You may be a religionist or convictionist, but if the Holy Spirit has never opened your inner ear and given you the hearing of Faith; right now, your spirit, heart and soul are all still dead in trespasses and sins. Until the Holy Spirit begins to quicken your conscience and press the words of God home to your heart, you will forever remain a rotting corpse inside, and your mouth will be an open grave where the stench of your inner death spews out every time you begin to speak.
True Repentance springs from a changed heart, a changed inward nature, a changed desire, a changed appetite, a changed will. Only the Holy Spirit Himself can initiate these changes deep within us. The Holy Spirit blows, withers, and quickens and His amazing changes begin within the inward parts of our heart.
Repentance is not being sorry for things you've done in the past, the deeds; Repentance is being sorry for what you ARE inside, a sinner through and through. Repentance is saying to God in sincerity: "I'm no good, and I can't make it at the Judgment in my own righteousness; I'm no good at all, I've never been any good, and never will be any good, I have to have someone else's Righteousness, so JESUS I am trusting your Righteousness, and not my own righteousness. I cannot establish my own righteousness and make myself acceptable in the sight of God; JESUS, please make me acceptable in the sight of God through your Righteousness." God demands absolute perfect Righteousness, and since you can't do it or attain it, in mercy and love God sent His Son and you must take Him to be your Righteousness, or else you will perish in your own righteousness.
Repentance is when you hate the sins you once loved. Repentance from above leads you to avoid sins like you would avoid a rattlesnake or a great white shark. There is no fear of God before their eyes. The fear of the LORD should be our dearest Treasure (Isaiah 33:6). I will put My fear in their hearts. If God's fear is before your face, you will sin not (Exodus 20:20). The religionist sits with the doves on Sunday, and then flies with the buzzards all through the week.
A criminal is afraid of Prison, but he's not afraid of devising and committing the Crime, that will put him in Prison. Repentance is a fear of hurting God and grieving the Holy Spirit. Be good to God first. You will never avert the wrath of God to come by any means of your own. Christ-rejecting smart alecks always wind up in Hell where they belong. You keep turning toward sin, and denying the pleadings of the Holy Spirit. You refuse to turn form loving sins and this world's lusts. Only the Holy Spirit can apply the Precious Blood of the Lamb of God to your sinful soul and heart, not your works or some baptism. The man Christ Jesus only receives and saves guilty sinners. God now commandeth all men every where to Repent. Repentance is feeling the evil of your sins, and your deep need of Jesus. Repentance is the Holy Spirit's renewing of the mind daily. To depart from your evil and follow Jesus in the Way is your Highest Wisdom.
Stop hugging your sins and trying to cover up your iniquities. He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have Mercy. Repentance and Faith are two of the unspeakable gifts of God. The Soul must first repent of its Sins before it will seek the Savior. Repentance is the Alpha of the spiritual Alphabet. Repentance can never be produced in the sinner's heart apart from the grace of God. Have mercy on your poor Soul, and flee worldly lusts and ungodliness; seek Refuge in the shadow of the Cross and overshadowing protection of the Holy Spirit - The Power of the Highest. You'd be wise to Consider your latter end which is quickly approaching.
Repentance is just this: Let not sin therefore reign in my mortal body, that I should obey it in the lusts thereof, and Let the Peace of God (Christ Jesus Himself) rule in my heart. I will have the man, Christ Jesus, to reign over me. May the abundance of Grace and the gift of Righteousness reign in my life by one, Jesus Christ. May grace reign through Righteousness unto Eternal Life by Jesus Christ my Lord. Just let Him in, and just let Him rule, for He shall reign forever and ever. Repentance is forsaking the sins I loved before, and earnestly seek to please the LORD by doing those sins no more. Repentance is a gift from the Holy Spirit, a permanent attitude of hatred for your sins. Hate and judge your sins, not the sins of others. Be kind to God first. Repentance is a divine gift from God which leads you to turn from your love for sinning to the Love of Christ. Always be asking the Father for more and more Repentance.
The Holy Spirit is the great heavenly Agent who works Repentance and Faith into the heart and regenerates. Judas confessed his sin of betraying the innocent Blood, Judas repented himself, Judas hung himself, and he went to hell. Judas' repentance was not of the Holy Spirit. Beware, deadly damnable religion will never remind you to Repent toward God, and Trust your soul in the hands of JESUS. Nothing I have done, but only the bloody suffering of God's dear Son will save my guilty Soul. Repentance is a great heart respect for the Holy Spirit, that leads us to abstain from those things which grieve, vex and quench His presence, power, and operation in our hearts.
Repentance sighs over sins, and feels heavy weight of sins within. Begin to consider the goodness of God, for the Goodness of God leadeth thee to Repentance. Remember how God has spared you innumerable times as were knowingly provoking Him all through your life. God's longsuffering and forbearance has spared you to this day. O Lord Jesus, how I love You! My sins how I hate you! I can no longer love sin, for God has been so merciful to me. Only the Holy Spirit's working can get you truly interested in the Savior's Precious Blood. The best Repentance of all is when you hate your sins enough to forsake and quit them for good, and remember, Repentance is a gift from the Spirit of God.
The Holy Spirit if the Author of true Repentance - Illumination comes first - the Holy Spirit touches your eyes of understanding, and you become guilty in your own sight. You begin to truly understand that your thoughts, intents, imaginations and deeds are evil in the sight of God. The law of the LORD is Perfect, converting the Soul. Detestation comes next - you begin to see your filthiness and your continual rebellion against God, and you begin to be frightened by your sinful nature, and are horrified by all of your secret and public sins of the past and present. Repentance is a sincere inward hatred toward sin, a disgust concerning sins, and a longing to avoid your past sins. Humiliation comes next - you begin to realize your guilt and shame before God, and cry out, God be merciful to me a sinner. Down at the Cross under the Precious Blood, you cry out to Jesus for His rich and free Mercy and for cleansing from your sins. Transformation comes at the last - The Holy Spirit must change your inward nature, appetites and desires by His mighty power. You confess and forsake your sins, because they are offensive and grievous to God Himself.
You will begin to abhor, eschew, resist and avoid sinning, because it hurts and grieves God. Your stony heart must be divinely changed by the Eternal Spirit into a sensitive heart which cleaves to that which is good, and abhors that which is evil. The thorny bush must be turned into a grape vine which bear tender grapes; and the thistle must be turned into an olive tree. You must find all of your repentance, hope, forgiveness, rest, regeneration and everything you need in Jesus Christ alone. Believe in Jesus, Cling to Him alone. Hang on to the Lamb of God who hung upon the tree for you. Education, recreation, or a denomination will not work or satisfy, only Regeneration from above by the Spirit of God.
The Holy Spirit quickens the soul, imparts the words of the Gospel to the heart, and causes the inner ear to truly hear. The Holy Spirit pricks the heart, and then makes the heart whole with Jesus' healing blood. The Lord Jesus Christ is the great Author of Salvation for us, and the Holy Spirit is the great worker of Salvation within us.
