***Updated on 6/13/24

I wanted to write on the importance of Repentance. As I was meditating and spending time in the WORD, I believe the Spirit of the LORD gave me this revelation on the importance of repentance. I believe that the LORD desires us to know this because He loves us and desires us to know Him better.

So let’s talk about the topic of repentance. Here are some notes that I have done as well, and I thank the LORD GOD for guiding me in this. 

Repentance definition in Greek: metanoeo

Which means to

What is contrition? The thesaurus mentioned regret, sorrow, humiliation

So you could say a sorrow, a regret, or humiliation of sin and turning to GOD. 

Let’s begin with this verse in Romans 12:2. 

“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing, and perfect will.”

So, what is the pattern of this world? Sin!

Sin is the act or the behavior in the flesh. Remember we’re not supposed to walk in the flesh but in the Holy Spirit. Here are some sinful behaviors found in these few bible verses:

• Galatians 5:19-21
• Romans 1:18-32, especially in verses 21 and 25. 
• Colossians 3:5-8
• 2nd Timothy 3:1-5
• Revelation 22:15

The pattern of this world begins in the mind:

“You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of” – Matthew 12:34

“For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.” – Matthew 15:19

I also want to mention the word schema. The word schema is a mental representation of the world. It is basically how you see things. As you believe it, it therefore becomes your life as you put it into action. So therefore, when you are conformed to the pattern of this world, you become what is in the world. 

Let’s look at Romans 12:2 which says to not conform to the pattern of this world. And remember that the pattern of the world is wicked and wrong thoughts that are futile. 

I also looked at the definition of pattern. In the thesaurus, it is methods, order, or arrangement. 

So this tells us that the world has methods or order on how to walk in the flesh, in sin. 

Let’s go to Genesis 1:1. The Word says “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

The thesaurus for the word created is design, molded, made, construct, and fashion. So think about this, if the world has patterns, GOD, first and foremost, also created patterns; methods, order, and designs that were set in place in heaven and earth. This verse is saying that there was an order that GOD set in place. This is also saying that GOD created order as He was creating the heaven and the earth. 

For example, with a flower, what do you need to grow a flower? You need seed, water, soil, and the sun. Those are orders or methods that GOD set in place for the flowers to grow. This is found in Genesis 1:11-13. 

This is also saying that GOD created something true and factual. Remember that GOD is truth, He alone can sanctify us in His truth. For example, as a truth and factual, you can see a flower, you can see grass, and you can see a cloud in the sky. Those things are factual because you can see them. 

So because GOD created the heaven and the earth, this also lets us know that He also created our minds. He did not just create the physical aspect that we see in the world, but also our minds, and our thinking. 

Again, because of how heaven and earth function, with the example of the flower, this is saying that GOD set up a foundation that is true and factual in the earth. What is factual? The clouds, the grass, the wind, even the four walls around you because the thoughts of man were made by GOD which leads me to write this:

Because GOD set up a foundation in heaven and earth, as shown in the example of the flower, he also set up a foundation or order in our minds. 

Because of this foundation, He set up us to think a certain way but as it says in Romans 1:21 and 25, people exchanged GOD’s truth with a lie and their thoughts became futile. The people’s thoughts became contrary to GOD’s truth. 

Genesis 1:26-27 says GOD made us in His likeness. What is likeness? In the thesaurus, it is a resemblance. So GOD wanted us to resemble Him, and I am mentioning this in terms of the thought and the mind. So what does this tell us? GOD wanted us to think a certain way. Our minds are set up to think a certain way, GOD’s ways, His ways!

So when GOD created the heaven and the earth, He set a foundation or order for it to function in His ways, GOD also set up an order in us, to resemble Him and to resemble Him in ways and thoughts. 

However, because of the fall of man, this fall led our minds to become futile, exchanging GOD’s truth for a lie. We went to thinking our way instead of GOD’s way. 

Because we went our way in our mind and our thoughts, we then became conformed to the pattern of this world, the order or methods of this world. 

I wrote a blog post called What thoughts are you cultivating in your mind? This post is based on Genesis 3:4-5, but if you start from verses 2-5, it would be clearer. In the bible, the snake planted a lie and Eve received and accepted the lie causing her to fall, or sin. So the snake planted the lie in Eve’s mind. He planted disobedience in Eve’s mind. 

