Repentance. Healing. Freedom.

REPENTANCE.

19 Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord. Acts 3:19 NIV

Repentance means being willing to acknowledge that God is greater than us. His thoughts are higher than our thoughts and higher than our ways. It means saying God, I’m sorry for the things I've done wrong and committing yourself to refraining from sinning again. When we confess our sins to God he always forgives us and leads us on a redemptive path.

Repentance is true spiritual cleansing!

For me, repentance has been both freeing and revelatory. I recently prayed with a friend of mine for 7 days. We had been meeting for prayer once weekly for several months and then during one of our meeting the Holy Spirit led us to continue to pray for 7 days. On about the second or third day as began to pray the Holy Spirit led us to repent. We started off with few superficial (or common) things, like, “God forgive me for being unforgiving towards others” which can certainly be a sincere prayer, but we had deeper issues.

As we continued to pray we asked God to forgive us for jealousy, for pride, for lust, for being disobedient in relationships etc. and then something happened. I started having vivid visions of animals, nature and other strange things that I didn’t understand. My prayer partner did understand. Together, we were able to understand that the visions were symbolic of demons, strongholds, covenants, and soul ties that needed to be bound and cast out, broken, and destroyed. As we opened our mouths and confessed our sins desiring to be right with God, the Lord opened our spiritual eyes began to do so much more than we intended. We bound, cast out, and broke off everything that was revealed and left our prayer meeting feeling cleansed and freed. I left our prayer time with a sense of shock and awe at what the Lord had done. I believe that our prayer time was powerful because we followed the leading of the Holy Spirit to repent.

• An unrepentant heart can cause blocked blessings.

• An unrepentant heart can cause sickness.

• An unrepentant heart can keep your prayers from being answered.

• An unrepentant heart hinders spiritual growth.

If you are experiencing unexplainable problems like delays, sickness, relationship difficulties etc. please consider that your difficulties may be due to your spiritual condition and that you may need to repent in order for times of refreshing (the blessings of God to begin to flow in your life).

If you're having trouble finding the right words to say, pray Psalm 51

Psalm 51 NIV

For the director of music. A psalm of David. When the prophet Nathan came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba.

1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.

3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. 4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight; so you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge. 5 Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. 6 Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb; you taught me wisdom in that secret place.

7 Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. 8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice. 9 Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity.

10 Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. 11 Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways, so that sinners will turn back to you. 14 Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, you who are God my Savior, and my tongue will sing of your righteousness. 15 Open my lips, Lord, and my mouth will declare your praise. 16 You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. 17 My sacrifice, O God, is[b] a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.

18 May it please you to prosper Zion, to build up the walls of Jerusalem. 19 Then you will delight in the sacrifices of the righteous, in burnt offerings offered whole; then bulls will be offered on your altar.

As you repent may your spirit and life overflow with the healing and freedom that only God's love can bring. Amen.