Fruits of repentance

(Romans 8: 7-9) “For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you.”

To have our minds conditioned to the way of the world is a hostile action against God. Hostile is a strong word, it could be interpreted as aggressive, argumentative, antagonistic, and unreceptive. It really means someone who is against God's will. The question we need to ask ourselves is how does my mind operate? What actually fuels it and makes me the person I am? Once we allow the Holy Spirit of God to work his brilliance, revealing certain truths about our characters, that place which leaves us unembellished before our God, striped of all self-justification which allows our sin to breathe and live on. It’s only in this state that we can truly seek God’s face to intervene in our lives. There are obvious times in this world when we are so blinded by our sin that God steps in and disciplines us, and thank God for that. However, we must all arrive at a place of understanding. A time in a believer’s life when we consciously play our parts in this tremendous relationship with our heavenly Father. A time when we need to stand up and be counted. An obvious deduction concerning the shift of our thought process, not living life as we did yesterday, but with an intentional will to find grace to change the way we process information. Until this happens, we will never shake the mould of society. The war is fierce and it was never intended to be any different. Christianity isn’t for the Pliable. We all fail in different areas of our lives, this by design, which keeps us humble. But to live as if one does not need the will to find grace to overcome those obstacles in our lives, makes us no different to the drug addict or the alcoholic. Escapism for the Christian is a “no go zone”. And yet I know I am guilty as charged, forgive me Father God.

We must get this into our minds; “You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit,”  - As believers born of God, although we live in a flesh and blood body we are not under the governance of our flesh, we are to live in the Spirit which is fuelled by faith. Our faith must drive us to live here, period! If not then we need to ask ourselves this very serious question; “if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you.”  We all like to acknowledge and believe that God is on our side. Even the unbeliever has a hope that it will end well. That inherent thought powered by deception, a trigger mechanism that believes it will happen to others and we will be safe.   There is a very stern warning in the text, without the Spirit of God in us, we do not belong to God. This is an obvious deduction and plainly declared in the transcript. “Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.”  

 

Before we disregard Paul's teaching, as it were for our neighbour, let us seek God’s face for our lives. Let’s seek the Spirits help to see ourselves as we are. Once He obliges and His work is done we can then actively look to strengthen our feeble knees and find grace to help in time of need.

 

There is a way we can test where we stand before our God and our commitment to Him. Sin will always look to accuse others and excuse ourselves. But the Spirit of God is not subject to that type of manipulation, praise God for that. “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.”  - How do we test our involvement with God’s call upon our lives? – Here it is, the fruits of repentance reveals a truth that we cannot deny; “For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. For see what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you, but also what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what punishment! At every point you have proved yourselves innocent in the matter.” (2 Corinthians 7: 10-11)   

 

Do we have a godly grief to our failures or a worldly sorrow to them? A simple question that strips us to our core. The one produces repentance whilst the other carries with it a death sentence. It the godly grief that now drives the Christian, it’s the Spirit of God that compels us to through faith and by grace to act differently. This truth is obvious for the believer at salvation, the day God opens the eyes for an individual for the very first time and the way their lives change, it is an undeniable truth. What I want us to examine is what has happened since then and how does compromise now dictate? 

 

Let us now unpack the fruits of repentance and what I lives should look like, and if not, we know what needs to happen. We need to fall to our knees and earnestly cry out to Jesus.

 

There are seven fruits of repentance; Earnestness (seriousness), eagerness (enthusiasm) to clear yourselves, indignation (anger or annoyance), fear (anxiety), longing (desire or a craving), zeal (fervour), punishment (retribution or as the KJV puts it, revenge – retaliation)! All of these descriptive words give us insight to the way our minds are conditioned and how serious we are with our God. They all play their part in our retaliation against the world and its entrapment. A measure for us to evaluate our spiritual standing before a Holy God. God willing, I will look to unpack this with more proficiency in the next post.

 

If God if for us who can be against us, but we need to be real and here is what the Spirit is saying to the churches, what can I take from this? We must see our need and only then will we be compelled to cry out to Jesus for help. Help us Father God come to our senses is my prayer, Amen and Amen!

 

Signing off

 

Tyrone