A-02

Basic Lessons for a Prophet

Lesson 2: Repentance unto Life

Eternal life to those who by patient continuance in

doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality
(Romans 2:7).

To us God has granted repentance unto life.

Repentance is the Holy Spirit’s assistance to move
us from the weights and sins that cause us to have
wipe-outs to focus on the perfect work of the cross,
which is the power of God unto salvation (glory,
honor and immortality) for those who dare to
believe it all. Walking with God is having our focus
of faith fixed on the Lord Jesus Christ which only
comes through deep repentance. The fruit of deep
repentance is humble love with an intense and
steadfast focus on the Lord. Repentance is that
which destroys the tree of the knowledge of good
(legalism) and evil (lawlessness), which separates
you from the life that is in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Repentance removes your focus from yourself and
fixed it on the eternal accomplishment of the cross
and on the person of Jesus Christ our Lord (tree of
life). Focusing on the Lord is an integral part of our
relationship with God that brings forth His glory and
honor and crown us with immortality. Repentance
unto life is to overcome our independence from
Christ that we may partake of the tree of life and in
doing so come to the knowledge of the love of the
Father. He who has an ear, let him hear what the
Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes
I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the
midst of the Paradise of God (Revelation 2:7). The
ultimate purpose of all repentance as a son of
God, is to share the life of the Lord Jesus
Christ with Him that we, in Him, may know
the love of the Father.

Repentance is the restoration of our focus on God

which Adam lost when he transgressed the
instruction of the Lord. Therefore we also, since we
are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let
us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so
easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance
the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus,
the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy
that was set before Him endured the cross,
despising the shame, and has sat down at the right
hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:1-2,
emphasis added). When Adam took his focus of
God he placed his focus on himself and became
discontent with what he saw he was in God, and he
sinned. When he transgressed the commandment
of the Lord, the liberty that he had in God was
replaced with overwhelming weights and sins.
Weights and sins are results of a focus that
has moved from the Lord to self.

The seed of the tree of knowledge of good (law)

and evil (lawlessness) changed man’s nature to set
his focus on himself to seek wisdom and knowledge
which is not Christ. All things that are outside of
God are isolated from the life that is in Him and
therefore conform to the very definition of death.
Its poisonous seed is from the heart of the evil one
and it brings forth fruit that is pleasant to the eye,
and desirable to make one wise but its end is death
and destruction.

Adam’s disobedience started with a shift of focus

on the Lord to a focus on himself. He partook of the
tree of arrogance (tree of the knowledge of good
and evil) and the eyes of his spirit were instantly
blinded by his heart of flesh that turned in to an evil
unbelieving heart of stone. Adam and Eve in their
disobedience betrayed the love of the Father and
they fell from the glory of God. They have
dishonored the law of Christ’s consuming love that
ruled their members. Their transgression meant
separation from the light of His presence and a
plunging in to the darkness of their own deceptive
hearts and anxious souls. They have gathered for
themselves and for us treasures of sin and death
hence the necessity of perpetual repentance.
Perpetual repentance is mainly a constant fine-
tuning of our focus on the Lord and on His cross.
BEHOLD THE CROSS! You behold the cross when
you relate to the Lord on the basis of what He has
achieved for us on the cross. You start to behold
the cross when you start meditating on the word of
His cross.

When a wise man partakes of the body and blood of

the Lord he examines his own heart lest he drinks
damnation to himself. The discernment emphasizes
the partaking of the bread, which is His body that
makes us whole. The wine is His blood for the
remission of our sin. The wise judges himself less
he be judged by the Lord. However, the humble put
no confidence in his imperfect judgment and call on
the Lord for His perfect and true judgments that is
desired by the pure in heart. Search me, O God and
know my heart; try me, and know my anxieties;
and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead
me in the way everlasting (Psalms 139:23-24). The
humble focuses so much on the Lord that he or she
put no confidence in the flesh.

