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Recap of Part 2

Here are the main points of Part 2:

• Repentance should always be viewed in its wider context of the entire Good News of Jesus and not treated as a teaching that’s independent of all Jesus’ other teachings! 

• Jesus never intended repentance to be a threat to keep you ‘in line’ 

• Jesus intended repentance to be an opportunity to allow Him to continue the Holy Spirit’s ongoing transformation of your life into a life of lasting love, inner peace, and joy 

• In fact, this ongoing inner transformation is the sole message of the Good News and the sole reason for Jesus coming to earth to save you!

• Your continual returning to the Lord for His forgiveness is an ongoing opportunity for your relationship/friendship with Him to thrive, mature, and bear actual fruit

• It’s the REGULAR and REPEATED experience of the Lord’s PRESENCE and LOVE day by day that enables you to really understand God’s forgiveness and its purpose

• My FREE Guide teaches you how to personally experience God’s PRESENCE, and receive His LOVE and PEACE repeatedly and regularly —in fact, whenever you want or need them 

• To understand repentance, you need to understand your false self’ 

• Your false self is that part of your human nature that keeps tempting you to sin —in fact, to repeat the same sin time and again! 

• Your false self is far stronger than your human will

• Your false self strenuously resists any efforts to change it

• In fact, only the Lord himself has the power necessary to DISMANTLE your false self!

• Each time you repent, you give the Lord ‘the green light’ to continue His DISMANTLING of your false self

Discover more about your false self here 

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Now, in the final part of this series, I explain:

• How your image (idea) of God directly affects, positively or negatively, your understanding of God’s loving forgiveness
• What many Christians don’t understand about the ‘wounds’ caused by their own sin AND by the sin others commit against them
• These ‘sin-wounds’ can be so deeply buried inside you that you might not be conscious of them!
• In order to bring your wounds to consciousness, you might benefit from (or perhaps actually need) help from a qualified health professional, or an experienced pastor who possesses special gifts of healing, or a trained counsellor, or a combination of all these folk ((i. e. in addition to the Lord’s direct healing).
• How my own spiritual journey 39 years ago led me to a far more accurate understanding of the purpose of, and need for, repentance — e. as Jesus intended it!

Your Image of God:

Where it Comes from, and How it Affects your

Understanding of Repentance and the Fruit that Repentance is Intended to Produce

You and I form our images of God in several, usually unconscious, ways.

Our culture, upbringing, family values, civic and religious education, as well as our experiences in our early childhood, teenage, and adult life —all profoundly shape our image (idea) of God.

Your Authority Figures

In particular, the authority figures in your life, starting way back in your very early childhood, deeply affect your idea/image of God —for good or for bad.

Looking back on your life as a child and teenager, you’re able to see that some authority figures were godly and loving e. g. a cherished parent/grandparent always waiting to hug you and express their love and gratitude for you and their deep interest in your wellbeing.

But you might also have to acknowledge that other authority figures in your life were unloving, hateful, nasty, terrifying, and mean.

If you experienced the latter kind, your image/idea of God will likely be that of a horrid policeman wielding a big stick, waiting to catch you for the slightest fault, or embarrass you, or lay a guilt trip on you.

I want you to know and understand that God is completely aware of ALL your human tragedies from infancy and early childhood and beyond.

He understands far better than you and I what experiences have shaped your inaccurate, skewed image of Him.

And the Lord also knows —again far better than you and I (!) —the ongoing, deep pain that your incorrect image of Him can cause you —not just spiritually, but emotionally, physically, and psychologically.

 

He longs to rescue you from your pain and replace it with the free, peace-filled, joyful, healthy, and rewarding life that He has promised you (John 10:10).

Your ‘Sin-Wounds’:

What Many Folk Don’t Understand about These

Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.”

Matthew 9:13 NIV

Many Christian women don’t fully understand that sin —their own sin and the sin others have committed/commit against them —can create real wounds, sometimes very deep wounds.

And wounds require more than forgiveness.

They require HEALING!

Unless your deepest wounds are truly healed, your repentance will not be able to bear the full fruit and inner transformation that the Lord intends for you: i. e. lasting inner peace, joy, and all the other fruits of the Holy Spirit!

Forgiveness, you see, is only one part of repentance.

Bearing fruit, your inner transformation, is the second part.

So it’s really important to remember that the Lord is not simply your forgiver. He is also your HEALER!

When you ask the Lord to forgive you, also ask Him to HEAL you. The two things can’t really be separated.

The Lord is Your Healer! (Exodus 15:26)

The Lord is Your Healer:

It’s only the Lord’s LOVE, that’s powerful enough to heal the deep ROOTS of your sin.

Here’s the thing:

Sometimes the roots and sources of your sins, and the wounds these cause you and others, are buried deep within your unconscious.

This becomes a problem.

Why?

Because you can’t be healed of a sin-wound that you’re not conscious of!

So here are 3 suggestions for asking the Lord to reveal to you the roots and sources of your sin-wounds.

