To Repent part 4 of 4

Next in repenting of Sin one must confess there sin.

Jas 5:16 Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, so that you are healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous one accomplishes much.


Confessing our sin is an acknowledgment of that sin. We can not repent of a sin we do not acknowledge!

Lets talk about this idea of confessing our sins for a moment. Does this mean we are to go to a specific person to confess our sin? Or even worse participate in open gossip sessions with our peers, and talk about how horrible we are?

I do not think that either of these are the correct path to take. We are supposed to pray for one another, that goes without question, but is it necessary to know all the dark and sorted details?

I for one do not think so.

So to resolve this issue, lets ask the question. In the Torah where did one go to confess there sins? Well you would go to the presence of God right? So you would go to the tabernacle/Temple. That’s actually where many get the idea of confessing to a certain person or group of people. But just to let all of us know, one did not confess to the priest in the Tabernacle. In fact you laid your hands upon the offering, not the priest. As a mediator the priest was a participant, but you laid your hands on the offering, said “my sins are on this animal”, and offered it to the Lord.

Many misconceptions exist about the sacrifices and the sacrificial system. I would encourage all to really learn about them and what they where for.

For now all we need to understand is that the cleansing of the sacrifice didn’t last. It was only so you could draw near to God. It lasted while you were there, so we weren’t consumed by the all consuming Holy presence of God. It was so we were covered while worshiping God, to keep us from being consumed for our sin.

But the point is, God honored the action, not just the thought.

The word for sacrifice in Hebrew is Korban, and it means to draw near. So our confessions, and our actions are taken to draw near to God.

That is confessing our sins!!!

So how do we confess our sins to one another? Do we say I want to tell another person or group of people exactly what I did so I can be forgiven?

No!!! It says so we can be healed.

If one commits a sin against another specifically, then they need to go to that person, and confess there sin to them. So all can be healed! Recompense can be made, and the spirit can be healed.

To truly repent we must see the need for repentance, understand our sin, admit it, and quit it.

Remember repentance is an action. It is something we do. We need to quit the sin in order to be truly repentant. Asking forgiveness for a sin you plan to commit again, is asking in vain, because it is not repentance.

If we ever have to ask if we are truly repentant all we need to do is look at our actions.

Act 26:20 On the contrary, I announced first in Dammesek, then in Yerushalayim and throughout Y'hudah, and also to the Goyim, that they should turn from their sins to God and then do deeds consistent with that repentance.

There are deeds consistent with repentance?
After the act of turning from our sins to our God, there are in fact actions, or deeds that follow. So if there is no change there was no repentance!

Mat 3:8 If you have really turned from your sins to God, produce fruit that will prove it!

Stop saying you are repenting and actually do it!

We all must understand that 90% of all communication is none verbal. It is based on our actions, not our words. We have to act our words out to show that we mean them. Then when we say the words, others will truly see that we mean them. Our God is not asking us to reveal our intentions, He is demanding to see our deeds!

Repentance is always going to be tied to action!

The result of repentance is fruit, and more fruit!

This is meant to be an encouragement to sinners “which we all are”. We need to see that the more we choose to obey, the more we can do! The level of obedience should always be consistently raised in our lives. One of me personal favorite quotes of all time comes from an author unknown. It goes as follows “ If you have not had a major revelation in your life in the past two years, check your pulse, because you might be dead.”

If you have not raised the level of obedience to your God in recent history check your pulse because you may be in fact dying or dead. Those who have an understanding of an everlasting life may want to really pray about that last quote.

Repentance is going back to where we left the path of God. For many it is in finding the path in the first place. But we need to find that place, or road that we left and get back to it. It is not merely a prayer, it is an action. We are not simply turning away from something, we are turning to something. It isn’t just stopping what we consider to be sin, it is returning to the path God has laid out for us. It is returning to His path in His ways.

What is it we a turning or returning to?

The Ways of God!!! To what he said!!! In the ways He described them!!!