In repentance there is mourning. Blessed are those

that mourn, for they shall be comforted (Matthew
5:4). It does not refer to the mourning over the
dead body of a beloved or serious injury of a close
family member. The sorrow of this world produces
death. For godly sorrow produces repentance
leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the
sorrow of the world produces death (2 Corinthians
7:10). The sorrow of this world produces self-pity
because the focus is on self, which is destructive to
both soul and body. The mourning Jesus referred to
is because of loss for what you could have been in
God but are not because of a lack of commitment
and dedication. You may mourn the discovery of
the corruption and darkness in your own selfish and
self-centered soul as a result of a wrong focus. You
may mourn the lack of purity of love that is in
Christ because of haughtiness and arrogance that
rules your heart. When you see darkness filling your
heart then you must not dwell on yourself, or seek
to justify yourself with dead works but turn the
focus of your heart to Christ. True repentance is
turning your focus back to Him. You do that by
meditating on His word for your situation. You can
get out of your predicament in little time if you
want it. You can be as close to Him as you desire to
be in this life. The choice is yours not His. Believe
me, He is waiting for you. And you will seek Me and
find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart
(Jeremiah 29:13).

When you draw near to the Lord by focusing on Him

in waiting on Him and meditating on His word,
restoration takes place. Let us draw near with a
true heart in full assurance of faith, having our
hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and
our bodies washed with pure water (Hebrews
10:22, emphasis added). When you are meditating
on the word of God, it renews your mindset in
giving you hope and strengthens your faith and
trust in the Lord. It also causes fountains of worship
to erupt from your heart when you behold the
awesomeness of His person and heed His
astounding and illustrious deeds and remember His
holy name. It is unthinkable not to give the Lord of
glory your heart, your mind and seat of your
emotions. It is hard for me to relate to it. However, I
know anyone can fall anytime, anyplace if your
focus is not on the Lord. That keeps me very
humble because I know how weak I am in the flesh.
It is utter joy to turn your focus back on Him whom
your soul loves.
Humility is a result of a constant focus on the Lord.
In the beginning of Paul’s Christian life he did not
feel inferior to the most imminent apostles. For I
consider that I am not at all inferior to the most
eminent apostles. Even though I am untrained in
speech, yet I am not in knowledge. But we have
been manifested among you in all things. (2
Corinthians 11:5-6). It seems to me that knowledge
and the manifestation of spiritual gifts was the chief
issue for him at the time to compare himself
against the imminent apostles. In 2 Corinthians
12:11-13 it is clear that Paul was offended that the
church in Corinth doubted and questioned his
authority as an apostle of Jesus Christ, which he
defended. As he grew in faith in the Lord he
acknowledged at a later stage in his life that he was
the least of the apostles. For I am the least of the
apostles, who am not worthy to be called an
apostle, because I persecuted the church of God (1
Corinthians 15:9). Eventually he referred to himself
as less than the least of all the saints. To me, who
am less than the least of all the saints, this grace
was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles
the unsearchable riches of Christ (Ephesians 3:8).
Finally, he realized that he was the greatest of
sinners. This is a faithful saying worthy of all
acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners, of whom I am chief (I Timothy
1:15). I believe Paul said it because he had been
given so much to understand but walking in much
less. There is only One who fully believed, who fully
obeyed, and who truly finished all that He was
given to do. Everyone, to date, has fallen short,
except One. The grace of Christ is so awesome that
I believe if you can enter into a relationship with
Him where you totally share His life with Him that
you need not to fall short. If He lives in you to the
fullest measure than it is Him the perfect One that
lives and not you. He can and desires to reveal the
excellence of His power and glory in you. He paid
for it! He made provision for it! It is finished, it is
there! You only need to lay hold of it through faith.
In the kingdom of God there will be many different
levels of glory. But in a great house there are not
only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood
and clay, some for honor and some for dishonor (2
Timothy 2:20). The reward that the Lord will bestow
on His servants will be in accordance to what they
accomplished with the grace, gifts and talents they
have received from the Holy Spirit. The highest of
honor will be bestowed on those who lived their
lives in close union with the Savior. It is to walk in
humility and constantly to conform more to His
likeness. As they constantly focus on Him they will
see Him as He is and change from glory to glory in
His image as by the Spirit of the Lord.

