Ps John has heard a shout. He hears a shout of victory and a shout of confrontation that praise has against the enemy of God to bring victory to His people. It is loud in his spirit.
12Everything is permissible (allowable and lawful) for me; but not all things are helpful (good for me to do, expedient and profitable when considered with other things). Everything is lawful for me, but I will not become the slave of anything or be brought under its power (1 Corinthians 6:12 AMPC) As a born-again spirit, whose spirit is going to always go to heaven, I am completely free to pursue anything I want to pursue, it’s lawful for me, but not everything is profitable, it’s not expedient, it’s not good for me because when I follow those things I become a slave to those things. It’s a process of habituation; I become a slave to it and now it’s very unprofitable and it’s no longer expedient.
12Just because something is technically legal doesn’t mean that it’s spiritually appropriate. If I went around doing whatever I thought I could get by with, I’d be a slave to my whims (1 Corinthians 6:12 MSG). I do not live according to anything that just takes my fancy to do cause I feel like doing it. I make a choice to turn around my life because living by ‘I am going to do what I feel like all the time’ becomes such a pattern of what I feel like that I don’t know how else to live but by what I feel like.
From the Easton’s Bible Dictionary: There are three Greek words used in the New Testament to denote repentance. Number 1; the verb, metamelomai, is used of a change of mind – such as to produce regret or even remorse on account of sin but not necessarily a change of heart. The word is used with repentance of Judas. He was remorseful and regretful what he did with Jesus but it didn’t change his heart. Such repentance is not useful because my heart will eventually dictate the course of my life. Just because I change my mind, doesn’t make it that I change my world.
Number 2; metanoeo meaning to change one’s mind and purpose as the result of after knowledge.
Number 3, the cognitive noun which is metanoia it’s used of true repentance; a change of mind and purpose and life – living, to which remission of sin is promised. Not only do you change your mind, but you change your purpose and your lifestyle comes in alignment with the way you have changed your mind and your purpose.
Easton’s Dictionary says; evangelical repentance consists of, (1) A true sense of one’s own guilt and sinfulness. (2) An apprehension of God’s mercy in Christ and (3) An actual hatred of sin and turning from it to God. A persistent endeavour after a holy life in a walking with God in the way of His Commandments. The true penitent is conscious of guilt, of pollution and of helplessness, thus he apprehends himself to be just what God has always seen him to be and declares himself to be. But repentance comprehends not only such a sense of sin but also an apprehension of mercy without which there can be no true repentance.
Evangelical repentance is a sense of one’s sin, one’s guilt, a sense of hopelessness, a sense of all of the things that comes with the way you have been living and now you understand that by mercy you have a chance to be free.
I am here because God wanted me to be here. That’s where I get my sense of purpose. I’m here because God wants me here.
Ps John is here to call for my repentance which means a turnaround. I understand that my life must live in the purpose that God wants me and my living lifestyle must follow the purpose.
1And the Israelites again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord gave them into the hands of the Philistines for forty years (Judges 13:1 AMPC). If I think sinning against God has no consequences, I’m wrong. Even as a born-again believer, sinning against God has a consequence in my life. I can never get away from the consequence if I do things against the pure life of God.
2And there was a certain man of Zorah, the tribe of Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was barren and had no children (Judges 13:2 AMPC). This woman was barren; could bear no children. God shows up in her life. 3And the Angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, Behold, you are barren and have no children, but you shall become pregnant and bear a son (Judges 13:3 AMPC). God wanted to use her and her husband to bring a spirit into the earth that would occupy a body that was brought by them.
4Therefore, beware and drink no wine or strong drink and eat nothing unclean. 5For behold, you shall become pregnant and bear a son. No razor shall come upon his head, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from birth, and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hands of the Philistines. 6Then the woman went and told her husband, saying, A Man of God came to me and his face was like the face of the Angel of God, to be greatly and reverently feared. I did not ask him from where he came, and he did not tell me his name. 7But he said to me, Behold, you shall become pregnant and bear a son, and now drink no wine or strong drink and eat nothing unclean, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from birth to the day of his death. 8Then Manoah entreated the Lord and said, O Lord (Judges 13:4-8 AMPC).
8He entreated the Lord and said, O Lord let the Man of God whom You sent come again to us and teach us what we shall do with the child that shall be born (Judges 13:8 AMPC).
“If I am going to have such a special child, how do I raise him?”
9And God listened to the voice of Manoah, and the Angel of God came again to the woman as she sat in the field; but Manoah her husband was not with her. 10And the woman ran in haste and told her husband and said to him, Behold, the Man who came to me the other day has appeared to me. 11And Manoah arose and went after his wife and came to the Man and said to him, Are you the Man who spoke to this woman? And he said, I am. 12And Manoah said, Now when your words come true, how shall we manage the child, and what is he to do? (Judges 1:8-12 AMPC).
How shall we manage the child, and what is he to do?
If I am going to have children, or even have children – I must ask God the question; how shall I manage the child, and what is he or she to do? I mustn’t have children until I can answer that question before God. I manage my children the way God wants me to manage them for the purposes that He called them, not for what my desires for them are.
When children get to a certain age they are not mine. I only manage them until God has a plan for them to come to pass. Then they are no longer mine. They are God’s. Where I have managed and raised my children, as a parent, the way I want to manage my children and raise them with my purposes in mind, with what I want to have them achieve as a dream in their life; I repent for that. I repent for how I managed them and trained them and taught them to do all those years – that is the only way that I can have God’s purpose come to pass in their life. I repent so I do have God’s purpose come to pass in their life.
God birthed me into the earth because He has a plan for me. He has a dream for me. He has got things for me that I need to accomplish.
