THE ROLE OF REPENTANCE IN AWAKENING

By James Wilson

            A pastor I know tells a story of his friend changing a tire on a dead flat road in Kansas.  While he worked he saw an approaching car two miles away.  He knew there was no chance it would hit him because he and his car were as visible as the other car.  His reasoning sustained him until the moment he was hit.

            He was drop-kicked fifty feet but sustained no injury beyond a few bruises from landing on pavement.  The driver stopped and ran to him, amazed he was okay.  When they both calmed enough to talk he asked her how she could have hit him when he was so visible.  She said it was the strangest thing; the more she focused on avoiding him the more inevitable hitting him seemed to become.  This true story forms a perfect illustration of our shared need to engage a lifestyle of progressive repentance.

            The Bible calls us to renounce sin simply because it hurts when we abuse ourselves or others.  But not bringing injury is not enough.  The more we focus on avoiding the sin we renounce the more inevitable becomes its return to power.  If we would be free we must re-focus on the God-in-Christ who comes into the world to set us free, just as that Kansas driver needed to focus on where she wanted to drive instead of where she wanted to not-drive.  This re-focus is the essence of repentance and – because life is littered with people changing flat tires in our path – it must be a lifestyle if we are to live in freedom.

Every awakening is preceded by a necessary season of repentance in the Church.  God is not waiting for the world to don sackcloth and ashes; we Christians are the model.  But Christians must get a clue we are seriously off course and begin to act on that clue in order to clear obstructions from God’s highway.  Our own book says judgment begins with us; the abysmal track record of Christians choosing abortion, divorce, and a host of idolatries speaks for itself.

When John the Baptist proclaimed the near arrival of the Son of God he demanded more from people than renunciation of corruption.  He called for fruit in terms of behavior imitative of the God in Whose image we are made, pragmatic fruit like feeding and clothing the poor.  These behaviors are not repentance, but they are hard evidence we are re-focused on God instead of ourselves.  Jesus said we must seek to become new wineskins in Matthew 9:17.  The wine represents the Holy Spirit, but first century wine was still fermenting when it was placed in skins.  If those skins are not new – and thus stretch-able – they burst from the expanding wine coming to full potency.  The take-away is progressive re-focus of our attention and energy on the One Who pours out His Spirit in us.  One person repenting launches an expanding life.  Many repenting make a culture opening for the Great Awakening God wants to lavish on His people.

It is what happened to Peter in Matthew 14 and Paul in Acts 9 – in its discomfort and its amazing-grace promise.  When Jesus calls Peter steps out of the boat and begins to walk toward his master on the water.  The moment his mind drifts to his problem – a man cannot walk on water – he looks down and begins to sink.  The moment he looks back to Jesus and takes His hand, he can and does walk on water.  I like Paul on the Damascus Road even better.  Paul has been serving God as he understands Him most of his life; yet he detours into vigilantism.  The Spirit knocks him onto his backside and asks why he is kicking against the goads instead of serving the goatherd.  The fruit of Paul’s process of re-focus is the life of contentment and the confidence he can do all things in Christ who strengthens him described in Philippians 3 and 4.  Nobody wants to be knocked on their backside, but if we repent instead of kick the rewards are incredible.

One thing we need to remember at all times, returning to that Kansas highway.  The man was unhurt beyond a few bruises; that is a miracle by any conception.  God has given us a season of miracles – of all kinds – beyond any season in history.  There is going to be discomfort as we look up – rather dazed – from the pavement on which we have landed.  But the deposit of grace is already in our pockets and more abundant life is the promise in our hearts.