Yesterday’s post listed the many changes that occurred in the disciples who were baptized in the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Please read this list before reading today’s post. It’s worth going back and re-reading as a reminder to reinforce the irrepressible freedom, joy, and power that is made available to every believer at baptism. The list is God’s design for the normal Christian life.
Link here: After That First Day Of Pentecost
Many believers live below God’s design for the normal Christian life because they live constrained by sin and worldly entanglement or hindered by doubt, fear, and unbelief. But none of this is a problem for Jesus. It is only a problem for us if we are unwilling to surrender it to God. He is bigger than any sin habit. Bigger than any entanglement. Bigger than any doubt. Bigger than any fear. Bigger than any unbelief. He is so much bigger!
We’ve just got to let Him be bigger than all those things. We do this simply through surrender:
“Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord…” Acts 3:19-20a (ESV)
The first phrase of Act 3:19 in Greek is μετανοήσατε οὖν καὶ ἐπιστρέψατε and is directly translated, “repent therefore and turn again.”
- μετανοήσατε —repent
- οὖν —therefore
- καὶ —and
- ἐπιστρέψατε —turn again
But it can also be translated, “Repent and repent again!” or, “Turn to the Lord, and keep turning to the Lord!” or to paraphrase, “Swap your unbelief for the truth about God!”
The two words μετανοήσατε and ἐπιστρέψατε are similar in definition and put into the same phrase to reinforce each other. The Holy Spirit does not waste words. He is stating, strongly, to emphasize the next statements:
“That your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord…”
Repentance is not, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry…” about a thing. Repentance is a change of mind. Which then changes behavior. Repentance is active. “I thought one way about a thing but now I see God’s truth and exchange my old thinking and believe God’s truth.”
God’s truth always brings freedom. Jesus said, “Truth will set you free” (Jn 8:32).
Repenting and turning to the Lord is this: getting our eyes of self and fixing our eyes on Jesus because what we fix our eyes on we start moving toward. The closer we walk to Jesus, the more we become like Him. And since He is TRUTH, we will walk into more and more truth.
Jesus is the One who blots out all our sin. He washes us completely clean. Erasing even the memory of it. This is freedom!
God’s promise to us as all this transformation is happening is: times of refreshing will come from the presence of the Lord.
Refreshing is revival (ἀναψύξεως in the Greek). It is the same as saying a powerful baptism will come from the Holy Spirit, in wave after wave after wave of refreshing. Remember from previous blog posts, baptism means full immersion in the Spirit, so imagine being fully immersed in the ocean. The mighty presence of the Holy Spirit in us and fully surrounding us is the refreshing we need, continually.
God’s design for the normal Christian life is one of full surrender of our lives, a complete turning to Him, walking in His truth, fully washed clean of all sin, and living everyday in the mighty presence of the Holy Spirit. This kind of freedom, joy, and power is what destroys the enemy kingdom. It is how we take cities. It is how we go on the offense and advance God’s kingdom. This has been His intent from the beginning.
