Repentance’s Transformational Dynamism

To repent is not just turning away from something destructive; it’s turning toward Some-One positively miraculous because of the Holy Spirit’s convicting.

Repenting is an activity of living right in the present—fixed of conscious on God—with a scrupulously honest eye on the recent past. The more aware we are of the immediate past, and the more we accurately judge it, the more we prove we know God and are obedient to the Holy Spirit’s calling.

The process of repentance is the sinner walking hand-in-hand with the Holy Spirit, never fearful of the cost of judgment; knowing that in judgment—the conviction of our sin—is the gateway to freedom.

This is a never-looking-back sort of freedom.

The Dynamism in True Repentance

True repentance, like the term “true believer,” acknowledges how we’ve come to devalue the terms “repentance” and “believer”. Satan is a believer in Christ, yet we know where he stands regarding repentance. The Accuser will do anything to dissuade us from repenting; any time we are found justifying our sin we are found heeding the enemy’s lies.

There is a significant dynamism in true repentance.

There is something like a synchronistic two-way flow involved. In turning away from the negative, we turn adroitly to the positive—in one sweet movement.

Repentance is never just about pulling away from substance abuse or pornography or resentment, etc. It is genuinely about the positive responses we might make as well. How we return our devotion to God is our positive response, and we make it at the inspiration the Spirit gives us.

Repentance – Not a Negative Thing

Repentance, it seems, within Christian circles and beyond, gets a lot of bad press by way of the many that pass over it. For some, it might be as popular as the Minor Prophets (i.e. not very).

Repentance is not a negative thing, but a positive institution of the Spirit’s power.

Nothing is like this power that transforms us like nothing else can.

The dynamic movement of repentance on our side is joined with the dynamism of the Spirit’s power on God’s side. Our willingness is joined with God’s power, and transformation is the ordained legacy.

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What is it that causes us to repent?

It’s the capacity within to release and relent.

Our willingness is joined with Spiritual punch,

The Holy Spirit has filled us with His revelatory hunch.

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Nothing is like this power of repentance that transforms us like nothing else can. Our willingness to turn back to God is joined with God’s power, and transformation is the ordained legacy. And we never look back.

© 2012 S. J. Wickham.