To repent is not a one time thing. It is a lifetime of obedience We should repent every day, because we sin everyday. We must contently make the little turns back to where we know that God wants us to be. Back to where God has declared that we should be in His Word! It is not just a thought, it is not a noun, It is a verb.

It is something we do, and keep on doing. We have to stop asking for repentance in vain, we have to stop saying we repent in vain, and actually do repentance!

As we go forth and test these new ideas in Scripture let us pray that our Father gives us His Spirit of wisdom, understanding, and truth. So we may see and walk as our Messiah walked, and be true disciples in the Name of Yeshua (Jesus).  May we pray for eyes to see, ears to hear, and hearts to change for the glory of our God

To Repent - part 3 of 4

To truly repent we must start to do the right things, and stop doing the wrong things.

How do we know what the right and wrong things are?

It is written, we need only to seek it with the mindset of doing it, and to live it out. In many aspects it is really quit simple, until theologians get a hold of it that is!

Repentance is not a justification for sin, it is a turning from sin, and a returning to God.

So what is the actual first step to take for repentance?

It has to be the realization that repentance is needed. You cant ask forgiveness of a sin, or sins you are not sorry for. You can not ask forgiveness for sins that you do not know are sins. The first step must be to understand what sin is, see it in your life, truly feel sorry for it, and want to stop. The first step is a recognition that repentance is needed.

So once we have that understanding, what's next? How is it that we are to repent?

Jer 29:13 When you seek me, you will find me, provided you seek for me wholeheartedly;

We must seek for God whole heartedly.

How are we going to turn to or return to Gods path if we do not know him, or His ways to do so?

We must seek Him.

To search for Him with all of our heart is something that I believe is grossly misunderstood in most theological circles today. To seek Him is not simply to want Him, or even to ask for Him. To seek Him can be summed up in one word.

OBEY!!!

To seek God is to seek His ways, to truly seek His ways, is to obey His Word. We cant go running into the chambers of the King, and say “ I have been looking everywhere for you. Well everywhere you said you wouldn’t be”.

Seeking the King where He said He would not be is not really seeking Him. We must seek Him where we know He is. In His Holy Word! We will not seek Him, and find Him by chance in some unknown dark location.

We must come to our King as a humble servant. We must recognize that it is about Him, and we are His servants. We must realize that we are the problem that needs to be fixed, not Him! We must come as obedient servants striving daily to live a life he wants us to lead. To be the image of God in this world, and represent the perfect picture given to us in our Messiah. Only then can we say that we have sought Him with all of our heart, and through that search have found repentance. You can not have repentance without obedience!

All things start in the heart. So the heart is where we begin our search. Searching the heart leads to action. Seeking God with all of our heart is obedience!

So obedience is the first step to repentance.

As we go forth and test these new ideas in Scripture let us pray that our Father gives us His Spirit of wisdom, understanding, and truth. So we may see and walk as our Messiah walked, and be true disciples in the Name of Yeshua (Jesus). May we pray for eyes to see, ears to hear, and hearts to change for the glory of our God

To Repent Part 2 of 4

To repent, or tshuv is not to change ones mind, but to change ones direction. It literally means to turn. We must change our actions in order to repent. Not just say words, that for so many are empty.

If this offends you please realize I am not writing this to any one person or group of people. It is something we must all take home.

If it does offend please pay even closer attention to this article.

(note see article : The Sword)

It is not simply saying we changed our minds, and continuing on the same path as before. It requires a physical change. If there is no physical change in our lives ,then we did not repent. It is less about the words, and more about the actions.

We must realize that there is a true need for repentance in our lives. Not just from some fear of hellfire and brimstone. We must see that we are in desperate need of a change in our lives. Our lives without our Messiah, and His teachings are leading us to ruin and destruction. Not only in some future world to come, but in this one we are in now.

