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.”
On the day of Pentecost, as Peter was preaching his first message, the Bible says that as the people listened to him they were so pricked in their heart that they said, “Man of God, stop this sermon. What shall we do?” And the first cry of Peter was “Repent.” When Paul came on the scene too, he began to talk about repentance.
Many people go for deliverance and end up without result because they fail to realize that the first requirement for total deliverance is repentance. Usually the first message on the deliverance ground is on repentance.
With truthfulness, you can go any length with God. Perfect repentance requires the truth. Demons would remain in place when you cover up your sins. Without being truthful, you can’t set yourself free. It is the truth that can set you free. Repentance brings deliverance. Immediately somebody begins to repent, there would be chaos in the kingdom of the devil. No one can really see the demon in operation until repentance is complete in his life. Complete or true repentance is the proper foundation for deliverance. Without it, bad spirits will always re-enter. If you go for deliverance 20 times, but fail to repent, the evil spirits will come back and when they come back, you will need a stronger deliverance. When you drop a particular sinful activity the spirit attached to that activity will no longer have a hold upon your life. Ignorance of this principle of repentance has produced much sorrow and much frustration.
As long as there is a hidden sin in place, the evil spirits will come back. They can see the sin clearly. Any unrepentant person is a failure in the school of prayer and a failure in the school of spiritual warfare. Every hidden, concealed, unconfessed or unforsaken sin makes you a laughing stock in the eyes of the enemy. He will just be laughing at you and you would be wondering why. It is unfortunate that the word repentance has disappeared from many churches today. In fact, many ministers rarely call their congregations to be sorrowful over their sins. They rarely call them to grieve over their wickedness. When we commit sin, we wound the heart of Jesus. This is why it is dangerous to put off your repentance meant for today to another day.
I read the story of a brother who became born again and enjoying the Lord and ministering to people but he had no piece of mind. Therefore, he went to the Police and reported himself regarding a crime he committed 10 years before he got born again. He had killed his girlfriend, carefully folded the body and threw it into the river. The police were surprised. He reported to the police because he knew that without restitution his repentance was not complete. His wife and children begged him not to do so but he refused. He said that it was better to die now and have life eternal than to live and later ended up in hell fire. Of course, he was promptly jailed. That is what is called repentance.
Many want to have Christ in their life but they do not want to subtract sin from their lives. If you have Christ in your life, you will have to subtract sin from your life so that your life could move forward. Repentance is like soap, if you do not apply it, it will not work for you. There was a case of a fellow who was in a burning building. Everybody escaped but because he was sleeping when the building caught fire, he was the only one left. The fire brigade came and saw him on the roof wearing his pyjamas. They said, “Mr. Man, please, jump down.” He said, “No, I am going to take my cloth from inside. I don’t want them to see me in my pyjamas. The firemen tried to enter the building to save him but they could not. They said, “Please, jump.” He said, “No, how can it be said that people see me like this.” While he was still arguing, the building collapsed and he fell into the fire and was roasted. “How can it be said,” has killed many people and is still killing people, especially in this environment. "How can it be said,” has made people to borrow money to do what they should not borrow money for. “How can it be said," makes a person to cover up his offence instead of repenting in the presence of God.
Many ministers rarely call people to repentance nowadays, that is why many Christians have little power today. The ministers are simply leading masses of unrepentant people into false peace. I fear that they are offering salvation to those who have not repented. They would say, “Fill the back of our form, shake our hands and say you are saved.” They are promoting those who are hiding serpents in their pockets. When the serpent begins to bite them, all of us will begin to pray for them. I fear that such ministers are promoting those with lust in their hearts. I fear that many churches are focusing on remedy, while they leave the disease. In this twenty-first century, repentance, which is a New Testament doctrine, has become unimportant to many Christians. New churches offer prescription without diagnosis and we have a lot of unrepentant theatre actors. They profess Christ on service days but every other day of the week, they go back to their sin. When you see a person going back to his sin, the problem is that he never really repented and this is very sad indeed.
WHAT IS REPENTANCE?
