Counterfeit Repentance

The Bible says, “In His presence is the fullness of joy. When the enemy wants to start to attack us, his first point of call is the heart. When God wants to start moving in our lives too, the first point of call is the heart. Therefore, our serious battlefield is the mind. I would not be surprised if you have ever thought of killing yourself or perhaps, battles have been fought in your heart regarding godliness and unrighteousness, and unrighteousness has prevailed.

This is no time to deceive you. The Bible says, “Children, this is the last hour.” So, call unto God, cry to Him with the following prayer points.

1. Holy Ghost fire, blood of Jesus, purge my heart, in Jesus’ name.

2. Return unto your resting place, oh my soul, in the name of Jesus.

This message entitled, “Counterfeit repentance” is for those who are tired of living a life that is lesser than that of the eagle. The eagle stays on the tallest branch of the tallest tree on the tallest mountain. The hunter that would shoot down the eagle is not a small hunter. So, this message is for those who want to fly like the eagle.

If there is a counterfeit thing, it means that there is its original; without the original, there can’t be the counterfeit. Repentance is a powerful word in the Scripture. It is repeated many times in the Bible. There would have been no need for repentance, if man had not found himself in the valley of sin. For many years, I was in a church where we do a lot of ceremonies. We opened our service with dancing. The time of processional hymn was dancing time, we danced into the church. We said the opening prayer, sang hymn No. 1, heard the announcement, sang hymn No. 2. Then offerings were taken; sometimes, up to ten times during the service. They were not the kind of offerings that the ushers collect while you are seated. The bowl was at the front and you had to dance from your seat to the place, put in whatever you had and danced back to your seat. There were also special offerings by those who had been healed of sicknesses and those who survived in accidents. They came forward with their friends. So, often offerings took up to two hours and everybody would dance and rejoice. And when it was time for message, people would be tired because of the exercise and would be sleeping. The preacher would then say, “Well, when the soup is very sweet, you don’t need too much of it, so five or 10 minutes sermon is enough for us.” That time the enemy was eating deep into the lives of people. It was very sad. We continued like that until one day, as we were clapping, jumping and rejoicing as usual, a woman who had gone to the mountain where she prayed for seven days came in and said that the Lord directed her to our church. She sat down at the back and watched as all of us were dancing, rejoicing and clapping. And suddenly a word of prophecy came from her: “What are you doing here? All these noise you are making here, do you think it is getting to my ears? I am calling you only to one thing, Repentance.” She said this twice and then said: “There are amongst us here people who are wearing wigs of animal hair on their heads, why won’t they behave like animals.” She went on and on and everybody calmed down. It was the first time somebody told us the truth which they say is always very stubborn and very bitter. It is only those who want to move forward that like the truth.

The Old Testament opens with the book of Genesis and closes with the book of Malachi. Between Malachi and Matthew, there was a space of about 400 years during which there was no prophet and as such there was silence from heaven. The first time a prophet came again on the scene, the first cry he uttered is in Matthew 3: 2: “Repent ye; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” So, the first cry after 400 years of silence from heaven was “Repent.” Also, when Jesus came out from the wilderness after being tempted by the devil, His first message as we find in Mark 1:15, is repentance. Mark 1:13-15: “And he was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of satan; and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered unto him. Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God. And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.” If after 40 days of praying and fasting, the first message Jesus began to preach was repentance, it means that repentance is a serious matter. In Luke 13:3, Jesus hit the nail on the head. It says, “I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.”