants them to be. The only cure for the problem is for us to allow God to cut off whatever He sees fit to cut off so that we are pure and unspotted.

Check yourself; make sure that there are no sins in your life that you live in. I’m not talking about sinless perfection. We all slip up. But we had best not be living a lifestyle where sin lives. Cut off the things of this world and return to your first love.