Repentance: To Change One's Mind

The Spirit calls me today to talk about the ongoing sorrow I feel for ungodly decisions that have littered the course of my life. His deep and unfathomable love leads us to repentance but today, He wants to take me to a greater understanding of what repentance really means.

I have been reading the book of Amos about his call to prophesy and speak God's indictment and judgement that was about to fall on Israel and her surrounding neighbor nations.

I read about the end of God's patience with fear and trembling for those who push against His Sovereignty and fail to see the ax about to fall. Because we live in such a privileged time of Grace, the "Church" age, when His mercies are new every morning, we may become complacent about His powerful authority and brilliant Holiness.

The Old Testament and God's dealings with His Beloved Israel are a sobering reminder that a day of ultimate judgement is coming in spite of what we see and know people are "getting away with" in the world today.

To understand the Truth about our God is to respect His Majestic Sovereignty and always remember that He created us not the other way around.

Our only hope for existence is in His grace and mercy for all have fallen short of His righteous requirements for life, especially eternal life. Even our best efforts fall so short of the mark, except for mercy we would all be assigned the fiery pit of an unimaginable hell.

As the Holy One deals with my pride, I always come down to the reality of my own personal lack of worth. Having been raised "legalistically" the continuous sense of guilt and condemnation is ever present but mixed with the push toward the deceptive exalted pride of "works".

Today the Spirit had something to show me that blew my circuits and with successful application of His wisdom can change the conflict forever.

My personal Bible is the NIV Study Bible. Today I picked up the King James version in a random sequence of events. I have been studying the book of Amos so I went there to read. What I discovered was a lightening bolt to my mind.

In Amos 7, the Lord showed Amos the shepherd/prophet what He was about to do.

Amos 3:7 reads, "Surely the Sovereign Lord does nothing without revealing His plan to His servants the prophets." Interesting that God chose a shepherd, outside the "religious" community to use as a spokesman to His people.

This causes me to believe that a prophet is simply a person who is so intimately aquainted with the Lord and His voice that he is privileged to know what the Lord is about to do before He does it, whether one day or thousands of years in advance.

Amos was so horrified by what he "saw" was about to happen to God's people that he interceded (almost in protest). My Bible reads, "so God relented and said, "This will not happen". When I read the same passages out of the King James version, the text reads, "God repented".

I pondered this long and hard. I know that God is not "guilty" and is always above and beyond reproach, so what does this mean, "God repented"?

The definition of repentance is "to feel such regret over an action or intention as to change one's mind." I have been hung up on a partial definition of that word having to do with remorse or sorrow.

I come every day to repent for things the Holy Spirit reveals that are short of the mark, but then find the frustration in either re-committing or the on going guilt for my thoughts or actions. This shortfall in understanding the definition of true repentance allows the enemy to keep badgering me with this guilt and in many ways keeps me from experiencing the real objective in Godly repentance.

The Holy One speaks: "Since the Cross of Christ, the believer's righteousness in the eyes of the Father is Christ's righteousness. The indwelling Spirit of Christ is the true believer's source for transformation. The process of transformation is not just a sorrow of failure but rather a reverse of course, a change of heart and mind."

More often than not, the transformation has more to do with the issue of God's ways VS. my ways. Guilt sent by the enemy mucks up the situation. I spend more time battling the guilt than changing course. I can see that repentance is therefore, in the life of a believer, more about reversing the human course that is usually in contradiction to Holiness even if not wicked or sinful in and of itself.

God's indictment and His judgement revealed to Amos is not evil, or bad but deserved, and yet God "repented". When the Holy Spirit draws us into His counsel and shows us our humanity, I now see that He is more pleased with a change of course than on going guilt and self-judgment. "Does the lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord? To obey is better than to sacrifice." I Sam 15:22

His convictions are not to beat us down but rather to lead us into places of His Glorious plan for our lives. The more we yield to the Holy Spirit and change our minds toward His ways, the greater will be God's Glory and our victory over a fallen world.

There may yet be time on the prophetic calendar as we anticipate the return of our King to "repent" and model lives reflecting the Holy One within, which is the only life eligible for the blessings God promises to send upon our obedience to His ways.

Is the Spirit showing you where you need to repent? The world is waiting to see Holiness in us, for without Holiness no one will see the Lord. (Heb 12:14)

The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?