Note

Don’t worry. Whenever the Lord reveals something new to you, He does it with great gentleness.

1. Spend a few minutes each day in the Lord’s direct presence

It’s in His presence that you’ll be able to experience firsthand and rest in His healing LOVE and PEACE. 

This regular soaking, allows you to develop a real trust in and friendship with the Lord. 

He is now able to communicate to you important things. 

At the same time, you yourself will trust Him enough to start asking him questions.

You’ll also have enough trust to EXPECT HIM TO ANSWER YOU! 

BUT ALWAYS REMEMBER:
The Lord never rushes things. He’ll bring you to a gentle awareness of your wounds when He knows the time is right for you. He never puts more on you than you can handle at any one time.

Note

I teach a simple but guaranteed way to spend 5 – 10 minutes each day in the Lord’s presence in order to experience firsthand His deep love for you.

You’ll find it in my FREE Guide, titled:

How to Regain, and Maintain, God’s Lasting Inner Peace and Joy: A Guaranteed Way to Experience God’s Presence, Love and Rest One-On-One’

 

Get my Guide here. 

2. Get help from a recommended, trusted, and trained spiritual guide. This is a huge help. And sometimes it’s an absolute necessity.

If this is not possible, don’t panic. Trust the Holy Spirit to be your sole Guide. (He is ALWAYS your and my ‘ultimate’ Guide anyway.)  And ask a wise, loving, and mature Christian friend if you can talk over the matter with her.

Note

Whenever you need special spiritual guidance, it’s important to ask the Holy Spirit to bring you a spiritual guide or a friend who is a true follower of Christ. This is vital!

3. Consult other ‘qualified’ healing practitioners to help you bring possible hidden wounds to light.

You see, when the Lord knows it’s necessary, He will use other people who are adequately qualified to help Him complete your healing.

For example, He might use a pastor who is specially gifted with healing abilities or a qualified counsellor or health practitioner who is qualified in a specialized area.

These people serve as extensions of the Lord’s own healing.

My Own Spiritual Journey to Understanding Repentance

I’ve always had a highly sensitive conscience. I loathe hurting other people.

But 40 years ago, at the age of 35, during my 15-month ‘second conversion’, I came to see that, in fact, my understanding of sin and repentance had more to do with trying to be morally ‘good’ i. e. being a ‘goodie-2-shoes’ than with what Jesus actually intends repentance to be!

My understanding of repentance had arisen from a moral desire for ‘good’ behaviour, of doing the ‘right’ thing, more than from an understanding of the actual harm sin did to me, to God, and to others.

The reason for this was that even though I had always loved the Lord in a genuine ‘heart’ sense, I had known and experienced the Lord’s love for me in a more ‘intellectual’ or conceptual sense.

It was only as I was taught how to spend regular time in God’s presence that I began to actually experience God’s LOVE for me firsthand, directly, at a very deep place in my being!

As a direct result, I now felt the Lord’s LOVE for me just as I was —sins, warts and all.

I was now able to directly experience His love whenever I wished.

This was a sea change.

Not surprisingly, it threw the whole subject of sin and repentance into a radically new light for me.

I now understood repentance as Jesus intends you and me to understand it —i. e. in the light of His LOVE for each one of us.

I understood:

• What sin really is

• The harm sin inflicts on God, on me, and on others

• That Jesus intends repentance to heal you and me, not to issue us with a threat!

You, too, will never fully understand sin or repentance in the way God intends unless you know how to regularly EXPERIENCE God’s LOVE firsthand and directly any time you need or want to!

I have guided Christian women on their spiritual journeys for over a quarter of a century. In doing so, I came to see that misunderstanding repentance is more common among even the most dedicated Christians than you might imagine!

A Lovely Surprise!

Two short years after my second conversion at the age of 35, my new spiritual guide, (a highly gifted, well-trained guide in his late 60’s, with long years of experience in the ways of God with men and women), surprised me with the gift of a book. Its author, who happened to be one of my guide’s Jesuit brothers, was an internationally known spiritual guide, retreat director, and author.

His name was Gerard Hughes S. J.

His book was God of Surprises.

I highly recommend it. Try to get hold of a library copy or purchase one.

In this book, Gerard Hughes disabuses readers of any misunderstanding of repentance. Very importantly, Hughes also explains that there is such a thing as ‘false’ repentance (!), giving very relatable examples.

Try to get hold of this book and you, too, will receive a lovely surprise about what repentance really means!

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A Little Exercise

Listen to this song on YouTube.

It’s called ‘Come Back to Me’ by John Michael Talbot

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FB0TWvag_Ic

I often listen to it when I want to be reminded of the Lord’s one-of-a-kind LOVE for me and for YOU, JUST AS WE ARE RIGHT NOW, AT THIS VERY MOMENT IN OUR LIVES, with all our sins, failings, warts, weaknesses; and how we can always be completely open and transparent to this God who LOVES us!

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Want more help? Watch my website for an announcement of my teaching webinar coming up in 2 months.