Repentance is the total sacrifice and surrendering of oneself to obey and to submit to the word of God in all situations. It is to deny yourself, take up your cross daily and follow Jesus. It is to come to Jesus with an attitude of “I cannot do it alone, help me, Lord.” It is to come to Jesus with broken, humble, helpless, hopeless and unworthy heart. It is to completely change one’s mind. It is to feel remorse for your sin against God. It is to be sorry and feel terrible about your sin and decide to change. It is to have what the Bible calls godly sorrow. 2 Corinthians 7:10: “For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.” It is to put off the old man and put on the new man. It is spiritual regret by a sinner who has been convicted by the Holy Spirit. It is a spiritually produced sorrow of heart for having sinned. A situation where somebody commits a sin and there is no sorrow at all, shows that the person has gone. Unless he quickly prays his way back, he may be lost forever. It is not a question of the dog not hearing the whistle of the hunter, but a case of the dog being completely deaf and dumb. Repentance is when you are carefully aware of your spiritual poverty. It is the Lord’s way of changing our behaviour.
Repentance is when you come to the realization that everything is vanity. It is when you understand the Scripture which says, “We brought nothing to this world and it is certain that we are not going to take anything out of it.” What you eat from it, you will vomit in it. Repentance is hating those things you once loved. It is releasing your hand from the object it has clung to. Some people are clinging to masturbation, lies, anger, bitterness and unforgiveness. Repentance is when you let go all these. It is deep, radical or fundamental change in one’s life.
The contract you are looking for that is making you to dress like Jezebel may soon lead you into hell fire. You must repent and stop pleasing man. Repentance is surrendering to Jesus, making a u-turn from evil doing. It is the killer laying down his weapon and saying, “I am not doing it again.” It is the thief returning what he has stolen. I remember the story of a 70-year old man who on the second day after he got born again, he brought to the church three wrist watches he had stolen 20 years ago when he was a pick pocket. When he showed the first wristwatch to the counsellor, the counsellor looked at it, turned its back and found his name on it. He remembered losing that wristwatch at a bus stop 20 years earlier. The 70-year old man was keeping the weapon of hell fire in the house. Many of our sisters keep weapons of hell fire at home. For example, the complimentary cards of their old boyfriends. They keep such things at home and are praying that God should bless them.
COUNTERFEIT REPENTANCE
Repentance is not the sorrow of a thief who was caught red-handed with stolen property and is now afraid of what may happen. The fact that they caught you red-handed and you feel bad is not repentance. You are just afraid of the consequences. It is not the reluctant apology of a person who has been proved wrong and he says, “Well, I apologise, I am sorry. Don’t be annoyed” or “what else do you want apart from sorry.” It is not the action of a person who was forced to accept that he was wrong. It is not stopping a particular sin because of some circumstances. For example, some people stop drinking or smoking because it is affecting their health.
If as you are reading this message, you are still drinking, know that you are cutting yourself off from prophetic anointing. You will forever remain a bat Christian. You will not see anything. The Lord has a reason for banning all His prophets from drinking. So, if you do not want to become a prophet, you can go on. If you want to be a chicken, continue like that, but the day you say that you want to mount up and see God, then you have to stop. An example of what repentance is not in the Bible is what Saul did. The question to him was “Why have you disobeyed the instructions of the Lord?” He said that he had carried out all the instructions. Then Samuel said, “What then is the bleating of the sheep that I hear?” Many people are covering up, but the Lord can hear the bleating of the sheep in their camps. Instead of breaking down and saying that he was sorry, Saul was giving excuses. He was not repentant. Also Judas did not repent, he just felt sorry. We are talking about repentance not about being sorry.
Every true prophet of the Most High God has preached repentance. The reason for this is that without it you are going nowhere. Everybody needs to repent. Sometimes repentance does not have to do with sin. You may need to repent from your lukewarm Bible study, your lukewarm prayer life, or your lukewarm witnessing. God wants everyone to repent and it is a foundational doctrine of the church. The sad thing is that repentance has a time limit and one day it will become unavailable.
Some traders are buying and selling successfully in the garden of your life because you have not repented. The Bible says that there was somebody who wanted to repent, but it was too late and he landed in hell fire. He lifted up his eye in hell and saw Lazarus and father Abraham in heaven and said, “Father Abraham, please, send Lazarus to put one finger in the water to cool my tongue because I am tormented in this place.” Abraham said, “No, he cannot come. Son, remember that when you were in the world you had a nice time, but Lazarus was suffering. We don’t recognize big men in this place.” He said, “Okay, thank you, sir, but let him go and talk to my brothers so that they can repent." Abraham said, “No, he cannot go back.” He said, “Send somebody to them.” Abraham said, “No, they would not hear.” All the prayers of the man were turned down in heaven.