To walk according to the flesh is the way the five

foolish virgins followed that resulted in heavens
refusal of their entrance to the marriage feast of
the Lamb. These virgins were born again believers,
not engaging themselves in gross sins. However,
there is a way that seems right to a man, but its
end is the way of death (Proverbs 14:12). If you
walk according to the dictates of the flesh you will
die. They were washed in the blood of the Lamb but
they did not pursue God’s best. They slept their
time away as they did not serve God with all of
their heart. They were not looking for the extra
portion of anointing oil of the Holy Spirit because
they did not pursue the upward call of God in Jesus
Christ. The high calling of God’s best for us is
achieved through Christ and Him alone and not
through efforts of the flesh that attempt changes
on the outside that will never last. They did not
press on to lay hold of Christ in the same manner
that Christ has lay hold of them and they lost out
because they set their focus not on the things of
Christ. I want to emphasize that our lives are
hidden with Christ in God and it is Him that lives
through us by faith. It appears that the foolish
virgins started in the Spirit but trying to complete
their full salvation by works of the flesh,
maintaining a self-centered focus. They ended up
as vessels of wood and clay in the house of their
Master, vessels of dishonor. If a man’s work is
burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be
saved, yet as through fire (1 Corinthians 3:15).

Perpetual repentance is a constant pressing in to

know God. Repentance is a turning to Christ. If you
turn your focus away from yourself toward Christ
everything can change for you. The princes of
heaven live in the Spirit. Therefore if anyone
cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel
of honor, sanctified and useful for the Master,
prepared for every good work (2 Timothy 2:21).

It is great folly to be focused on yourself and to

walk after the foolishness of your fleshly mind. To
be focused on yourself is to be locked into the
darkness of your fallen nature which is a hopeless
cause. The heart of man is deceitful above all
things and desperately wicked (Hebrew: incurable
sick); who can know it (1 Peter 2:11).

When Peter’s mind was focused on heavenly things,

contemplating who Jesus was, he found himself in a
flow of revelation. He said to them, “But who do
you say that I am? Simon Peter answered and said,
“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you,
Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not
revealed this to you, but My Father who is in
heaven” (Matthew 16:15-17).

When Peter focused on himself while Jesus

predicted His own death the first time, Peter was
concerned about his own personal loss if Jesus
would die. He reacted with his fleshly mind. Then
Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him,
saying, “Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not
happened to you! But He turned and said to Peter,
“Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me,
for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the
things of men” (Matthew 16:22-23).

If you live by the flesh (wrong focus) you will miss

out on the higher calling of God in Christ Jesus. One
tends to judge other people if one walk in the flesh.
You cannot discern with the flesh the spirit of
another person. With the flesh you will make him
either better than he really is or worse. Judge not,
that you not be judged. For with what judgment
you judge, you will be judged; and with the
measure you use, it will be measured back to you
(Ephesians 4:22).

If you walk in the flesh you cannot really forgive

somebody else. It takes much faith to forgive
serious offenses. Forgiveness is not negotiable in a
walk with God. But if you do not forgive, neither will
your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses
(Mark 11:26). The ultimate test of Christianity is
love. A new commandment I give to you, that you
love one another; as I have loved you, that you also
love one another. By this all will know that you are
My disciples, if you have love for another (John
13:34-35). The only barometer of your relationship
with God is love. Love never fails! Do not tell me
you hear the voice of the Lord clearly if you do not
love. I will tell you, “Yes, you may hear Him vaguely
but you have serious distortion problems with your
hearing.” Go and repent; move your focus on the
Lord. You will be surprised about the positive
changes that will take place in your spirit and heart.