At the end of my article (The other side of Tzedakah) I wrote about the need for repentance being that our Messiah is still with us, and feels our pain through our suffering. We must take this to heart. We must not seek repentance purely out of selfish reasons, but as a realization of our need to change. Not just our thoughts, words, or actions, and not just one day a week. But our need for true change in our lives, all of our life, everyday.

Please see this and take it to heart. IT IS NOT ABOUT US, IT IS ABOUT HIM. Him being God! We all focus so much on blessings and curses in our lives, and in doing so we forget that they are there for a purpose. They are there to show us the choice, to lead, and show us the very real True God. And in doing so to return to Him and His ways.

To return to our God, and His ways is true repentance. But for most of us its not that simple, because we have lost track of who our God is, and what our God wants. There is a true need for repentance in this world, and we need to get back to an understanding that can, and will lead us to it!

We must understand that repentance is not a one time thing. So many have a misunderstanding of what Salvation is. I hope to address this in future articles. But for know lets talk about it as it pertains to repentance.

So often many take the one time act of raising a hand, walking down an isle, and saying some words to be repentance. Through this misunderstanding of repentance they are now saved from all there sins, so now they can sin without the worry of missing out on Heaven, or going to Hell.

This is not repentance!!!

This is only the first step in understanding the need to return to God. It is not the end, but the beginning. The best analogy for repentance I have ever heard comes form the Bereans online. There analogy goes as follows.

“anyone who has ever driven knows that every straight line is actually a series of small turns.”

You cant drive on a straight path in a car without turning your wheel constantly making minor correction in order to keep yourself out of the ditch. There are always obstacles, potholes, and changes in inclines on the road, trying to knock you off the path.

This in a nutshell is repentance. It is the constant corrections necessary in our lives to keep us on the straight and narrow. We have to remember that repentance is not a one time thing, it is a lifetime of contently turning towards God and His path!


We must realize that our sins do actually separate us from our God. Many agree that we need a closer walk with Yeshua (Jesus), many speak about a closer relationship with God. But few realize that our sins actually keep us apart.


Hab 1:13 Your eyes are too pure to see evil, you cannot countenance oppression. So why do you countenance traitors? Why are you silent when evil people swallow up those more righteous than they?

Can we see why we need a better understanding of Sin and repentance yet?

A call of repentance is in fact a call of returning to God!

We must gain a new found respect for the Word of God, All of it. We must seek a truer understanding of what it is we are to turn back to, and how so we can truly repent. We must learn to tremble at Gods word.

Isa 66:2 Didn't I myself make all these things? This is how they all came to be," says ADONAI. "The kind of person on whom I look with favor is one with a poor and humble spirit, who trembles at my word.

How many of us today truly tremble at Gods Word? How many think of it as having actual applications to our lives? How many see the Word of God, compare it to our lives, and truly tremble at the realizations that we are not even close to keeping the Will of God? To do this, and seek to return to the ways of God is true repentance!

We must ask ourselves, do I tremble at His Word?

We have been given such incredible tools to seek insight into Gods Word in this modern age. The tools our generation has to discover the truth in Gods Word is without comparison in ages past. We no longer have to be from a wealthy family to learn to read Scripture. We no longer have to know Latin to be able to read Scripture. We no longer have to depend on men to tell us what God wants in our lives.

We can know the wisdom of the ages by simply turning on a computer. We can access the Bible in almost any language in the world. We have tools to learn languages that were just a dream to understand for many in the past. In moments we can pull up commentaries, ancient writings, and translations.

Yet we must realize that where much is given, much is expected. We have been given incredible gifts in this regard. We must use these tools to seek Gods understanding, and not mans. We must strive to Tshuv, to repent, to turn back to God. We must seek His ways and not ours, only then can we truly say we have repented.

Repentance is not simply asking for forgiveness of some sin you cant even define. Repentance is a turning, it is admitting the sin, and quitting the sin. Admit it, and quit it! It is a true turning, not just in mind, and heart - but in action!

