“Repent for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand” Mt. 3:2; 4:17
The thrust of this article is to contribute to
fulfilling the exhortation you have just read. In
short, it is to bring us into “repentance about
our understanding of repentance” ahead of the
Lord’s manifest appearing and return.
As many readers already know, the word repent is translated from the Greek word metanoia, which literally means “a change of mind” or “to change the mind.” It is thus no wonder that the mission of the Elijah spirit, especially as expressed through John the Baptist, being a mission of preparation, was and is headlined by the message to repent.
The mission of preparation is inherently a mission requiring people to change their minds. Better said, it requires people to undergo a change of mind, that is, to submit to a process of mental change. To prepare means you have to stop thinking a way you are presently used to thinking and shift into thinking about what is ahead so as to be ready to meet the future when it comes.
Today, I want to apply this truth to our very understanding of the meaning of “repent.” The classic understanding of repentance is and has always been grounded in the concept of turning from sin. It has required of people a change of mind about their behaviors and practices contrary to known standards of moral righteousness.
I would also add that such mental change was expected to be accompanied by action. To repent did not just mean to have a heart change that says “I repent of my sin(fullness)” (which is easy to pray), but to provably demonstrate such change through “fruit consistent with repentance” (Mt. 3:8). (As John could have otherwise put it, “Repentance without works is dead.”)
In this then, repentance meant and still means, change your behavior along with your mind. Stop doing this, and start doing that. Moreover, the baptism of John (and of Jesus) was originally intended to express one’s commitment to such behavioral change, not a mere confession (which is why John would not baptize the Pharisees).
All well and good. But today we are taking repentance further than this. We are here to undergo a “change of mind” about what repentance itself means. While the classic understanding of turning from known sin will always hold true, there is so much more literal meaning to “changing one’s mind” than is touched by that initial concept.
Indeed, Jesus’ teaching ministry shows this to be true as does Paul’s exhortation to “be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Rom. 12:2). Such renewing of mind, which involves a changing of the nature of the mind itself, has nothing to do with turning from sin. Meanwhile, the changing nature of end times spirituality itself now upon us shows this to be true—which is where we are ultimately headed with this article.
Throughout His ministry to the disciples, Jesus’ teaching constantly challenged them to think differently about something than the way they had thought. When He repeatedly said on the mount, “You have heard it said…, but I say to you….” He was exhorting to a certain change of mind about that issue. That is repentance. In fact, the entire process of learning as a disciple is a process of repentance. It is a process of exchanging either wrong or inferior spiritual beliefs about something for correct or superior spiritual beliefs about it.
Paul’s exhortation about the renewing of the mind does the same thing, only still further. Renewing of the mind speaks to a changing of the nature of the mind itself, from carnally energized thought to Spiritually energized thought. Such too is the literal meaning of repentance! (Such change did not occur in the disciples during Jesus’ ministry, which is why Jesus had to also constantly ask them, “Do you still not understand…?”)
The repenting of the nature of the mind from carnally energized to Spiritually energized is accomplished by the baptism of the Holy Spirit. In this, our minds are opened to the power of spiritual wisdom and revelation, such as Paul prayed for us to have (Eph. 1:17). I must be quick to add however that such repenting also involves a death to the first mind in order to receive the resurrectional power inherent in the second Mind. (Few have any concept that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is about His crucifying death to our carnal mental energization as well as His resurrectional Life infilling, outpouring and mental opening to spiritual reality.)
Thus it is that on our spiritual journey into undergoing spiritual mind renewal, we are undergoing literal repentance. Our minds are being changed from carnal life force-based perception (i.e., “natural mindedness”) to Holy Spirit empowered wisdom and revelation-based perception (“Spiritual mindedness”). Our minds are continually shifting from earthly to heavenly-based orientation, from lesser earthly-glory mindedness to greater heavenly-glory mindedness (i.e., “from glory to glory”).
This leads us to the concluding point of immediate import. As we still await the actual Appearing of the Lord and His Kingdom, the same message of repentant preparation is going forth, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” But the import for us is not that which applies to the world or even the worldly church. The repentance applicable to the worldly minded is in the classic command to turn from sinful, immoral behavior and the compromising embrace of worldly values.
But what of us who have turned from all of that?? Does the exhortation therefore hold no application? Nay, but it does. But its application to the Lord’s earnest preparers is with reference to the changing of the actual nature of our mindedness. It applies to our submitting to final stage mind renewal that fits us to the final crossing of mortality’s veil—even into that completed eternal mindedness Paul describes thusly, “When that which is perfect is come…then I will know fully, just as I also have been fully known.”
The repentance of the mature in view of kingdom nearness is thus one of a transformational mental compatibility with the eternal Bridegroom. This repentant preparation of our mental nature answers to the theme of bridal readiness continually espoused by the Lord.
But what does that mean practically?
In practice, final repentance ahead of kingdom manifestation takes the form of abandoning every source of thought distraction from the Lord Himself. It entails the eliminating of every thought source that competes with immediate governmental awareness of the Lord’s directive Presence and fellowship. (This includes not just sources of banal social media, but the pull to enter the fray of “spiritual” social media rife with the “prophetic” banter, rumors and diatribes over the sins of the body of Christ.)
Final repentance, meanwhile, fully captures and subjects every necessary earthbound thought regarding our last responsibilities and obligations under this life. It also severs every profitless conversation and even relationship itself while bringing every other communiqué under eternal minded government.
Lastly, this repentance requires our spiritual flexibility to prove every new strain of Spirit-move as He reveals Christ in ways hitherto unrecognized by us—even as He was by the two on the Emmaus road. For in these final end times, all spirituality itself is changing in how it manifests. Our spiritual minds therefore must likewise flex in order to meet the surrounding spiritual change head to head—whether of the Spirit’s good, or the devil’s ill.
All this requires us to necessarily rethink, reweigh, retest positions we have held based on previous establishments of the Lord’s convictions. It requires an extremely refined combination of humility and discernment previously unknown—one in which we are slower to evaluate and to speak into matters than ever before.
This is what final kingdom-come repentance looks like in those earnest seekers who would be deemed ready to meet the Lord Himself on His perfect eternal wavelength and frequency. It does not focus on the classic repentance necessary for those of the world or of our own people who share the world’s mind.
May these considerations meet their mark in our hearts for “edification, exhortation and consolation.”
Selah.
Chris Anderson
First Love Ministry
- a ministry of Anglemar Fellowship
http://www.firstloveministry.org
09/24
Webmaster littleflock@netzero.net
Page created January 30, 2025