The repentance that does not bring tears to the eyes, that brings no mourning for sin, that brings no remorse, that makes you just believe that you are right, it is no repentance. True repentance hates all sins. If you know the havoc that sin does, you will hate all sins. For repentance to be sincere, it must be total. The tears of repentance are so precious to the Lord that He puts them in a bottle. The evidence of true repentance is what the Bible describes in Matthew 7:20: “Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.” When you truly repent, the practice of willful sin will stop. You do not preplan sin again. It does not get reduced, it stops. If you are not as angry as before, but you are angry at times then you have not repented. Lying will stop, deceit will stop. Stealing whether by biro or by mouth or by hand, will stop. Restitution will begin to take place, hatred will cease, forgiveness for all those who have wronged you will come into your heart. Sex outside marriage will stop, adultery will stop. If you are not married according to the word of God and you are living together, when you repent, first of all restitution will take place. If you just picked a woman, without paying her dowry, without solemnizing the union in a church, a court or a mosque, she is just your girlfriend. You are living with her in fornication and any child born from that union is a child of fornication.
If you are fully repentant, selfishness will stop, drinking of alcohol and smoking will stop, and all ancestral worship will stop. When you are fully repentant, your interest in astrology and looking for beggarly powers will stop. You will begin to hear the word of God and to follow it. But when your repentance is without restitution, it is counterfeit. You are not serious. If you stole somebody’s thing and say, “Sorry, I stole your thing,” but you did not return it, you have not repented.
The Bible says, “He that covereth his sin shall not prosper but whosoever confesses and forsakes them shall have mercy.” If you cover up your sin, God will fight you, you will be adding sin to sin. It will hinder your breakthrough. Many terrible things will begin to happen and you will not know what you are going through. Without restitution you are wasting time. It is understandable when it is not possible. For example, if you offended somebody who is already dead, there is nothing you can do.
Repentance without confession is counterfeit. When you do a general confession without telling the Lord what you did, it is counterfeit repentance. Repentance without instant obedience is not repentance, it is false. Repentance without breaking of the desire to continue to sin is not repentance. Repentance that goes with hypocritical concealment is not repentance. For example, if you know that you do not like a person, but you are smiling and greeting him and as far as you are concerned, if he falls down and dies, you will be happy, you are not repentant.
If you repent but you still keep company with old sinner partners the repentance is false. Repentance that does not break the bridge between you and the world is not repentance. If after repentance you are still ashamed of Christ; you cannot carry your Bible and preach in the open, you have not repented. Repentance that will not forgive others is counterfeit.
WHAT TO DO
1. You must recognize and admit to yourself that you are a sinner.
2. You must confess your sins to God and also to those against whom you have sinned. What does it mean to confess our sins? It means to own up, to tell God about them to reveal and expose them, to make them clear, to unfold, uncover, and tear-off, or to get them off your mind.
3. You must be sincerely sorry.
4. You must make restitution. If you are eating with stolen spoon, you will have stomach problem. If you are sleeping on a stolen bed, you will have backache. If you are watching stolen television you will soon have problems with your eyes. Just make restitution.
5. You must change your life so that you do not repeat the sins.
6. You must forgive those who have sinned against you. If you have repented of a particular sin, you should not go back to it. The fact that you go back to it means that you never repented. God wants to bless so many people but would not open the windows of heaven when they refuse to repent. How can a believer listen to a number of messages on a particular issue and is still doing it.
As you are reading this magazine, if you know in your heart that there are some bad habits or sins you have been struggling and battling with and it does not seem that you are really winning, you need to cry to the Lord today.
It is not good for the daughter of Abraham to be suffering on the Sabbath day but what is making the daughter of Abraham to suffer is sin. The more you sin, the more powerful your problem becomes. The purer you are inside, the more powerful your prayers.
PRAYER POINTS
1. Every enemy of prayer in my life, die, die, in Jesus’ name.
2. Any sin that pursued my parents and is now pursuing me, die, in Jesus’ name.
3. Any sin cutting the wings of my eagle, loose your hold upon my life, in Jesus’ name.
4. My heart, refuse to be a garden of iniquity, in Jesus’ name.
It is the will of God that everyone should see and hear clearly. If anything is blocking your spiritual eye, it is an enemy indeed.
5. Every sin blocking my vision, be washed away by the blood of Jesus, in Jesus’ name.
6. My dream life, receive deliverance, in Jesus’ name.
7. Every cage of sin, break, in Jesus’ name.
8. Every sin that is strengthening my enemies, loose your hold, in Jesus’ name.
9.Every landing space of affliction, die, in Jesus name.
