True Repentance
True Repentance
This is in response to an article Let us Repent of Repenting, which calls those of us who have been standing in the gap for the Nation to repent of some of our past actions.
The article is well written and we fully agree with what it says about personal repentance. The issue between us relates to corporate repentance, the writer says we need to repent of our repentance regarding our nation’s past, because they feel we are using some of the Scriptures almost as a mantra or even a talisman, that means another power other than the Holy Spirit.
Two broad observations before getting into the detail. First, if we cannot repent of our nation’s sins, the nation remains under judgment for them (not least, for our treatment of Israel and the Jewish people) and has no way out. It is uncharacteristic of God to leave people without hope and without escape. Second, we should be cautious about concluding that something which held good in the past no longer applies – this is the kind of reasoning that once caused people to say the gifts of the Holy Spirit ceased with the early church.
Confession and repentance
So, let us look at this whole avenue of what it means to repent. It is very important to do so because without repentance there is no remission of any sin. All sin has to be brought before Christ Jesus and for it to be accepted with the knowledge of His forgiveness. This is the standard practice of His heart for all mankind. “If you I will” is always a call from the Lord, “If you repent, I will forgive”.
Confession on its own does not open the door to receive forgiveness for one’s self, family or nation.
Confession is an acknowledgement of a fault, wrongdoing and admission to a sin, and the mere fact of acknowledging that sin does not open the door to receiving the forgiveness required to cleanse the body, or the situation of the past.
“I did wrong, Lord, our nation did wrong Lord will You help us” does not get rid of the consequences of the sin issue. It simply brings God to an awareness of the knowledge that you have of it. God looks into the heart to see if there is any repentance within it or just some remorse, or sadness that things are not going right just now. Following the Lord’s prayer in Matt 6:14-15 Father says “If you forgive others, I will forgive you, if you do not, I shall not forgive you”
Therefore, repentance has to have forgiveness attached to it, which confession does not. The Lord makes this clear in Acts 20:21-23 when Paul says that he was testifying to both Jews and Greeks of repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. That he was going off to Jerusalem and that he would be doing the same in every city, even knowing that he would be put into chains for doing so.
The need for repentance
The Lord witnessed to every city of the need to repent. In Matt 3:6-8 we see the word saying that there were those who desired to be baptised but there was a need after confession of their sin to go and bear fruit in keeping with repentance. It is clear that there has to be a life change in keeping with repentance, not just the confession. Luke 24:47 and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all nations, beginning in Jerusalem. The call was for nations. The great commissioning was for all nations. Matt 28:18-22
He adds to that in Rev 2:15-16 in speaking to the church in Pergamum … therefore repent; or else I am coming to you quickly and I will make war against them with the sword of My mouth. Here He was speaking to the nation that was listening to the teaching of the Nicolaitans.
The Lord is not slow in coming forward in keeping His promises for He does not want any to perish and for all to come to saving grace through repentance, whether personal or national, as He has a love for nations as well. Hence the desire He has for us as a nation to fulfil the redemptive call that He laid on us back in the 1800s.
One can understand the desire of the Lord to set tribes and nations free from their past, whether they accept Him or not. His love and His grace would not want anyone to suffer because of the sins of the forefathers or past sins of their tribe or nation. Our Lord and His Father have put that same desire in many of His people to help set others free from their past so that it does not govern their future. A sin not repented of will open the door for the enemy to penetrate the life of a person or nation. Evil spirits can hinder people and nations coming to the fullness of the knowledge of Christ Jesus. There are some spiritual powers that have an effect upon nations through principalities and powers in the mid-heaven. Eph 6
To understand that we have to see that sin is not just something we do, it is in response to a spirit that tempts us to follow its character. Gen 4:6-7 Rom 6:12-15 explains this.
Forgiveness of sins
Jesus’ cry from the cross was “Forgive them as they know not what they do”. What does this statement of the Lord cover?
He is speaking to all past present and future sin issues, not only personal but family, tribe and nation. The word “them” covers everyone saved or not saved of every family tribe and nation. Thank you, Jesus.
