I think the Lord is leading us into a season of repentance and it will make things easier if we are mindful of what repentance really means.

The Lord has been showing many of us that the path to anointing, destiny and the fulfillment of Kingdom promises is the humble path of repentance. The trouble is we think repentance means to be sorry, so when we hear a call to repentance, we simply say, “Yes, Lord, I repent for that sin. I am sorry!”

But then we end up going back to our normal routines! This is not what repentance is. This is an apology. And in fact, it is not an apology that the Lord seeks, but an exchange between us and the Holy Spirit which will empower us to change. To repent means to change directions.

Seven Steps to Freedom

He has helped me understand this by showing me seven aspects that describe the path of repentance. They are:

1. A Knowledge of Sin; 2. Our Agreement with this Truth; 3. Conviction of the Holy Spirit; 4. Confession (an admission); 5. Seeking His Forgiveness; 6. His forgiveness cleanses us from unrighteousness, thus breaking the power of sin; and 7. Being actually freed from Sin’s Bondage we then become able to change our ways — to repent. This new direction ought to be maintained with diligence to remain free from re-entering sin’s bondage.

The first three aspects are not in a clear order because we can feel a conviction from the Holy Spirit that something we are doing is wrong before we have ever heard a lesson on it. Likewise, we can hear a lesson on what is right and wrong but continue to do wrong until years later when the Lord’s Spirit convicts us. Our behavior is most driven by the desires in our hearts, not our knowledge of external rules. So we may have a knowledge of sin, but lack a deep enough personal identification with it to nudge us to towards change. This is especially true for adult Christians as we walk out our salvation over many years because we already know and agree that it is wrong to lust, judge, be prideful, but we need more than personal knowledge to be free. We need God’s power.

Discipline and determination are important, but ultimately it is the presence of the Holy Spirit that reveals sin. And honestly, if you don’t FEEL His conviction, then you ought to ask and wait on Him to reveal Himself and the sin in you.

Because how can you confess sincerely to what you think you have not done? You cannot. Likewise you cannot just assume you are dealing with a particular sin either; what good is repenting of what you are not doing? So without this Holy Illumination we will not be able to personally identify with the truth of our own sinfulness, and so will not be able to make a sincere confession.

That’s the fourth part: CONFESSION — not denial, rebuking satan, or claiming our righteousness “by faith” … we need to admit our shortcomings to align our truly sinful hearts with the Lord’s Holy Ways so we can come under His Blood to become righteous in His Eyes. If we do not confess, we are not taking the path of humility to admit we need a savior. We will not therefore receive His cleansing.

1 John 1:8-9: ^8. If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. ^9. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Once we confess, or admit our guilt, we then can humbly ASK, or REQUEST that He would forgive us. We do not demand this “right” for we have no right; it is by Grace we are forgiven, not a right earned by works of a law. But also we know that if we do request, we have an assurance that HE WILL FORGIVE so we can avoid the trap of confessing the same sin ten times and feeling too unworthy to receive His Forgiveness. We are unworthy, which is why it is by Grace we are forgiven, but if you find yourself in a rut of always asking for forgiveness for the same sin and never feeling worthy enough to be forgiven, or never feeling God’s love and forgiveness, then you need to ask for help to be delivered from a pesky demon of condemnation, shame or guilt. These three block repentance because they feed a kind of pride (self-righteousness) that says we can’t be (or don’t need to be) forgiven by God for our sins. True humility already admits that God is GOD, and its OK to ask for forgiveness and this often helps get a person out of this religious rut of guilt and condemnation.

So we ask for forgiveness and leave it in God’s hands. The Lord will forgive us instantly and you will also feel a “release” as sure as you felt the sorrow of His conviction. This release that you feel is in fact the cleansing of His forgiveness, which is the power by which we become freed from the chains of sin’s bondage. Without this freedom we are still in bondage to following sin and can’t change our ways. But the natural result of being freed is the ability to stop sinning, to change our habits, and so to turn from our old ways — we can truly repent.

The last stage is to walk in the freedom with which Christ has set us free and not to be entangled again in the yoke of bondage. We need to cherish and embrace our freedom with the maturity to defend it with diligence and discipline.

I hear the Lord saying that He can free everyone from sin’s bondage, but most are not ready to abandon sin and so will not maintain their freedom, so He waits until we are mature enough to handle the truth and walk in the freedom He can easily give us. So we learn to ask the Holy Spirit to search our hearts and lead others in this repentance knowing the reward for this sanctification is increased intimacy with the Lord himself!

 Edward Johnson • This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it