Part 2 - Unmistakable Signs A Person Is Genuinely Walking In The Presence, Anointing, And Favor Of God Series

PART 2

8. They Surrender to God Daily and Live a Repentant Lifestyle as They Walk Daily in Humility.

“Repent and believe the good news!" (Mark 1:15 NIV)

“As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.” (Revelation 3:19-20 NKJV)

The word “repent” in the New Testament means to change one's mind or purpose for the better, to think differently about or reconsider what they are doing or what they have done. It does involve turning from sin, but most importantly, it means turning to God. It’s not about working one’s way into Heaven.

God desires to be the center of a person’s life. The Father longs for them to depend on Him to be their refuge, glory, and strength rather than some ‘Idol.’ Anything that keeps them from trusting Him exclusively He considers to be "other gods.” He is waiting for them to turn their heart away from these "other gods" and towards Him.

The reason a person should repent is that God wants to prove that He is a better refuge and strength than anyone or anything else. He is looking for people who will stop trusting earthly sources for filling their longings and desires. He is looking for people who will lean on and cling to no other but Him. He desires that they turn their affections towards Him and place their trust, confidence, security, and total dependence on Him and be satisfied with nothing else.

Repentance is a process of turning to God so people can receive His presence in trade for what they usually try to gain by dependence on earthly sources. Repentance makes it easier to turn and draw near to the Lord and deal with the many reasons that tend to hold them back from Him. It will take them from loving their earthly ways to loving God. It will also lead them to the place where earthly things become less and less attractive because the benefits of His presence far surpass anything this life has to offer.

To repent is to fully surrender and let Jesus live His life through you by accepting that there is nothing within you apart from Him that can make you acceptable. What truly matters is “whether we really have been changed into new and different people” (Galatians 6:15-16 NLT).

God has already forgiven all of their sins - past, present, and future - once and for all on the Cross. They appropriate it through repentance and putting their trust in God instead of in themselves. It is about trusting Him and believing that He has already forgiven them.

Repentance is not about following the ‘rules,’ doing good things, and not doing bad things.

“These are all destined to perish with use because they are based on human commands and teachings. Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence” (Colossians 2:20-3:1 NIV).

Repentance is not how hard a person works at changing their behavior or feeling sorrow or regret because of sin. Repentance by regret over personal sins committed can lead to self-condemnation. Sorrow, “that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death" (2 Corinthians 7:10 NIV).

Repentance by regret is "...the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement” and is “of no value against fleshly indulgence" (Colossians 2:23 NIV). Making oneself feel bad for what one did wrong is "self-made religion" because the pain that is felt seems to justify the wrongdoing.

The Cross is more powerful than one’s sin. No amount of feeling bad will ever make the payment or justify what a person has done wrong. Self-condemnation gives a false sense of goodness before God, "for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God" (James 1:20 NIV). The self-inflicted pain won’t absolve a person before God because "God is the one who justifies" (Romans 8:33b NIV).

Repentance towards God will result in good morals and ethical behavior. Still, a person can’t measure true repentance by the absence or presence of good morals and behavior because anything short of perfection is unacceptable to God. In other words, no matter how hard a person works at trying to live a truly “repentant” life by behaving well and living ‘morally,’ they can never live up to being perfect and acceptable to God. It is not about trying to prove one’s love to Him “but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins” (1 John 4:10 NLT).