Repentance has everything to do with the grace of

God. Grace is the forgiveness of recurring sins in
our lives as well as the power to live a victorious life
in Christ. The battle against our old nature is a
battle of focus. The grace of God cancels our
repeated failures if we at least try to maintain a
focus of faith on Christ. Many are under a cloud of
deception thinking that they do not have to fight
but have the “grace” to live in sin and God will still
forgive them. God is not to be mocked, whatever
man sows he will reap. This erroneous attitude is
mentioned in Scripture. For it is impossible for
those who were once enlightened, and have tasted
the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of
the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of
God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall
away, to renew them again to repentance, since
they crucify again for themselves the Son of God,
and put Him to an open shame. For the earth which
drinks in the rain that often comes upon it, and
bears herbs useful for those by whom it is
cultivated, receives blessing from God; but if it
bears thorns and briers, it is rejected and near to
being cursed, whose end is to be burned. But,
beloved, we are confident of better things
concerning you, yes, things that accompany
salvation, though we speak in this manner. For God
is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love
which you have shown toward His name, in that
you have ministered to the saints, and do minister.
And we desire that each one of you show the same
diligence to the full assurance of hope until the
end, that you do not become sluggish, but imitate
those who through faith and patience inherit the
promises (Hebrews 6:4-12).

It is foolish to come into a relationship with Christ,

through the work of the cross, and then to defect
from the faith to serve self and the devil again. To
defect is to purposefully turn your back on Christ
and it is past the point of mere backsliding into sin.
If we have taste, “the heavenly gift, shared in the
Holy Spirit, tasted the goodness of the word of God
and the powers of the age to come” it will not be
possible to be renewed to God again. This is to
grow into an advanced level of maturity and
revelation of God and His ways and if we fall from
this we are irredeemable.

When we came to Christ we become one spirit with

Him. A deliberate turning away from Him is to
crucify Him again. It does not mean we bring Christ
physical down to earth and nail Him afresh bodily
on a tree. The most traumatic experience of the
cross was when the Father separated His spirit from
the Lord Jesus Christ’s. When you crucify the Lord
afresh by turning away from the faith He will
divorce His Spirit from you. It will be just as
traumatic for Him as when the Father forsook Him
on the cross, thus crucify again the Son of God
afresh and put Him to an open shame. When the
Father forsook the Son it was the most traumatic
experience the Holy Trinity ever experienced. For a
moment in time the Holy Trinity was no trinity. The
Father and the Holy Spirit forsook the Son because
of our transgression. If He forsakes you by
loosening His Spirit from yours, because of you
crucifying Him afresh there remains no other
offering whereby you can be reconciled to God
anew. The Lord is a consuming fire. It is a terrible
thing to fall in the hands of the living God.

The more mature we are in Christ, the more

devastating the consequences of our sins can be,
especially the turning away from God to serve sin.
We saw how Satan fell, who had a high position of
glory, and he hit the bottom.

Turning away from God is no option for us. When a

toddler walks he fell daily. Without thinking about it
he gets up and continues his little journey.
Occasionally he may get hurt and cry but very
seldom he will injure himself to the measure where
he is out of action for a time. Like toddlers we
stumble daily but the righteous keep getting up and
do not stay down. “For a righteous man may fall
seven times and rise again” (Proverbs 24:16a).

The battle between spirit and flesh is God’s grace

to overcome our old nature of sin. Battles are God’s
grace to mature and strengthen us.
We are transformed by the renewing of our minds
(Romans 12:2). Transformation takes place in the
imagination of our minds and thus we are changed
in the spirit of our minds. The Greek word
transformed means metamorphosis.
Metamorphosis is the process that a caterpillar
undergoes to be changed into a butterfly. The
greatest struggle the butterfly experienced is to
break out of the cocoon, but it is this struggle that
strengthens the butterfly that it can flap its huge
wings. Our greatest struggle is to focus on the Lord
that we may be changed in the spirit of our minds.
When we behold the Lord with an open face, as in a
mirror, the glory of the Lord changed us into the
same image from glory to glory as by the Spirit of
the Lord. The more we exercise the focus of our
faith the more easily it become and the more we
change into the likeness of the Lord.