The lie, which is the seed, was planted in Eve and took root. Imagine the root of a plant underground, spreading downward in the ground. So this seed, the lie, became the behavior or the act because of the cause of the seed. 

Remember, GOD wants obedience. Sin wants disobedience. 

Again, imagine lie as a seed. If you nurture it, it will grow. 

So obviously we do not want to nurture the wrong seed but the right seed. So for us to plant the right seed, we need the right seed to be planted in us. 

This seed is the Gospel, the Gospel of Truth! The Gospel seed brings us right back to GOD and in His ways of doing things, in our thoughts, in His resemblance. When man fell short of the glory of GOD, our thinking became contrary to GOD’s thinking. We were separated from GOD. 

Before we continue with repentance, I want to set forth a foundation that needs to be in all of our lives, according to Deuteronomy 6:5. 

The Word says to love the Lord GOD with all of our heart, soul, and strength. It is not 75% but it is all, 100%. We need to love Him with all of us. And because we should love the LORD, we then need to live a holy life as He desires to, and this is by turning away from sin, the lies of the world. 

In Hosea 11:5 (NIV), the Word says, “Will they not return to Egypt and will not Assyria rule over because they refuse to repent?”

We were created for Him, whether you believe it or not!

What is the seed Gospel of the LORD Jesus Christ?

In John 14:6, the Word says “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and no one comes to the Father except through Me.”

The reason I highlighted Truth is because GOD is Truth. Even in John 17:17, Jesus prays to Abba Father for the disciples that GOD sanctifies them with the Truth, His Word, and only Word is Truth. When you plant the Truth of GOD within you, as a seed, it will erase all the lies that were in the world. 

So let’s recap, what is repentance? To change one’s mind or to think differently. Even Jesus Christ said to repent. From Elijah the prophet to John the Baptist, they preached on repentance. They were telling the people to turn from their evil wicked ways and come back to GOD.

So they were telling the people, both Jews and Gentiles, to repent of their sins, to think differently of sin by turning away from it and embracing the truth, the Gospel truth, only found in Christ Jesus.

If you read the law of Moses by GOD in Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy, the law revealed the sinful seeds or deeds that was in man. From lying, stealing, and to sleeping with the same sex, those sin seeds are against the holiness of GOD. 

As Paul writes in Romans 7: 7, “What shall we say, then? Is the law sinful? Certainly not Nevertheless I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, you shall not covet.”

The seed that you have, whatever it may be, as I am defining it in general, is first brought into your heart, then into your thoughts, and it becomes a behavior or action. Bringing back the bible verse Matthew 15:19a, “For out of the heart, come evil thoughts…” So this means that this seed starts in the heart and then travels to the mind. 

The seed that you have, whatever it may be, as I am defining it in general, is first brought into your heart, then into your thoughts, and it becomes a behavior or action.

Here are more examples in Matthew 5:22 and Matthew 5:27-30. 

The primary bible verse talks about anger. Anger is a seed, meaning that anger was planted in your heart. However, when you engage with someone and maybe they did something to you and your reaction is anger, your thoughts would cultivate angry thoughts toward the person. And because these mean thoughts were cultivated, therefore making you respond in a variety of ways based on the angry thoughts you had in your mind. 

The LORD Jesus Christ called that murder. If you are angry at someone and have bad intentions toward them, even if it is not physical but verbal and even thought-processed, you have committed murder. 

The secondary bible verse talks about adultery. Now, you do not have to be physically involved with someone to commit adultery. Even looking at someone with lust in your eyes, even with the movies/television shows that you watch, is already committing adultery, especially if you’re going to use it in a variety of ways such as pornography, and even thinking in your thoughts concerning this impurity. 

If you allow these lies to be planted in your heart, and you allow them to cultivate in your mind, the behavior will follow. Do not be enslaved to the lie!

So what can we do to be saved from these lies? The answer is found in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

The seed of the Gospel is the only Truth seed that would trample on these other lying seeds because the Gospel of Jesus Christ stands on Truth, Truth only found in GOD.

The reason why people need the Gospel is because people are not thinking right. People are thinking in error. Therefore, their behavior and actions are in error. 

We need the Gospel that GOD sent forth on this earth more than 2000 years ago. We need to know whose we are and who we are!

For example, to think to yourself that you are enough is in error because it is He who created you who calls you enough!