We are all aware that repentance is a personal issue to start with, which has to be implemented prior to real salvation, becoming a disciple and being able to manifest the Kingdom of God. (Everyone who has made Jesus King in their lives has the Kingdom alive within them.)
From here on the Holy Spirit is attempting to help us in the calling the Lord has given to each of us to serve Him. This calling is to first become one with the Father, The Son and the Holy Spirit as encouraged in John 17. His desire is for us to be one with the Godhead and with each other. Jesus is the way and the Father is the destination.
Old and New covenants
In being one with the Lord is also being one with the word of God, the bible. That is not just with the words that are in it but also with the character of it from beginning to the end. The character of the three in one is first and foremost forgiving of the past so that it does not govern our future. Right from Genesis He is pointing towards Revelation and the culmination of the end of time. He is preparing a people for Himself and that being a bride and a remnant of Jew and gentile believers.
Understanding is required of the covenant that Father made with His chosen people the Jews and also the new covenant that Jesus made through His shed blood for all mankind. Jesus not only fulfilled the Father’s covenant with the new one but also kept the old for the sake of the Jew and the gentile being grafted onto the same spiritual olive tree, therefore the two covenants are running alongside each, as Father has covenanted to His chosen ones and Jesus covenant with His chosen ones, we are one through the Holy Spirit. When we have met with the Son, He says we have met with the Father. Therefore, we cannot just cut out of the scriptures any part of the Father’s covenant because in Christ it is still being fulfilled unto the end of Revelation.
Standing in the gap
When coming together to stand in the gap for our nation’s sin many of us recognise that it is a corporate work of God and not just for individuals, as we stand before Him we become a bodyof intercession, we are Christ’s body on earth and we have the same character of Christ in intercession standing before the Father for our nation’s sin issues.
Many of us have become as one, the same principle as the Godhead. The emphasis is then WE repent of what the we as a nation had done in the past, we as a nation have done many wrong things, sinful issues are still not accounted for.
If it is not possible to repent, which has been strongly implied, then there is no-way the nation can be freed of past sin issues, therefore there can only be a pending judgement coming, because all sin will be judged if not accounted for. Our God is bigger than that as He always make a way of escape, it is called grace.
If we cannot repent of what we have done as a nation especially towards the Jewish people then there is the curse from Gen 12:3 activated right now against us as a nation. We would then be shooting ourselves in the foot / root of where we have been grafted, which to most of us who have a love for our spiritual roots would not find to be scriptural. We stand in the gap for not only our nation but also for Israel. I am aware of an organisation that has around 30,000 intercessors standing in the gap for Israel on regular occasions, often with a repentant heart regarding the way our nation has treated Israel in the past.
Jesus is the only one who can forgive sin and we are His body to help implement this through His authority on earth. He is the head and WE are His body to manifest His character here on the earth. Which is being able to deal with the consequences of sin issues of the past through deliverance and healing. Hence the Father’s desire to heal our land from its sin issues.
Jer 23:10 speaks of adultery polluting the land, if the adultery is not repented of then there can be no deliverance, and when that is not dealt with there will not be any healing. Sin is one of the key factors behind sickness. Who then is going to deal with these key issues if we as His body do not?
We have to recognise that God the Father will not do what His Son Jesus has given us an authority to do, having been given everything pertaining to godliness, we are called by the Lord to humble ourselves, seek His face through confession and repentance so that He can heal our land.
Matt 10:1 Mark 6:7 Luke 9:1 all make this clear that one has to deal with the negative spirits before healing can come. He called this a manifestation of the kingdom of God. His call in Luke 10 was for His disciples to go out to every city where He was going to come. The calling of standing in the gap for this nation is a forerunner principle for evangelism and salvation for the nation.
Once again there will be no forgiveness of past sins of our nation without them being repented of. If you love this nation then you will be standing in the gap with a repentant heart towards its past and present sin, seeking the Lord for His body to be what He has asked us to be.
The PWI team and others.
