Preparation for Revival (7)

Preparation for Revival (7)

The second step in Preparation for Revival is True Repentance. Why the term “True Repentance?” First, let us recall what we have learned and/or what we have been taught about the word and the act(s) of repentance. We know that the word from the Greek literally means “a change of mind.” We have been taught that it means “to turn,” i.e. to make a “U-turn” in our lives. We were on the “road to hell,” dead in our transgressions, when the Love of God broke through to our lives, and then, when we “accepted Jesus (a) into our lives, or (b) as our Savior, we made a 180° turn and were, subsequently, on the “road to Heaven.” Too often, in this modern era, the necessity of repenting from: truly turning from our sins is a key ingredient that is left out!

If the act of true repentance, a deep, life transforming remorse for and casting away our sinful behavior, is not neglected entirely, it is treated as synonymous with merely the confession of, or the acknowledgement of our sins and the recognition that such behavior was, and is, wrong. The feeling one gets is that it is very either (a) a very superficial, cognitive act of saying, “I’m sorry,” or (b) an emotional experience at the altar and is thereafter soon forgotten.

This, dear brethren, is a grievous oversight on our part as evangelicals of such magnitude as to qualify for “gross negligence!” ~ a form of “spiritual malpractice,” if you will! Therefore, our next step (or series of steps) must be to deal honestly with this critically important, biblical need for True repentance. We must deal with it (1) personally, (2) corporately, as and on behalf of the Body of Christ, (3) generationally, in two dimensions – our past and our future generations.

(to be continued . . . .)