In Psalm 139:14, the Word says that I am fearfully and wonderfully made. By who? Him! He made you! He made us, so He has the final say about us! So it is not about what you say but what He says. We do not know ourselves, but only GOD knows!

So going back to Repentance. 

Why is it important to repent?

Because we need to come back to the thought process that resembles GOD, Abba Father, our GOD. In the law of Moses, Psalm 51, Daniel, Jesus and John the Baptist, Sodom and Gomorrah, and the story of Jonah all talk about repentance. 

God desires a repentant heart, those who turn to Him, in Truth and leave their wicked ways, rejecting the lies of the world. 

If you’ve read the story of Noah, GOD was bringing a flood to the world because of the many sins of men. And because they would not repent of their sins, this separated them from GOD. Unfortunately, it brought the flood that killed all living things, except for eight people and two of every animal that the LORD GOD told Noah to bring on the Ark. 

So, how do we renew our minds and therefore, walk in the will of GOD? 

By receiving the Gospel of the LORD Jesus Christ (Romans 10:9)

You first acknowledge that you are a sinner, you accepted the world’s lie(s) but now you want to think and walk in the truth, that is only found in GOD through Christ Jesus. 

You believe in the LORD Jesus Christ and receive Him by faith, who became sin for you and died for your sins and rose again because GOD is going to judge the world. And Jesus Christ is coming soon. Specifically, the sin that is in the world and the people that engaged with sin that did not want to repent and come back to GOD.

But when you receive and believe in Jesus Christ and desire to walk in freedom and truth, you are saved from GOD’s wrath and have eternal life, that can only be found in Christ Jesus. And this is the truth that will set you free!

Meditating on the WORD (Joshua 1:8 & Psalm 1:1-3)

When you become a Christian or Christ follower, now it is time to renew your mind, constantly. How? In the Word. When you meditate, you read and soak it in as the real, alive, and active Word of GOD, your mind will be renewed. And the best part is, you do not have to do it alone.

Being led by the Spirit (John 14:15-31, John 16:5-15, Romans 8: 12-13, but read Romans 8 in full)

The Holy Spirit will help you and lead you into all truth as you desire every day to know GOD and walk in His truth. The Holy Spirit GOD, part of the trinity, helps us walk in the truth as we turn down our flesh: GOD the Father, GOD the Son, and GOD the Holy Spirit. And the Spirit of GOD will surely help you because He is the Spirit of wisdom, knowledge, understanding, counsel, might, and fear of the LORD (Isaiah 11:2). Ask Him to become part of your life and He shall help you, especially helping you to walk in Truth because He leads you into all truth).

Lastly, Pray (1st Thessalonians 5:17 & Psalm 62:8)

Prayer is such a powerful way to communicate with GOD. Be who you are and talk to Him. Whatever it may be, communicate with Him, and pour out your heart to Him because He desires to hear from you. And because you are talking with Him, you will get to know Him as you spend time with Him and in His Word. 

People’s thoughts need to be renewed, sweeping away the lies of the world and submitting to the thoughts and ways of GOD, by way of renewing our mind, as mentioned in Romans 12:2b. 

Renewing your mind that resembles GOD will show you how to truly live in the will of GOD through Christ Jesus. Jesus Christ, in His Word, has shown you how to live in the will of GOD (as shown in Matthew 5). 

So remember, repentance is uprooting the lies of the world and planting the truth of GOD. And that is what the people need. They need GOD. We all need GOD. 

And we need Jesus Christ, the savior of our soul. He’s the way to Father. He’s the one that gives us life that sets us free from the enslavement of the lie of the world, so that we submit to the will, plans, and renewal thinking that is only found in GOD because He is the creator of all things and the LORD of all, in all, through all, and of all. 

“This is what the covenant I will establish with the people of Israel after that times, declares the LORD. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their GOD, and they will be my people.” Hebrews 8:10 NIV

Therefore, He knows ALL things. And we need the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of wisdom, knowledge, understanding, counsel, might, and fear of the LORD, the One who prepares us for the coming of the LORD and helps us in being obedient to the Father and the LORD Jesus Christ. Shouldn’t we then, think it right, to lean on the LORD GOD then?

“So then, surrender to GOD. Stand up to the devil and resist him and he will flee in agony.” James 4:7 TPT.