"He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.”
This scripture describes the concept of repentance and indicates the need to repent of sins so that we can receive the mercy of God.
Repentance is the act of turning the human will from a direction of hostility to a direction of friendliness toward God. It involves
a change or turning of the human will. God has made the process of repentance simple, though it is highly technical and involves a
deliberate application of certain principles. In a nutshell, the process of repentance involves a combination of God’s move and man’s move:
1. Conviction of the Holy Spirit: God’s Move (1 John 3:19-20)
2. Acknowledging the sin: Man’s Move (Proverbs 28:13)
3. Asking for forgiveness: Man’s Move (1 John 1:9)
4. Exercising Faith in the blood of Jesus to cleanse the conscience: Man’s Move (1 John 1:9)
5. Cleansing of Man’s conscience from dead works: God’s Move (Hebrews 9:14)
6. Release of life to Man: God’s Move (Jude 1:21)
1 John 3:19-20 indicates that the Holy Spirit convicts us as Believers of our sins, from the inside, if we do something wrong. This is one of
the primary ministries of the Holy Spirit, as described by Jesus in John 16:8 where He stated that the Holy Spirit will convict the world of
sin, of righteousness and of judgment. The Bible also records that nobody can come to the Jesus except he or she is drawn by the Father (John 6:44),
indicating that the first step toward repentance is conviction from the Lord. Please note that the Holy Spirit is responsible for convicting unbelievers
of their sin (refusal to accept the Lordship of Jesus) as well, although from the outside through the conducts of believers (1 Corinthians 14:24-25).
Once we get convicted by the Holy Spirit, we must acknowledge the wrong doing as sin (Proverbs 28:13). We cannot afford to cover it up. The concept of
acknowledgment involves identifying an instruction of the Word of God which has been violated in the particular instance. Subsequently, we need to ask
for forgiveness and the cleansing of our conscience from dead works so that the guilt – a condition of lack of righteousness or right-standing - can be
removed from our spirits. If we do this, God will be faithful to forgive us our sins, cleanse our conscience from guilt and release His life into our
spirits so that we can carry on with our service of the Lord.
We discussed these concepts in detail in “The Overcomer’s Secret". Orders may be placed at
www.heroesmart.com. Please reference additional scriptures on
the next page to renew your mind in this regard, and access resources on
this site to feed your spirit and grow your faith in Christ Jesus.
