Key 18 - Repentance

• David, you see, was not perfect.  His greatest sin was to steal a man’s wife - adultery - and, ya know, murder.  However, if you look at David’s story, what you see is that when David sinned, he repented.  Time and time again, he messed up.  Then he fell on his face before the Lord when he realized his sin and he pleaded with God to forgive him.

• THAT proved more than anything that David was a good representative of God.  God doesn’t expect humans to be perfect, but when we mess up, we are to take ownership of our sins and we are to do whatever it takes to make amends.

• So if you want to be used by God, to be His representative, to have authority and power in His Kingdom, to command and have miracles happen, to lead His people, then obedience should be your primary focus.  And when you are disobedient, you should be sensitive to your disobedience and come before God and take ownership of it.

• In order to practice the 18th Key to Power, you must confess your sins.

• The Bible teaches us to confess to one another.  Why?  Because when I look at you, if you are a Child of God, I should be looking at God.  YOU are a representative of God.  So, when I confess to another Christian, I am confessing to God Himself.

• Saying you are sorry to the air is actually not very good.  If that’s all you have, then confessing to the air is better than not confessing at all.  However, it doesn’t actually do anyone much good.

• What we NEED to do is find accountability partners - people we can really trust who aren’t going to tell our business to others and who aren’t going to condemn us or - and this is a big one - lecture us or give us unwanted advice.  Each and every Christian REQUIRES at least 1 accountability partner in their lives that they can look in the eye and confess their sins to - a safe person who they aren’t afraid to confess to.

• It strengthens our resistance to sin.  How?  The next time you are tempted to sin, you will be reminded of the fact that every time you sin you need to confess that sin to your partner.  You will have to look an actual person in the eye and admit that you did that thing.  Whenever people in the Bible repented, they confessed their sins to someone else.

• Sometimes, confessing to the person you wronged is absolutely essential, and having your accountability partner tell you that you should probably means that you REALLY should.

• An accountability partner can help give you the strength you need to actually go through with that confession.

• You may need multiple accountability partners.  Your spouse CAN be one and probably SHOULD be one, but it all depends on your relationship with them.  You may need to have a good friend be an accountability partner for you so that when you confess to your accountability partner, whoever it is, you feel that it is a safe environment.  Sometimes confessing to your spouse could lead to strife in the home, so it may be better to confess some things to a friend or pastor or whoever you know you can trust.

• What else does confessing do?  Besides strengthening you against sin, it cleanses your conscience so you aren’t weighed down by guilt and shame.  When you don’t confess to someone, you have a harder time letting your sins go.  Try it.  Trust me.  I’ve done both.  When you confess to the air, it still feels like that thing is clinging to you.  It’s like you’re still giving Satan a foothold so he can plague you with that thing; causing you to beat yourself up about it.  When you confess to someone, you walk away feeling refreshed.

• To practice repentance properly, you must practice forgiveness.

• It’s because in order to fully repent, you must practice forgiving yourself and one another.

• It requires a LOT of effort.  We most certainly don’t always want to forgive.  Sometimes we have to make a conscious decision to forgive.  Sometimes it even takes constant forgiveness.  That means that whenever you remember the wrong, you have to consciously tell yourself, “No.  I forgive them.  I’m not going to lash out or treat them poorly.”

• THAT is forgiveness.  It is treating someone with respect and love even when they don’t deserve it and even when you really don’t feel like it.

• Forgiveness doesn’t necessarily mean that you are willing to put yourself right back into the same position you were in before with that person, but you are making a conscious decision to NOT retaliate against them or treat them badly.  God never said, “Forgive and forget.”  That’s a saying Mankind came up with.  He wants us to forgive.  There’s a huge difference.  He doesn’t expect you to just pretend like nothing is wrong and go back to the way things were.  No.  That’s not forgiveness.  That person needs to prove themselves again before you might even remotely consider trusting them the way you did before.

• Let’s be clear.  You SHOULD forget, even as God forgets, when a person is truly repentant, meaning they are genuinely working to change their ways and not do that thing again.  When God forgives and forgets, He does so ONLY for those who are repentant.  Notice that in scriptures when a person is not repentant, He will remember their sins FOREVER.  This is why they will suffer punishment in Hell and the Lake of Fire forever.

• Why is forgiveness so important?  The victim is only able to heal if they forgive.  If they don’t practice forgiveness, bitterness begins to take root which can stay with the person potentially for the rest of their lives, deteriorating their spirits and crippling them emotionally.

• Forgiveness also releases the one at fault so that if they are truly repentant, they will experience joy for being forgiven and a newfound desire to not make the same mistakes again - to change/repent.

• Repentance cannot actually occur unless there is forgiveness.

• The person who did the wrong who is truly repentant will struggle to feel completely forgiven until they are forgiven by the person who they have wronged.

• The person who was wronged, they will never feel completely free of the pain until they forgive.  By not forgiving, they hold on to that wrong and allow it to fester within them.

• And, finally, forgiving helps you remember the hurt less frequently if the person who hurt you isn’t repentant.  You will never forget the pain they caused, but you will think about it less and less if you continue to forgive them.  A person who is repentant helps you forget the pain they caused because they change their ways and work to rebuild their relationship with you, but the unrepentant person continues to cause you to be on guard around them until they finally repent.

• In conclusion, if we REALLY REALLY want power in our lives, and we REALLY want to see supernatural miracles occur, we MUST learn to be obedient.  Obeying God is, in short, loving Him above all else and loving one another as ourselves.  But if we mess up and sin, repent.  Confess your sins to another.  Then learn to forgive yourself and others.  These things truly unlock power in our lives; potentially even miracles.