Do we tremble at Gods word? Not just treat it with the dignity, and respect it represents and deserves. But to actually read Gods Holy Word and understand that we are meant to follow it in our lives. Read it and follow it through!

Is it enough to call people to repentance, or to repent without teaching, or knowing what repentance is? Is it enough to walk an isle, raise a hand, or say a prayer? Is it enough to simply change ones mind, still continue in sin, but with a better outlook on life?

NO IT IS NOT!!!

As we go forth and test these new ideas in Scripture let us pray that our Father gives us His Spirit of wisdom, understanding, and truth. So we may see and walk as our Messiah walked, and be true disciples in the Name of Yeshua (Jesus). May we pray for eyes to see, ears to hear, and hearts to change for the glory of our God

To Repent - part 1 of 4

Many people have asked for forgiveness from there sin. Unfortunately many that ask don’t even know what sin is, let alone how to define it.

(note see article : What is Sin)

But even with this being the case it doesn’t stop the call for repentance from going out. So what is repentance? Is it simply asking for forgiveness from some sin, or sins in your life? How is it attained? What does it mean to repent? These are the types of questions I hope to address in this article. It is my sincerest hope that after reading this we can all walk away with a better and truer understanding of this subject.

Many out there may think they have a good grasp on repentance, and many will be surprised by what we think we know. I just ask that as you read this, do so with an open mind, and heart. With the mindset of seeking the truth of the matter, and not simply what we want to think.

So lets start of with answering the question, what is repentance? As with most things I think it is important to go back to basics when trying to define a word. Because at the end of the day, we are not trying to see what Americans, or Greeks thought of repentance. We want to know how it is defined in Gods Holy Word!

In order to do this we need to go back to the Hebrew to see what the word truly is. In Hebrew the word most commonly translated as repentance is Tsuv! The first thing we need to recognize is that repentance is a verb, it is an action word. It is something we do. It isn’t a state of mind, or a philosophy, it is an action. We have to understand that to repent is a great thing, but if you do not actually repent then you do not have repentance! That might seem confusing to some but stay with me.

One may ask how can you repent without having repented?

The first thing we need to realize is that if we do not know what we are repenting from how can we call it repentance. We have to have a better understanding of sin, what sin is, and how to define it in our lives. Otherwise we cannot truly call what we do repentance, for they are just empty words.

Second we have to realize that repentance is not a one time thing. Please understand that sin is not a one time thing. So how can repentance be a one time thing? We need to understand what repentance truly is, before we can claim it, or better yet actually do it!

The Hebrew word for Tshuv doesn’t actually mean repentance. You see repentance is an English word with an English definition. But as written before, we are not trying to seek the English definition for repentance. We are trying to understand it from the Holy Scriptures, and in the Holy Scriptures the word Tshuv means to turn or return!!!

One may ask, how in the world does the word for repentance simply mean to return. I thought you had to raise a hand, or walk an isle to do it right. What is all this returning stuff? I have heard many sermons, and in fact given many sermons on repentance in my past, and the basis for most of them is to change our minds. Now this leads us to a problem in most theological circles today.

We have focused so much on feelings, concepts and ideas of the mind, that we have virtually done away with action, and in many cases made the act of following Gods Word a sin. We have gotten so confused, and much of this comes from not understanding, or misunderstanding sin, and repentance. Let me pose a couple of questions.

How can one change there mind, if they do not change there actions?

How can one show that he has changed his mind, if there are no actions that follow?

To change one's mind, or say that we have, is not good enough. It is not simply about changing ones mind. What really matters is not what we say, or think, it is what we do. Remember repentance is not a noun it is a verb, it is something we do!

As we go forth and test these new ideas in Scripture let us pray that our Father gives us His Spirit of wisdom, understanding, and truth. So we may see and walk as our Messiah walked, and be true disciples in the Name of Yeshua (Jesus). May we pray for eyes to see, ears to hear, and hearts to change for the glory of our God