12…How shall we manage the child and what is he to do 13and the angel of the Lord said to Manoah, Let the mother beware of all that I told her. 14She may not eat of anything that comes from the grapevine, nor drink wine or strong drink nor eat any unclean thing. All that I commanded her let her observe (Judges 13:12-14 AMPC).
Repentance – turnaround doesn’t happen because Ps John says something. This turnaround happens because I receive something. I receive what Ps John is telling me; I will have a turnaround.
It’s not too late to turn around ever. If I want to have God redeem time and restore my life, the sooner I do it the better it is. I’m a child of God, born again spirit-filled Christian and I am willing to receive what Ps John tells me. Even if I hear from God, if I am unwilling to receive it and act on it, it will cost me.
21But the Philistines laid hold of him, bored out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza and bound him with [two] bronze fetters; and he ground at the mill in the prison (Judges 16:21-22 AMPC). I teach my children and my children, allows God to manage their lives. We allow God to tell us the way that we should live our lives; if not, it will cost us our future because we will lose our vision of what God called us to be.
I am in a contest of light and dark and I choose to hang around in light; light exposes and causes me to daily turn around. Darkness is not the norm to me; I don’t get used to living in the dark. I don’t end up in the Laban syndrome of my life where I just walk around in circles and circles and circles, following my next whim, following my next decision, following the next thing that takes my fancy in life, following the next pleasure, following the next amount of money that I can spend to satisfy myself, just following the next thing.
That’s what happened to Samson. Instead of him following his purpose and doing what God called him to do; he only could walk around in circles doing the next thing because he was in darkness. It doesn’t matter my age or where I find myself in life, I receive a repentant turnaround into my heart – I receive this into my heart and it changes my future. It will bring me to my purpose. It will cost me my current life but there is no point of any other life.
26And Samson said to the lad, 26Allow me to feel the pillars upon which the house rests, that I may lean against them. 27Now the house was full of men and women; all the Philistine princes were there, and on the roof were about 3,000 men and women who looked on while Samson made sport. 28Then Samson called to the Lord and said, O Lord God, [earnestly] remember me (Judges 16:26-28 AMPC).
This is something between me and God, “[earnestly] remember me, today, I pray You, and strengthen me, I pray You, only this once, O God, and let me have one vengeance upon the Philistines for both my eyes (Judges 16:28 AMPC).
If I could look forward 10 years and I could see by vision, the mess that my child’s life would be in and I had a chance to change it right now – I would do that! True repentance means; I make a real choice here. I make some real changes here. This isn’t just a mental thing. I change my purpose and my lifestyle. My children change their purpose and their lifestyle otherwise, the devil will steal their future.
28And strengthen me, I pray You, only this once. 29And Samson laid hold of the two middle pillars by which the house was borne up, one with his right hand and the other with his left. 30 And Samson cried, Let me die with the Philistines! (Judges 16:26-30 AMPC). Without sight, like Samson, I understand that my strength isn’t worth much.
30And Samson cried, Let me die with the Philistines! And he bowed himself mightily, and the house fell upon the princes and upon all the people that were in it. So the dead whom he slew at his death were more than they whom he slew in his life (Judges 16:30 AMPC).
3Now as he travelled on, he came near to Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him, 4And he fell to the ground. Then he heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me [harassing, troubling, and molesting Me]? 5And Saul said, Who are You, Lord? And He said, I am Jesus, Whom you are persecuting. It is dangerous and it will turn out badly for you to keep kicking against the goad [to offer vain and perilous resistance] (Acts 9:3-5 AMPC). This message that Ps John preached, this is a message that God inspired him to bring to me and if I resist Jesus after this it will not go well for me. God’s got a life for me that is so superior to anything I have encountered until this point.
6Trembling and astonished he asked, Lord, what do You desire me to do? That is the biggest and most powerful question I could ever ask. What is it that You desire me to do? That’s my turnaround moment. That’s my turnaround moment when I ask from my heart; what is it that You desire me to do?
The Lord said to him, But arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do. 7The men who were accompanying him were unable to speak [for terror], hearing the voice but seeing no one (Acts 9:6-7 AMPC). Jesus had messengers that would come to Saul or Paul and open his eyes that were blind and say things to him that would activate him – that he could follow his calling for his life. God chose to do it – send human messengers to come and give me what I must do.
My lifestyle choices will tell the story of what’s in my heart.
I expose lies for what they are and I speak the truth for what it is.
I will turn around. My response to the Holy Spirit is that I will turn around. What is it that You desire for me? What is it that You want me to do with my life? In my heart, I go back to what You have for my future.
When I go on my knee, I say, “My life matters before God.” I go on bended knee and say, “My life matters before God.” My life matters. My life matters now. Yesterday doesn’t matter anymore. It really doesn’t matter anymore. Yesterday does not matter. What I did yesterday, and yesterday, and yesterday – I am redeemed from yesterdays; I am true about what goes on in my heart.
In my heart, I am true in my desire. God will help me with the strength to un-habituate me from the stuff that I’ve got used to doing in the past. This is my moment that I repent – turnaround from holding onto my children. I have no ownership of what happens to their lives. I am only a manager of their lives for a very short period of time. The reason why God gave Isaac to Abraham is because he would raise his child up in the ways of God.
Please touch my heart, Lord – this message is touching my heart. This message bypasses my head and it goes straight to my heart and from my heart, I turn around and I follow You with everything that I have.
This word will stay strong in my heart and the enemy will not steal this word. This word is firm in my heart and it will be grounded and rooted in my heart; it will bring the fruit that it needs to bring.
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